This week we’ve been taking a look at the issue of human trafficking.  I’ve shared some startling statistics, I made some people nervous and lost some followers discussing social justice, and then shared the moving story of a victim of human trafficking in Thailand by the name of Elisabeth.  So, if you’ve hung on for the ride, thank you.  Perhaps this series has tugged at your heart but you don’t know what you can do.

One practical way to help is by supporting the ministry of Women at Risk, International.  My sister attends the same church as the founder of this fabulous organization, so I have been aware of it for a couple of years.  This past weekend we had the pleasure of hosting one of their board members, Sarah Rodgers, as a speaker at a women’s event at our church.

Women at Risk (also known as WAR) seeks to support established ministries around the world and give a voice to the silenced cries of women and children in desperate need.  One of the main branches of what they do is supporting safehouses for women rescued from human trafficking.  All of the safehouses they work with have a clear mission of providing not only physical assistance but also true spiritual hope through the good news of real freedom in Jesus Christ.  This weekend Sarah told us that HALF of the women in their safehouses have accepted Christ as savior!

In the safehouses, women are taught trades such as sewing and jewelry making to support themselves and make them less vulnerable to being caught back up into trafficking.  Some of these women may have lived with traffickers since they were 5 years old and don’t know how to do anything to support themselves.  Others were offered a good job to support their families and ended up deceived and enslaved – teaching them a skill allows them to work with dignity and avoid the false promises of traffickers and their “jobs.”  When you purchase an item through WAR, the proceeds go directly back to the safehouse and the woman who made it.

You can…

*Read more about their ministry

*Browse their beautiful selection of items on their website.

*Hold a jewelry party in your home or church to inform your guests about trafficking and WAR’s ministry, and then support the ministry through making purchases. [They'll provide you with everything you need!]

“When you purchase a product made by rescued or disadvantaged women, know that your purchase empowers a woman to work with dignity.

…When you take that black pearl necklace home and wear it, you are literally wearing a piece of another woman’s story of rescue and redemption. Now you have made her story entwined with your story.

At WAR, Int’l events, women literally go to a display table and just touch things with a far away look on their face, knowing that “this has been handled, carefully made, and crafted by a woman who once was chained to beds of horror and is now sitting in a safe, warm, happy place working with dignity and making beautiful gifts of distinction.”

…When you shop this product you are literally lifting a woman from the gutters of life to stand tall and throw her head back and smile at the world and know that she is valuable for the first time in her life.”