Don’t miss out on the Pearls of Hope pendant/chain giveaway from Women at Risk!

Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk, International will be sharing amazing posts with us during the Redeemed series– I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Wipa’s Story
Thailand

Wipa’s family: a deceased mother, a monk father, one older sister, and a young daughter. When her older sister was diagnosed with cancer, it was Wipa’s job to provide for her family’s food as well as her sister’s treatments. There were no jobs and no source of income in her home town.

She traveled to the city, looking for jobs. She found a job as a waitress but to her horror was soon forced to engage in prostitution. She hated it and despised herself—but compromised, desperate to pay for her sister’s chemo and to provide for her young daughter.

A glimmer of hope flickered into flame when Women At Risk, Int’l’s partner befriended her, offering her a stay at the safe house and job training to work with dignity.

Image property of WAR, Int'l

When the women escape, they must not only find emotional healing, but they also must find job training and education to protect and provide for themselves and their loved ones. The root causes of poverty, lack of education and job skills, and gender discrimination must be faced. One study found that ninety percent of girls in a village in Cambodia who did not receive job training fell back into similar situations.

Women At Risk, International is passionate about coming alongside of women, treating them as our own sisters. We want to provide ways that they can provide for themselves, individually helping them achieve their unique dreams. This desire birthed our scholarship program—it is an intersection of the need for job training and education to protect them, as well as seeing their individual dreams come to fruition.

Wipa had a lifelong dream of being a cosmetologist—so we helped her reach for it. Balinjuan in Bangladesh had a dream to study biology or medicine, and we were able to give her a scholarship to college to pursue that. In this way, we are able to help intervene in a culturally appropriate way, helping women get back on their feet.

These women and girls often stuff their own dreams to make ends meet and to provide for their families, or their dreams were cut short as they were sold into exploitation. They may not have been valued enough by the family to have been encouraged to pursue their dreams. They may never have been encouraged to dream or to think about their own future.

Now, they have a new start. They have the dignity of choice. They can choose to be what they want, perhaps for the first time in their life. Do you know the thrill of that—the joy of finding yourself, discovering what you really like, and of deciding what you want to be?

In Wipa’s own words, her “lifelong dream is to be realized” when she started hair-dressing training in Oct. 2009!

What you can do!

Help sponsor a woman to receive job training! We have many women in our safe houses and other programs waiting, who have dreams to be bakers, cosmetologists, nurses, politicians, etc. Help make their dreams come true. Email the WAR, Int’l office at info (at) warinternational.org or call 616-855-0796.  You can also visit our website at www.warinternational.org .

For you

We each are unique individuals in the eyes of God, people he longs to bring to himself, to adopt as children.

God, the very creator, has taken the initiative, and is waiting for us to call upon him and seek him with all our heart—and he will be found by us and will deliver us (Jeremiah 29:11-13). He had a plan before the creation of the world and does not want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). God knew you and chose you before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (Ephesians 1:4).

He knows you as an individual (Psalm 139), and he knows the plans he has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

From Kristi: Want to know more about how to find freedom through Jesus Christ? Please email me – I would love to talk with you.

Perhaps you read Angie’s post yesterday and now are wondering what to do to focus your family on Christ’s resurrection rather than on pagan tradition. Here are a few ideas I thought I’d toss out for you.

Now let me just say… [this is purely my opinion and I do not expect everyone to agree with me!] I’m not a big fan of taking a pagan symbol (Easter eggs) and trying to “Christianize” it to make it more meaningful.  Ie: resurrection eggs and the like.  These can be useful, there’s nothing wrong with using them.  BUT, what I am trying to do is create Biblically-consistent traditions for my family rather than trying to “sanctify” traditions already present in our culture.   Like I said, you might disagree with me – and that is fine.   I will not look down on your resurrection eggs if you don’t mind that I don’t use them. ;)

1.  Consider observing Passover in your family and even holding your own version of a seder!  [Give yourself some grace here... sometimes it doesn't turn out to be the Passover of our dreams!]

This post will give you a background on the importance of Passover.  If you’re interested in attempting a seder, check out this helpful video from Jews for Jesus:

You can find a Messianic Passover Haggadah and instructions here.  You can also read more about pictures of Christ in the Passover here.

2.  Teach your kids how yeast often symbolizes sin in Scripture.

Bake bread together, discussing how a “little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  Then make homemade matzah together, discussing how removing the leven from the bread reminded the Israelites that their lives were to be pure and clean.  In the same way, because our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed on our behalf, the “yeast” of sin needs to be searched out and removed from our lives.  Use 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 as the basis of your discussion.

3.  Discuss the meaning of “First Fruits”

Angie mentioned First Fruits and Jesus’ fulfillment of this feast in yesterday’s post.  Plant grass seeds in small pots together, discussing Jesus’ words in John 12:23-24-

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

His death opened the door for life!

4.  Make “resurrection cookies.”

There are several versions of resurrection cookies and rolls that I have seen.  Courtney posted the Easter story cookie recipe/ instructions last week, and you can find “resurrection rolls” here.

5. Make an Easter Garden basket - I loved this post from Ann Voskamp.  We made our own garden this morning!  We’ll be adding things to our garden all week.  Perhaps it will show up as a after-Easter post. :)

6.  Create your own box of repentences this week – surely we all have some things we can fill it with even in a few days. :|  Take them outside or kindle a fire in your fireplace and burn them together on Good Friday – watch the flames destroy your slips of paper containing your deepest sin… and discuss what Jesus did for us that day at Calvary.

7. Make your own “wordless book” bracelets using beads of your choice.  If you want to make traditional “wordless book” bracelets, you can find instructions here and cards explaining the meaning of the colors here.  Never heard of the wordless book?  Read this.

Have other ideas you’d like to share?  I would love to hear them!

Don’t miss out on the Pearls of Hope pendant/chain giveaway from Women at Risk!

Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk, International will be sharing amazing posts with us during the Redeemed series– I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Naam’s Story

Naam escaped from sexual slavery and came to the safe house—but she could not escape her past. She hated herself and her life.

She believed she was not pretty and that she did not have a pretty life—nothing about her was pretty. Consequently, she cut herself. Yet, she remained at the safe house, holding on to what hope there was for a better life,  employed at the safe house, sewing purses and iPod cases.

Image property of WAR, Int'l

Her shame followed her here as well: she was adamant she was not pretty and could not make pretty things. Yet, her embroidered bags are truly a cut above the rest—she has a knack for making beautiful things and an eye for beauty. Naam is slowly realizing that she is beautiful; making “pretty things” has been therapeutic for her, and she is blossoming.

Escape is just the first step—these women have an incredible journey ahead of them. Many struggle with nightmares, post-traumatic stress disorder, identity disorders, dissociative disorders, or physical wounds.

Many times, they are in need of social healing, having learned to be conniving, manipulative, self-protective, and selfish—they have learned it is a dog-eat-dog world and may never have received true love.

At the safe houses, these women find the holistic care that they need. Once treated as only objects, they find that they are people. More than that, while no one is forced to go to chapel or worship services, they are invited to do so and hear the message that they are brides of Christ and princesses, daughters of the King of Kings.

But care is very tangible as well—they receive medical care, health care, child care if necessary, counseling, and shelter. They receive education, job training, and employment. These are necessary—the woman must have a way to make a living and to care for herself and her family. However, above and beyond the economic necessity, it shows her she can make a living with dignity, she can make pretty things, and she is worth more than her body.

For you

Christ is making our life into something new—it is only he that can make these girls pretty, and it is only he who can make us pretty! He is giving us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:27), making us into new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), and putting into us His mind and His life (1 Corinthians 2:16; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4). We are no longer the same, but are changed into his precious daughters, loved by the King of kings! (1 John 3:1-2)

What you can do!

Host a jewelry party! Using your home to host a party turns it into a safe haven that literally reaches across the neighborhood or ocean to lift women and children to dignity. The product is essential to rescue these women, allowing the women to work with dignity and earn an income.  Each home party is essential to create circles of protection as each purchase literally lifts a woman or child to safety! Email Jen Colby at jc (at) warinternational.org or by calling 616-855-0796.

From Kristi: Want to know more about how to find freedom through Jesus Christ? Please email me – I would love to talk with you.

Image from wikipedia.org

This is a post I requested that my friend Angie write for us.  A few weeks ago I had received an email inquiring about the historical roots of “Easter” including the bunnies, eggs, and the other trappings we are familiar with.  I have written related posts regarding Easter – you can find them listed here.

Just like dealing with Halloween, my purpose is not to cause division or encourage legalism.  While I don’t plan egg hunts for my children and we don’t talk about the Easter bunny, I think what your family does is something you alone need to decide.  However, I do think that we need to be very careful as believers not to confuse the Truth of Christ’s resurrection with the traditions rooted in lies that our larger culture gladly embraces.

Quoting from “Navigating through Halloween,”

Christians are split on this and our goal is not to be hateful and condemning to one another, but to spur one another on to think and act in a way that honors our Lord. Quoting Paul as he dealt with believer’s disagreement over a “gray area,”

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

So without further adieu, here are some thoughts and research from my friend Angie King.

What do a pagan fertility goddess, bunnies and the resurrection of Christ have in common? Waiting for a punch line? I have none, for this is no joke. Those things have nothing in common although history and skewed tradition have intertwined pagan practices with the hope followers of Christ have in Resurrection Sunday.  It’s time believers separate the truth from the lies.

Why “Easter”?

To search out the origins of the term “Easter” we must step back into Genesis, the beginning. In Genesis, we are introduced to Noah, the one righteous person who God saved from destruction. If Noah embodies righteousness, his great-grandson Nimrod is his antithesis—a wicked man who propagated evil ways.

Nimrod founded the notoriously wicked cities of Babel and Nineveh and was married to Semiramis—also called Ishtar or “Easter.” Together, this wicked pair created a mystery religion—an occult rooted in lies and backed by Satan. Upon Nimrod’s death, Semiramis (Ishtar/Easter) spread the word that Nimrod was now a sun-god named Baal.

She became pregnant and claimed the child she carried was created by supernatural means. Ishtar also claimed that the child she bore—Tammuz—was the fulfillment of the seed promise God gave after the fall of Adam and Eve. (We, as believers in Christ, realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the seed promise!) After these lies took root among the idolatrous nations that continually spurned God, Ishtar was worshipped, especially by those who sought fertility.

Ishtar was a true woman of folly. She skewed sensuality and sexuality to lead fools down wicked paths and to their ultimate demise. In her temples, harlots prostituted themselves and were praised for this behavior. Where purity did not exist, blatant idolatry and adultery were glorified.  Are these the ideas we want to associate with Resurrection Sunday, the day we set aside to remember that Jesus conquered death so that we could conquer death, too?

Zola Levitt, who was a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ, called the Easter celebrations “First Fruits” and explained the biblical reasons behind this in his booklet titled “The Seven Feasts of Israel.” As Zola explained:

“We have come to call this feast Easter, after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility. We even continue to worship the objects of fertility—the rabbit, the egg, new costumes, etc., but the celebration was to be over God’s replanting of the earth in the spring. We miss a very important biblical truth by not using the term “First Fruits” as the name of this feast, because “first” implies a second, a third, and so on, and that is the real meaning of the feast. We do not merely celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, on which it indeed occurred, but even more so, the resurrection of the entire Church!”

Jesus was first, but we believers of Christ will follow! Amen!

Satan has found great success at distorting the truths of Resurrection Sunday with the occult practices of the pagan goddess Ishtar. He has disguised the lies within innocent symbols such as bunnies and eggs. Commercially, the symbols of Easter overshadow the truths of First Fruits and society has embraced this wholeheartedly. We, as followers of Christ, don’t have to be chained to these traditions embedded in the occult. Now that you know the background of Easter, how will you choose to celebrate First Fruits in your home?  How will you give God the glory due to Him alone? [Let's discuss our celebrations in light of Truth!  Come join the discussion on the fan page!]

Angie is a Christian wife, mother and freelance writer who has a background in history and research. She has a renewed love for the Old Testament–the Bible Jesus used–and strives to become a lady of wisdom to those around her.

Sources consulted:

• Levitt, Zola. The Seven Feasts of Israel. Great Impressions Printing & Graphics, 1979.
• Christiananswers.net
• Lasttrumpetministries.org
• The Book of Genesis, New International Version.