April 6th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk (WAR) wrote these posts for us to open our eyes to the rampant problem of trafficking around the world, and also give us specific ways that we can make a difference! I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Ellie’s Story
Thailand

Ellie was her newest child, an infant of two weeks old. But toher impoverished mother, she was only another mouth to feed. Her mother was desperate and went to desperate measures, selling her two-week old baby into sexual slavery. When Women At Risk, International’s(WAR, Int’l’s) partners heard of this, they tracked down Ellie and loaned the mother money to buy her child back, despite violent threats by the traffickers. Ellie was rescued—but passive and quiet, already having learned she had no voice.

Child Trafficking

Baby trafficking is the newest face of trafficking. Younger and younger children are being trafficked, robbing the cradle, as well as the joy and wonder of childhood. Today, the global age of entry into forced prostitution is 12. Infants are sold for organs or worse, and young, young girls are imprisoned in the dark hallways of the red light district. There is a myth that the younger the girl, the less likely it is that the buyer will get AIDS.[1]

Consider: 75,000 Filipino children were on the streets in 1998, forced into prostitution according to one report. 3,266 Filipino children become victims of exploitation each year.[2]

1.2 million children are trafficked internationally each year; as many as 2 million children are currently subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade.[3]

Years ago, Becky, president of WAR, Int’l, made a commitment to rescue women and children—her mommy heart broke when she realized how young many of these victims were!

WAR, Int’l was birthed out of her passion to rescue children who are trapped against their will, chained to beds of horror till broken in body and spirit. We are dedicated to wrapping arms of love and protection around these precious little ones, tirelessly working to tuck children into cradles of safety and circles of protection where they hear stories of hope whispered and sung to them.  There is no greater joy then seeing a woman or child rescued, redeemed, restored, and empowered!

A happy ending

Ellie is now being adopted into a safe and loving home she needs and every child deserves. She is now laughing, smiling, and joyously talking as a happy two-year- old!

What you can do!

Elliana necklace

You can celebrate the redemption of Elliana and support the ministry of Women at Risk, International in a beautiful way!  Click here to view the Elliana necklace, bracelet, and earring collection.  You can also learn more about “WAR babies” here.

Partner with us to rescue children by donating to our Emergency 911 Fund which enables us to have ready funds to rescue women and children in imminent need. In addition, we also have a specific fund for children that flow through our programs—either emergency trafficking needs or for our orphans in India, Thailand, and South Africa.

Your children, family, Sunday school, or child’s school class can get involved by collecting coins in one of our baby banks to rescue these children! Contact us at info@warinternational.org,  616-855-0796, www.warinternational.org .

For you

We are also sold to sin, we are all slaves. In our dire situation, we are unable to help ourselves. We try to save ourselves, or ignore the consequences, or enjoy our self-focused life, or try to do anything to appease our empty hearts. Many of us are scared to realize how helpless we are. But like Ellie, we can do nothing.

It is in precisely this position of dire need that Christ came to us and rescued us from our helpless state. He himself paid the price for our sin and took our sin upon himself. With his own blood, he ransomed us. We are redeemed and adopted as God’s own children (1 John 3:1-3; John 1:12-13; Romans 8:16-17). We too can have a happy ending, finding the peace and pure joy that we were meant to have when we are reconciled to God!

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

To find the other posts in this series, or to find how you can be involved in spreading the word, click here.

[1] Coalition Against Trafficking of Women

[2] Kyodo News, 1998; GABRIELA, 1998

[3] UNICEF

April 5th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk (WAR) wrote these posts for us to open our eyes to the rampant problem of trafficking around the world, and also give us specific ways that we can make a difference! I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Aapti’s Story
Nepal

Aapti grew up in a small Nepali village. Life was hard, but they managed. She helped her mother make alu roti, the Nepalese bread and fetch water from the well.

She knew her family was poor, but then the drought struck. There were days when they had nothing to eat… She remembers the hollow of her stomach echoed the hollow in her mother’s eyes. Her baby brother was always crying, but then he became too weak to cry.

A woman came to their village, richly dressed in a yellow sari. She was the only colorful thing in their wind-blown village.

She told Aapti that she was beautiful, and Aapti blushed.  She said that Aapti could find a job in a city, taking care of a rich person’s children. Then she could send money back home. “And my baby brother would not die?” Yes, her baby brother would not die. Aapti could even buy a colorful sari like hers, the woman said.

At dinner that night, a thin gruel of potato, Aapti told mother and father what the woman had said. Father was intrigued.

The next day, he came home and said that he had talked to the rich woman. Aapti would go with her the next day to a big city. Mother cried. But Aapti was a little excited, but nervous as well. She had never left her village.

The rich lady took her to a big city and Aapti thought she had arrived. But then they got on what the lady called a train. And they went a long, long way, and then Aapti did not know the language. She did not know where she was.

When they finally got off, a big man met them. He gave the rich lady some money, and she started walking away. Aapti went to follow her but the man stopped her—she shouted out, confused. The lady turned around and said sharply, “Obey him.”

Aapti  found herself in a brothel, drugged, beaten, and forced to obey.  She was sold—another victim of human trafficking.

What is human trafficking?

Human trafficking is this century’s slavery, the buying and selling of people for labor or forced sexual exploitation. Vulnerable women and children find themselves chained to beds of horror, their spirits broken and their bodies sold. This evil victimizes people in every country, of every age, and of every gender.

800,000 people are sold across international borders each year; not including those trafficked within countries. 50% of these are minors; 70% of the women are sold into sexual slavery.[1]

In total, some estimate that 4 million women and girls are bought and sold worldwide every year.[2]

This evil is swelling; human trafficking is the fastest growing arm of organized criminal activity, second only to drug trafficking in extent and size. Evil eats up the victims, but also the traffickers, selling them to its minions of greed, hate, and self-worship.

What you can do!

How do we respond in the face of statistics like these? Do you long to do something and wrap arms of love around these women and children? Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) was birthed out of this passion—we exist to educate and unite others to create circles of protection and hope around women and children at risk. Reading this blog series is a first step to become informed about trafficking and what you can do. Visit www.waritnernational.org for more information.

For You

The truth is, Aapti’s story is our own story. We have all sold ourselves to something—a good career, image, perfectionism, alcoholism, self-concern, fear. These become our masters. We will do whatever it takes to feel accepted, loved, safe…

What seemed to promise happiness, freedom, and worth turns on us.  We discover that the promises we believed were empty, hollow, deceptive.  We discover that we are in bondage, for we are slaves to whatever controls us.  (2 Peter 2:19)

Each one of us was born as a slave to sin, separated from God – the Creator and Sustainer of life, the giver of hope, the lover of our souls. There is no life apart from him.

But in Him, there is real hope—Jesus has paid the price with His own blood to buy us out of our slavery to sin! (Revelation 5:9)  If we acknowledge our desperate need for Christ’s blood to free us from our sin, believe that He is who He said He is and commit to following Him, we will be rescued from bondage to sin (Romans 10:9) and brought into eternal life (Romans 6:23).

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”  Galatians 5:1

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

To find the other posts in this series, or to find how you can be involved in spreading the word, click here.

[1] U.S. State Department. Trafficking In Persons Report, 2009.

[2] Zonta International.

April 4th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

I have an odd defense mechanism with things that make me uncomfortable – I go to sleep!

When on long car trips through the mountains with no exits in sight, or stuck in a traffic jam in a tunnel, and we start to run low on gas, I lean my seat back and sleep (when NP is driving, of course!) I figure that if we are going to run out of gas, it will happen whether I am awake and anxious or asleep and blissfully unaware – most likely we’ll be fine, so I might as well avoid the stress and sleep!

There are a lot of horrifying and evil things in this world that I would rather not think about.  I find myself metaphorically sleeping in my seat to avoid anxiety.

Human trafficking is one of those issues I would rather not think about.

Chew on these stats – read them out loud if it will help them sink in.

• 100,000 girls, ages 9-19, are trafficked in commercial sexual exploitation in the U.S.

• 3,000 children are forced into commercial sexual exploitation at any given time, just in San Francisco.
• 1.2 million children are trafficked internationally each year

• As many as 4 million women and girls are bought and sold worldwide every year.

Horrifying.

I’m guessing most of us are like me – we’d rather close our eyes, stay blissfully unaware.  We figure it’s going to happen whether we know about it or not, so we might as well ignore it.

It’s time to wake up, friends.  There are things we can do.

The more I learn about human trafficking, the more it vividly illustrates for me my state as a former slave, redeemed from the bondage of sin.  Christ paid the price with His own blood to redeem my life from the pit – the least I can do in return is to tell others  about the freedom available through my Savior.  And as a former slave, redeemed by a God who loves justice and mercy, I feel compelled to do all I can to secure freedom for the millions of physical slaves in this sin-marred world.

I humbly ask you to join me on this journey.   For the next two weeks- the weeks before we commemorate the blood-price paid for our freedom – it is my honor to host Gillian Ferdwerda from Women at Risk, International here on KristiStephens.com.  Gillian will be sharing amazing stories, horrifying statistics… and hope. Women at Risk, also known as WAR, is on the front lines – helping to find, rescue, love women and children who have been sold, abused, betrayed, forgotten.   There are so many ways we can help.

So please be sure to read this amazing series.  Visit Women at Risk, International’s website.  Learn all you can about trafficking. Tell your friends.  Post links on facebook, twitter (#redeemed), or your blog.  Please help spread the word – wake us from our slumber.

If you are a blogger and would like to help, please grab this button for your blog – the more who hear, the better.

Code:  <a href=”http://www.krististephens.com/redeemed”><img src=”http://www.krististephens.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/WAR-page.jpg” alt=”BWS tips button” width=”150″ height=”125″></a>

Let’s proclaim freedom for the captives in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

March 24th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Today I’m writing over at Scripture Dig about one of my favorite “nuggets” from the book of Ruth – looking at Biblical masculinity through a contrast of Samson and Boaz. [Psssst - that's one of my speaking topics, if your church is interested!]

In other news… it’s been a fun, busy, and productive week here at the Stephens house. Which, unfortunately, sometimes means that the blog gets neglected! I have lots of thoughts floating in my head, but none of them are making it onto a blog post!

For the next few weeks my plate is going to be rather full as I am preparing to speak with our Scripture Dig team in Pigeon Forge, TN in April, and then will be speaking for our own church women’s retreat the following weekend. Two speaking engagements on top of three children, a household to manage, and my sanity to keep means that I need to cut back on writing for a bit!

I have been pondering re-running the Redeemed series we did on the issue of human trafficking last year, focusing on the ministries of Women at Risk, International. This issue and this ministry are close to my heart! Would you take a minute and give me your feedback?

[For those who are reading via email or a reader, if the poll below doesn't show up on your feed would you click through and let me know what you think? I promise it will be quick!] :)