How many slaves do you own?

I have about 33 slaves around the world working for me.

33

Back at the beginning of January, I went with a whole bunch of college students from RDU to Passion conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a fantastic 4 days full of worship, teaching, and fellowship with friends (old and new). We worshipped the God of the universe with about 45,000 college students from all across America and from all around the world. And next year its going to be even bigger- next year there will be around 70,000!! If you are between 18 and 25, you should really consider coming next year! It was the best way to spend the last little bit of winter break. 

The point of me telling you about Passion is that while we were there, we not only learned and worshipped, we also responded and were challenged to "Do something now." The focus for Passion this year was ending human slavery. 

We were shown videos of former slaves from around the world- a woman who was a sex slave in Greece, a girl who was a domestic slave in the Middle East, and a man who was a slave on a rice farm in India. 

Around the world right now there are more than 27 million men, women, and children living in slavery. Everywhere from the cocoa fields in West Africa to the red-light district of Amsterdam to downtown Raleigh, people are living in slavery. 

More people are enslaved now then ever before. 

We think of slavery as a thing of the past. Isn't that what the civil war was over? (if you didn't learn history in the south at least). 

Slavery seems old and barbaric, something that would not be happening in a modern world. 

But it is. 

And it happens here. 

Its not just something that happens in the developing world, its happening here. In New York, in Los Angelos, in Durham. 

But we are not powerless. Together, those of us at Passion raised over $3 million to give to organizations around the world fighting human trafficking and slavery. 

So what can you do? What can I do now?

First, find out your slavery footprint.

Slaveryfootprint.org is a great website that explains better than I can the state of slavery in the world today. They will explain where you have slaves working for you and what you should do about it.

I calculated my footprint and I own 33 slaves around the world. In Latin America, Africa, Asia, and India.

Note- these are estimates of course. There is no real way to know exactly how many slaves are affected by you, but still, the point is that my shoes, jeans, and car were made by forced labor around the world. 

Its sad, but the truth of the matter is that it is just about impossible to live in this world and not buy things produced by slaves. Especially if you are living on a budget. 

The point is not to right now swear that you will never buy anything ever made by a slave again, you won't last. You will burn out. 

The point is to take action, any action. 

Choose one product that you don't want to buy anymore. I wrote this post last year about Hershey. I will admit that I have gotten slack in this regard and given in to the temptation for Reese's a few times. 

Slaveryfootprint.org makes it easy to make a difference. They have an app (that I already downloaded) that helps you know if a product is made by slaves and if it is allows you to e-mail the corporation and make your voice heard demanding the end of slavery. 

You can also go right now and sign this petition from the International Justice Mission for President Obama demanding action to bring about the end of slavery. 

As believers, we cannot ignore this problem around the world. The Bible is clear on God's stand about justice. God hates injustice. He hates slavery. Let's hate what He hates and love what He loves.

 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
   he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
   and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Isaiah 61:1

For I the LORD love justice;
   I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
   and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 

Isaiah 61:8

 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:41-46

The fast I choose

Last week I posted this verse from Isaiah--

Is not this the fast that I choose;

to loose the bonds of wickedness, 

to undo the straps of the yoke, 

to let the oppressed go free, 

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry 

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

  

Today, I watched this video and was convicted pretty quickly. 

1.4 billion people in the world live on less than $1.25 a day. 

I spent $1.50 on a Diet Dr. Pepper today and I do on a lot of days. 

How can I so easily spend what someone lives off of? And its nothing to me. I didn't even think about it. 

But I am now. 

And so, to take Isaiah's words, this is the fast that I am choosing. No more Diet Dr. Pepper, no more Diet Coke. No more dropping a person's entire earnings so that I can get a drink. 

At church on Sunday, JD talked about giving generously. Sometimes it is hard to think about giving. But it is easy to buy a drink? Something isn't right there. I was listening to one of David Platt's sermons (he's one of my favorite pastors, I listen to him on my way to class) and he said that in America, we spend more on dog food than we do foreign missions. Dog food. 

I'm not saying give up the dog and he wasn't either, but we need to seriously look at what we are spending our money on and whether or not it is crucial to our lives and whether or not it is stopping us from giving. 

I'll say it again, 1.4 billion people live on less than the amount that we spend on soda. 

I'm done. I'm done throwing away that money that would be so precious to them. 

What fast will you choose?

The Scent of Water: Grace for Every Kind of Broken

I wanted to share with you all one of the books that I will be reading on my trip this summer because it is AMAZING and you should all read it.

It's called the Scent of Water: grace for every kind of broken by Naomi Zacharias.

Naomi is the daughter of author and speaker Ravi Zacharias that has written a number of wonderful books and travels around the world preaching. Naomi runs the social justice branch of Mr. Zacharias's ministry, Wellspring International. This book is a compilation of stories of the people that she has met in her work and travels, from children in India to prostitutes from the red-light district in Amsterdam.

She weaves her story in with the stories of these women all the while pointing out God's grace to us all. In the midst of these tragic stories, Naomi offers hope. She offers God's hope. And a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Her initial description of India would have left my heart aching if I weren't on my way there now (in a roundabout way). Instead I sat on my plane nodding, smiling, with tears in my eyes (I'm sure the man next to me thought I was crazy). Her words describe my feelings about India perfectly-- "You will feel special, amazed, full, stirred, naive, helpless, enraged, awakened- all in the first day. India is magical."

Already this book has broken my heart and nearly made me cry, and I'm only 60-some pages in. If I were reading this in private, I would be a mess.

Anyway-- go order this book. Read it. Let it change your thinking, let it change your views of the world. And the do something about it. Don't just read the stories- do something about it.

I want to challenge you with this quote from a prostitute from Amsterdam in response to being asked about going to church. She said, "'The problem with your people is, they tell me I should leave, but they never want to let me forget where I came from either.'"

Is this Jesus??

Go buy this book and pray that God changes our hearts.

More about chocolate

Reading through Sit a Spell archives again (one of the blogs that I stalk), and found this beautiful post about the chocolate industry and we can be a part of redeeming a terrible system that is daily hurting thousands of children around the world.

Check it out! Heather is great! (I don't know her, but I feel like I do! I know that's creepy, get over it!)

Then, if you want more information about the problems in the chocolate industry, check out this post by one of Heather's friends.

Also, check out this trailer for The Dark Side of Chocolate, which tries to bring to light the slavery and evils that happen in the chocolate industry. I already found the whole documentary on YouTube and will most likely be posting it on here once I watch it.

What are we missing?

This week, I've been listening to The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. It's this month's free download at christianaudio.com, get it here.

If you have never heard of Corrie Ten Boom or don't really know anything about her, she lived during the Holocaust in Holland. She and her family hid Jews in their home so that they would not be arrested by the Nazis. I don't really know much beyond that, that is why I'm listening to the book.

Something struck me as I was listening yesterday.

It was at the beginning of the book, in 1936, World War II hadn't even started yet and Hitler was just starting to begin taking over other countries.

Corrie and her family were having a party with a lot of their friends, and the topic of Germany came up. She wondered what was going to happen, how far Hitler was going to go. Everyone assured her that whatever happened it would not affect them. Essentially they said, that's a problem for the big countries, not us, let them deal with it.

Then her brother shows up with a Jewish man who's beard had been burned off by a couple of German boys. After this happened the man had fled Germany and was hiding in Holland.

His beard was completely burnt off and the skin of his face was badly burned.

Still the people at the party refused to admit that something terrible was growing in Germany. They said that Germany is a civilized country and surely the police will do something to bring those boys to justice.

I heard this and I just thought "How blind were you?!?" How could they not see what was coming, what was happening right under their noses?

And then I thought-- what are we missing? What are we so used to that we don't even notice that it is wrong? What are we waiting and trusting in the government to take care of that we really should be doing ourselves?

Hitler invaded several small countries before he invaded Poland in 1939. Each time, England and the other major European countries would say, "Ok, but don't go any further. If you invade anything else, than we will stop you. We're warning you...."

And each time, he didn't listen. Looking back on it now we see how crazy that is. Clearly, he was a crazy dictator who wanted to control all of Europe. How did they not see that?

In the 1990s, we all looked on as thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in Rwanda. The genocide was deemed a civil war and by the time the UN stepped in to stop in, 800,000 people were dead.

The same things are happening today, but we care more about the prince of a COUNTRY THAT WE ARE NOT PART OF getting married then of young boys being kidnapped and forced to kill their own families and then fight someone else's war.

Why?

And believers, we are even worse!!

Why do we wait until the rest of the world notices something to get on board?

We should be the leaders in caring for the poor and the helpless. That's what Jesus did.

So why are we the last ones to get involved.

Why did Angelina Jolie adopt her kids before we began to notice the orphans in the world that need our love?

What are we expecting the government to do that we should be doing ourselves?

What if instead of arguing about health care and welfare reform, we actually got out there and got involved in people's lives and were a part of the solution instead of just bickering all day long?


I don't want my grandchildren to look back on my generation and think, "How could they not have seen _____? How could they have been so blind?"

Let's love our world like Jesus did. Let's strive to pour out our lives for others the way that Christ did.

Tell Hershey enough is enough!!

I have had a great response from the post that I wrote a few days ago!! So many people saying that they are going to stop supporting Hershey because child slavery is NOT OK!


I wanted to give you a link to sign a petition that the International Labor Rights Forum has written. Your e-mail will be sent to Hershey demanding that they stop supporting child slavery.

Please take a second and fill out the petition, it will take like 2 seconds!!

Here's the link-- http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1303 


Also, check out this post by Sharon Miller about why we as believers should care about ethical production and consider buying Fair Trade.  It's really great and she lays out a much better explanation than I ever could!

Why I will no long be eating Hershey chocolate

I hate it when my classes interfere with my real life-- seriously, it's a major pet peeve of mine.

So, of course, I'm going to share what I have found out and learned with you all, so that you can join in my frustration ;)

Seriously though, Did you know that there are more people in slavery today than there were when slavery was legal in the United States and Europe?

In school, we study and talk about the horrors of the old slave trade and the evils of the plantations that thrived on the forced labor of African slaves.

But how often do we talk about the slave trade that continues today?

When do we talk about the young girls kidnapped around the world and forced into prostitution or sold to rich businessmen to be their sex slaves?

Or how about the boys kidnapped and forced to do hard, often dangerous labor in a place far from their homes?

How about the parents that think that they are leaving their child for the day and then never get them back because their children have been sold?

Why don't we talk about that??

It's not pleasant, but it goes on. And it's not some far off problem. Human trafficking happens in OUR cities, right in our backyards. It's not some far off people in Thailand or India selling girls in Red Light Districts. This happens HERE!

What does this have to do with Hershey you ask?

I just finished writing a paper about Hershey chocolate and after doing about 10 minutes of research I came to a decision.

I cannot buy anything made by Hershey.

Why not?

Because the cocoa farms that Hershey purchases their cocoa for their products from uses child SLAVE labor.

As if child labor in a potentially dangerous environment is not bad enough, 15% of these children report being forced to work.

These children should be going to school, they should be having a childhood, they should be enjoying their lives. They should not be forced to harvest cocoa day after day.

And Hershey knows! In 2001, a reporter shed light on the slavery in cocoa production and the chocolate companies were told that they needed to do something about this problem. Some have. Mars Inc, for example, has made great strides in ensuring that their products are not produced by slaves.

Hershey has not.

They have made almost no progress in getting their products Fair Trade Certified and continue to refuse to trace their supply chain in order to check and make sure that their suppliers do not use child slaves.

If you want to find out more about what Hershey has or has not done, read this report developed by several NGO's. It's disturbing to read about what is going on in Ghana and the Ivory Coast and to know that my chocolate cravings help to continue this problem.

So I'm going to stop. I am not going to give my money to a corporation that supports child slavery, there is just no way.

As a person who loves people and loves children, I think that this is just awful. Without even considering my beliefs as a Christian, just as a human, I cannot support this. I think that most of us would like to think that if we had lived in the early 1800s, we would have been against slavery. We would have seen that it was wrong and refused to own people as if they were cattle. We see now that that is so wrong and we like to think that we would have tried to stop it.

Well here's our chance. Slavery isn't over. It didn't end in 1865, it still goes on. So are we going to stand against it? Or are we going to claim ignorance and ignore the cries of children all around the world?

But I am also a Christian, and as such, I believe that every human life is a precious gift from God. It doesn't matter what a person's skin color is, where they live, or how much money they have, they are precious to God. Genesis 1:27 tells us that we are created in the image of God. God does not make accidents. He knows and loves every person on this planet by name.

If every life is precious to God, than every life must be precious to me. If I am striving to live my life like Jesus, than I will love everyone the same and pour my life out for every person in need.

This weekend we celebrate Easter. The time when Jesus gave His life so that each one of us could spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Jesus poured out His life and His blood for my salvation and freedom, and I can't give up chocolate for the freedom of young boys in the Ivory Coast?

How is that living a life like Jesus did?

My desire in life is to look as much like my Savior as I can, and this is one way that I am going to try. Jesus would not have overlooked the suffering of these children, and neither can I.

I want to go ahead and address some of the responses that I know are probably going through your head:

1. You are only one person, what good will you not buying Hershey products do?

I was a vegetarian for 4 years, I can't tell you the number of times that I have heard this said to me.

I'll be honest, its not going to do much. Me not buying my occasional Kit-Kat is not going to upset the Hershey company and completely destroy the chocolate empire that they have built.

But you know what will? If you join me. And you tell your friends and they join too. Together, we can make a difference.

But even if you don't, even if it is just me, does that really matter? Should I give my money to a company that uses child slave labor just because if I didn't it wouldn't do anything? of course not!

If someone was running a brothel, would you go in a pay for a prostitute, just because if you didn't someone else would?? What sense does that make at all!

The bottom line is, whether or not Hershey changes or notices that I don't buy from them anymore, I WILL NOT be a part of supporting slave labor. I will not knowingly give my money to a company like that.

There is a quote from Helen Keller that I LOVE that speaks to this issue.
 

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do." 

2. Hershey isn't the only company doing this, what about all the others? What about sweatshops, etc?

Good point, if you know of other companies that use child slaves, PLEASE tell me so that I can stop buying from them too.

But here's the reality, if I were to spend a whole bunch of time researching all the places that I cannot shop and the brands that I can't buy, I would very quickly get burnt out. There are just so many out there, it would be really hard. So I'm going to take it slow, one thing at a time. First let me break my chocolate addiction and then we can talk sweatshops, because those are awful, too.

If you are interested in making sure that the products that you buy are ethically produced and sustainable, goodguide.com is a GREAT resource. All you have to do is type in either the product that you want to buy or the brand that you buy from and it rates it based on health, society and environment. If you are serious about practicing responsible shopping, then I would suggest checking it out.

We can make a difference. We are called to a light in the darkness and that means showing the people of this world God's love. How can we do that if we support the very people who are keeping them oppressed?

Will you join me? Will you do a little research of your own into the Hershey Company? Will you help me stand up for the rights of children in West Africa?

Take a second and fill out this petition that will be sent to Hershey-- http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1303