Who loves Anderson Cooper? I do!! He did this fantastic 1 hour program on human trafficking. Here is part of the transcript that I think will be good for this new post:
"This is a special edition of 360, Invisible Chains: Sex, Work and Slavery.

It's one of the world's ugliest truths, a story so shameful, it is, frankly, unforgivable. Slavery, if you think it no longer exists, you are wrong. Right now, tonight, the United Nations estimates there are more than 12 million people around the world bound by invisible chains.

We're talking about women, children, men, who, for all intents and purposes, are modern-day slaves, many in their own country. Others are far from home. Every year, according to the U.S. State Department, as many as 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders. Eighty percent of them are women and girls. And most of them are forced to work as sex slaves.

Others are sold to work in fields and sweatshops, even in private homes here in America. We realize the numbers are huge. And they can be hard to absorb. So, tonight, we're going to try to put faces on the numbers and the misery behind them.

From Cambodia to California, Uganda to Atlanta, you will see and you will hear what it means to be a modern-day slave.

Here's one of the people you will meet, a young woman forced into slavery right here in America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANTIQUE WALLACE, FORMER SEX SLAVE VICTIM: They tied me down to a bed. They told me that, if I ever got home, they would kill me, and, if it didn't happen that next day, that it would soon happen." - CNN
Abolition and Restoration

Tattoos... why do I feel compelled to blog about it? Well, I'm not a huge piercing/tattoo person but I have this concrete idea that I will get a tattoo of a thread either on my second or third chakra. The thread is to remind me that I am or never will be an island but will always be a treasured soul amoungst treasured souls. So, weather I like it or not I have a connection to everybody, seriously, everyone.
Then that gives me more power to forgive and to love. Also, to never forget that there is injustice and because of this connection I cannot stand idle. But, go forth in this life with abolition and restoration. Love always to the children trafficked. You have my heart and tug on my thread to teach me that God deems no one dispensible. I love you all with my whole heart. I pray for your freedom and a dove to spread its wings in your soul.

Poem from the perspective of a trafficked girl
Chains bind the heart
Waiting
They make me be something I am not
When night falls
And the neon light reflects upon the walls

I am lost in the flesh of a man
I force myself to think of home
Near the sea
My mother and father honored
By flowers with a fire inside
Floating...

My eyes open
The man is gone
And the aching enters

*The president of International Justice Mission rescuing trafficked children from a brothel.

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fenses, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." - Maya Angelou

Have you ever felt worthless? Have you ever felt disconnected? Have you ever felt silenced? Have you ever felt objectified? Have you ever felt like you were dead? Has your body been abused? Has your soul been abused? Have you ever felt homesick? Have you ever felt depressed? Have you ever felt dominated? Have you ever felt alone?

That is how trafficked children feel every day.


Have you ever felt joy? Have you ever felt God? Have you ever felt love? Have you ever felt strength? Have you ever felt clean? Have you ever felt safe? Have you ever felt nourished? Have you ever felt calm? Have you ever felt laughter? Have you ever felt care? Have you ever felt saved?

That is how children who were trafficked and now in safehomes feel every day.

This week of advent is "witness". This is so applicable to the issue of human trafficking. I, and all who open their eyes to this injustice are witnesses to something one would rather ingnore. But, no! Our eyes must be bright and open. They are bright because I hold hope in my soul for all the children that they may be rescued from their hells and find their own heaven, where they are safe. The saying, "ignorence is bliss" is true but it is not fair or just to be living in complete bliss when we are witnesses to modern-day slavery. Think: Every 30 seconds, one child has been trafficked. Once this injustice ends there will be bliss in my soul. I know it will be in the souls of children who become witnesses of their own strength and beauty instead of a man hurting them and waiting in darkness as years pass by in a brothel. In places like that, bliss is a thing of the past that the trafficked only hold in faint memories. Remember, children are trafficked at very, very young ages and being raped for profit could be all they know. With prayer and persistence, let's give them bliss: freedom.

"I will sing of loyalty and of justice;
to you, O Lord, I will sing."

Psalm 101

This photograph is of two girls in a Cambodian brothel. Give them your voice.

Trafficked children who enter a safehome receive love and care. Also, they get time to express themselves. Their self-expression is something greatly valued and greatly important to the their caregivers, counselours and most of all to themselves. What moves me is when I get to see the drawings that a trafficked child does because it is exactly what a child here in the states would draw. Their dreams are the same. It is so true that we are more alike than different. One drawing is the dream of a girl who wants to be a teacher and get married. I hope that when people put their hearts into this quest for justice, they can think of all the girls they know who have the same, simple childhood dreams that this healing child has and feels connection to them. For example, "Oh, this is what my niece always talks about." Help them make their dreams a reality. Maybe it is even you who had that dream as a child? Please, bless them with prayer and advocacy. If you are able, donate to my favorite organization that combats child sex trafficking - Justice for Children International. Justice for Children International is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization. www.jfci.org

You would never know, would you?

A safehouse. I see one, where girls stay after being rescuced from brothels. Happiness. Is what my heart feels. I am not a victim of human trafficking but I've felt some of the girls' pain. Where is my safehome? I am creating one for myself. Just like building a real safehouse, it takes work and each step makes the safehouse seem more like a reality. I know that some beautiful child is using a toolkit I fundraised for her as she is counseled in a safehome. The photo I've seen of a girl playing with a doll during therapy means more to me than many, many things in my life. Because of kind people giving money to JFCI through my fundraiser last July, another girl just like "Grace" in the photo will be closer to healing. The toolkit has crayons, a dollhouse, toys, etc. Just fun things for children. So to a "Grace", I hope the toolkit you receive gives you comfort when you hurt so badly that it's hard to talk. And "Grace", I am healing with you too. You are an inspiration.