Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Archives for December 2012

"What if it was my daughter?" Why I'm blogging to end human trafficking

The first time I heard about human trafficking was about five years ago. My husband was finishing his undergrad degree. We were newly married. I was early in my first pregnancy. He came home from a class one day with information about human trafficking for a project. I was naive and uninformed and unaware that a horror such as sexual slavery, involving women and children, existed in the world. What he learned, he shared with me. Yes, I decided. We needed to support those who fight human trafficking.

A year later, holding our less-than-a-year-old daughter in my arms, we attended a Ten Shekel Shirt concert near our new home in Pennsylvania. The concert supported an organization called Love 146, which works to end child trafficking and exploitation. During the concert, the band shared stories and statistics about child trafficking. I remember crying when I read the words about a girl who had been used and abused in unspeakable ways before her 8th birthday. I looked at the little girl sleeping in my arms and thought about the other little girl. Somebody’s daughter.

William Wilberforce, a man who worked to end another kind of slavery, said this:

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Today is the first of many posts to follow about human trafficking. I’ve joined the blogging team for another organization, The Exodus Road, working to end child slavery.

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At least once a month, I’ll share stories, pictures and videos from their work to rescue enslaved children in Southeast Asia. It’s not an easy topic by any means, and sometimes I want to turn away. But it’s my hope that the stories we share will move us to action. To do whatever we can, wherever we are, to fight this horrific crime.

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Next time, I’ll share some of Sarah’s story. She was 15 when The Exodus Road investigators met her. Three days earlier, she’d been sold for the equivalent of $600 USD to pay a debt. In the meantime, I urge you to learn more about the modern-day slave trade. Through The Exodus Road, you can provide surveillance equipment for investigators or fund a raid. (Learn more about that here.)

The founders of The Exodus Road, when first faced with the challenge of child trafficking in Southeast Asia kept asking themselves the same question: “What if it was our daughters?” They speak more about their motivation to start this organization in the video below. I’ll hope you’ll come along with me on this journey.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/53473680 w=500&h=281]

The Exodus Road: Fighting to End Child Slavery from Justin Lukasavige on Vimeo.

Behind the veil: review of In the Land of Blue Burqas by Kate McCord

I almost don’t know where to start. In the Land of Blue Burqas is a story that’s both simple and complex, light and heavy. One thing I know: I couldn’t put it down.

Author Kate McCord (that’s not her real name; it’s a protective pseudonym) has written a memoir of sorts of her five years living in Afghanistan. She’s an American who left a career to start a non-governmental organization to help Afghan women. The book contains story after story of everyday conversations she had with Afghan people. Conversations about family and faith, religious practices, hostility, responding to insult and why she would leave “the promised land” of America to live and work side by side with Afghans.

The insights McCord draws from her time in Afghanistan are eye-opening and heart-changing. She brings life and emotion and humanity to a people group most of us will never encounter. I was moved by her stories and the stories of her friends and co-workers, of their struggles to live faithfully in the context of their government and religion amidst a war-torn country.

If nothing else, reading this book serves as a reminder that people everywhere struggle with the same issues: family and faith, work and worth, fear and freedom, among others. McCord’s honesty about her own fears, about the way her life had to change to live in Afghanistan, about the pressure to conform to Islam while she lived there, are startling and refreshing. This is a woman I’d love to have coffee with. She is a storyteller who, it would seem, has risked a great deal to tell her stories.

In the Land of Blue Burqas might not answer all your questions. In fact, it might raise more questions. But it’s certain to challenge stereotypes and preconceived notions. And McCord doesn’t just write to tell you about her experience but to share the lessons she learned about her own faith in the process. In Afghanistan, where life is much like it was when Jesus walked the earth, McCord’s understanding of biblical illustrations and parables expanded and came to life.

Not an easy read, but a valuable one.

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In exchange for my review, I received a free copy of the book from Moody Publishers.