I remember it clearly the day I realized that I’M TOO COMFORTABLE. I went to a coffee convention in Washington, DC with my best friend Melissa and we were watching the documentary “Black Gold.” The images that laid before my eyes were shocking and horrifying of young children skin and bone and who were rejected to get medical help because they were labeled “not ill enough.” Of farmers planting drugs (chute) instead of coffee because they know they can get a better price for drugs. They are so broken and desperate to feed their families and feel like failures.
I was sitting in that chair thinking boy if I was not uncomfortable before than I am certainly now. I looked around, so many faces looked shocked. I thought later did it really hit these people or were they merely facts. Tears flowed as I saw the pain, the turmoil and hardship of these people, who are just a flight away. I wanted to do something but how? What can I do I am just one?
My friend and I went back home to Hamilton, ON with heaviness on our hearts. My friend came up with a great idea regarding coffee, which spurred us into deeper action. Her idea was the following, why does the Christian church drink kick of the can coffee? When they can purchase a bag of beans directly from the farmer and know that the farmer is receiving the money, so his children can go to school and eat. And the church will know they have done something to help but also drink awesome coffee. This idea grew and grew into a full out plan (unfortunately things later stopped because it wasn’t God’s timing yet.) But through this valuable lesson I learned this important thing, once you have seen you are held responsible.
I began to dig and do research on other countries. I was thirsty for truth, thirsty for justice. The song ” Hosanna” kept coming into my mind. Especially the following words spoke to me, ” Heal my heart and make it clean. Open up my eyes to the things unseen. Show me how to love like you have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks yours. Everything I am for your Kingdom cause. As I walk from earth into eternity.”
My friend and I continued with our research. We had posters all over our house of facts and information so we were reminded to pray. We watch documentaries like, “The ground zero’s of the world.” I recommend it highly. Songs kept pouring out my heart for the church. Songs about justice, revelation, and truth. i.e. “This house is empty, this house needs refreshing. Stir up a spiritual violence that will break our hearts. We will not stop, until you send us, manna of your presence.” I was tired of the church making excuses for why they were not acting, or searching, or listening.
It was early May and I was standing in my living room about to shut the door to the house I lived in for a year, with all it’s memories and good times. I was leaving to go back to my home town. I broke down and cried, thanking the Lord for His goodness and faithfulness. That day I just received a blessing from the Lord of money, which I did not expect but needed. I said to the Father what do I do with this passion you have given me, how can I serve you? And I remember the Lord clearly saying, “open up your heart and follow me.”
So here I am a year later there’s been lots of up’s and downs. But I heard the voice of the Lord and I am being obedient to His call because I know the race is where I am called to be. But I would like to shed a light upon some of things you read or see in the news. Just like those shocked faces watching the documentary “Black gold” mentioned earlier on. I said, did the graphic detail really hit them or was it just another statistic. I want to put a face behind the numbers. I hope this will effect you as much it did me.
“Soccer is the world’s favorite sport. Dirt-poor fans all over the earth pay small fortunes to watch some of the world’s richest people kick around a ball hand-stitched by children. In Pakistan, a recent study discovered that there are more that 15,000 children in Pakistan being used to stitch footballs. In India, it is suggested that upwards of 10,000 children were being used for this same purpose. Meanwhile, the sporting good industry claims to know of only 70 child laborers doing this kind of work.”
“Meet Shawna. When she was 7, she was living with her very, very poor family in a village in India. Her mother was giving birth to her baby brother and needed about $25 to pay for a doctor. The only way they could get $25 was from the local moneylender, who demanded that the family sell Shawna to him. She was made to role cigarettes by hand six days a week, 12 hours a day, sitting in one place on the floor. If Shawna didn’t roll 2,000 cigarettes a day, she was beaten. She was paid about six cents a day. Five years later Shawna still has not paid the family debt in full.”
“About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.”
“It is estimated that two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation. In 2004, between 14,500 and 17,500 persons were trafficked into the United States. Human trafficking generates between 10 to 12 billion dollars a year for organized crimes. Some 120,000 women and girls are trafficked into Western Europe every year. The illicit profits from human trafficking is second only to the trafficking of drugs.”
” Ra Ratt is a frail 14-year-old whose vagina has been stitched up more than five times so that clients would think she was a virgin. Her owners forced her to take clients well before she was healed, so that the men would believe that the bleeding was from her torn hymen.”
“Sex trafficking has now been internationally defined as terrorism.”
“It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a global village to raise 50 million orphans.”
“This year, more than half a million babies in developing world will contract from their mothers the virus that causes AIDS, despite the fact that drugs and therapies exist that could virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of the killer disease.”
“I’ve seen people get their hands cut off, a 10 year old girl raped and then die, and so many men and women burned alive. So many times I just cried inside my heart because I didn’t dare cry out loud.” Grace, 14 year-old girl, abducted by a rebel group in Sierra Leone
“Statelessness is a massive problem that affects an estimated 15 million people in least 60 developed countries. Statelessness also has terrible impact on lives of individual. Possession of nationality is essential for full participation in society and a prerequisite for the enjoyment of full range of human rights.”
“Almost 11 million under the age of 5 died in 2000, mostly from preventable diseases like diarrhea. The Boeing 747-100SR airplane seat 550 people. It is like stacking a 747-100SR full of kids and then downing it into the ocean, every 24 minutes, every hour, every day, every week of the year. Have a nice sleep tonight.”
“When people in Ethiopia were starving in the mid 1980’s, the North American grain market was booming. In fact, to save the stability of the wheat prices, many farmers were paid to “ocean dump” their excess yield. Think this through for a moment: Other human beings are starving to death and our greed drives us to throw excess food away in an effort to keep our future market strong”
“In the late 1990’s, a high-ranking South African witch doctor made a public announcement that having sex with a virgin will cure HIV and AIDS. In a study in 2000, it was shown that 58 children were raped or victims of attempted rape every day. Over 15 percent of all South African rapes occur against children under the age of 11. That is about seven primary school aged children each day. But some aren’t even old enough for kindergarten. They haven’t even learned to talk.”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela
There are many more statistics and stories I can share from my own research as well from a great book called “ONE” by Vaden Earle
I will leave off with this quote
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
Don’t let this happen. Do something!
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