Volunteering at the Library...

So as you may or may not know, I've been volunteering at the library a couple days a week for the past several months. It's not the most thrilling work ever, but it's more exciting than sitting at home all day, and it looks better on a resume. I spend most of my time putting books on the hold shelves for people to pick up....sometimes I see one that looks intriguing and add it to my list of books I want to read, or in the case of yesterday I read through most of I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar while working. Good book.

Anyhow, I'm mostly writing about this because I find some people's names and what books they check out to be rather entertaining. The hold slips that we put in the books give people's names as the first four letters of their last name and the first three letters of their first name, so mine would be: HAAG MEL, not so bad. Other people's names end up being more interesting such as KRAP HOL, NISE RAK, YUOE SUC, and plenty of others that I'm not remembering right now....

It's also entertaining to see what people put on hold. One woman (I'm hoping it was a woman...) put 12 books about how women can have a better sex life on hold at once....was it really that much of a problem for her? Maybe check out one book at a time so people don't think you're a weirdo. Last week another person had 23 of the "for Dummies" books on hold, I don't know why....apparently they were learning French and Spanish; planning trips to Italy, New York City, and France; and having trouble figuring out a multitude of normal everyday skills such as cooking, computers, facebook, and knitting among others. There's also a family who's reading through every single Berenstain Bears book ever written, and several people that only check out weird Japanese Manga/Anime books....I really don't understand the appeal....

Unbound

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Unbound Conference put on by a group called The Freedom Initiative, who works along with many other great groups in Seattle who are trying to bring an end to modern slavery. It was a great conference, with speakers who talked about every aspect of slavery from lobbying the government and prosecution of offenders to understanding victims and how to care for them. A lot of the information was stuff I already knew from my work with People of Purpose and Seattle Against Slavery. It was good to hear again and be reminded of, but I really resonated with what David Batstone (president of Not for Sale) said in his keynote address: “We focus so much on spreading awareness, which is good, but now is the time for action. The only way to end slavery is to come up with new paradigms and put them into practice.” That’s a paraphrase, I didn’t write down the exact quote, but I think I’m conveying the main idea behind what he was saying. He shared some of the new, creative ideas that Not for Sale is putting into practice and challenged us to figure out what each of us could do personally, then proceeded to give us a list of options for personal action, so we’d have no excuse for not doing something. So I’ve been thinking about this a lot the last few days, trying to figure out what my own personal response should be, and I decided to start by writing this blog to challenge others to respond as well. As one of the other speakers, Kevin Austin, said we shouldn't need more statistics in order to convince us to do something. There are an estimated 27 million slaves around the world right now, surely we don't need more convincing. Heck, even if they find out tomorrow that there's only 50,000 people in bondage or even say a mere 500, that's still too many as far as I'm concerned.

Often I've heard that ignorance is what’s holding back change, which is why I think so many anti-trafficking groups focus on awareness campaigns. I felt really convicted when David Batstone said that he sees selfishness as the greatest hindrance. Wow, that hurts. I mean nobody wants to be ignorant, but to know about the problem and be too selfish to do anything to solve it is even worse. I definitely know about the problem, so I've decided that my next personal step toward ending slavery will be to be aware of which products and companies use slave labor and stop purchasing them. It's not going to be easy, so feel free to hold me accountable! I don't know if I'll ever meet any trafficking victims face to face, but if I do, I don't want to have to tell them that they were forced to work in inhumane conditions under threat of violence because I was too selfish to change my habits as an American consumer.

So what will your response be? Maybe you agree that something needs to be done, but you don’t know how to respond. You can start by using some of the resources made available by Not for Sale, International Justice Mission, and other anti-trafficking NGO’s. Here’s some great websites to check out:

www.slaverymap.org -- Don't believe that slavery happens in your own backyard? Check out this website to see cases of trafficking around the world. Keep in mind these are only the cases where perpetrators were caught, and someone reported it to the makers of the website. This is only a tiny percentage of the total amount of trafficking going on.

www.callandresponse.com/33responses.html -- Check out this list of 33 ways to respond including sending medical supplies to survivors, spreading the word, volunteering time, and donating money.

http://chainstorereaction.com and http://free2work.org -- Be a wise consumer. Refuse to purchase products that were made with slave labor. Check out these websites to see which companies are working to have slave free supply lines.

http://www.ijm.org/justicecampaigns and http://seattleagainstslavery.org/legislation.aspx -- Make your voice heard by writing your senators and representatives or by signing petitions to support better anti-trafficking legislation.

http://freedomsunday.org/church-planning-guide/ -- Get your church to participate in Freedom Sunday.

There many other resources available, but those are the ones I could think of off the top of my head. Hopefully at least one of them is a way you can get involved personally.

Psalm 25

¹ To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; 
² in you I trust, O my God.
       Do not let me be put to shame,
       nor let my enemies triumph over me.
 ³ No one whose hope is in you
       will ever be put to shame,
       but they will be put to shame
       who are treacherous without excuse.
 ⁴ Show me your ways, O LORD,
       teach me your paths;
 ⁵ guide me in your truth and teach me,
       for you are God my Savior,
       and my hope is in you all day long.
 ⁶ Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
       for they are from of old.
 ⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth
       and my rebellious ways;
       according to your love remember me,
       for you are good, O LORD.
 ⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;
       therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
 ⁹ He guides the humble in what is right
       and teaches them his way.
 ¹⁰ All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
       for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
 ¹¹ For the sake of your name, O LORD,
       forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
 ¹² Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
       He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
 ¹³ He will spend his days in prosperity,
       and his descendants will inherit the land.
 ¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear him;
       he makes his covenant known to them.
 ¹⁵ My eyes are ever on the LORD,
       for only he will release my feet from the snare.
 ¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me,
       for I am lonely and afflicted.
 ¹⁷ The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
       free me from my anguish.
 ¹⁸ Look upon my affliction and my distress
       and take away all my sins.
 ¹⁹ See how my enemies have increased
       and how fiercely they hate me!
 ²⁰ Guard my life and rescue me;
       let me not be put to shame,
       for I take refuge in you.
 ²¹ May integrity and uprightness protect me,
       because my hope is in you.
 ²² Redeem Israel, O God,
       from all their troubles!

Spring

Do you like my new, pretty spring colors? I added the picture of the Japanese Cherry Blossom tree because I think it's so peaceful and beautiful! I took the picture at Green Lake in Seattle. I definitely have to go back there again, it's such a nice area.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter. I did, except for the part where I came down with a horribly nasty cold. My nose is completely raw from having to blow it every 5 minutes. The more exciting parts of my weekend included a great Easter worship service, hanging out with friends, and driving through the Skagit Valley Tulip Fields. There's always something beautiful to see in Washington!

Anyhow, that's my quick update on life. Now I have to get to bed on time so this cold doesn't do me in.