I think that many of my days lately have started out with the thought, "God, you are absolutely insane!" And he is! But that's obviously why I love him :)
My friend Julie and I have had the incredible opportunity to help some friends of ours out with a petition asking the Canadian government to create an action plan to combat human trafficking. I heard about the petition about 2 weeks ago, and a week and a half ago started working to get signatures. So far I have spoken to 3 high school classrooms, individuals and 6 grade 8 classrooms about human trafficking. WOW! God is crazy. Absolutely insane!!
"One who is the property of, and entirely subject to, another person, whether by capture, purchase, or birth; a servant completely divested of freedom and personal rights." This is the dictionary definition of human trafficking. So, in simple terms, people are bought and sold against their will, they have no rights and no freedom, they are treated horribly and forced to do work with no pay. These jobs can include working on farms, in factories, in the drug trade, in the sex trade, as housekeepers, in restaurants, etc. As you can see, there are both physical labor and sexual labor. Unfortunately, a large percentage of human trafficking is sex trafficking.
The thing that I hate about sexual abuse in general is that God created sex as a good thing. A really good thing! It's where two married people would become one, glorifying God, and be intimate. But go figure, Satan uses God's gifts and twists them to hurt and disgrace people.
Most people assume that human trafficking is not an issue in North America. We usually think that it's only an issue in India and other places overseas. But it's not. It is a very at home and real issue in Canada. In every single grade 8 classroom we went to, we asked the question, "Do you think that human trafficking is an issue in Canada?" and the majority of the answers were a very strong, "No." When we told them that people are trafficked into Canada from overseas, out of Canada to other parts of the world and that Canadians were trafficked inside of our own country, they were all absolutely shocked. They could not believe it.
The Canadian government has taken steps to combat human trafficking. They've signed a number of treaties with the UN. They have agreed to create a National Action Plan (NAP) to deal with human trafficking in 2007 and the House of Commons agreed. However, today, 5 years later, they still have not created an action plan. In fact, they don't plan to. The organization (IWGTIP) that they were working with to create this action plan no longer has orders to do so.
This is not okay. Canada made a promise to its citizens that they were going to combat human trafficking, and that they would create a national action plan to deal with it, but they have not followed through. By signing the petition, basically what you're saying is, "I'm a Canadian citizen who knows about and is concerned about human trafficking in our country. I want to help and protect the victims and see this form of modern day slavery abolished. As a citizen of Canada, I care about this issue and I want to see the government create an action plan as you promised." The approach that Canada would take is the 3 P's: Prevent [human trafficking from happening], Protect [the victims of human trafficking], and Prosecute [the traffickers].
I told the grade 8's about a specific story of human trafficking in Canada. A man trafficked a 15 year old girl for 2 years. He was caught and went through the courts. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, however they reduced his sentence to 14 months. That is less time in jail than he spent trafficking this young girl. Another man trafficked a 17 year old girl for 2 years, got caught, went through the legal system and got sentenced to one week in jail. This is where the kid's jaws dropped. They know that this is not okay, that it is not acceptable, and that it needs to stop. This is where the "prosecution" part comes in.
The government must reply within 45 days of us sending the petition in. Since they have already signed treaties with the UN and have said they would create a NAP, it is likely that they will respond to the petition by following through with this promise after seeing that their citizens care about it.
Our goal is to get 100,000 signatures. So far, from 2 weeks, we have 1450 signatures! We have such power to create change in our world, you guys! Please, if you live in my area, ask me about this petition!! I would be more than happy to talk to you about it.
Stats:
27 million people are held in slavery world wide
Human trafficking is growing, faster than weapons or drugs
Every 30 seconds, another person becomes a victim of human trafficking
Children as young as 4 are sex slaves
This affects both men and women, boys and girls
They are forced to service up to 40 men a day
[Source: A21campaign.org]
We can be the change, you guys. We hold power.
God bless!
Ariel
May 10, 2012
May 2, 2012
Surrender
I had the privilige to go to YC Manitoba this past weekend. Let me tell you, I didn't really expect anything extravagent out of the weekend, but God had other plans! He just absolutely blows my mind. Blows. My. Mind!!! I find that when you expect something to happen, it usually doesn't, so I am so glad that I didn't expect this! This weekend was just a time of total healing and restoration for me.
We were listening to the speaker, Elijah Waters, on Friday evening. We had just finished worship with Unhindered, which was amazing as per usual. As I had said before, I hadn't really expected anything that huge out of the weekend. I went through a really hard month in April, and I was pretty much done for. And God knew that. Ha, he's sneaky, let me tell you! I had been struggling with a really difficult past event in my life just pounding me down this month. So Elijah, in the middle of his message, out of the blue says something incredibly specific to my situation, and says that there is hope and there is healing. (I'm trying to be as detailed as possible with still keeping my private matters private, I would really love to tell you the exact phrase, but this is personal, after all.) Funny thing I realized later was that he was actually standing on the side of the stage nearest me. My heart stopped. I kid you not, I swear it stopped, even if just for a millisecond. Tears came to my eyes, my jaw dropped and I just froze. I could not believe what had just come out of this stranger's mouth. No one else was really reacting to this except me. And the weird thing is that it felt as if he was speaking directly to me, I just had this gut feeling that what he said was said to me. I had never experienced this before, I was just so baffled by it. Go figure, God decided he was gonna grab my attention on the first day of the weekend. I love him :)
On Saturday afternoon I went and found Elijah. I knew that I needed to talk to him about this. I told him the quote, and he said he remembered saying it. I told him that I just thought it was completely out of the blue and asked if he had planned on saying it or what. I just wanted to get down to the bottom of this. He told me that he hadn't planned on saying it, and that it was probably about as random for me as it was for him. He said that God told him that someone in the crowd needed to hear what he said on Friday night. Again, just complete shock overwhelmed me.
Isn't it so amazing how God loves me and cares about me, ME, so much that he chose to, out of over a thousand people, single me out to tell me that one thing. Isn't that AWESOME?!?! Man, I still cannot get over it. I can't believe that he could love me that much. Ah!
After 3 workshops I went back to the hotel. I was going to change so I went into the bathroom. Apparently changing my clothes was not all God had planned for in that bathroom. The theme of the weekend was Surrender, but I really hadn't expected to surrender. I mean, yeah, it would've been nice, but I just didn't think that would be me. But man, in that tiny, cramped little hotel bathroom, I just started worshipping God like never before. I was raising my hands, praying, ultimately, I surrendered. I surrendered my life to my Lord in a tiny hotel bathroom. Ha! And who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I noticed a complete 180 in me. All of a sudden, worship with Unhindered was...changed. I have never worshipped like that before. God's spirit just washed over me. I gave it all to him. I heard his voice more clearly and felt little nudges from him. I had the courage to go up to someone and pray for them when I never used to pray for people. I just...changed. And it was and still is amazing!! God is so good! Wow. Praise the Lord!
When I was surrendering in the bathroom (ha :) ) on Saturday, I told God that if I saw this one guy whose workshop I went to at YC again that I would ask him to pray for me. In Trevor's session he had talked about something that was, again, very specific to me. So I wanted him to pray with/for/over me. I was expecting to see him on Sunday because he had another workshop then, but no, of course God had other plans and I saw him on Saturday evening before the Group 1 Crew concert. I was like...God...? So eventually I got up the courage to go talk to him. I told him my story and told him what I wanted him to pray for. He got this volunteer to come pray with us and also his daughter. Before he prayed for what I asked him, though, he led me in a prayer of forgiveness for the people who had hurt me in the past. That part I was not expecting, but it was totally and completely part of God's plan for me during that weekend!! This provided so much healing to me I can hardly believe it. I feel forgiveness for the first time in years. I feel freedom. I am free!
On Sunday, there was a girl sharing her testimony at the last worship concert with Unhindered. Her story didn't connect with mine, but she did say one thing that just totally broke me. And when I say broke, I mean broke. I hadn't gotten so emotional to the point of crying all weekend. Sure, I had tears come to my eyes, but it wasn't hard to blink them back. So here I am in the middle of this huge crowd of teenagers, with no friends around me, and I just started bawling. I couldn't stop. The floodgates opened, and the tears just flowed. Through the rest of her story, through her prayer, and through the rest of worship, I just cried and prayed and worshipped God. But you know what? It wasn't a bad cry. It was a cry that I needed. A cry that healed me.
God is amazingly good. He worked this whole weekend together for way more than I could've ever imagined. Three days later and I am still just blown away by what he did, how he cares and loves. Like, wow!!! God is so good. So, so, so good!!
And by the way, I didn't just "surrender"...it was a SURRENDER. I am just craving God and thirsting to learn more about him. I'm leaning on him. I want to read my bible all the time. I just want to be with him. I love him more and more every day!
God is incredible!! I truly have the best Daddy possible :)
God bless,
Ariel
We were listening to the speaker, Elijah Waters, on Friday evening. We had just finished worship with Unhindered, which was amazing as per usual. As I had said before, I hadn't really expected anything that huge out of the weekend. I went through a really hard month in April, and I was pretty much done for. And God knew that. Ha, he's sneaky, let me tell you! I had been struggling with a really difficult past event in my life just pounding me down this month. So Elijah, in the middle of his message, out of the blue says something incredibly specific to my situation, and says that there is hope and there is healing. (I'm trying to be as detailed as possible with still keeping my private matters private, I would really love to tell you the exact phrase, but this is personal, after all.) Funny thing I realized later was that he was actually standing on the side of the stage nearest me. My heart stopped. I kid you not, I swear it stopped, even if just for a millisecond. Tears came to my eyes, my jaw dropped and I just froze. I could not believe what had just come out of this stranger's mouth. No one else was really reacting to this except me. And the weird thing is that it felt as if he was speaking directly to me, I just had this gut feeling that what he said was said to me. I had never experienced this before, I was just so baffled by it. Go figure, God decided he was gonna grab my attention on the first day of the weekend. I love him :)
On Saturday afternoon I went and found Elijah. I knew that I needed to talk to him about this. I told him the quote, and he said he remembered saying it. I told him that I just thought it was completely out of the blue and asked if he had planned on saying it or what. I just wanted to get down to the bottom of this. He told me that he hadn't planned on saying it, and that it was probably about as random for me as it was for him. He said that God told him that someone in the crowd needed to hear what he said on Friday night. Again, just complete shock overwhelmed me.
Isn't it so amazing how God loves me and cares about me, ME, so much that he chose to, out of over a thousand people, single me out to tell me that one thing. Isn't that AWESOME?!?! Man, I still cannot get over it. I can't believe that he could love me that much. Ah!
After 3 workshops I went back to the hotel. I was going to change so I went into the bathroom. Apparently changing my clothes was not all God had planned for in that bathroom. The theme of the weekend was Surrender, but I really hadn't expected to surrender. I mean, yeah, it would've been nice, but I just didn't think that would be me. But man, in that tiny, cramped little hotel bathroom, I just started worshipping God like never before. I was raising my hands, praying, ultimately, I surrendered. I surrendered my life to my Lord in a tiny hotel bathroom. Ha! And who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I noticed a complete 180 in me. All of a sudden, worship with Unhindered was...changed. I have never worshipped like that before. God's spirit just washed over me. I gave it all to him. I heard his voice more clearly and felt little nudges from him. I had the courage to go up to someone and pray for them when I never used to pray for people. I just...changed. And it was and still is amazing!! God is so good! Wow. Praise the Lord!
When I was surrendering in the bathroom (ha :) ) on Saturday, I told God that if I saw this one guy whose workshop I went to at YC again that I would ask him to pray for me. In Trevor's session he had talked about something that was, again, very specific to me. So I wanted him to pray with/for/over me. I was expecting to see him on Sunday because he had another workshop then, but no, of course God had other plans and I saw him on Saturday evening before the Group 1 Crew concert. I was like...God...? So eventually I got up the courage to go talk to him. I told him my story and told him what I wanted him to pray for. He got this volunteer to come pray with us and also his daughter. Before he prayed for what I asked him, though, he led me in a prayer of forgiveness for the people who had hurt me in the past. That part I was not expecting, but it was totally and completely part of God's plan for me during that weekend!! This provided so much healing to me I can hardly believe it. I feel forgiveness for the first time in years. I feel freedom. I am free!
On Sunday, there was a girl sharing her testimony at the last worship concert with Unhindered. Her story didn't connect with mine, but she did say one thing that just totally broke me. And when I say broke, I mean broke. I hadn't gotten so emotional to the point of crying all weekend. Sure, I had tears come to my eyes, but it wasn't hard to blink them back. So here I am in the middle of this huge crowd of teenagers, with no friends around me, and I just started bawling. I couldn't stop. The floodgates opened, and the tears just flowed. Through the rest of her story, through her prayer, and through the rest of worship, I just cried and prayed and worshipped God. But you know what? It wasn't a bad cry. It was a cry that I needed. A cry that healed me.
God is amazingly good. He worked this whole weekend together for way more than I could've ever imagined. Three days later and I am still just blown away by what he did, how he cares and loves. Like, wow!!! God is so good. So, so, so good!!
And by the way, I didn't just "surrender"...it was a SURRENDER. I am just craving God and thirsting to learn more about him. I'm leaning on him. I want to read my bible all the time. I just want to be with him. I love him more and more every day!
God is incredible!! I truly have the best Daddy possible :)
God bless,
Ariel
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| Little tidbits from the weekend :) Top left-Rapture Ruckus; Top right-Sean Quigley; Bottom left-Pat Barrett from Unhindered; Bottom right-Group 1 Crew |
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| I have a mustache!! :) Top left-The Panic Squad (notice Andrew using my hair as a mustache! xD); Top right-Mike Love (creator of YC); Bottom left-Pat Barrett (his face!! xD); Bottom right-morph suits!! |
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