Justice friday- Human Trafficking

I woke up today knowing what I was going to post for this Justice Friday entry, it was on Human Trafficking. There are millions and millions of people trafficked into the sex trade and the work force in the world today. It is hard to imagine as it seems so far away and removed from all of us. For me today, I wanted to bring it a little closer to me so I began watching, for the second time, Human Trafficking a 2005 TV drama starring Donald Sutherland and Robert Carlyle. I say that I began watching it for the second time because the first time I couldn’t finish it, it was to hard to watch.

People who are trafficked are people like you and me who are expecting a better lives for themselves and in turn get their lives taken from them. The majority of humans who are trafficked are women and young girls who are trafficked for sexual exploitation. This I don’t understand, how can any man or women, made in the image of God himself sell an innocent person to a life of hell for profit? At what point can someone make that decision and how can they live with themselves? The thing is, human trafficking has been happening since time began. Joseph, in the bible, was sold into slavery by his brothers. The Egyptians were forced into slavery by Pharaoh, and it has been happening ever since.

Today my day started out great. I woke up early, lit some candles to stay warm, it was -30F out, and read my bible while drinking an amazing cup of coffee. Everything was right with the world. Then I switched pace and started thinking about this post and began watching the  Human Trafficking movie. Suddenly all was not right with the world, suddenly I saw how F-ed up the world is. How warped and sick some people can be and how devastated and destroyed others lives become as a result. Today I challenge you not to forget those sold into slavery for the financial gain of another. Today I ask you to stop, take a moment and remember. Don’t just remember, pray. Don’t just pray, tell others. Today our prayers and actions can make a difference.

The best web site I have seen on this issue is a YWAM site, not being biased at all here. The site is called the Freedom Project and can be found here.  Please take a moment and go over to their site and do some research and make yourself more aware. And if you want to sit down some time and watch a movie that will move you and bring you to places you don’t want to go then rent Human Trafficking. I am not sure if I can sit through the rest of it, but I have to. I am only watching it happen, others are living it daily.

To join in the discussion you can also go to the Do Justice Facebook page here. I would like this to be a place of sharing thoughts and ideas and prayers, please join and help us do more. Thank you.

Ash Wednesday

Previous Post My Driving Playlist

 

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. Growing up I had no idea what Ash Wednesday or Lent was. It was only 4 or 5 years ago that I heard about it and found out what these 40 day’s leading up to Easter were all about. What I had heard was that it was a time set aside, 40 day’s prior to Easter to be exact where you fast from something, not just for the sake of fasting, but for the sake of replacing that something with Jesus. Many people around me would fast alcohol, chocolate, sweets, etc. For the first 2 years that I observed Lent I fasted music, not an easy thing to do. Instead of listening to music  I would pray, listen to a pod cast or teaching or nothing at all. It was also during this time that I started running. I found out that it sucks to run without music.

 Mark Van Steenwyk from  Jesus Manifesto gives a good deffinition of Lent. “Lent is the living into a story. By fasting for 40 days, we journey with Jesus Christ, who fasted and was tempted by the Devil for 40 days.” Luke 4:1-13. Another great incite into the season of Lent is from Christine Sine. “Lent, the season before Easter that commemorates the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness before his ministry began, invites us to contemplate our own Christian journey and consider the disciplines that we need to become whole…Today Lent is more often regarded as a season of soul searching and repentance for all Christians as a preparation for the joy and celebration of Easter.” I got this text from the Lent Guide that Christine put out a couple of years ago. You can download the PDF of it here.

I am not sure if you have planned to do something for Lent or not, but I would highly encourage it. It is a time that I anticipate each year where I focus on Jesus. Now don’t get me wrong, I try to focus and walk with Him daily, but this is much more intentional, in that I am giving up something in replacement of Christ. It is a celebration, a journey, a season of sacrifice, prayer and growth. I pray this year that I grow as a follower of Jesus, as a husband, as a father and as a friend. I anticipate Jesus voice and his direction.

Amen

Photo by my friend Johnny Koster

My Driving Playlist

So this morning I Tweeted in regards to needing a play list for the 9 hour drive I was about to take. Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. Here now, for your reading and laughing enjoyment is my play list.

1. Demi Lovato- La La Land

2. Taylor Swift- White Horse

3. Hanna Montana- It’s all Right here

4. Zack Efron- The boy’s area back

5. Jonas Brothers- BB Good

6. The Pogues- The Irish Rover

7. Steve Miller Band- Abracadabra

8. Mr. Saxaphone- Welcome To The Jungle Gym

9. The Grapes Of Rad- Episode 21

There you go, there it is. How can you tell I have kids? Haha, it was a long drive. 

Justice Friday- Invisible Children

Previous post Recent News And Updates On The Cunningham’s.

 

I have followed and been inspired by the Invisible Children for a few years now, ever since their first movie was released. As Mission Adventures we covered, prayed for, made awareness of what they were doing. I still talk about them as 3 young dudes who cared enough about something that they took action. Some people have negative things to say about this movement, but I see hope in it. Not just hope for N. Uganda, but hope for me, hope for young people. Hope that you can see change if you work at it. Hope that God is working for us if we are pursuing the things that he is passionate about, Justice.

I am linking you to the new video and initiative that Invisible Children is doing. It is 30 min. long, but please take some time and watch. Be inspired, let yourself be moved and effected. Pray and do something. If you have known anything about the Displacement event that they put on or the Global Night Commute then you will be interested in this. I am sure there will be more to post in the near future. Thanks for your time, I now hand you over to The Invisible Children.

Recent News and updates on the Cunninghams

Cunningham Famiy Update

After 3 1/2 years

I have been blogging for a while now, since November 2005 to be exact. I really enjoy it, but I am still trying to figure out how to use my blog and what purpose it has. I have tried a few different things like Saturday Night At The Concert Hall and My Life Story, but I either lose interest in the series posts, or just feel that they are not going anywhere so I move on to something else. Maybe that is OK, maybe it is good to move on to other things, to start other conversations, to open up new topics of postings. The other thing is that traffic is pretty low on my blog, wondering if that is an issue or not, I guess it depends on why I am posting eh!

Anyway, I get excited about what this blog could become and get inspired by other postings I read on other blogs, but I have found it hard to keep up, to keep it enticing and interesting. I am in no way going to stop posting or end this blog, I just wanted to communicate where I am at with it. I have appreciated your comments and thoughts on the postings, they are encouraging. I guess I want to post for my benefit and also the benefit of you, the reader.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time on Twitter and am loving the interaction and freedom in that. If you don’t have a twitter account I would highly encourage you to join the community. Once again though I am still trying to figure out how I should be using it and for what purpose. It is great to connect with friends, to learn from others, to follow people who are changing the world and to build new friendships and join new communities. I don’t want to be doing these things aimlessly, I want do be doing them with a purpose from withing who I am.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my thoughts, rants, passions and ideas, I appreciate it. I am thinking of doing a series for Lent.  Traditionally Lent is a season (40 day’s) of fasting. I am still praying about what I am going to fast from for Lent, but I also would like to do daily posts for Lent, posts of what God is saying to me and what I feel he is saying about Him. I am praying about how this could look, I will keep you posted, or I will just start posting and Twittering on it.

Anyway, I have been away from the girls for a few day’s and just got home, so I am going to sign off and get cuddling, it’s bed time. Thanks and have a great week.

Justice Friday- With Justice For All

No, not Metallica, that’s And Justice For All, and a great album as well. Today we are talking about the book With Justice For All by John Perkins. Before I give my review I want to thank Regal Publishing for sending the book, you guy’s are great and I look forward to working with you more in the future.

The book focuses mostly on the poor and on racial reconciliation. The three R’s that John pushes throughout the book are Relocation, Reconciliation and Redistribution. Here are a few quotes in the book that changned and challenged me.

Pg. 11 “Poverty is much more than a lack of money, it’s a lack of options”

Pg. 48 “So if you haven’t heard the message, if you haven’t heard that call, don’t go! Don’t move, don’t run, don’t go in to the community, don’t go into the ghetto, don’t go anywhere unless you have a clear call of God. But if you have heard God’s call, run!”

Pg. 64 “The natural man is more aware of his natural needs, not his spiritual needs, so that is where we had to meet him.” Talking about reaching people where they are at.

Pg.  75 “Leadership developement is the kdy to the continuation and growth of a ministry…I am convinced that the key to bearing lasting fruit is not in developing programs but in developing people- leaders. I believe that developing creative leaders is both the most essential and the most difficult part of community developement. It was the heart of Jesus’ strategy. It must be the center of our stragety too.”

Pg. 145. “It’s tempting for us to start out with a list of things to do. But that is not how the work of reconciliation begins. Before we can do the work of God, we must be the people of God- the believing fellowship, the Body of Christ. We cannot achieve Christ’s mission each working alone’ we must work as a Body, each one exercising his spiritual gifts as a part of the whole.”

Pg. 166 “Our redistribution must involve us- our time, our energy, our gifts and our skills. If we are sharing ourselves, sharing our money will follow naturally.” Talking about how to give back to other, to share of who we are.”

Pg. 192 “Justice cannot be achieved by long distance.”

This is a great book, very challenging, lots of enticing stories and beautiful testimonies. This book gave me hope and got me excited to keep going in the direction of doing justice.

In Memory Of…

I have not written in some time, well since Justice Friday in fact. This past week has been hectic and crazy. Here is an update.

One of the reasons that we moved to Canada for the year was to be close to family. We have lived away from Canada since 1998 and felt strongly that we were supposed to return for this year. A big part of that was to spend time with Betty, Amy’s Granny. Amy and her Granny are very close and have an amazing connection together. It was important for Amy to be close to Granny for longer than just two weeks out of the year and we also wanted her to get to know her great grandchildren, Emma and Abby.

It has been a rich time these last 6 months with Granny, but on Thursday at approximately 11pm Granny passed away. We have had a couple of family gatherings over the last 2 day’s and there is more to come, culminating with the funeral on Tuesday. Please keep the family in your prayers.

Since Granny’s passing I have been thinking about the timing of everything. Of all the years for us to come home God lead us to this one. For Amy to be away from  Granny when she passed away would have been devastating to her.  It’s like Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. I wonder what would have happened if we didn’t listen to Him? We didn’t know why we were to come home, but we felt that it was important and we felt that it was to be during this time. I am glad we listened.

I am encouraged and challenged to continue to live in this way, the way of obedience to Jesus, regardless of if His call makes sense or not. I pray that it would be a regular part of your life as well. It is what He asks of us, total surrender and obedience to him. This year has been a blessing and we are grateful for the time that we have had with Granny. Above is a picture of Granny at a tea and one at Emma’s baptism. Also a candle to remind her that she is not forgotten.
Today the girls and I drove to Winnipeg, 500 miles. The girls are here for 10 day’s, but in that Amy and I will go to San Diego to meet with the YWAMers we will be working with this summer. We will be there for 5 day’s starting tomorrow. We hope you are doing well and we will catch ya on Friday.

Justice Friday

Previous Post Water Shortage

She was born hungry. The first thought she ever had was food. The skin on her face wrinkled in frustration at her mother’s dried up breast. She was unable to understand that her mother had no food to eat, either, she was too young to be told her country has no food. Another hungry newborn: malnutrition and food shortage her birthright.
She would soon learn that tears could change nothing, no matter how many she poured out onto the ground. They would not sufficiently water the drought-ridden land to bring forth fruit. Fruit to feed her hungry family. The energy she spent to cry would only leave her with greater pangs of hunger.

Her mother at first did not name her, believing she would die like so many other newborns. But she lived. So she was named Mara- “bitterness” for her life would be marked by a series of bitter rituals, rights of passage meant to measure her ability at survival. Her mother named her Mara, knowing her little body would need to fight against other invisible predators hungry for her starving flesh: malaria, anemia, tuberculosis.

Mara’s stomach is swollen and bloated by the final irony of starvation. Her empty stomach looks well fed, pushes itself out to the world as if it were full of food. At three years old, she is pregnant with the hope of eating. She laughs when she is told that there are children in the world who are not born hungry. Surely, she thinks, there are men and boys who do not starve, who are fed like the men and boys in her country.

But her mother insists that somewhere little girls do not starve, they eat three meals a day, smile and laugh regularly, and have energy left over to play. Girls who live in a land where there is food. Mara wonders what it would be like to see these strange girls, touch their chubby bellies, prod and poke in wonder that she cannot count each one of their ribs She dreams of those little girls at night, and the thought of their bodies frightens her.

This was taken from the 30 Days Of Prayer For The Voiceless prayer guide. It was the prayer for day 15, which is on starvation. Here are some of the prayer points:

1. Globally over 9 million people die each year from hunger and malnutrition. Reference 

2. 6 million children under the age of 5 die each year from a hunger related cause. Every day, more than 16,000 children die-one child every 5 seconds. Reference

3. About 850 million people globally are malnourished; 799 million of them live in the developing world. More than 153 million of them are children under the age of 5. Reference

4. 54 nations currently do not produce enough food to feed their populations, nor can they afford to import the necessary commodities. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.  Reference

This prayer guide was put out my my friends Paul and Suzie Childers. The book is beautifully illustrated with pictures that have captured the faces of the voiceless. If you are looking for a way to pray, a way to stay informed, a way to help others get informed please pick up one of these books. I am selling the books for $4.00, including shipping. If you would like one please let me know. I am not making any money on these, just selling them for what I bought them for so that I can buy more and do the same.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

water shortage

Last Friday I posted on the water crisis in Africa and on the organization Halfway There and how they are trying to make a difference. Here is an article I read on the BBC today.

A changing climate is only one of the factors likely to affect the amount of water at each person’s disposal in future.
A more populated world – and there could be another 2.5 billion people on the planet by 2050 – is likely to be a thirstier world. Those extra people will need feeding; and as agriculture accounts for about 70% of water use around the world, extra consumption for growing food is likely to reduce the amount available for those basic needs of drinking, cooking and washing. Industry can also take water that would otherwise have ended up in peoples’ mouths.

On the other hand, as a society industrialises it tends to become less reliant on farming – which could, in principle, reduce its local demand. It is a tremendously complex picture; and forecasting its impacts makes simple climate modelling look a trivial task by comparison.

Researchers at the University of Kassel in Germany, led by Martina Floerke, have attempted it. Their projections suggest that some regions are likely to see drastic declines in the amount of water available for personal use – and for intriguing reasons.

“The principal cause of decreasing water stress (where it occurs) is the greater availability of water due to increased annual precipitation related to climate change,” they conclude. “The principal cause of increasing water stress is growing water withdrawals, and the most important factor for this increase is the growth of domestic water use stimulated by income growth.”

The modelling suggests that by the 2050s, as many as six billion people could face water scarcity (defined as less than 1,000 cubic metres per person per year), depending, most importantly, on how societies develop – a significant increase on previous estimates.

To read more go here.