Weirdest. Teaching. Ever!

Our usual youth leaders are in Greece with their new baby bump,

so I'm teaching youth group tomorrow night!

I was driving the other day, pondering what I would teach on,

when Lady Gaga's song "Born This Way" came on the radio.

And since I have some issues with the song, I thought

"I should teach on this song!"

Then I laughed.

Then I stopped laughing, and thought about it.

Then I said, "This is crazy!

Lord, You're gonna have to give me a real lesson!"

And then...nothing.

Well, nothing else.

Instead, I got more and more insights into the song!

So, tomorrow night, I will be teaching....

on Lady Gaga.

And I guarantee, its not what you think.

(And to you nervous youth leaders,

Don't worry.

Its not sacrilege.

Just a little weird

But its a good Word

and it stays on topic from the past few weeks!)

My Weekend on Capitol Hill

There's so much to say about last weekend that I'm not even sure where to start.

Ok, the beginning. I spent last weekend at International Justice Mission's Advocacy Training in DC. Sunday we spent the say learning a little bit about Human Trafficking and how to be an effective advocate and lobbyist before going to Capitol Hill on Monday to put it in action.

Backing up a bit, I've been getting more and more involved in the modern-day abolition movement. I first learned that slavery is still happening about a year and a half ago. I was stunned to learn that there are 27,000,000 people enslaved around the world today. I sort of ignored it for a while. But then God started....gently throwing it in my face, I guess. It was everywhere I turned. A book on sale at my favorite warehouse, an email from a missionary, a TV show. So I started to pay attention. I started educating myself, reading books, following websites. This past October I took a big step and attended the Global Forum on Human Trafficking. Since then, I've been following Not For Sale, IJM, attended the Justice Conference and have been reading everything I can find and praying about where I'm supposed to fit in all of this.

I don't think I've really written about it here just because its such a big issue and I wasn't sure how to address it. And I figured there were much more experienced and knowledgeable people out there than me. But I've come to realize, that compared to the general population, I'm an expert. I know a lot more that I thought I did, especially after this weekend. And I think since this is such a big passion in my life, and becoming an evermore present part of it, its a fitting subject for my 100th blog post!

So moving on. We spent Monday meeting with big shots on Capitol Hill (still can't believe that little old me met with all these lawmakers and discussed an upcoming bill!!!!!). Our goal for the day was to make our senators and representatives aware of the upcoming TVPRA bill.

This is the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. This law was created in 2000 and made great strides towards the abolition of slavery by making HT against federal law and creating the TIP (Trafficking in Persons) office, which investigates and prosecutes in HT cases, among other things. The office publishes the annual TIP report which ranks countries according to their efforts to eradicate slavery on a tier system. The TIP office also gives grants to organizations in 68 countries working to abolish slavery. This bill needs to be reauthorized every two years, this being one of those years. With the reauthorization this year, some added provisions are being recommended, including fully funding the TIP Office, creating "focus countries", and increasing resources to provide an effective emergency response team (for situations like the earthquake in Haiti that left many children and women vulnerable to trafficking).

Some of these provisions are taken from a proposed law known as CPCA (Child Protection Compact Act). This bill passed the Senate unanimously last year, but time ran out in the house so it didn't make it to law. This year, it has been reintroduced by one of the senators, but IJM (and myself), while they support the bill, is putting more of an emphasis on the TVPRA. This is because the TVPRA includes many of the provisions of the CPCA and there stands to be more lost if the TVPRA doesn't pass. It must be reauthorized by September 30th. If it doesn't pass, the TIP Office would not necessarily close right away, but would be severely impacted.

The other thing I learned about during this training was IJM's Project Lantern. I think this is so cool! In Cebu, Philippines, human trafficking, in the form of the child sex trade, was at extremely high rates. IJM partnered with local law enforcement, training them in how to recognize HT and enforce the laws. Giving these officers the tools and confidence to deal with Human Trafficking made a huge impact in this area. In the 4 years of this project, an outside agency found a 79% drop in child sex slavery! 79%!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With this information, one hope of the TVPRA is to implement this plan in other Tier III countries.

So, that's how I spent my weekend. Talking about these things with lawmakers. I was really nervous going into this weekend, and going into each meeting, but God is awesome and gave me and my team the words to speak. It was definitely a time of growth and stepping outside of my comfort zone. There is so much more to this issue, such as the who's what's and where's of trafficking, but I think this is enough for today!

Fighting Dragons With You

I've had this in my head for two days!

I kinda feel like this in youth group right now. We just finished our To Save A Life Series and it's been incredible and powerful. I don't want us, the teens especially, to forget this time. I want us to keep going, to keep crashing through walls, to keep fighting dragons and make a difference in our world.

So, that's all. Happy Friday! And what a wonderfully dreary April Fools Storm we've got going outside :P

EDIT: Ok, so I just read this blog post by Walt Mueller and so now I really like this song and video: (its the clean version)

SparkPeople

Well, I'm heading back to SparkPeople. What is SparkPeople, you ask? Well, its a fabulous weight-loss site! Its a little like Facebook, but for people who want to get healthy. On it, I can track my food, exercise and other goals, talk with other people who are in the same boat, and get healthy recipe and exercise ideas, plus a lot more. I used the site my last year in college and lost 30 pounds!! Unfortunately, I've put it all back, with a little extra, over the past two years. So I'm back! I'm gonna get skinny and healthy and take on the world! And, in the past two days, I've lost 3 pounds :) yay! And, to help myself out, I've set up a reward system. Every 10-15 pounds lost, I reward myself with something I want, ranging from a pedicure to a laptop. My big reward when I reach my goal will be some sort of dream trip. Let's do this!!

This Is Why I Do It

The look on a teen's face when they hear they are not alone.

When a girl can cry and be told she's beautiful.

When a boy can be open and start to heal from years of bullying.

When a teenage girl learns how to help a suicidal friend.

When a teen learns that their mistakes do not define them.

When teens know that they are not worthless. They have purpose. They are loved.

I live for the moments when walls come down and love comes in.

I live so these kids can know they are not alone.

That someone cares.

A text. A hug. An encouraging word. A prayer.

These are my weapons. They bring down walls.

They heal scars.

It's nights like this that make it all worth it.

Religion: Pure and Faultless

i write this from the portland airport, on my phone, after traveling for roughly seventeen hours..and still not at my final destination (the justice conference in bend). for some reason it won't let me capitalize letters. sorry. but, anyways. i've been thinking of a bible verse that i read in a book on my first flight. james 1:27. we tend to quote the first part often, "religion that god our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress" but i had never realized the second half of this verse,"and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world". i never noticed this before but there it is, no period comma or anything. it made me realize that one of the ways we keep from being polluted by this world is to take care of those in need. when we take care of someone is distress we do more than donate money. we get involved. we're invested. by entering their world, ours is put into perspective and the things we thought we needed aren't as important. we become less polluted by the world and purified through laying down our lives for our brothers.

"Under the Overpass"

Under the Overpass by Mike Yankowski Living in a cozy house with a warm bed, fridge full of food with a reliable car in the driveway. Good education and matching job. Clean clothes, sitting in a comfy seat in a fancy, high-tech church every Sunday. Its easy to say you trust God when this is your life. But what if all of these things were stripped away? Would your faith hold up? College students Mike and Sam wanted to find out. They made the radical (translate: crazy) decision to become homeless for 5 months in 6 different cities to discover if their faith was real and to see what it was like to be homeless in the wealthiest nation on Earth.

Their story will challenge and inspire you. The way you view your life and the world around you will change. The question is, what will you do with it?

Highly Recommended 5/5 stars