Comments...

This past Friday an article came out in the Portland news on OregonLive.com

The article was about a man who was sentenced to 7 years for pimping out a 13-year-old girl.

The U.S. Attorney was quoted as saying that, "The prostitution of a minor, by both her pimp as well as the 'johns' out there taking advantage of her, is a crime that offends all standards of civility."

The comments that followed the article were pretty passionate and all indicated that this guy should have gotten a lot more time than 7 years...

Here are a couple of quotes....

JLundegaard said, "Seven years? for Pimping a 13 year old? That's rape not 'work'. I'm feeling ill. Seven years! The judge who gave this sentence deserves seven year."

filoviridae said, "watermelons have the same density as a human head, i'm just sayin'"

viking87 said, "I met a guy today that robbed a bank and served 8 years. Not saying robbing a bank is a good thing, but I would rather have him on the streets or living next door than this sick pervert. Even if he turned over the names of her customers, 7 years is too light. I hope they are investigating the sickos that used this girl."

MrWellington said, "He's not only a judge, he's also a client!"

And so it goes.... comment after comment about how this guy needs more time and the judge should be punished as well.

The one question I did not see anyone asking was, "What has happened to this little girl?" I am constantly amazed at this... Maybe it is because working through all of the damage with a little girl is not glamorous, but we (as a society) are not looking beyond the disgusting Johns, or the organizations that find these girls, or the creeps who traffick these girls, or all the awareness dinners... We as a society are not asking the question, "What has happened to this little girl?"

We probably all know someone who was been sexually assaulted at least once. Think about the level of trauma that individual goes through and probably deals with their entire life.... Then multiply that by years and many, many rape scenarios.


What has happened to this little girl????

My hand at poetry

So, I am in an English 120 class and I was tasked with writing a poem about something I am passionate about. Bet you all can't guess what I decided to write about. :-)

I have never claimed to be a poet so this poem could be horrible... However, I did put as much passion into as I knew how and so I figured I would share it with you all!

The poem is based off of the four main principles which Transitions Global operates by:

1.) Rescue is not an event; it is a process.

2.) Freedom without a future is simply another form of slavery.

3.) When you can't tell the difference between her and us, we have done our job.

4.) By giving girls choices, we restore their voices.

The twist is that I wrote the poem from the perspective of these precious girls that we have the privilege to serve.

"Rescue me"

This is not an event

To simply remove me from harm and strife

This is a process, a journey

To help me rebuild, to restore my life

I know what I am saved from

What are you saving me to?

Once we are all rescued

What are we to do?

Will you commit to me excellence?

Will you truly give me a chance?

Will you work tirelessly?

Will you give me a life of substance?

This trauma has disabled me

Will you restore my voice?

I am fragile but I am strong

Please show me that I have, choice.

End sex trafficking in two steps!

The Center for Disease Control talks about Sex Trafficking and states that if we want to end this atrocity we should...

1.) Raise the status of women and,
2.) Eliminate the entitlement of men.

James Pond (founder of Transitions Global) quotes this all the time. But for several reasons I have had this two part solution rolling around in my head for the last couple of weeks.

Raise the status of women! (I will blog about the entitlement of men soon, two part answer=two part blog)

This is such an intense statement! Why do we have to raise the status of women? Why was their status ever lowered? When was their status lowered? How do we raise their status now that it has been lowered? I have 3 daughters and a wife... How do I make sure that their status is raised? I have a Mom, a sister, female in-laws, I work with almost all women, I volunteer with almost all women, there is a house, half way across the world with 20 women that are survivors of sex trafficking who I would give up just about anything for... How do I make sure that their status is raised? Is it my responsibility to worry about any of this? Why should I worry about a woman's status, I am a man? Am I more of a man if I worry about the status of a woman or less of a man?

As all of these questions are swirling (some of these are theoretical... I do believe that a woman's status should be raised and it is all of our responsibility) I have been thinking about an excerpt from a book that I read. The book is "Captivating" by John Eldredge and his wife Stasi. It has been a while since I read it, but there is this passage that I remember every time I think about raising the status of women.

John talks about the day that God made woman (if you don't believe in the creation story.. just humor me and put your attitude on hold for a sec and try to get the point of what I am trying to illustrate). So... God made woman... when did he make her? Last! Not because that is her place in line but because He was saving the best for last. John Eldredge points out that God had created all of these amazing things and yet it was incomplete. It was missing one more thing. John says that, "Woman is the zenith of God's creation"! What a powerful statement! The creation of woman is God's work of art! She is His master piece! (BTW John does this way more eloquently than I just did... you should get the book, it is a good read)

And yet.... Look at the state of women today.... It is, for the most part, despicable.

Here in the States we have grown leaps and bounds in the area of "Women's Rights" but there is still the "glass ceiling" and I think that some of it is out of kilter and off balance. Not to mention 300,000 American girls that are trafficked for sex every year within our borders. Even still we have, I think..., progressed further than other parts of the globe.

Even in our own churches, women are not taught to be captivating creatures who are God's masterpiece. They are taught to behave properly and to take care of the children and their men. They come home to men who do not know how to be men... these men in turn do not know how to show these women that they delight in them, and that they have captured their heart.

Overseas the status of women is also despicable! In India, according to Siddarth Kara author of "Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Day Slavery", 500,000 babies have been aborted over the last decade simply because they were girls. China has the one child policy which has led to lots of unwanted daughters. In fact, some religions teach that if you were born a woman it was because you did something wrong in your previous life, and maybe if you are good in this life then next time you will be born a man.

I am not naive enough to think that I can solve all of the problems (or ask all the questions) pertaining to the status of women in one blog (or in one lifetime for that matter) but these are just some of my thoughts over recent weeks.

Feel free to comment and participate in the discussion!

Will you join me in RESCUE???

"Rescue is not an event; it's a process. A girl's "rescue" is not consummated in the event of removing her from harm's way. This is simply the beginning of the journey. Rescue, understood properly, is the process and passage a girl will go through in finding her voice. We want to honor her journey as she moves from victim to survivor to leader."

The previous quote is one of the guiding principles that Transitions Global (the group I work with) operates by. I think that it is a mind set like this that is vital to the work that we do! We see so much emphasis put on "raising awareness" or seeing agencies "kick in the doors" because it is the glamorous thing to report on. We love to see hundreds of people at rallies or a bunch of cops with well intentioned westerners kicking in the door to some scummy third world brothel rescuing the screaming children... But once all that is done.... Once the stage is packed up, the speaker is headed to another rally, the lights have been turned off, volunteers pick up all the empty cups, janitors clean the toilets. Once the victims are "rescued", the pimps have escaped, the brothel is shut down (at least for now), the little girls screams and wailings have subsided to quite whimpers and stifled sobs while they wait at the Police station to be processed.... THEN WHAT!?!

In most cases these girls just fall through the system and are quickly re-trafficked and/or are re-exploited. There is a small percentage that end up getting bounced around from NGO to NGO getting some services and then are re-trafficked. The average success rate of safe-homes around the globe is 30%.... This means these girls are being failed 70% of the time! And that is just of the number of girls that are lucky enough to make it into a safe-home. When I was in Cambodia in December I talked to an organization that was ready to rescue a huge group of girls, but were waiting because they had nowhere to put the girls once they "rescued" them.

This isn't just happening overseas... Here in the US we have 300,000 American children that are being trafficked in the US every year and we only have 39 beds available for them. We are currently working on setting up a home in Portland, Oregon and we have a vice-cop that says she could fill our home in 24 hours! Our founder always says, "The only difference in the slave trade between the US and any other part of the world is.... Geography!"

The picture above is of me and a survivor in Cambodia that I have the honor to serve. She is a stronger individual than I think I could ever be. Her story is horrific but thanks to the work that Transitions Global does, she has an incredibly bright future. One of the things that most impressed me was when I asked her what she liked most about Transitions... She said, "all of the other NGO's felt temporary, but Transitions feels like home." That phrase melted my heart!

Here comes the rub.... It takes money to work through the process of "Rescuing" these girls! But it is not a lot of money (in the grand scheme of things). Transitions is a grassroots organization that needs passionate people to become involved! Even though we are small we are effective! Our success rate is between 75-80%!!! This is huge, when compared to the previous figures! In order for us to increase and make a significant impact on this issue, we need people like you to get involved!

If you are still reading it means that you care... Awesome! I am going to ask you to partner with me! I have a personal goal of getting 600 people to donate $10 a month. When I do this, I will be able to make sure that all of Cambodia's basic monthly needs are taken care of for a year. I am on a mission to recruit 100 people that will, 1.) Donate $10 a month and 2.) Will get 6 other people to donate $10 a month as well!

Will you join me in the "process" of Rescuing these girls?

If you will... Please, #1.) Send me an email at sethjohnson78@gmail.com and let me know that you have taken the challenge, 2.) Click this LINK and fill out the donation info, and 3.) get 6 others to do the same!

Love you all! Thank you for joining me in this journey!!!!