Generosity

There have been two statements that have been weighing on me over the last few days...

The first comes from this book that I am reading. It is titled, "A New Kind Of Christian". These two guys are having this conversation and they start in on financial stuff.... The character known as "Neo" is responding adamantly and says,

"We live in the most affluent culture in the most affluent period of human history. If we can't discipline ourselves to learn the joys of generous living, I think we're an embarrassment to the gospel."

This phrase has absolutely pierced me! I don't make a lot of money (compared to some) and I try to support my wife and 3 daughters... I have debts to pay off, first cars, my own car, we would like to own a house someday, college tuition to worry about, weddings (good lord), retirement, etc... In the midst of all of this I feel compelled to "discipline myself to learn the joys of generous living". How do I balance all of this? I remember being in Cambodia and seeing a woman with her two small children... she was lying in the gutter... We had just come out of a "fun night", eating at an Italian restaurant run by an expat. This lady was dirtier than I have ever seen anyone. I immediately was nauseous and overwhelmed with compassion for her. But I had know idea what to do... I still don't know what to do....

The second statement comes from James Pond on his most recent blog, he says,

"If we are willing to sow indifference to children being sexually harmed, are we equally willing to reap the consequences?"

The answer, for me, is NO!

Am I willing to reap the consequence of just sitting by and arranging my life? Am I willing to be content with climbing the corporate ladder, a super fat house, two cars, a padded 401k?

I am not advocating that we give up everything for others... Or maybe I am... I guess that is still to be determined. It much harder to be a radical idealist when you have a wife and kids to support. Not that I would trade them for a minute... I am just saying that I understand all of this is easier said than done.

So, then if we are balancing life... What are we to do???

I guess for me it comes down to "learning the joys of generous living"! Find out what that means and grasp it and don't let go. I think when we become givers through and through (religious or not)... when we learn to let go of ourselves... that is when we are truly happy. That's my story... for now at least. :-)

Thanks for reading and partaking in my journey! I love community...

Feel free to comment and enter the conversation!

Probing

I had an unexpected meeting with a new friend last week and he shared a quote with me that has been haunting me ever since. I figured I would share it with the few of you that take interest in my writings. :-)

The writer of the quote is Shane Claiborne and it is from his book, "Irresistible Revolution".

"I did a little survey probing Christians about their (mis)conceptions of Jesus. I learned a striking thing from the survey. I asked participants who claimed to be "strong followers of Jesus" whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80% said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question. I asked the same group of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what He did. We can applaud what He preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore His cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that rich Christians do not know the poor.

When the worlds of poverty and wealth collide, the resulting powerful fusion can change the world. But that collision rarely happens. I long for the Calcutta slums to meet the Chicago suburbs, for lepers to meet landowners and for each to see God's image in the other. It's no wonder that the footsteps of Jesus lead from tax collectors to lepers. I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end."

How many poor people do I know? How many people do I associate myself with that are completely different than I am? How accepting am I of people that are different, whether they are poor, fat, skinny, pretty, ugly, gay, straight, black, white, purple, whatever…. Here is a question that I rarely ask myself… how accepting am I of people that are rich? Volunteering with an NGO, it is so easy to be critical of people that are “rich”. I easily pass judgment on them. How dare they live in their fancy houses with their flex fuel vehicles, their boats and jet skis, 2.5 kids? How dare they have their perfect little life and not give to those who are suffering all around them? Yet, if I compare my own standard of living to the other 94% of the globe, I am incredibly wealthy.

Riding the bus this week has been incredibly humbling. I can be SO judgmental! And the crazy thing is… it happens before I even know it. I am instantly sizing someone up and have decided whether or not I will give them the time of day, before I even know it. I am in a sense creating a caste system in my mind. I am deciding who my equal is, who is beneath me is and even who is better than me. Funny, there are not many who fall into the latter category.

I am reminded of the story of Jesus and the woman at the well (the adulterer/prostitute depending on your translation). There is a lot going on in this narrative and I won’t even pretend to try to interpret it all… I am just taking it at face value for the narrative that it is. The thing that stands out to me the most, besides the fact that Jesus was completely chill with the lady, is in verse 6, “…and Jesus tired as he was from the journey, sat down…” After I work a 13 hour shift and stand on the street corner for 15-20 minutes and then have to ride on a bus for 45 minutes… the last thing I want to do is listen to some idiot or meth-head go on and on with their drivel. And yet, this is what they need the most from me…. Just to listen… Just to accept them… Just to “love my neighbor as I love myself.” Why is this so frikin hard?

How does all of this apply to abolishing human slavery? I am not quite sure… other than that as my heart is changed to the world around me… I think I will become more passionate, more caring and more effective in caring for the survivors as they are freed!

If you are still reading… well congratulations! You made it to the end of my drivel and I appreciate the fact that you care enough about me to read through this whole thing. Feel free to comment on your thoughts or points of interest… I love to hear from others and join into conversations about our humanity!

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!!!!

A struggle with faith

(this is another long one, if you want to read... cool, if not... whatev) :-)

What a weekend...

Let me give you a little back story.

For the last two weeks James and Athena (the founders of Transitions Global) have been in India, doing the groundwork for setting up a safe-home for survivors of sex trafficking. This has been bittersweet for me... In the last 5 and a half months I have grown really close to James and Athena and I now treasure their friendship. Along with their friendship, I am constantly in awe of their compassion and drive to serve the girls we have in Cambodia and the girls that we will serve in India and soon here in Portland. I can't say that I have ever seen zeal like they display from anyone else. I am truly honored that I get to stand beside them and contribute whatever I can. Sometimes, I honestly feel like we are staring into the pit of everything that is dark and disgusting in this world and reaching into it to pull these girls out. I can't think of anyone else that I would want to be in this fight with. So, while I am beyond excited that we (as an organization) are opening a home in India, I miss the daily phone calls and meetings between myself and the Ponds.

However, this has given me a good rest (seriously these guys set a pace like none other. It is awesome, fierce, manic and beautiful! I can only try to keep up) and time to think and process some things. Also, my wife went down to Bend for a girl's weekend and the girls were at the sister-in-laws house. So, this weekend I had some serious quite time.

The last several months I have had a real struggle with my faith (I know some of you just rolled your eyes, cause either you think faith is a crock or you are a "super-christian" and can't believe that I would be struggling... but I don't care, this is my blog).

You see I grew up in the bible belt and bounced around between Charismatic and Baptist churches... I was also told a lot of stuff that I believed only because I trusted the people who were feeding it to me, not because I was really thinking about it and processing it... Since then all of the people that I really looked up to have let me down in pretty huge ways (that is not to say that I have been perfect). This I believe is just a part of life... we live a shitty world and bad stuff just happens.

Several years ago I needed a wake up call and I got it! My wife left me and took our two kids and moved to Oregon. The following year I drank and smoked my troubles away while sleeping on some really good friends' couches....I did things that as a "good little christian" I never thought I would do. Then one day my wife called and told me that I should move up to Oregon and give things a go. I still remember being in the front yard smoking a cig and asking God how in the hell did I get my family back... I did nothing to deserve it.... At that moment I heard God say (no not audibly, but in my spirit) "that is grace."

So, I find myself in Portland Oregon (almost six years ago... man has it been that long?) and stumble into a church that is mostly Reformed (a totally different way of looking at faith than I am used to) and find a lot of love and unparalleled abnormality... People meeting in pubs to talk about God, the worship leader holds poker tournaments at his house while smoking cigars and pipes, people are late to services but are not frowned upon, people are not dressed "right", there were pictures of Jesus on the wall that made him look more black than white (which I love cause how many pale skinned middle eastern guys have you ever seen?)

At the same time I am at this stage in life, I am reading up on all kinds of other religions and really starting to question my own faith... I mean really whether it is the Angel of Moroni, Buddha, Jehovah, Allah, Vishnu or Christ it all sounds pretty crazy. Right?

So.. while I am wrestling with all this I start to learn about Human Trafficking.... How do we as an American public (let alone the church) not know about this? I think we live in (as Bill Hillar says) a uterus. We have it so good here in the States. Did you know that we make up only 6% of the world's population, yet me take up over 40% of it's resources? Or that only 8% of the world owns a car! Seriously, even if you car is a piece (which mine is) you are still way ahead of the material possessions game. Experts have said that it would take about $20 billion to feed everyone on the planet, every year. Americans spent that much last year... on ice cream. Meanwhile 40,000 people died last night from hunger.

This weekend things kind of came to a head for me... I had someone email and ask me if she could give me money. She also, said that she had a vision of me the night before and I had my head in my hands. It was really bizarre because the night before I was looking at the budget and it was not good... and I did in fact have my head in my hands. I went to Cambodia in December and raised money to film a documentary on a survivor of sex trafficking. The money did not turn out as planned and it set me back quite a bit... I have been playing catch up ever since. Turns out the amount that this lady sent me is exactly what I needed to get caught up! How crazy is that?

Along with that... I went to go see John Eldredge (author of Wild at Heart) speak on being "Fathered by God"... The experience with the vision lady, hearing John speak, and just processing a lot of things has led me to make some conclusions.... (I don't know if anyone is still reading at this point but here you go)

1.) I am choosing Christ... I don't have all the theology crap worked out but, I believe he died, was resurrected, and he and he alone has made a way for me to go to heaven (whatever heaven looks like).
2.) I want to live like Christ lived (I also want to live like Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and Muhammad... but mostly like Christ)
3.) I want to learn what it means to be a true Christian (not a 20th or 21st century American Christian) but a true Christian.
4.) I want to love and live with reckless abandon! I am tired of hiding my heart in an attempt to keep it safe. I want to give myself to my Wife, my Daughters and the World until there is nothing left to give.
5.) I want to stop judging people (unless they cut me off in traffic or ask me stupid questions). Whether they be of a different faith, sexual orientation, they are making decisions that I don't agree with... whatever. Let them be and focus on me. Love them regardless.

I think that sums it up... if not it is a good stopping place.... I will probably have another rant soon. :-)

Thanks for reading.. Love you all... Feel free to comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.