Tuesday 20 December 2011

Why I’ll be “walking like an Egyptian” this Christmas


The announcement that my boyfriend and I would be going to Egypt this Christmas raised a few eyebrows. Although they didn’t say it, I knew some people were thinking that it wasn’t a very “Christian” thing to do, as if God’s presence is somehow restricted to the British Isles.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas at home. I love snuggling up by the fire with my family, watching cheesy films I’ve seen a million times before, eating more turkey than can possibly be good for me and exchanging endless gifts. I’ve always ADORED the smell of Christmas dinner, pine needles and mulled wine (although I lost my sense of smell in the summer so this is a thrill I can no longer enjoy…).

But there are several valid reasons for spending Christmas overseas this year.
  1. It is Chris’ 30th birthday and we wanted to do something special to celebrate
  2. We normally go to see our respective families (mine in Bristol, his in Derry) at this time of year, but after five years together we actually wanted to spend Christmas together. It would not have gone down at all well with my mum if we’d jilted a Bristol Christmas for a Derry one!
  3. We fancy an escape from work; even I can’t do work if my laptop is 2,000 miles away
  4. Egypt is WARM!
Anyway, I don’t know why I’m explaining myself. Yes, I will miss going to my own church on Christmas Day. I have certainly not forgotten that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. But Jesus was born a lot closer to Egypt than he was to Bristol or Derry. And he is just as relevant there as he is here. Even though Egypt (shock horror!) is a Muslim country.

We’ll be having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve this year, but that won’t make me less of a Christian than those sitting down to eat on the 25th. In fact, it might give me the opportunity to have some interesting conversations with people who don’t normally think about Jesus at Christmastime. I’ll certainly be taking his love with me everywhere I go.

Whatever you’re doing this Christmas, I hope you have a fantastic one.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year from everyone at Liberti xxx

Friday 16 December 2011

The dream that became a nightmare


You may have noticed that my blogs have been quite focused on human trafficking recently. I'm not going to apologise for this. It is something I feel passionately about and desperately want to see eradicated. But rather than writing another fact-filled blog of protest, this week I decided to write a poem from the point of view of a trafficked woman.

Perhaps poetry isn't your thing, and I realise I can only imagining what it must be like to experience such horrific circumstances. But maybe it will help you do the same. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.


Traffik stoppers

He came and gave my father money;
promised a land of milk and honey
He guaranteed a better life;
I’d learn a trade, I’d be a wife.

This had always been my dream;
this cat had always chased the cream
I’d see the world, I’d fall in love;
this man was sent from God above!


                         











But far away from friendly faces
I serviced men of many races
This is how I earned my bread;
my life suspended by a thread.

I’d never felt such utter shame;
they cut my hair, they changed my name
Kept under the hand, not just the thumb;
my heart so uncomfortably numb.

Every night I turned that trick;
They made me sore, they made me sick.
I didn’t dream, I couldn’t sleep;
My hope was gone, I dared not weep.

I longed for sunshine on my skin
but day and night I was kept in
Mastered by a tiny key
I prayed that God would rescue me.

Some vowed they’d take me out of there
but once fulfilled they didn’t care
My jailor locked me up with fear;
his words a curse, his smile a leer.


                         
















One day I managed to escape
but I was found and tamed with rape
To my throat he held a knife
until I begged him for my life.

If ever again I ran away
he said my family would pay
He covered my face in black and red;
no dignity left, no single shred.

Three times I found myself with child
after I had been defiled
But even they from me were taken;
my babies stolen, lost, forsaken.

Why did I ever leave my land
for a language I didn’t understand?
Why had I sold my soul for this;
the stolen sex, the stifling kiss?

                                   















And then the men in blue they came;
I opened my legs for more of the same
They locked me in a metal cage;
I knew they’d make me earn my wage.
                                                     
Instead they sat and questioned me;
they brought me endless cups of tea
Trapped behind another door;
with words I’d never heard before.


                           














But then a stranger brought me light;
she fought for me with all her might
She risked it all to rescue me;
to cut me loose, to set me free

She told me I was no one’s slave;
for me a man his life he gave
To give me hope, a destiny;
this man named Jesus paid my fee.

It sounded an unlikely tale;
I had no faith in any male
But she spoke from a melted heart
and offered me a brand new start.

She helped me overcome my fears;
she gently wiped away my tears
Free to laugh, to sing, to dance;
I gladly seized that second chance.

But I am not the only one
to live a life without the sun
To suffer ever new disgrace;
ensnared within a cruel embrace

It won’t take one, or two, or three
if we’re to set the captives free
If we’re to make the traffic stall
to block it off: for once, for ALL.

It won’t take luck; it won’t take magic; it’s up to US to stop the traffik.


If you want to know more about human trafficking, visit A21 Campaign's website. It offers plenty of information and ways to get involved.

Read more from Joy in the upcoming issue of Liberti magazine, and in its parent publication, Sorted

Friday 9 December 2011

Why 600 arrests just aren’t enough


I was thrilled to hear that Chinese police busted two major child trafficking rings last week. According to the government, 608 suspects were arrested and 178 children were rescued.

Good news, I hear you say. And you’re right – every child rescued from the traffickers is something to be joyfully celebrated.

The government certainly did a great job of rounding up the traffickers. A great deal of evidence was gathered and on November 30, 5,000 police officers launched a joint offensive and rounded up those responsible across ten provinces.

But despite claiming this as the "the biggest victory yet for anti-trafficking" operations, it seems to me the government should focus on preventing trafficking as well as shutting down existing rings.

So what could the Chinese government be doing better?
  • It could get rid of the country’s strict one-child policy, perhaps. Experts claim many families are desperate to have a son to carry on the family name. This means baby girls are often sold to traffickers, while baby boys are often bought from them.
  • It could also tighten up adoption regulations as existing laws for childless couples in China have led to a thriving underground market for kidnapping, buying and selling children.
  • It should come up with a better solution for children who have been victims of trafficking. The rescued children in these raids were reportedly placed in welfare agencies – it’s not clear what will happen to them now.

Ultimately, the Chinese – and every nationality around the world – need to realise that children are precious, regardless of gender.

Besides, if everyone has sons, it’s going to be difficult to keep family lines going unless the girls sold to traffickers are subsequently hired out to procreate with the male heirs. This could result in sexual exploitation, disease, emotional distress and even incest!

I understand that different cultures have different perceptions about right and wrong, but I struggle to accept that any parent believes selling a child to traffickers is the best outcome for that child.

What the Bible says

Jesus makes it clear that children are extremely important and valuable to God.

Mark 10: 13-16 says: “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.

“He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth; anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’

“And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”

He took them in his arms!

These trafficked children could turn out to be the next Confucius, Ang Lee or… Jackie Chan. Regardless of their destiny, each was created by God to live a life of freedom and fulfilment.

I’m not picking on the Chinese; trafficking happens all over the world, not least in the UK. It’s time to urge our governments to take this issue seriously and to give children across the globe the start in life they deserve.

We may not be traffickers ourselves, but if we turn a blind eye to it we are partly culpable for the mistreatment of children in our own countries and beyond.

Read more from Joy in the upcoming issue of Liberti magazine. 
A big thanks to Bekah for her awesome Haiti blogs!

Friday 2 December 2011

No Ceiling to Hope

1st December

I surprise myself sometimes. Today has been a really emotional day. We visited another amazing project this morning where 500 kids are in the child sponsorship programme have their lives transformed. We took the big blue elephant and had a wild time with the kids, 200 balloons and a camera crew trying to coordinate a message for Spring Harvest. It was beautiful bedlam. 

It was a total contrast to the kids we met in the afternoon by accident. Three boys who were hanging around on the streets where  we were trying to do some incidental filming. They were cocky at first, these teenage lads, and a bit hard but as they softened it became apparent that they live on these streets, that they don't have a home to go to, or a family to wonder why they are out in the dark. They don't go to school, they often miss meals and they look to each other for support. It was a tragedy right in front of us. Three tragedies and all we could do was give them a few coins and a can of coke. 

But that's not what made the tears fall. What makes me cry every time is the success stories. And there have been so many. Melodia yesterday who was a sponsor child and who now runs a sponsorship programme in her church, the leader this morning had also been sponsored and this evening we met with five young adults who are part of the Compassion Leadership Development Programme. These men and women have been sponsored since child hood and have been selected to enter this final programme because they show great potential and each of them has been enabled to go to university and mentored through it as well as being given additional leadership training. 

These people were amazing and I listened to their stories with tears rolling down my cheeks. It moves me so much to see that they have been literally taken from a place of no hope and put in a place where they can be a hope for their nation. It is an incredible thing. It is beyond words. One of the graduates of this programme now sits in parliament. How amazing is that! A boy who was so poor his own family could not support him, was given hope and a future, he was given an education,  he was taught about God, he was encouraged and discipled and now he influences government for good. Somewhere in the world, someone paying a few pounds a month enabled that. Wow. 

Child sponsorship is about giving people the opportunity to reach their potential, saying you were born for more than this, it's about letting anybody dare to dream big, really big. It's about saying there really is no ceiling to hope because we can change the world one child at a time. 

Thursday 1 December 2011

Church Actually

30th November 

So, today we found the decent roads, or stretches of them at least. I believe we got all the way up to 5th gear ! It's because we left the city and followed the coast line round to the Northern peninsular. Haiti really is a beautiful country, beneath the dust, the smell and the rubbish, but of course these are the reality- they do hide the beauty and somehow the hint of beauty add to the frustration of the situation that you see. 

We visited two more projects today. The first was to see a school that is being built by Compassion. It was something else. In a country where every building is scruffy if not tumble down, these are smart, proud buildings. And the difference doesn't stop with the appearance. The school we saw today was a class apart: the team overseeing the rebuild have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that this school is built to international seismic standards. They have even had to train people in this country how to make proper bricks to build with and fight with the factory to persuade them to make them because the brick makers know they won't be able to sell them to anyone else- no one else would pay the price. 

We saw this school which will be finished by January, behind it is the school that fell down 2 years ago and in-between; the makeshift school made of ply-wood that is keeping the kids educated now- it doesn't look like it would stand up to  much of a storm so it's good Haiti has had two years free of hurricanes. 

Afterwards, we visited another child survival program and here we met Krisna and her mum. Krisna is 2 yrs old, the youngest of 5 sisters. her family home collapsed in the earthquake and since then they have been living in a shack they share with their uncle. Krisna has been registered with the compassion project since before she was born. 

Compassion seeks out the most needy in the community and Krisna's mum was sick. Krisna wouldn't have made it into the world alive without intervention, but through the work of Compassion, her mum got medical care and she gave birth in a hospital : for the first time. Krisna is registered in the Child Survival Program whose aim is to get kids started off right. It supports mothers in pregnancy and childbirth, gives parenting  education and medical support to the babies. It's an incredible system. Each mother and toddler comes to the centre twice a week and gets visited at home once a fortnight by a health worker- that's better support than I had and invaluable. 

I talked to Krisna's mum and she explained that she had been taught how to purify the water which had benefitted her whole family, and shown how to prepare balanced meals with the litle that she has. One a month she is given a food package of basics to help support her family. It makes the world of difference. 

On top of that, when Krisna developed pneumonia at the age of 9 months it was Compassion staff who got her admitted to hospital where she stayed for two weeks. Compassion has saved Krisna twice and it will transform her future many times again. 

The Child support programme is run by an amazing woman called Melodia who was a sponsored child herself. Her enthusiasm for what she does is amazing and love for the women she serves shines out of her. She proudly showed me round the centre that they have - i was astonished, it exceeded all my expectations. In this church in the back of beyond, were mural coved Walls, dozens of toys and musical instruments,teaching posters, books, cots and brightly coloured mobiles hanging from the ceiling. It was an incredible room - with as much to stimulate the kids as any I've seen. 

And all this in the heart of the church. The church really is the hope of Haiti. On the drive to this project we had passed a tent city on the mountainside that houses half a  million people and we had seen the landfill site where 100,000 people were buried in a mass grave following the earthquake. Figures like that are almost impossible to comprehend. But in the midst of that kind of devastation, it is the church that is leading the way. 

In every community we have visited it is the churches that rebuilt first - not as some grandiose symbol of religion, but because they are the hub of everything that goes on. Here are the centres for the community, the place to come for food, school and medical help as well as spiritual support. 

Haiti is a disaster zone, there is no getting away from it, but there is hope wherever you look and it comes in the shape of the church. I find it awe inspiring that in this impoverished nation, this church full of financially poor people has risen to meet the incredible need. They have nothing and yet they give everything. It's humbling and it speaks volumes about what church actually is and it poses an incredible challenge to churches everywhere to be the hope in their community, to give everything and be the agent of change.