Signs

I'm not a big fan of church signs with the interchangeable letters used to display what someone thinks is a witty saying as a form of evangelism.  Some examples:

- Stop Drop and Roll Doesn't Work in Hell

- Walmart Is Not The Only Saving Place

- 7 Days Without Prayer Makes 1 Weak

- Forbidden Fruit Causes Many Jams.

A few might crack us up, but most are over-the-top cheesy.  Pardon me while I puke.  I wonder how many unchurched people actually visit churches because of signs like these.  What if we instead used the signs to communicate what we are doing to help people?  Something like:

- Feed the Hungry Here

- Earthquake Relief Collection Site

- Divorce Care: 7 PM Wednesdays.

People outside of the church have needs not being met.  They also are eager to help meet the needs of other people.  The church is called to help with both.  We should have enough going on to keep our sign changers busy every day of the week.

That being said, I laughed out loud when I saw the sign pictured above. Don't bet on it attracting any visitors, though.

How to Fight Child Trafficking #1

The Bible teaches that a leader in the church must first take good care of their own family (1 Timothy 3:5).  If anyone cannot manage their family, how can they manage God's church?  I think that the same principle applies to helping children involved in sex trafficking. 

All children are certainly God's children.  While we are responsible to care for every child that we can possibly help, God expects families to provide for the children entursted to their primary care.  Sadly, it is not uncommon for well-meaning people to neglect their families while campaigning and working on behalf of other children in dire circumstances, both domestically and internationally. 

I don't think that it has to be an either/or situation, i.e. either we help our kids or we help other kids.  It can certainly be a both/and.  We can love both our children and the children of the world.  Yet, we are to start with the children God has entrusted to us.  If we cannot take care of our own kids, how can we be trusted to take care of others?

This principle is not limited to parents.  Grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, friends, neighbors, church family...who are the children in our everyday lives? How are we loving and protecting them?

Blooper Reel

My pal (and worship pastor) Kenny surprised me with this video in the middle of worship on my birthday last month.  He burned me pretty good by including the Flash slo mo scene.  Cha cha cha.



Click here for the original full-speed Flash clip.

Why Not Sooner?

True story.  A young impoverished girl in eastern Europe left with some friends for a shot at a better life to be hairdressers in Greece.  They soon found themselves with 60 other misled girls and women trafficked on a ship to be sex slaves.  Stuffed like sardines into containers with only one oxygen bubble among them, 30 died on the journey to Turkey.

The survivors were then locked in a room for two weeks being repeatedly raped all day and night.  Men came in shifts until they were completely broken down.  The victims were then taken on a rubber dingy to Greece.  Twenty of them drowned.

Fast forward...the young girl, one of very few to escape the nightmare of sex trafficking, recounted the story to Christine Caine, founder of The A21 Campaign.  Another young woman across the room asked Christine why she had come.  Christine answered that she was there to help rescue, restore, and rebuild the lives of victims of sex trafficking.  The woman screamed in reply, Then why didn't you come sooner?  There are thousands of us in hell, why didn't you come sooner?

Why not sooner?  Why indeed?  Why aren't all of us doing something about the millions of victims of child sex trafficking?  We probably don't know much, if anything, about it.  Nor do we know where to start.  I'm overwhelmed myself.  The good news is that you and I can help! Check out the links on the right of the page for ways you can help right now.

If it were my child that was being trafficked, I would drop everything to save him. I would leverage everyone and everything possible.  Doesn't every child deserve the same?  We cannot afford for sooner to become later.