Meant to mention this yesterday, but forgot.  Abraham Lincoln was born yesterday in 1809.  Born to uneducated parents and having never attended college himself, he became our 16th President.  I’ve been reading a book on him lately and it is an amazing tale of leadership.  He is proof that leadership involves making hard and sometimes very unpopular decisions.   A lot to be learned from him.  Happy birthday Abe.

A new report from the UN today came out that said that woman play a dominate role in the trafficking of other woman and children. Here’s an exert:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Surprisingly, the perpetrators behind human trafficking around the world are often women, the U.N. reported Thursday.

Women are the majority of traffickers in almost a third of the 155 nations the U.N. surveyed. They accounted for more than 60 percent of the human trafficking convictions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

For many, human trafficking is a world they had been pulled into themselves.

“Women commit crimes against women, and in many cases the victims become the perpetrators,” Antonio Maria Costa, director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said in an interview. “They become the matrons of the business and they make money. It’s like a drug addiction.”

Most of the world’s nations reported some form of “modern slavery” last year involving mainly the sex trade or forced labor.

Read the rest of the story here.
You can join our fight at Free Chains.

The question of truth and its knowability is the most important single issue for the Church and perhaps the culture today. – Chuck Colson

thoughts?

You can only learn what obedience is by obeying – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Is God calling you to do something, but you have yet to act?

The first step is to take the first step.  Take one today.

Children being sold into sex slavery is happening right here in our backyards.  A new movie coming out with the backing of George Clooney hopes to open the eyes of the truth behind closed doors.  This will make you want to vomit.  Many will get angry.  Hopefully all will want to do something about it.  Join our efforts in ending child sex slavery at Free Chains.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utjtLRqQuJI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

One of my heroes is William Wilberforce. He helped abolish the slave trade in England in the late 1700 and early 1800s.  He felt called by God, but did not know if it was to be in solitude service or in political service.  As he was deciding, his friend William Pitt said that surely his new Christian doctrine [faith] calls for action and spiritual meditation.  This propelled Wilberforce into fighting slavery for more than 20 years and it is also the reason we are fighting it today with Free Chains.  We must put feet to our faith!

Another great quote is when Pitt challenges him to fight for the abolishon of the slave trade while he ran for Prime Minister.  Wilberforce said that people their age had never been elected because of their youth.  Pitt replies that that’s exactly why they can change the world, becasue they don’t see the problem with their youth.  Sounds farmiliar to when Paul challenged Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because he was young.  Here’s to changing the world.

For a limited time you can get a free download of the book Not for Sale. Click here to download.  Use code FEB2009 to redeem. This was one of the resources that motivated me to start the Free Chains Campaign to abolish child sex trafficking.  The book takes  you to different places where slavery occurs around the world.  The stories are horrific, but hopefully they will spur you on to help end slavery.  To take part in Free Chains, visit here and join us that ALL SHOULD BE FREE.