The Underground Railroad

Okay... So Is Now The Time To Panic????

Libya, Congo, Somalia, Hurricane Irene, typhoons in the Philippines (lived through 2 plus an earthquake), Afghanistan, Iraq... countries and nations in turmoil dominate our minds and screens, filling us the almost crazy amount of needs and pain in the world. Genocide... human slavery... poverty... ignorance... Christians fighting Christians... huge issues of our time need to be addressed with love and compassion.

And yet tonight I am panicking over my Urban Models for Social Transformation course. Someone please pass me a paper bag?

Continuing into my 2nd year at the Campolo College of Graduate & Professional Studies, I am aiming to complete the MAUS program (Master of Arts in Urban Studies: Community Development) by the end of next spring. To do so, I must complete this particular course that relies on clear, concise understanding of specified logic models.

Logic.

Perhaps reading through the assignments only is what is trapping me. I need to see and do and re-work the assignments to my understanding before mastering them. However, there seems to be an overwhelming abundance of work all pertaining to logic, logic, logic. And then there are my other 3 courses...

Really? Is this course necessary to fight the slave trade? 

I am taken back immediately to grade school math and the struggle I fought there. "If Bill left Train Station "A" at 5:40am, riding at 50km/h, and Susan left Train Station "B" at 5:45am riding at 60km/h, where and when would they intersect?"

I always hoped they never would because that would mean they had crashed.

Aspie Brain sees the world through a definite pattern of logic, but often not the normative kind. Add to this my weakness of perfectionism and I have a recipe for "ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE!"...

But I have to breathe... this is just one course.

Just one.

One.

Christ calls us to be counter-cultural and transformative by nature. Looking at the state of the world, there are so many people we can be to share His redemption. The world needs Him. We need Him. Struggle with a course will not determine my servanthood before Him.

I'll have to remind myself of that when models melt before my eyes and reconstruct in undefinable patterns.

There & Back Again -- A Student's Tale by Bilbo... oh that's just going too far

 
 
Yes I'm a proud geek, but I am no Bilbo Baggins. For one, I have't got the big hairy feet. Anyway... many people have asked me: "What are the biggest lessons you've learned since returning from Olongapo?"

Tall question... and thinking on it through jet lag is nearly impossible. Ugh... ears, POP already!

But now that my system is slowly returning to normal, I've been able to meditate on God's revelations, think about what happened, and how the Spirit has counseled and transformed me. And I've also given great thought to the things I saw, were shared with me, and the fluid conclusions I've drawn thus far...

Intentional community works.

I don't say this in terms of using IC as a systematic method of programming -- not by any stretch. Any type of IC requires deliberation, patience, time, caring, nurturing, humility, and love. These traits are not inherently programmatic. In fact, North America's repeated insistence in trying to make them so has often seen disaster in its wake. I say that IC works because I bore witness -- and share in -- to the community where young women were brought out of the sex trade, their lives were transformed, and God was glorified. Family is created, Jesus is central, and the practical outworkings of the Gospel are evident in daily life -- from morning worship to paper making to reaching out into the community. In fact, the base leader in YWAM Olongapo was once a girl herself in prostitution, and is now the fruit of community living centered on Christ.

That's where I'm at. I know there are moments in the bars/clubs I want to share about, and other thoughts, but I want you all to know that intentional, deliberate family nurturing and community tending works to break the chains of slavery. I went to the Philippines to see for myself if this was so.

And it is.

God, may it be so in Canada.

Casting Crowns in a Strip Club

In a country that declares itself to be predominantly Roman Catholic, with a culture of Islam in the south, and a smattering of Pentecostal-related denominations (known as "born again" faiths), the Philippines is a very religous, very devout place. You cannot go anywhere without seeing a "John 3:16" on a license plate, or a "Jesus Cares for You" on a sticker somewhere. Everyone believes in God, and everyone knows about Jesus. Even the hotel I first sacked out at after my 4:30am arrival in Manila had a Bible waiting for me, a slip of paper for prayer requests that hotel staff could pray for, and Stephen Curtis Chapman playing in the cafeteria.

Should it have surprised me to hear Christian music playing in one of the bars we were in?

I guess not. But it seemed so... out of place.

When I recognized Casting Crowns' "I am a flower quickly fading... here today and gone tomorrow... a wave tossed in the ocean... a vapor in the wind... Still You hear me when I'm calling... You catch me when I'm falling... and You told me who I am... I am Yours..." -- I was mystified. It was as if the very establishment was trying to redeem itself in the eyes of God.

If we play this song, then the things that happen here won't be so bad.

It's not unheard of. Anyone who's into Bluetree knows precisely where the beloved "God if This City" originated (a brothel called "Climax" in Bangkok, Thailand). Spirit enters where He will, and will He does. Perhaps the owners or the girls or someone thought that by playing Christian music, it would somehow make it all 'better'. Yet we know music can't save people -- not by itself anyway.

But God can plant seeds.

And water.

And harvest.

I wonder if Casting Crowns knows its worship music is being blared in clubs like "Lips" or "The Office" or "Alley Cats" or "The Wet Spot"?

I wonder if it's not the better place for it to be shared?

 

 

Demand v. Desire -- Continuing the Dialogue

Stop the Demand!, the post I wrote a couple days ago generated some incredible discussion about men's perspectives on how to stop the exploitation of human beings, especially surrounding the sex trade. I want to continue the discussion because we've barely scratched the surface. We have some good feedback to start with, but still the dialogue surrounding demand lags behind the dialogue around victims and support networking. When it comes to the hydra of slavery, all dialogues must be fairly squared out into the open for the hydra to come tumbling down, no?

One commentor (Jason) mentioned that:

"The demand for sex is ubiquitous to all humans who are not celibate. The problem, therefore, is not the demand for sex per se. Sex occurs in myriad contexts that are not harmful or exploitative. It follows, then, that harm and exploitation are not caused by demand for sex.

When people who demand sex exploit or abuse others in order to obtain sex, this must be abhorred and condemned as any harmful treatment of people should. But blaming harm of people on the demand for sex or treating harmful behavior differently when sex is involved confuses the issue.

Harmful behavior must be opposed everywhere and under all circumstances, but the demand and desire for sex is not inherently harmful. Your struggle, therefore, should be against exploitation and abuse rather than against sex or the demand for sex."

What say you, men and women? (and Jason too!) Just to clarify, this is most certainly not a personal attack against the commentor. His thoughts simply intrigued me to think and question further which is a good thing. They are intelligent and respectfully written comments that I would like to explore further.

I agree with Jason that harmful exploitation must be stood against everywhere. However, do we as a culture confuse the 'demand' for sex with 'desire'? To me, the very word demand denotes some form of inequality, exploitation or some form of harmful behviour. If someone is demanding sexual services (or payment in receipt thereof), this is exploitation. Desire, however, occurs in many contexts that does not include a demanding aspect. It's healthier perspective suggests a humanity that is not present in demand.

Now... personally, my belief is that sexual desire is meant for one context -- a monogamous relationship under God for life. Call me stodgy, but this is what I believe and I stand by it. To have desire in multiple contexts, to me, suggests lust rather than desire. Lust is one of those hydra heads that can suddenly turn vicious into demand.

While sex is needed to procreate our species, the fact of the matter is: no one has ever died because they never have had sex. Suppressing sexual natures without the expressed calling of God (note that I insist on the "calling of GOD", and not the calling of any church institution) turns ugly, and we've all seen the disasters and violence that have come from that. Yet choosing to refrain from sexual behaviour, whether for religious reasons, self-control reasons (prior sexual addictions or sexual violence), or health reasons are not to be "poo-pooed". In fact, there ought to be support and noble admiration.

What say you, men and women? Have we confused demand and desire? And where either is present, is celibacy a viable choice to reduce the explotation of men, women and children?

Stop the Demand!

After making a short post on FB tonight, I found it generated some passionate discussion from some abolitionist friends of mine. Basically, people want to know all about the victims -- whether it's to help them, to count them in research, or to point the finger at them in accusation ("It was your choice, after all!"). Very few people are having open and honest and frank dialogue about the demand portion of the supply/demand cycle in the sex trade.

Here in Olongapo City, it is the rich white men from Canada... America... Europe... Australia... who come and take advantage of the girls. Olongapo City/Subic Bay, while not the US military hub it once was, still draws the resort crowd. Those who have, come and take from the have nots.

Why?

Because they can.

They have the money -- more than enough since sex for sale down here is not really that much; they have the power since foreigners are seen to be more educated, powerful and important than any bar girl; and they have the intention ("I want it, therefore I take it").

Some johns really do believe they are helping girls out of bad circumstances by supporting them financially in the sex trade. Trust me, after living with girls of courage who have heard that old line time and again, I am more convinced than ever that there are broken men out there who are craving wholeness in a partner. When that partner is poor and in need, the johns makes themselves feel better not only through sex but through the process of financially supporting the girl. It's all a way to ease their own guilt and pretend they have made a friend. Most times, once the sex drive is satiated, they suddenly don't feel the need to help anymore. Goodbye helpers.

Most are down here just to choose whichever girl they wish. Whether she has a false name or a number (never real names used in the trade), guys let loose and pick "That one!" or "That one!" or "That one AND that one!". Johns have money, they have perceived power, and they have a mind controlled by their lust.

Believers... those of us fighting to abolish slavery around the world all know the hard truth: we cannot stop the Hydra unless the demand side is dealt with permanently. Our fathers and uncles cannot be celebrating our boys' rites of passage through using porn and prostitution. Sex and power does not a man make. It makes a weakling... a coward... an abuser... a broken shell with sharp edges that cut into the flesh of the exploited.

Men need to stand up and speak truth: "We are not animals! We are not created to use cash to pay for humans to act like animals for us!"

The Bible is clear about standing up for injustice (see Isaiah 58... just for a small start). Canadians are guilty of using and abusing the girls down here in Olongapo City of the Philippines, as well as elsewhere. If our mandate from God is to care for the poor, the marginalized, the weak, and the orphaned, allowing our men and women to travel around our country and around the world to have sex with whomever they please is a slap in God's face and a destruction of His people! No excuses!

Men... I want your insights. How would you go about stopping the demand for sex around the world, knowing it is destroying the lives of men, women and children around the globe?

Plastic Bottle Boy - Slavery or Culture?

As we handed out food to the homeless and marginalized in one of Olongapo's city parks, I came across a young boy of no more than 10 of 11. He was frantically scrambling through a massive green garbage bin and pulling out the plastic bottles. I haven't seen recycling plants around here, althought people claim they are present. The child was furious in his quest, not stopping for anything and ripping past any and all sorts of filth.

We came up beside him and gently asked if he was hungry.

He didn't hear us... or pretended not to hear us.

We asked again.

This time, he slowed, turned his head and looked at our bags of bread, juices, and lollies. He licked his lips, but then ripped his gaze from the food towards a point behind us. I turned my head and there stood 3 beefy looking guys sneering at the child. I turned back to the boy and the look of fear on his face was astonishing. He jumped back into the bin, and began once again to stuff plastic bottles into his huge sack.

I looked once more behind me at the men standing there and they simply smiled sweetly and shrugged. Family sending out the child to beg? Gangs? What kind of precious cargo are plastic bottles anyway? Whatever the relationship this boy had to these men, it was one of obvious terror and my spirit was deeply troubled. The boy was nimble and quick at his task, but poorly clothed and by the brief look in his eyes, very hungry.

What to do?

When someone's life is in danger because of our good works, when is the time to step back, and when is the time to step up? Are the two mutually exclusive? Whatever the case, we backed off. If the child was living under that much terror from these 3 men simply at the offer of food (and thereby a break from his work), how much punishment would he receive had he accepted our innocent offer?

As we wandered around the park, I spied the boy a few more times diving through other dumpsters. The same gaggle of guys keeping a close watch over him were never far away. Maybe there was a promise of food or cash at the end of the day for the boy should he collect as certain quota of plastic... I cannot say for sure.

Whatever the drive, it felt like I had stepped between the power of the desparate and the nightmare of the young. It was not a place forgiving to Light.

There Are A Million Ways To Jesus

As I enter into my final week here in Olongapo City, I am pondering the many, many ways people come to Christ. It has awed me, encouraged me, and humbled me. Sometimes I think my personal theology and knowledge of the Bible says to the other: "You can't have come to Christ THAT way. It's not Scriptural."

Damnable pride.

John 14:6 is clear when Jesus says: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

So let me explain: I do believe that Jesus the Christ, Yeshua of Nazareth, this Jew of old, is the One and Only way to a saving relationship with God the Father -- redeemed and reconciled and beloved. However, Jesus being the infinite God that He is as well as man, I also believe He has created innumberable ways for humanity to come to Him first.

Take for example my story: born and raised in a Christian home, but quite literally scared into salvation at Bible camp where the counselors and teachers spoke of nothing but repentance from sin, hell, Judgment Day, and the Great White Throne all week. They put up overheads of what the devil looked like, what the flames of hell looked like, and told us how hot hell was. I never once raced to the front at any of the altar calls. I was too frightened. All I remember was each night lying in my bunk was begging a 'loving' God to not send me to hell. Please, Jesus, no! Don't ever let me go! It was a week where I firmly believe spirits of fear, deception and bondage began. For all you camp counselors out there, a week of this type of evangelism for anyone, let alone 8-10 year olds, is something I highly recommend you stay away from.

I don't agree with "The Sinner's Prayer" -- poof! You're saved! That's it! Fire insurance... easy faith sometimes it seems. Yet who am I to question God and how he saves? Dare I forget the thief on the cross?

I am unsure of the upsurge in a return to joyless legalism where repentance from sin and the destruction of pride are so over-emphasized that people run away in fear. Not just fear of God, but total fear of being unloved. Yet perhaps there are those prideful people who need to understand a bit more the situation they really are in.This kind of "splitting" the Gospel to force people to see only but a few aspects of what the Gospel really is or who God really is sticks my gut like rot, but I need to be the one to stand back and try to understand.

Dreams...

Visions...

Divine encounters...

Miracles...

Tongues...

Unbelievers speaking prophetic words (hey... remember Balaam's Ass)

Unusual events

Some would say "Phfffft" to these things as they "don't happen anymore", or "remove responsibility from th Christian who ought to be evangelizing".

No they don't.

Limit God, we say?

Who are we to dare suggest such things?

I've met people who have had visions of Jesus while on meth highs and their lives have been turned around; others were in the middle of trying to commit suicide and suddenly, there He was; still others have been in the middle of practicing other religions or spiritualities and events, dreams, prophetic words suddenly intervene and all point to Jesus -- the Jesus who points to Yaweh. The Jesus who points to Himself.

So yeah... there is One Way to God.

But before sneering at another's testimony, take a good long think at the lengths to which God went for us to have a relationship with Him. It's His world after all.

Think...

... maybe my view of how people should come to Christ is what's stopping bursting the kingdom wide open.

Where Are Our Little Girls Going?

I have never had much respect for the modelling industry. First of all, the term 'industry' denotes a cash cow made off of the back, butts, thighs, faces, legs and pouty lips of men women and... children. It's insistence that it defines beauty in our culture has shown its hubris, arrogance, and deception. It's unwillingness to take responsibility for the damage it causes in the lives and ideals of 'the little people' is appalling. As long as people buy into the fantasy and generates cash, it's fine. Silent masses are satisfied masses.

Just ask any magazine model if that's really her on the cover... after the air-brushing and CGI effects done on her poses. It's not her at all. It's what people want to see. It has nothing to do with personhood.

Now France is appealing to a more precise demographic: little 10 year old Thylane is being trussed up like an adult porn star and her image sold to the masses.

She's 10.

1. This is NOT her fault. A 10 year old is a child with the need for parenting, mentorship, guidance and love. The people responsible for this horror are her parents, her manager, her photographer, and all the people demanding more of her. The adults are at fault here. Not the child. I don't care if she stomps her feet, demanding in a tantrum that she wants to do this, Mom and Dad must say: "No! You are too precious and too important to be dehumanized like this! God has created you to be more than someone else's eye candy!" And if this child is confused, scared, and unsure about what's being done to her (for remember, she's too young to have a true say in the matter), all the more reason for her parents to step up and be parents. Your child is not anyone's sex icon.

2. Yes, we are sexualizing our children at younger and younger ages. We are showing that 'beauty'=sex, and sex=fantasy poses. One of the single dumbest, yet most disturbing comments in favour of sexualizing children that I heard spoken to me was: "Pedophiles like little children and people who make themselves to look like children. We should applaud parents for making their girls look all grown up because then the predators won't want them."

Yes, dumb. And ignorant.

To protect our children and raise them well, we need to sexualize them? The logic is not only flawed, it is repulsive.

3. We are stripping away (pun intended) our children's childhoods. Beauty is what's coming down the catwalk. Beauty isn't posing for a camera. Beauty isn't what men and women slaver over. Yet even small children have the capacity to use a point-and-shoot camera and/or cell phone and self-pose, post their sexy moves all over FB or Twitter, and... feel good about themselves. They look like Katie Perry or Lady Gaga (or they think they do), get attention, and think the positive attention=good actions. The cycle repeats. Even older teenagers and adults are snapping thousands self-pics in ridiculous poses all trying to achieve "the look"... that definition of beauty our pop culture has so graciously served to us in mouthfuls.

Thylane needs to be out playing tag, scraping knees, practicing her music, getting in trouble for refusing to clean her room, making friends, learning about how God sees her... learning His definition of beauty in the freedom and sovereignty of who He is. Pop culture has sold her as an icon.

Pop culture has created its newest slave.

That's NOT Thylane we're seeing. That's what the industry wants us to see... and "ooo" and "aaah" at.

Where did Thylane go?

4. Using children to make a point that the modelling industry has gone too far is unethical. Understandably there are those in the industry who know modelling and posing is now more pornagraphic than artistic, that it defines the model rather than the other way around, and pressures models to stay beautiful and thin at all costs. To use children to speak out against this is horrendous, however. Thylane is nothing more than a pawn in someone's sick sense of satire, commentary, and reverse psychology. We've just played with a child's life and childhood.

Thoughts anyone?

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2011/08/05/nn.young.model.hln

White is Bright... and Right

I think one of the biggest surprises that knocked me flat when I arrived here the Philippines was the never ending drugstore shelves of whitening products. That's right: bleaching, whitening, melt-you-dark-away creams, powders, antiperspirants, sunscreens, sprays and solutions (why anyone needs to make their pits white, I can't fathom). Yet the mentality here is that fair, white skin is better than brown skin.

Wha--???

Many of the locals here tell me of their almost obsessive craze to lighten their skin tone to be more like white people. Inside, my heart broke and my insides kind of turned to a depressed gloop. For real? You look at me and see how my skin tone is better than yours? Why is brown bad? Who told you that? What kind of marketing/advertising/historical propaganda has convinced you that whiteness is somehow superior to brown-ness?

It's made me so sad. Even here, the scars of colonial power and Western material gain have gashed the mentalite of a beautiful, respectful, ancient and wonderfully brown people. Even when I say that I don't want my friends here to desire to be white at such extremes, they just smile back and say: "You white folks try so hard to be brown with all your tanning lotions and tanning beds... what's the difference?"

Sigh...

Are none of us happy with the tint of the Creator in our skins?

Mr.Bean Evangelism

So I know that sharing about who Jesus Christ really is, what He's done and how much He loves us is of great spiritual significance, holy, and sacred, there are times when a lighthearted approach is needed to such incredible Truth. Especially in cross-cultural situations where language can be a barrier, you need something that both parties can connect with, share in common, and bond over.

Today, it was Mr.Bean. I sat in front of the TV for about a half hour with Filipino children ages 2-9 and we all laughed like stinkin' crazy at his silly antics! The olders ones obviously understood exactly what was going on. The younger ones... to make life funnier... were laughing over-dramatically to emuate the older ones!

I mean, when a silly looking man with a funny looking walk sits down on a park bench, and proceeds to wash the lettuce for his sandwich with his wet sock, no words are necessary. Ewwwww!! Gross! And when that crazy guy randomly pulls out a baby bottle, starts sucking on it, and spits the milk he gets out into a hot water bottle for his "tea", cross-cultural barriers = broken. Laughter ensues and conversations get started.

Thank you God for Mr.Bean!