Every Girl Needs a Safe Place

The Face of Slavery is an Innocent School Girl

*Please note the contents of this video may be emotionally disturbing and not appropriate for anyone under 13. But it's a little girl's real life story. Click the picture above to watch the video.

This is not okay. That's obvious. 

When I watch stories like this, something inside my heart begins to swell. First with anger and confusion, how could this really be happening?! 

Then sadness and grief set in, I want to hold that sweet girl and tell her I'm sorry and that she is loved, precious, and valued. 

Last, I feel helplessness, this issue is way too monstrous for a 27 year old girl like me to make a difference. 

But that's just not true. 
There is something I can do.

I can tell my little part of the world about this horrific form of 21st century slavery.

I can raise money to fund organizations that are preventing, rescuing, and restoring girls pulled, saved, and booted from this disgusting industry.

I can help prevent girls from desperately running into sex trafficking by teaching the ones in my life that they are valued, loved, and cherished as they are. 

It's not a lot. But it is something! And you can do something too. 

G I V E

Click to give your donation of $5, $10, or $20 via My Refuge House's super secure and tax deductible site. (Make sure to use the provided link so we can track how much $$ raised.)

S H A R E

Know someone who is passionate and overwhelmed about this too? Tell them you found something small they can do to start with! We have custom Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pics just for you. 

G E T

Yup. We want to show you your sacrifice means the world, so we're giving you a little gem of music. A free download will be coming later this month! You're the first to hear about it!

I'll do my part, you do yours and together we can change the world. I promise. 

Tried to Save Her Family and Ended Up Trafficked | Stories from My Refuge House

This post was written by my dear friend Crystal. Crystal is what I feel like Mother Theresa was like when she was in her 30's. True story. She is the Executive Director of My Refuge House, a girls home in the Philippines. (You might recognize the name because Becoming partners w/them!) The home cares for 12 girls who have been saved or rescued from sex-trafficking.   Below is a nutshell of what she does and why she does it. -JM

If you've become recently aware of human trafficking, you may be asking something like, “How do those kids get trafficked anyway?” 

And I would give you semi-cryptic answer like “Well, there are various common scenarios.” 

Unfortunately, that answer doesn't even come close to the glaring and horrific realities of sex trafficking. But I find often find myself resistant to creating stereotypes by explaining a common path, so I give a couple of fairly generic and common scenarios and leave it at that.

However, I can tell you this: Of the girls who have lived at My Refuge House, a full 95% were trafficked by someone they knew: a neighbor, a cousin, a classmate. (Click to tweet!)

And 100% of them were behind in their education and the majority of them were trying to  help supplement their family’s daily needs. (Tweet that fact!) 

Brave, Sweet Jacky* stood up at the blessing of our new home and told her story last month. 

Quivering chin, she read through the entire speech she carefully prepared. It involved dropping out of school because of poverty, trying to find work to help support 5 younger siblings, false representation about a job opportunity and isolation from anyone who could protect her.  

She began with, "I hope you will find meaning from my story."  You will. I promise. 

She continued:

When I was a child, I’ve been through a lot of challenges and problems. I have so many siblings who never had the chance to go to school or finish our studies.  I came from a very poor family and my parents didn’t have enough money to send us all to school. I stopped my studies when I was in grade 3 and my parents didn’t search for a way to re-enroll me, so I never went back. Over the years, I witnessed poverty in our very own home and so I decided to find a job myself.

One day, a woman came to our place and offered me a job to work in Manila as an internet café attendant. We were promised it was a good job in Manila and they left money for my parents which also motivated me to work and take advantage of the job opportunity. All I was thinking about at that time was that I will be helping my parents and somehow, someway, will save my family from poverty.   

I told my parents to use that initial payment that they gave us for my sibling’s schooling and they agreed– as long as my siblings had the opportunity to study, I was happy.

We stopped first in Cebu and we were about to leave for Manila, but I was very shocked because there were policemen all over the place asking us about our trip and our purpose of going to Manila. I just told them, “I will work in an internet café there”. All of a sudden, they escorted us, gave us food and brought us to Social Services.  

I was really afraid and scared that time that I might not be able to see my family again. Then I learned it was a rescue conducted by International Justice Mission (IJM).

After we stayed at Social Services for few weeks, our Social Workers brought us here at My Refuge House. This is where I experienced studying again after a very long time of being out-of-school. I am very happy because after 2 years of staying here, I am able to finish my elementary through the Angelicum Home School. Now, I’m in my 1^st year in High School and I am hoping to finish my studies here.

November of 2012, I received a very shocking bad news. My mother died because of pregnancy complications. She died without me by her side. I was confused what to do that time. 

We went to the public hospital and I saw my mother’s dead body lying on a bed. I didn’t know what to do when I saw the nurse covering my mother’s body with a white cloth. I was crying all the time with my father. I really felt that God wasn’t there or if He was, he wasn’t that close to me. 

I questioned Him why of all people He gave that challenge to me. This situation was very sad for me and for my family but it didn’t give me the reason not to know Him better. After a while I realized that God won’t give me problems I cannot solve or carry. I learned not to give up. I went back to My Refuge House and continued my studies.

I’ve been here for 2 years and 4 months and I learned to know more about God. I am very grateful because through our spiritual activities I have deepened my relationship and faith in God. I realized that the job I was hoping to have in Manila wasn’t right.  I used to regret being trafficked and rescued  but now I realized that because of that event, I was brought here to My Refuge House. That event made me the person I am right now. I was given the kind of love, care and provision that I haven’t experienced before. My life has been changed and I will always be thankful for that. 

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Jacky is one story. One girl. A real girl whose broken life was made beautifully mosaic by the love and grace of God, through the hands and feet and hearts of the men and women who built and live within the walls of that home.

That's amazing.

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell a savor or take delight in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer Me your burnt offerings and your cereal offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I look upon the peace or thank offerings of your fatted beasts. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice run down like waters and righteousness as a mighty and ever-flowing stream."

Amos 5:21-24

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*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the people involved in this story.

WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING? This month we are planting two specific seeds of faith. It's the easiest first step. Will you plant with us?

• THE GIVING SEED

Click to give your donation of $5, $10, or $20 via My Refuge House's super secure and tax deductible site. (Link provided)

• THE SPEAKING SEED

You have a voice. A powerful voice that has been given powerful tools in this decade. We need you to talk about this to your peeps. Tell them you found something small they can start with to change the world!  

We have custom Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pics just for you over here. 

- - - - - - - - - -
If you want to get more involve or more info about My Refuge House, visit their website or send Crystal a tweet!

Humans are NOT 4 SALE

Sunday was Freedom Sunday. As a nation, we talked about, cried about, and shed light on the subject of modern day slavery in human trafficking. Sex trafficking to be more precise. As you know, this has burdened my heart for the past two years. 

I've said A LOT on this subject this month, so I won't be a broken record, but I will give you some real life statistics:

•      27 million people around the world are currently (right now) trapped in the sex-trade
•      Girls, as young as 7-9, are being forced to have sex as much as 50X's a day (Every 15 minutes for 12 hours. Not. O.K.)
•      This trade brings in over $32,000,000,000 a year (2nd in the world, only to drugs)
•      2 children are sold every 60 seconds (it will take you longer than that to read this post)
•      Superbowl Weekend is America's #1 sex-trafficking revenue. 
•      In some countries, girls escape and their police bring them back to the pimps
•      In our country, they're called "strippers" and "prostitutes"
•      The pimps hang out at our students' high schools and "groom" our girls

This is a stoppable slavery. It CAN be abolished. But we need help. 

I urge you to do something. Anything. 

It feels too big, but it's not. 

Our God is bigger. 

So, what can you do right now? ---

L E A R N
Read up on the issue. Educate your children, educate your teens, educate yourself.

G I V E

Click to give your donation of $5, $10, or $20 via My Refuge House's super secure and tax deductible site.  Give what you can towards destroying this slavery. (Make sure to use the provided link so we can track how much $$ raised.)

S H A R E

Take a picture with "NOT 4 SALE" written on your body and post it on my Facebook page with the rest of ours. Let's tell the world that this is not okay with us. Talk to everyone about it. Let's continue to shine light on this issue so it can no longer hide in darkness.  Together, we can be a very, very loud voice. 

G E T

Yup. We want to show you your sacrifice means the world, so we're giving you a little gem of music. A free download will be coming later this month! You're the first to hear about it!

Planting Two Mustard "Faith" Seeds

I was born in February. I was born into a good home with a mother who loved me, cared for me, and fought for me. And while sexual abuse is part of my story, it does not define me.

For the entire month of February I am asking you to give the girls of My Refuge House the same level of love, support, and dignity that I was given. Not because they earned it, but because they deserve it as human beings created in the image of an almighty God. 

I want us to tell them they are loved and no matter how dark their story is, the love and light of Jesus will light up any room it inhabits. 

Jesus said, "I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Emphasis added)

People, if Jesus claims we can move mountains with our faith, we sure as heck can foster restoration and redemption in the lives of a broken and bruised generation of girls!

Are you with me?? We can do the impossible! 

Say it out loud. Together, with Jesus, we can do the impossible!

Our resources, whether financial or vocal, will plant seeds in them that we may never see the full effect of. But down the road, when a girl graduates from college and goes to medical school or runs for office in the Philippines or raises the next abolitionist or educates the forgotten of her own nation, we will know, whether now or in eternity, that we played a part in that.

There is something in each of us that yearns to be a part of something bigger. A movement.

These girls are a movement. They represent something bigger.

For the entire month of February, my birthday month, I am asking you to plant seeds two specific "faith seeds" with me.

• THE GIVING SEED

Click to give your donation of $5, $10, or $20 via My Refuge House's super secure and tax deductible site. (Link provided) $2700 is our goal and guys, that's TOTALLY doable. 

• THE SPEAKING SEED

You have a voice. A powerful voice that has been given powerful tools in this decade. We need you to talk about this to your peeps. Tell them you found something small they can start with to change the world!  

We have custom Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pics just for you over here. 

We want to show you your sacrifice means the world, so we're giving you a little gem of music. A free download of our newest song heard by no one ever, will be sent to those who give! You're the first!

They're Just Girls Aren't They? | My Refuge House Art Show

"People who've interacted with our girls all come back with the same thought. 'They're just girls aren't there?' They giggle, they laugh, they love clothes and average girly things. You'd never know from first look how deep their wounds go and how vast their pain. That's because they've experienced love."

Crystal is the Executive Director of My Refuge House the bomb. I've met a lot of passionate women who are doing big, beautiful, amazingly life changing things.

But Crystal, she is changing the world. One girl at a time. 

My Refuge House, located in the Philippines, is a safe home for girls rescued from the human sex trade. Currently, My Refuge House is called "home" by 12 girls, with grand plans to house another 12-50 more. 

Tyson and I had the honor of performing at the Annual My Refuge House Art Show. These girls, this cause, this movement is something that makes our hearts bleed. We each have our stories of how we got to the place of determination to put an end to this horrendous tragedy, and together, we've made it our resolution to do everything we can, whenever we can to make sure it happens. 

And right now, that's partnering with Crystal and her team at My Refuge House.

The theme of the evening was "We Step Into the Light." 

Each girl in the home was paired with an artist who crafted and fashioned a piece of art they felt depicted their girls triumph. Victory. Freedom. 

You guys, these pieces would make you bawl. 

Some were eloquent, some were poignant. Some were filled with grace and fluidity, while others were courageous and warrior-like. But every single one beamed with love. Pure, unadulterated love. A new love these girls had never known before coming to My Refuge House. 

Isn't that crazy? They never knew love. 

The sex trade sometimes feels too big, too bad, too untouchable to be stopped. And isn't it true that when we feel overwhelmed, it's just easier to sit down and do nothing? Isn't easier to feel pity, or even disgust and fervor, and yet, when action is necessary, we have no clue where to start?

Me too. Me too. 

Until now. Because of men and women like Crystal and her team, we can do something. Tangible. Right now. Like 3 seconds ago. 

We can be the wheels and tracks and coal by which their train operates. They have the tools to heal and restore. I don't. But I have the tools and resources to fuel their restoration process. They don't. 

We need them. They need us. Or this thing never gets handled. 

So here's my proposition for you:

Ty and I have committed that for the month of February, we'd like to raise $2700 that goes directly to My Refuge House. $2700 is not a lot. 

• That's 540 of us donating ONE DAY of coffee ($5). 
• Or 270 of us not eating at Chic Fil A for ONE MEAL ($10).
• Or 135 of us skipping that dress sale just this ONCE ($20).

Feel me? 

We can do this guys. You have been so generous in the past with way bigger goals and that's why I love this community so much.

You guys aren't the typical "blog readers." You aren't really blog readers at all. You are community. You are encouragers. You are empowers.

You are world changers. 

Will you help me change a little more of the world this month? 

G I V E

Click to give your donation of $5, $10, or $20 via My Refuge House's super secure and tax deductible site. (Make sure to use the provided link so we can track how much $$ raised.)

S H A R E

Know someone who is passionate and overwhelmed about this too? Tell them you found something small they can do to start with! We have custom Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pics just for you. 

G E T

Yup. We want to show you your sacrifice means the world, so we're giving you a little gem of music. A free download will be coming later this month! You're the first to hear about it!

When Leading Worship Becomes More Than a Weekend Gig

It was a Saturday night and I was spackling on my "stage make up", readying for another weekend of worship leading. (Side note: I love my job.) I had just dusted my eyelids with a soft salmon color from Sephora, and when I opened them to make sure they were even, I felt like I was looking into someone else's eyes. 

They looked tired, weary even, as if they'd been fighting a battle and losing hope.

And they were. Fighting and losing. Or at least that's what it felt like. 

I dabbed on extra concealer, curled my hair, lathered on some Chapstick and called it. There's only so much you can do ya know.

That particular weekend I was sharing before the song Forever Reign. It was new(er) to our congregation at the time and as I reviewed my manuscript for my speaking portion, I couldn't hold back the tears.

It read:

"You are more You are more than my words will ever say, You are Lord, You are Lord, all creation will proclaim, You are here, You are here, in Your presence I'm made whole, You are God, You are God of all else I'm letting go." 

 These words have been true of me time after time and when I came to a place of surrendering control, I began to see God's hand at work in my life. I saw Him for who He was...

I subconsciously worded it from a past tense perspective. As if to say, here's what I learned, now try to learn it too. 

But I haven't learned it. It is not something I've mastered and I wept because I knew someone that weekend needed to know that.

I wanted so bad to separate myself from what I knew my God was telling me to communicate. I wanted to be the identifier, not the identified. 

But I did it anyway.

I changed "came" to "come", "began" to "begin", "saw" to "see" and "He was" to "He is". I told the congregation I was stuck in the midst of this very concept, too deep in to turn back, yet too far away from hope to swim faster.

I was right there with them, whoever them was. It could have been anybody that day, that didn't matter. 

What mattered was that they knew they weren't alone. And the girl who sings about freedom and hope and peace could relate with their bondage and despair and unrest. 

Two months later, at a women's retreat, that someone found me. 

She came to me, with timidity and tears, and said, "When you spoke, a couple months ago about surrendering to God because of who He is to you, you eluded to your miscarriage and I heard it. It was brief but I know you said those words for me. I needed to hear that someone else felt what I was feeling and that they still worshipped God. But mostly, that I was going to be okay. Thank you." 

As a worship leader, you may see a wide array facial expressions and hands in pockets, but you can't see the brokenness that is being mended inside the souls of those faces. 

As a worship leader, you may think you're choosing a song or a verse or a hymn because it fits the right key or it's the newest, coolest thing, but you can't see how it is giving words to the groans in someone's spirit. 

And this can ripple beyond the Sunday morning setting:

As a co-worker, you may be afraid of what your team mates might think of your encouragement, but you don't know how much they need it that day. 

As a neighbor, you never know what a plate of cookies can do for the soul and happiness of a lonely widow(er) or single parent. 

As a parent, you may feel like you are showing grace and love to a brick wall most of your adolescent's existence, but you can't predict what they'll remember when life thrashes them around. 

As a spouse, the negative may be highlighted in your marriage right now, but you can't yet see just how much your unconditional love and purposeful kindness can change even the hardest of hearts. 

Leading worship is more than a weekend gig when you let your church know you are real. 

Being a Christian is more than a weekend gig when you let the world know you are real. 

Ponder for the rest of the week: How can we be real this weekend? 

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"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort." 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

The Best Blanket Buddy for Toddlers

Everyone has a childhood comfort they clung to for dear life. Until some grown up somewhere took it away. Mean. Does it really matter that it was falling apart? Or that you were 16 years old now. Hypothetically. 

For most of us it was a blankie or teddy.  

But what if, just what if your favorite teddy was your favorite blanket? I mean the hypothetical toddler you, of course. 

My sister in law is a genius and a seamstress phenom. For Baby Girl Mo's first birthday last year, she made her a blanket buddy. 

She squealed and clapped her hands. I squealed and grabbed my camera phone like that cat on youtube. 

Adorable right?! And she even embroidered her name on it. I can't handle. I may or may not have asked her to make me one. #guilty

The head is filled with plush fluff and the body is the softest minke fabric, perfect for any kiddo to cuddle up with. Her nose is embroidered and her eyes are shiny black beads. 

Trust me, the older nostalgic version of your child will thank you for giving them a little more than a ribbon trimmed blanket to remember their childhood by. ;) 

Get it here | Sewing Paper Trails

For 10% OFF use code SYMSBUDDY