Modern-Day Abolitionist

Why I Can Never Be Politically Correct

2011-10-26T14:53:00.004-05:00

I can't be politically correct. I admit it. I am not even going to try.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a hater, not even of those with whom I passionately disagree.

But I can't pretend that all religions are the same and that they are all good.

I could talk about this from the viewpoint of Scripture, which I do regard as authoritative. But my experience bears out what the Scripture says about religions who turn from the creator to worship the creature. And right now, my heart is burning with my own experience.

I have shed so many tears over the children of Africa. Tears for a preschool girl whose eye teeth were sawed out of her jaw to make powerful medicine to enable someone to get rich. Traditional religion. Tears for a boy who at one day old had his testicles and penis cut off because the father believed the child was bad luck. Traditional religion. A girl who was forced to laugh while she watched their friends kill their parents in order to survive. LRA--Roots in traditional religion.
Another girl who was enslaved at a traditional shrine so young that her mother had to go back every day in order to nurse her. A shy young girl who was enslaved at a shrine at 13, stripped and forcibly raped by the priest. So many beautiful children, so many precious lives, so terribly torn asunder. All in the name of traditional religion.

I am supposed to speak kindly of all religions, as if they were all equal. That's political correctness, you know. Sorry, I can't do that. I have seen too much. I have shed too many tears. I have felt too much of the children's pain.

I am not saying, of course, that all the troubles of Africa's children are due to African Traditional Religion, but ATR surely plays a huge part in their pain. Neither am I saying that we as Christians are perfect and have always done what is right. We are human beings, and I am painfully aware of my own sins and shortcomings and many of those of my brothers and sisters.

Yet I face the evidence of this truth again and again. African traditional religion is a major abuser of Africa's children, causing untold pain and suffering. Think of the little boy who had his private parts removed. He was deprived of marriage and fatherhood. He was opened to ridicule and shame his whole life. To say nothing of the agony of the actual procedure.

In ancient religions, certain gods required the sacrifice of children. It seems to me that those same or similar spirits are at work in African Traditional Religion today, working constantly for the destruction of Africa's children.

At Every Child Ministries where I work we have a motto that I believe with all my heart. We say "Children are Africa's (and any nation's) greatest resource--A precious treasure from God." Oh, how I long to help Africa's families understand the preciousness of the treasures God gives them in their children!

No, I can never be politically correct. Too many tears have washed it completely out of my soul.

A New Journey

2011-10-25T19:41:00.003-05:00

I've begun another new journey. I've seen so many devastated lives caused by modern-day slavery and I want to be able to help more than I have. After doing some enlightening reading about attachment disorder and similar topics, I have decided to start studying again. I'm closer to 66 than I am to 65, but I have started courses which will lead to my Ph.D. in Christian counseling. I don't remember things like I used to, but I am asking God to help me. I need to be able to offer more to those whose lives have been destroyed. I need to be able to write training materials for our workers who help them day by day, and to have credentials that everyone will recognize to enable me to do so. I also want to be able to evaluate counselors who come to Every Child Ministries with different backgrounds and who use different methods. I want to be sure about what methods we want to follow and which we don't.

It's not that I need another thing to do. My life is full and overflowing already. It's just another of those tasks for which God has tapped me on the shoulder and said, "This one has your name on it." I'm excited, & I'm on my way!

Does It Matter Where the Power Comes From?

2011-05-07T14:27:00.003-05:00

I just read an article that came out in CHRISTIANITY TODAY about what they call "Fake Pastors" in Ghana. In the article a fetish priest (occult practitioner) claims that over a thousand pastors have come to him seeking spiritural power from the gods he serves. Another woman is quoted as saying she doesn't care where the power comes from as long as it can help her with her problems. From my own experience, these are very common problems in Ghana and in many African countries.

A few years ago a Ghanaian pastor friend asked me to teach in his church. I sought God to know what I could share in only one session that might be a significant help to the people. My basic thesis was that as believers in Jesus Christ, we needed to seek God and His power alone. If we earnestly sought God and He for whatever reason did not see fit to grant our request, it would be better not to get our request. I talked about how God was all-wise, trustworthy, and always had our ultimate good at heart. I showed how Satan gives his gifts only with very serious and very destructive strings attached. I really wanted to make the point, so I told them (truthfully) that if my own precious child was sick and God did not see fit to heal that child, it would be better for the child to die than to seek power from occult sources. (I was not speaking against the use of medical intervention; I was speaking against seeking spiritual power from spirits other than God's Spirit.) I could tell the people were shocked. They had never considered such an idea before. I could tell the pastor was shocked. Apologetic. Embarrassed. In Ghanaian culture, getting what you want is of the ultimate importance. How you get it is not considered important. It's a huge mistake. My messsage did not impress the crowd that day, but I still stand by it. It was the right message.

Working as a modern-day abolitionist, I see occult power tied to death, child sacrifice, ritual abuse and slavery on a regular basis. I have come to understand that the gods worshiped in the shrines of African Traditional Religion do have some power. They can and sometimes do grant healing. It is ALWAYS, however, a conditional healing. It lasts only as long as the subject continues to live as a slave to the fetish. Those gods can and do help infertile women get pregnant. That child is claimed by the gods as their own, is obligated to serve the gods for life, and may be controlled mentally and physically by those spirit owners. For those like me who value freedom, it is definitely not worth it. Heal my child by making him a life slave of Satan? No, thank you.

My only hope is that these chains can be broken by Jesus Christ, the great Liberator, to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given. I have seen that happen over and over again. When the power comes from Him, it is freeing, because the Scripture says that if Jesus makes us free, we will be free indeed. Oh, yes. It DOES matterr where the power comes from.

Abuse Follows the Same Themes

2011-04-28T19:50:00.005-05:00

As I've learned more about human trafficking issues, I've realized that to learn how it works I don't need to limit myself to reading about cases in Africa, although that's my primary calling from God. Human trafficking and human abuse works pretty much the same the world over. That's why I was confident that when I taught my recent workshop of human trafficking, I could help those whose interest was centered on their homeland America or any other place in the world.

Recently I've been studying all I can find about healing and counseling survivors of sexual abuse, preparing to launch ECM's ministry to victims of the sex industry in a bigger way. And as I read about how abusers deliberately use shame to control and manipulate their victims, I thought about how the abusive LRA army that ravaged northern Uganda would force children to kill their parents or siblings, then tell them that they were so bad that even God would never forgive them, no one would ever accept them again, and their only hope for survival was with the LRA. The same old lies. The same deceptions. The same twisted messages. The same diabolic techniques. Satan is not very creative. God is the Creator. His enemy can only take what God has made, twist it, distort it, and misuse it. The more I learn about abuse the more I realize that whether children are forced into killing or prostitution, it's the exact same method of manipulation.

It makes it a lot easier to understand the old devil's techniques, because he repeats the same old tunes over and over in slightly different circumstances. It's heart-rending to see all the damage being done to the next generation. One thing gives me hope. God is Truth and His truth is stronger than all the lies of the enemy.

Please pray that God will continue to give me understanding. If I desire one spiritual gift above all others, it would be spiritual discernment. I need it so much in the work God has given me.

Child sacrifice or child murder

2011-04-27T09:28:00.004-05:00

I think it was about two years ago that I learned the government of Uganda had created a special task force on child sacrifice which was becoming so prevalent in the country. It is connected with African traditional religion, its beliefs and practices. About the same time, our workers became involved in helping a little girl, about 18 months old, who had been used for ritual purposes, her eye teeth cut out of her jaw for magical purposes, then tied in a burlap sack and discarded. Someone found her while still alive, although almost drowning in her own feces. She survived, but suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of her ordeal.

In talking with our Ugandan leaders again recently, I learned that the government no longer wants to call it child sacrifice. Instead, they want to call it child murder.

Immediately I thought of the victim we are helping. The intention was clearly that she would die in the bag, but she didn't die, so it was not a child murder. It could have been considered attempted murder.

But to describe it as child murder skirts around the whole reason and motive for the crime. The traditional practitioner did not try to kill her for money, directly, at least, or for hate or anger or jealousy. He needed her eye teeth, in his religious practice, for magical purposes. It was a ritual act he carried out in sawing the eye teeth from her jaw.

Every government, of course, has a right to speak of crimes and issues in whatever terms they choose. For us, however, we will speak of child ritual abuse or child ritual murder. We would be doing a disservice to the public by obscuring the fact that child ritual abuse and murder are common and are on the rise. It could scare people, of course, but to ignore a clear and present danger to avoid scaring them would not do them a favor. They need to be aware and to take all precautions possible.

We do not wish to obscure the fact that African Traditional Religion is perpetrating these crimes. Not all practitioners of ATR practice child ritual abuse or sacrifice, of course, just as not all of them practice child slavery. Yet many abuses of children do stem from ATR, and both its adherents and the general public need to realize the dangers.

Changing terminology or relabeling something does not change the realities involved. The reality is that in Uganda, many child murders are carried out for ritual purposes involved with African Traditional Religion.

Pray with us that both our workers and the African governments involved may have wisdom from God in dealing with these issues.

48 Hours

2011-03-20T14:56:00.003-05:00

48 hours. The name of a TV detective show.

48 hours. The average length of time a young girl has after she runs away from home before she gets trafficked into prostitution.

48 hours. The average time a trafficked prostitute has (I'm talking about one who is pimped or enslaved, which is the majority of them) after she escapes before she is re-trafficked into the same or a worse situation unless she gets adequate help.

2 days. Think about it.

Keep your daughter out of situations where she may be in danger of being trafficked.

An effective deterrent to child trafficking

2010-09-24T19:10:00.004-05:00

They say that bank tellers are trained to recognize false currency by becoming super familiar with every characteristic of true currency. The same principle applies to fighting child trafficking. Every Child Ministries was recently able to track and rescue a young girl who had been trafficked from a notorious trafficking area. We were able to do this because our worker, who regularly visits and befriends people in the area, noticed right away that she was gone. The same worker a few years ago rescued an abandoned toddler because she knew the area well and recognized right away that a new child had appeared on the street.

This month Every Child Ministries is stretching itself again on behalf of children in danger of trafficking. Realizing the efficacy of having a worker who knows an area well, we are assigning a work to "pound the streets" in one of the most notorious trafficking areas we know of. Jeremiah (an assumed name) will spend time--lots of time--getting to know folks in an area that is hot, dirty, and smelly. We are believing God for his protection, for his support, and for an effective ministry that will encourage children and families in that area and will keep many children from being sold into slavery. Please pray with us.

The Making of a Girl

2010-09-15T20:27:00.004-05:00

"The Making of a Girl" is one of my favorite You Tube Videos other than those produced by Every Child Ministries team members.

It follows the story of a young girl getting into prostitution for the first time--what goes through her mind, why she crosses that terrible line, what has prepared her. Then it tells what lies ahead for her.

This is an awesome video that really rings true. I have watched it many times and heartily recommend it to you. It could happen to someone you know and love more easily than you think.

When you think of the young girl getting into the Cadillac with the good looking young man, don't think date. Think recruitment. Think trafficking. Then you will understand better why girls become prostitutes.

Too close to home !

2010-09-09T20:22:00.003-05:00

When I was in Ghana, I learned how God helped us to escape the devious plans of a child trafficker to steal one of the children from Haven of Hope under false pretenses. I learned that a woman came to the home with an adoption form she had been sent by a man, an application to adopt one of our children. Those of our children who are eligible for adoption are adopted only through Social Welfare in Ghana, so out people knew right away that something was wrong. When she learned she had been taken in by someone's deceptive scheme, the woman left the form with us. It looked like our literature and carried our logo, undoubtedly copied from the internet, but there was a different phone number on it. She even had a little girl picked out, but the girl was at the home temporarily due to family issues and was not eligible for adoption.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how narrowly we had escaped a huge tragedy. Someone was evidently using our website to try to sell the children under our care. Had they planned to try to steal the children from the home, or to pose as some legitimate agent? The woman herself was simply an honest person who nearly got sucked into the deception. How thankful I am that the security fence is now completed. It's now much harder for anyone to ferret away a child, and we are now alert to the scheme. We hate child trafficking anywhere, but this one came way too close to home. May God follow the despicable people involved and give them their due, and may His hand of protection always be over the beloved children in our care.

One of our street children trafficked & returned!

2010-09-09T20:08:00.004-05:00

One of the orphan street girls to whom Every Child Ministries ministers was trafficked last month. A sweet-talking woman at the market began to sympathize with her about her hard life and offer her a way out, a good job...the same sorry lies that have snared so many other children. Like most children who are trafficked, she didn't have to be forced or abducted. Seduced by sugary lies, she went willingly with the woman. Deceit is one of the main recruiting methods of traffickers.

The really great thing is that our street workers are on the job regularly and really know the people of the street. They heard about the girl's disappearance, asked questions, followed leads, kept searching. They knew her health and safety and maybe her life were at stake. After two weeks, they found her and were able to rescue her from the "madame" who was using her as a slave. She was hidden and has now been taken to safety.

Great work, ECM street workers! Because of your diligence, one more girl is safe and free.

Lord, we've been praying about adding more "eyes and ears" in key trafficking areas. Would You provide soon so that we can increase our street staff?

Prime time for selling children into slavery

2010-08-01T15:26:00.005-05:00

A week or so before my recent ministry trip to Ghana ended, I visited the Central Region to gather information to enable our organization, Every Child Ministries, to begin combatting child trafficking at one of its major sources. We are hoping to raise the $18,000 needed to open a center and begin work in the Central Region this year. I left Ghana on July 29 and arrived home on July 30. When I got here, I read that on those days, police intercepted three large groups of children being trafficked. One of them was a group of 118 children being sent out of the Central Region where they lived, to serve as slaves in the fishing industry to the west. I thank God for the diligence of the Ghana Police to intercept children being trafficked in the country. I pray that PLEASE Lord, ECM may begin to work in the Central Region this year. Right now, while schools are out on vacation, is prime time for selling children into slavery. My prayer is that before the next vacation season comes, ECM will be there, actively acting as a deterrent to the trade and helping to rescue and restore children who do get caught in the traffickers' nets.

Children's Pastors' Conference

2010-04-30T11:19:00.000-05:00

Children's Pastors' Conference

The thunder god falls before the cross!

Check out my article in the May 2010 online newsletter from the International Network of Children's Ministry.

Ugandan government recognizes Karomoja problem

2010-04-29T07:48:00.003-05:00

I just got a news article from ECM's Uganda Director. The Minister of Gender in Uganda has asked the authorities to set up check points along the Karamoja-Kampala route to curb child trafficking. The government is aware of the problem of children being sold into slavery (some in the cattle markets!) and ending up begging on the streets of Kampala for someone else's benefit.

I encountered that myself a few years back. I was in a Christian bookstore that has a place to sit and read in front of big windows. Looking out on the street, I observed a young child sitting all by herself on the sidewalk for a long time. It was obvious she was meant to be begging, but she was too young and too uncomfortable to be actively doing so. Basically she just sat there and looked pitiful. No sunshade, no water, nothing. People were just ignoring her and walking around her. I don't usually give to beggars. I've seen too much abuse resulting from well-intentioned giving. But I also felt her pain. I had some bananas, so I went out and gave her a banana, and asked my co-worker to go down the street and buy her a bottle of juice. I figured I'd stay there while she ate and drank to make sure it went into her tummy. There was no one obviously watching her that I could see, but as soon as she got the banana in her hand, a lady appeared. She said she was not the child's mother. I stayed there until the child finished the banana and the drink. I later found out that this was a child from Karamoja who was trafficked to the city to beg on the streets for a master.

I read that the government rounded up 400 of them, women and children, in the past year, and is trying to resettle them. But unless we find a way to stop the trafficking, there will be more. Lord, please allow us to start the Karamoja child sponsorship project soon!

A Secret I've been Hiding

2010-03-27T13:21:00.003-05:00

Yea! It's finally done. I can finally talk on my blog about the big secret I've been hiding for so long. For several years now, I've been involved with our African staff in working towards the liberation of other girls and women held in ritual servitude. Too much media attention too soon nearly destroyed our last liberation back in 2005, so this time we were very wary. It was hard--needing the prayer of the saints but not being able to advertise that need widely, writing an abolitionist blog yet unable to talk about the things I had been spending much of my time on.

This week, that liberation finally became a reality. Servants of the thunder god yeve were freed--55 of them. I won't repeat here the details you can read on ECM's website at http://www.ecmafrica.org/504365.ihtml . I'll just talk a little about my own involvement. It's really neat to realize that this could never have been achieved without the commitment, prayers, gifts, and effort of many people on both sides of the ocean. Yet it's also satisfying to realize that I had an important part in it, too. After our first four liberations, I felt an increasing desire to share the Gospel in a much deeper way with everyone involved in the shrines. I began to know the priests and priestesses and shrine devotees of different kinds as individuals, as people just like me. I began to realize that the Gospel had been presented rather superficially if at all to them, and I knew the Gospel was the power that could really free them at the most profound level. Every time I was in Ghana, I tried to make time to visit them, pushing our staff to do the same. During those visits, we were able to see the areas where we already had agreement and the areas where we needed to make the Gospel clearer. God enabled me to develop teaching guides emphasizing certain key areas.

Late last year we learned that one of the priests had accepted the Gospel so thoroughly that he WANTED to free his shrine servants. I went to Ghana recently in hopes of helping our staff through arranging all the details of a liberation. Three weeks was hard to take out of my regular duties, but I thought that with that amount of time we would be sure to be able to get the job done. I was wrong. We ran into technical difficulties with one of the area officials, and were not able to resolve the problem. At least, not in time. It was an intense time. Besides the gigantic job of interviewing 55 women in depth, we were running back and forth with reports and letters. When I left Ghana, the necessary information had been gathered to begin helping the women after the liberation, the details of the liberation were decided upon and paid for, and an overall strategy was agreed upon. It was bitterly disappointing not to be able to see it and to rejoice with the women. This was the first liberation I did not personally attend. However, the really important thing is not whether I got to see it, but that it happened.

This was Every Child Ministries' first time freeing servants of the thunder god called yeve (the shrine servants called yevesi). As far as I know, it may be the first time any were ever liberated, although FESLIM (Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement) has advertised "The thunder god next!" for many years.

Well, now I am ungagged. I can talk, and will write more about the liberation in future posts.

Handicapped Boy Brings Blessing

2010-01-21T19:46:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I was sorting donations of goods that have come in for our various projects in Africa when one of our missionaries called me from Africa. Social welfare workers in one of the countries where we work were looking for help with a young hydrocephalic boy. He was 8 but looked 4, could only speak a few words, could not stand or care for his own toilet needs. His mother wanted to throw him out to die, but oh yes! only after calling a witch doctor to perform some ritual to absolve her of guilt. The father refused, so the mother left. It was evident that the father really loved his son and was seeking what was best for him, but how could he work and also care for his handicapped son? In discussing the boy's situation, and searching for an answer together, the social welfare worker learned of ECM's intense interest in helping free trafficked children. He knew of children he strongly believed were trafficked into a certain heavy duty type work in his area. What stopped him from investigating and intervening? Only a few dollars of transport money! Our worker wanted to know if ECM could facilitate the investigation. Yes! Lord, please provide the very best answer for this handicapped young boy. You love him just as You do all Your children. And thank you for using him to bring us the opportunity to help in the investigation of other children who are trafficked and abused for selfish ends. Please multiply our ministry and our effectiveness in that area. I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus who welcomed the children and who gave His life that I might be free.

Doctor trafficks girls for private baby factory

2010-01-03T21:47:00.005-06:00

Children are a precious treasure from God. I helped choose that as one of the "tags" of our mission organization, Every Child Ministries. So my heart broke with what I read today in my daily updates of child trafficking in Africa. A Beninois doctor, instead of using his healing gifts to bring children safely into loving families, has been arrested for running a baby factory. Trafficking teenage girls to Enugu, Nigeria, from his own home country of Benin, he was deliberately impregnating them, then tearing their newborn children from their arms to sell them for his own benefit. Five girls were found kept by the doctor in various stages of pregnancy. All pointed to the doctor as the one who impregnated them, and he confessed to defilement and selling their children.

How far will our self-centeredness go? Are we really at the point of "anything goes for personal profit"? What more hideous expressions of "Me"ism will our Me-centered world come up with?
Me-centeredness is no longer just a philosophy we talk about. It sees expression every day in human trafficking.

The doctor does damage to the girls, to their families, to the children born into his factory, and to his own soul. He also does damage to every family who wants to adopt a legitimately-born infant and be assured that their act of love is helping solve the problems of the world's children, not adding to them. None of that matters to Dr. Chike Uzomo. His universe revolves around himself.

Thanks to the Nigerian police for their astuteness in pursuing this case. Let's pray that it will not come before officials who are also me-centered. Integrity in law enforcement is a must if child trafficking is ever to be arrested.

There's a solution to this problem. When our lives are centered around Jesus Christ our Creator, Me-ism goes out the window and we are able to relate to others in love and compassion. As for me, I'm praying that more and more will find the ultimate solution.

Preparing for Urbana, Recruiting for Slave Project

2009-12-23T20:12:00.003-06:00

We have been very busy preparing to leave the day after Christmas for the Urbana Student Missions Convention in St. Louis. One of our big goals is to recruit help for our African anti-slavery initiative. We are looking for two women who can partner with our African staff women in rehabilitating and discipling former trokosi slaves. We can also use someone who could organize vocational opportunities as part of that rehabilitation, a school director and a director for our children's home where we welcome children of former trokosi who need a safe, loving place to stay for any length of time.

These needs are urgent. Would you pray with us that God would bring us the right people?

Ghana Staff Training on Child Trafficking

2009-12-20T15:01:00.004-06:00

I just returned from Ghana where one of my jobs was to train all our staff on issues related to child trafficking. As part of the workshop, the staff compiled a list of all trafficking situations they were aware of in each of their areas. It was a challenging list, indeed. We also role-played asking questions to investigate possible cases of trafficking. Now they have all been charged with watching for and reporting all possible incidents of child trafficking. Our organization, Every Child Ministries, hopes to get more involved and to help some of these children. Please pray that the staff will remember and actively use all they have learned.

Preparing for Staff Training on Trafficking, Slavery

2009-10-30T07:57:00.003-05:00

As my trip to Uganda nears (only 3 days left), I have put the finishing touches on our first staff training on child trafficking and modern-day slavery for all staff & missionaries of Every Child Minstries in Uganda. In two days I'm going to try to give our team a synopsis of what I've learned and experienced on the topic. Most important, we will be discussing and planning together what ECM as an organization can contribute to the fight against slavery. I'm already aware of several situations in Uganda and neighboring countries that need consideration. Please pray with us that God will guide our thoughts and our plans.

Sold 2-Year Old Daughter--For What?

2009-10-16T07:29:00.005-05:00

I have committed myself to try to track all the news about child trafficking/child slavery in Africa or involving Africans. It helps me understand the pattern of things. (You can see my postings on www.slaverymap.org. Click on the flag and it tells you the story. My pen name on slavery map is musoniki, which means "writer" in the African Kikongo language.

Day before yesterday, I read about a man in Zambia who tried to sell his two year old daughter. With the money from the deal, he hoped to move to the city to start a new life.

Fortunately, he tried to sell her to the wrong person. He was arrested for attempted child trafficking. Yea for somebody.

But his story just shows how short-sighted this all is. What did he think someone would do with his baby girl? She wasn't going to clean houses for awhile. She wasn't going to braid hair, like the girls I learned about yesterday. There are a few extreme pedophiles who might use a two year old for sexual purposes. I've heard of that. But in Africa, she would more likely become a human sacrifice or be dismembered for her body parts. It's big business right now, and I've heard African police talk about how it is growing even as other crimes are shrinking. There are those who murder children and try to sell their organs to those needing transplants. There are probably even more who use various parts to create what they believe are very powerful magic charms, having come from someone who is young, virginal, and innocent. The father knows this. He didn't think about this? He knew, but he didn't care? A new life for himself in the city seemed more important to him? How did he think he would enjoy his new life, knowing that he had sold his baby for such purposes? The person who turned him in saved not only the child, but also the man from a life of terrible guilt and remorse. A prison term is nothing compared to the condemnation his own conscience would surely have brought him.

This man's problem shows up problems I see over and over in my work in fighting slavery: the devaluation of human life, especially the lives of children, and the extreme emphasis on the here-and-now, with very little if any thought to the future. On these two points my Christian faith helps me so much. Soon after I became a Christian, I realized that since we were created in God's image, we are all pretty valuable in God's sight. Then as a Christian I am able to withstand hardships in the present knowing that there is a glorious future ahead. May God help this poor man in Zambia and his precious baby. May he come to see children as a precious gift from God. May he seek God's help for his present troubles, for my God says that all who seek Him, find Him. Jesus, help him. Amen.

Voodoo used to enslave girls & justify it

2009-10-15T20:28:00.005-05:00

Yesterday a Togolese woman residing legally in the United States, Akouavi Kpade Afolabi , was found guilty on October 14 on 22 counts of human trafficking and obtaining US visas by fraud. She had been a well-to-do textile merchant in Lome, and a traditional or voodoo worshiper. Her name Afolabi, which is common in Nigeria, means "coming into wealth suddenly". But the wealth she gained by her trade in textiles was not enough for her. She took girls into her home in Togo and gained control over their lives. Parents even sent their precious young teenage daughters to her when she promised them a better life in America. They should have known something was wrong when they were forced to swear loyalty to her using voodoo curses. If they did not obey her, they would go mad. So she caused them to think. It's a ploy I've heard over and over in regard to the trokosi slaves of Ghana. In traditional families, these kinds of curses are the way things are done. So the girls accepted them. They were accustomed to seeing Afolabi pray and offer chicken sacrifices in front of the stone voodoo idol in her home.

They should have known something was wrong when Afolabi had to stage a fake wedding for one of them in order to get a visa to America. For sure, these uneducated girls did not understand American law, but at least one should have known something was fishy. But the pull of a new life in America was so strong, and her parents were counting on her to send money home from her earnings.

Once the girls got to America, they never got any earnings. They worked hard--14 hour days, six days a week, braiding hair in Afolabi's salons. Occasionally Afolabi sent some money home to some families. Best to keep them thinking everything was OK. The girls themselves never got any salary at all. Even the smallest tips given by customers were confiscated by the greedy trafficker.

As is the case with so many trafficking victims, the girls had their passports and personal documents confiscated. They were denied the right to call home or to call friends or anyone. They had to come right back to their room after work. If they didn't, or if they asked for their salaries or any money at all, Afolabi's husband Lassissi would beat them. He even beat the head of one of the girls against a table. That didn't stop him and their son, Dereck Hounakey, from raping the girls, nor did the fact that they were nearly all under the legal age of consent, ranging from 10 to 19 years.

Voodoo was used not only to enslave the girls, but also raised by her lawyer as a justification for her actions. He claimed that what Afolabi had done was admirable, saving the girls from poverty. Only a West African custom. Done all the time in Togo and Ghana, where the girls were from. It's OK, because it's her tradition.

Hmm. Now, where have I heard that argument before? I know! Isn't that the same argument the Afrikania Mission uses to justify trokosi slavery in Ghana? If it's their tradition, it's sacred, unquestionable, unchallengable.

Hogwash. Slavery was our (American) tradition. I'm glad we got rid of it. Every culture has traditions that need to change.

Hogwash. That's what the jury said in Newark, New Jersey. They quickly returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on all 22 counts of human trafficking.

And now some of the girls parents are upset, blaming their daughters for "telling" on their traffickers. Why? The pittance that Afolabi sent them on occasion, a very small percentage of what she stole from their daughters, I'm sure. Never mind that their daughters work without pay. Never mind that they have no life of their own. Never mind that they are beaten, have their heads bashed on tables. Never mind that they are raped. Just send us our little pittance.
Hogvomit.

Disgusting News about Mitterand - Are we really civilized after all?

2009-10-10T13:29:00.005-05:00

I just read disgusting news on one of the abolitionist sites I follow. France's now culture minister Mitterand published a book a few years back. Only now is he getting heat for it.

Here are some quotes from his aptly titled 2005 book The Bad Life,
"I got into the habit of paying for boys, [despite knowing] the sordid details of this traffic. ... All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously... the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire."

Say what? Mitterand not only openly admits (or boasts) that he had sex with boys in Thailand, but he was "excited" and "put...in a state of desire" by the fact that these were slave children? It did not bother him that he was so abusing other human beings, and vulnerable children at that?

Disgusting. Utterly, abjectly disgusting. Are we really civilized after all? Have we really become so depraved that our leaders can be excited and put into a state of desire by the availability of sex with slave children?

Why is such a man still in any position of leadership in France? Shameful. Digusting. Revolting.
God help us.

Investigating modern-day slavery cases-Looking Deeper

2009-08-04T20:21:00.001-05:00

Last night we took a bus and then a train called BART to Berkeley for an optional dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. After dinner we walked about two blocks and then we stopped on the sidewalk and our leader read the first couple paragraphs of their book, NOT FOR SALE. It said that the Not for Sale movement started when one of their leaders read in the newspaper that their favorite Indian restaurant was the center of a human trafficking operation that had brought in 500 slaves from India. The cooks and servers who had been serving their food were all slaves. We looked across the street and there the restaurant was. It was closed on Monday evenings, but still in operation. The owner, a wealthy man who owns multiple apartment complexes & other buildings in Berkeley, got off on a plea bargain for a lesser charge and is still in business.

The crime came to light when one of the girls, who were all kept locked up in one of the owner's apartment buildings, died from a gas leak in the building. They rolled her body up in a carpet and were just about to load it into a van when the police happened by and noticed suspicious activity. The message was one we've heard over and over in just these first two days: Ask more questions. Look deeper. Think about what you are seeing. It could save someone's life.

Some of the leaders in NFS told about how they were seeing slavery right under their noses but not seeing it because they didn't yet have eyes to see it. I thought about how I saw the market boys in Congo for years before I realized that after dark, they crawl under those outdoor stalls and go to sleep. I didn't know they were street children. Yes, Lord, give me eyes to see. I thought of how many people write that they traveled through the Volta Region in Ghana and didn't see any such thing as trokosi slaves. Yes, Lord, give them eyes to see.

The encouraging part of the Indian slaves story is that Dave Batstone didn't just say "Imagine that. We were being served by slaves," and look the other way. For him it was a wake up call that lead him into the heart of the abolitionist movement. For me, it the wake up call was when a young man walked up to me during a break in my very first Christian ed seminars in Ghana in 1999 and handed me a T shirt that said, "Stop Trokosi". When he told me that trokosi was a form of modern-day slavery in his country, I was shocked. I began to investigate, and what I heard and saw shocked me so much that I once described the experience as lifting up the lid of hell itself to peer inside a little.

So here I am. This morning we learned how to use the internet and public records to investigate cases of human trafficking or modern day slavery. We had an assignment to find and document one case in our area. Tomorrow we will discuss them and then put them up on SlaveMap.com. Some people had a hard time, but rather quickly I picked up on the case of Dick Drost, former owner of Naked City near Roselawn, IN & originator of Miss Nude Teeny Bopper Universe Pageant. It was disgusting and infuriating reading about the case. He had a long string of charges against him at least three times, but got off through a plea bargain on one of the least of the charges. He went to CA and opened the same kind of place, and he was clearly guilty of human trafficking. He is suing the State of IN for $1Billion and New County for $50Million for violation of his human rights. His lawyer said that his prosecution was just fundamentalist Christians trying to establish their religion.
Getting off with very light sentences under plea bargains is something we are seeing a lot. What on earth are we thinking?

It was another interesting & worthwhile day at Abolitonist Investigator Academy.

Abolitionist Academy

2009-08-02T20:11:00.003-05:00

Here I am at Abolitionist Academy in San Francisco. Our training in researching, documenting & intervening in modern-slavery starts tomorrow, but already I have enjoyed such stimulating conversation with others who are on the front lines of the abolitionist movement. My roommate works with a ministry that rescues girls in Houston, trafficked into prostitution. Another gal I've met is trying to find out what has happened to a long string of Native American girls who have disappeared along a certain highway in Canada.

I am hoping to learn from others' experiences and to go home with new ideas & skills to help us move on in our own efforts to free trokosi slaves in Ghana, Togo and Benin. We are also interested in child trafficking from the major markets in Ghana where we already have a well-established street ministry, in trafficking of children to dive for oysters in the Volta River (a practice that not infrequently results in their deaths and they get tangled in the fishing nets), and in sex/labor trafficking between Gulu, Uganda and Juba, Sudan. Lord, each child is a human life full of potential and promise, a child You love. Help us to know what to do to snatch them from those who would abuse them for their own profit and pleasure. You who came to set the captives free (Isaiah 61), do it again. In the next two weeks, let me not miss one lesson You would want to teach me. Thank You, Jesus! Amen.

Celebrating Day of the African Child

2009-06-28T09:20:00.005-05:00

I was feeling a bit down yesterday, realizing that it was the Day of the African Child and we had been so taken up with the David Lubaale issue that we had not arranged any big celebration.

But as I thought about it, the Lord showed me that it was OK. Every Child Ministries has always been far more about steady, faithful commitment to African children over the long haul than it has been about big events.

It was the Day of the African Child. Our Gayaza sponsorship club met as usual in the garage of our National Ministry Center here in Uganda. In the afternoon, boys met for soccer practice. In Congo, orphans met for Bible teaching and a meal. Sunday school teachers prepared for their lessons in over 2300 churches. In Ghana, our Haven of Hope family played on the playground--50 of them rescued from slavery, street life, and all kinds of terrible situations. Yes, Every Child Ministries DID celebrate the Day of the African child!

Day of the African Child--Slave Children Have Nothing to Celebrate

2009-06-27T10:49:00.005-05:00

Day of the African Child. A day to Celebrate the worth of African children. A day to remember how far we have come and how far we still have to go. Many of our sponsored children from the Kamwokya slum here in Uganda where I am writing this participate today in a wonderful program--probably their first. They will sing and dance and recite and smile at officials.

But as I write, I remember those unable to celebrate. Those in ritual servitude in idol shrines in Ghana, Togo, and Benin will not be celebrating. There is nothing to celebrate in their lives. Can they celebrate hunger? Being set apart as less than human? Beatings? Rape?

In Ghana at least the practice (called trokosi there) has been outlawed since 1998. A mandatory three year prison term has been attached. Yet it continues. It continues because people choose to ignore it for the most part, or to blame it only on one tribe, as if other groups could never do anything like THAT! It continues because people let it continue.

God help us. I look forward to a REAL Day of the African Child--a day when ALL Africa's children will have something to celebrate!

Occult Roots of Modern-Day Slavery

2008-12-06T20:25:00.005-06:00

I just finished reading "Restoring Survivors of Satanic Ritual Abuse" by Patricia Baird Clark. She deals with modern-day survivors of ritual abuse in the United States, but many of the themes and the methods are exactly the same as what I see in the idol shrines of West Africa. Clark talks a lot about "the chosen child" who is a living sacrifice to Satan (exactly the terminology I've chosen to describe what I see in the trokosi-voodoosi system). The chosen child is subjected to many rituals, sometimes even before birth, to impart as many demonic powers as possible. She is then kept isolated and dehumanized in every way possible (same as in the trokosi system). People use her to obtain her demonic powers for their own ends, and these powers are accessed through rape. (Same, same, same.) Lord, guide your church into helping these poor victims both here and around the world, wherever these ugly systems manifest themselves. I pray that victims will begin to seek help and that you will raise up an army of Christians who are equipped and unafraid to help them get free. Thank you, Jesus! Amen.

William Wilberforce's Abolitionist Tactics

2008-11-21T18:56:00.005-06:00

Last night a brief preview of the movie "Amazing Grace" pulled my heart again toward the movie I have enjoyed seeing over and over again. The life of British Christian abolitionist William Wilberforce continues to inspire me anew every time I see it.

I draw these two conclusions from Wilberforce's life:

We who are fighting slavery must NEVER GIVE UP. The battle may take a lifetime and it may extend beyond our lifetimes. Feelings of discouragement are inevitable, but we cannot give up. The cause of right will prevail, must prevail, if only we will continue no matter how dark the night.
We must use many avenues, many strategies all at once. Wilberforce introduced legislation against slavery, but he did not do that alone. He educated people to the need, he gathered signatures, he collaborated with other abolitionists, he introduced other laws that undermined the profitability of slavery.

God give us strength to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. May every person now in slave bondage know that he or she is a valued and deeply loved creation of God, made in His own image and therefore with great dignity.

The Day I Became an Abolitionist

2008-10-28T19:44:00.004-05:00

The date was 1999. Boy, was I naive. I was training Sunday school teachers in Ghana with Every Child Ministries. At break time, a young man walked up and handed the members of our team t-shirts saying "Stop Trokosi Now" or something like that.

"OK, what's trokosi?" I asked.

He explained that it was a practice of slavery in his country whereby girls were given as slaves to priests in traditional shrines.

I hardly believed him. I thought slavery ended with the American Civil War. I didn't know there were slaves still today. Certainly not in a modern country like Ghana. Boy, was I naive!

When I got home, I began checking out "trokosi" on the internet. I was surprised by the amount of information I found. I made a trip back to Ghana and investigated the matter for myself. I talked with a former trokosi and with a priest who until recently kept trokosi slaves.

Since then I have talked with many former trokosi and many priests who have kept such slaves. I have learned that trokosi is only one form of slavery and that there are more people in slavery today than ever before in history.

But the day I become an abolitionist was the day I sat in Anna's* bamboo shelter and heard her story. She was 13, attending school and living a happy, normal life in the village when her parents announced that they'd be going to visit another village. It was a long walk, but as they got closer, Anna noticed that they were not really going to the place her parents had mentioned. Instead, somehow they ended up at a shrine. Her parents told her to wait outside. She was not too frightened until she overheard her parents talking with the priest and realized that she was going to be left there. Her parents left by another way without saying goodbye or giving her any kind of explanation. But then, what could they really say to explain what was about to happen?

The priest was an old man. He called her in, told her she'd be staying at the shrine, and ordered her to strip.

Now, I remember how shy and confused I was at 13. If the things that happened to Anna had happened to me, I don't think there's a chance in the world I ever could be normal once again.

Anna was paraded around naked and ashamed--a new wife of the gods. Her duties were to put white powder on the idols every morning, sweep the compound, work in the priest's fields all day, and serve him sexually at night. At least, whenever he wanted. There were lots of other trokosi, too.

"Anna, didn't you ever just tell him no?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," she said. "We all told him no."

"What happened then?" I asked.

"Then," she said, "he laid two items in front of us--a leather whip made from the dried penis of a bull, and a bunch of sharp, broken bottles. That was the only time we had a choice in the shrine," she said.

"A choice?" I asked.

"Yes, we could be whipped. When they whipped us, several of the shrine elders came in and held us down. He whipped us long and hard, but it was forbidden to cry. If you cried, you just got more punishment."

"Or?" I asked.

"Or, we could kneel on the broken bottles and hold our hands up in the air for hours." She showed me cuts on her knees from doing so.

Anna's story was horrific, but the worst thing was her face. They had carved her cheeks at the shrine to show their ownership, but worse than those scars was the pain that still showed through so clearly.

When I went back to my hotel room that night, I sat in the dark and tried to absorb it emotionally. I felt as if I had lifted just a corner off the lid of the pit of hell and looked in.

I didn't immediately see how I could get involved with all my other commitments, but I knew I had to do something. That was the day I become an abolitionist.

by Lorella Rouster
Every Child Ministries
www.ecmafrica.org