Dressember

I found out about Dressember a little over a year ago, when one of my Facebook friends announced that she would be participating. “By participating in Dressember, advocates partner in the fight to rescue, protect, and restore the lives of trafficking victims across the world. Funds raised through Dressember provide the means to create and build victim relief programs that make a lasting impact.” As soon as I found out what it was, I was interested. I was interested because it was for a good cause and I love wearing dresses, but my attachment to Dressember didn’t go any deeper than that.

When I attended Passion 2018, Brad Jones’ wife came out onto the stage and gave us information and statistics like:

More than 30 million people are currently enslaved worldwide.

There are more people that are victims of human trafficking than ever before in human history.

About 2 million CHILDREN are currently exploited in the global commercial sex trade.

Hearing these statistics broke my heart, but it still didn’t impact me because I wasn’t able to make a connection. I saw numbers instead of individuals.

A couple of days after Passion, I had a nightmare. I was early to a church event, a friend of mine had promised to meet me there. I got out of my car and looked around the parking lot for her, but I couldn’t find her. I sat on the ground and waited for her as the sun shined down on me. Out of nowhere, it started to get dark and three men started to approach me. I yelled for my friend, but she still wasn’t there. The men grabbed me and started to drag me after them. Then suddenly there were people all around me, some that I recognized. I called out for them to help me, but they continued on with their own life, ignoring the fact that I was being abducted. And then my dream skipped ahead to where I was a victim of slavery. I woke up in a panic, but I quickly realized that it had just been a bad dream. I was safe. But my next thought made my heart ache. My bad dream is the reality for more than 30 million people. In that moment my heart became on fire to see people be freed from their lives in slavery, and I would LOVE to see that happen in my lifetime.

Christine Caine, an international speaker, author, evangelist, and founder of The A21 Campaign (a 501 non-profit, non-governmental organization that combats human trafficking), spoke about the trafficking of humans on The Chat with Priscilla. I want to share my notes from that talk below:

We live in a world where everyone is stuck in their own lives. We often get discouraged when we can’t do EVERYTHING. But, just because we can’t do everything doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything. To the Lord, the numbers of the slaves don’t exist, the millions are His CHILDREN. The selling of human beings is the fastest growing crime. It’s supply and demand because if you remove the value of a person, they become stalk. But how does this happen? Through porn and magazines. These things FUEL the selling of human beings. And as more and more people pour their money and time into these things, there is a higher need for slaves. In fact, kidnapping cases are often trafficked. They are shoved into a life that fuels what the people desire. But no one is ever truly a number. The statistics I gave at the beginning of this journal go DEEPER.

Reading all of this still probably doesn’t make that connection for you. I will put a link below of survivor stories, so you can take this matter personally. People NEED our help.

But I also want to tell you this: We are all slaves to different things. Bondage to tragedies can follow you every single day. For 12 years, I was a slave to anxiety. But, without Jesus we’re trapped in a cycle that only brings us down. Romans 8:28 gives us hope and tells us that “God works all things together for good.” How can I say that? Because I know that that verse does NOT mean that everything will always be good. You have to choose to want to get through whatever you’re a slave to. You can get past it, even if you can’t get over it. The enemy KNOWS that he can’t always get us with the big stuff, but sometimes he’ll place small things to have a hold on us. You have to get rid of those small things, piece by piece.

So what are you a slave to? It’s okay to need help. What are you going to do about it?

And for all that pain that you feel for the thing you are a slave to, imagine the pain that people living in slavery are feeling. I’m not belittling your pain, just asking for you to make it more personal. Connect your pain and despair to what they're feeling.

I NEED your help. Here’s what you can do:

Donate to my Dressember campaign and help me raise money to bring people out of their lives of slavery at:

Continue to make it more personal. Check out some survivor stories and Christine Caine’s A21 10 year campaign film:

And pray, pray, PRAY that money is donated and that people are able to walk out of slavery because of the resources that every penny goes to. Pray that we'd be the generation to see slavery STOP.

The Link to The Chat with Priscilla is: