Traveler Films

I met the woman in this banner. Her name is Anuradha Koirala. She is a modern day abolitionist and the founder of Maiti Nepal, an organization that rescues girls from the sex trade in Nepal. One of the goals for our journey and for the film was to bring awareness of the prevalence of sexual slavery and trafficking in places like Nepal.

The stories we heard were harrowing. Unfortunately we could not film any of the survivors or the workers at Maiti Nepal. We were just able to talk to the spokesperson and founder, which was a great enough honor to us. She encouraged us to find stories and tell them any way we could. At this point we are only able to graze the surface of the horrible and dark reality of this perverse trade in human flesh. Bringing justice will not be easy. It takes hard and dangerous work to bring justice for others, and the joining of so many hands to stop the injustice from ever occurring.

But it is exactly the kind of work that our Savior calls us to carry out in his name. It is time for the people of God to get their hands dirty as they wipe away the tears of the oppressed and the enslaved. To hear their cry and not turn away.

“Now no one call me with the name I love the most, now I am pretty. And now I don’t have friends. I am alone in this world which I have not seen because I have not moved out of my room since I arrived here way back in April 14th 2006.” [read the rest of this story on Maiti Nepal]

Click the banner image to support Not For Sale, the organization that is currently supporting Maiti Nepal and doing a huge amount of work to end human trafficking around the world.

Last night was spent with my family recalling the past years achievements, and looking forward to new ones for 2010. I wasn’t with my family last year at this time of the new year, making resolutions and laughing about memories. Something else had called me far away. Something on the other side of the world. Something beautiful, and painful.

When it was my turn to share I told them about that new years away from them. I was at a party, and I served the drinks and interviewed the guests. Only our guests were all homeless and all children. There was laughter, but it was bittersweet. There were memories, but painful twisted ones on the part of the children. Can I go back to that? My life right now is so good, and my plans seem so perfect… but there are children dying alone on new years while we enjoy family and friends. Where is justice? Perhaps the God follower can answer. For my part I know that my New Years Resolution must be this:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” [Isaiah 58:6-7]

“Jesus said that we are the salt and the light of the world, and I find myself praying that I will not forget why I am doing the good I have set out to do.

It is because He said if we did not take care of the orphans and the widows we were far from his heart. “Let the little children come to me, the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.”

Read Day 12: Blowin’ In The Wind for the rest of the story.