Sophia, the One and Only

Sophia loves pictures of herself, so it makes it extremely easy to make today's post!

This is Sophia's shadow.  I'm including it in her post simply because it's a pretty neat picture.  Plus, you hardly ever see her without it!

This is Sophia.  Complete with a "of course I don't know you're taking my picture!" smile.  Sophia's favorite activities include reading, playing with her siblings, and doing basically anything else her older sisters do.  She's a very outgoing person, always able to make a new friend.

Here's Sophia with the music harp on the couch.  She plays a little bit of piano (she's still learning), music harp, and hopes to play the real harp one day.

 That's about it when it comes to Sophia.  Based on her photogenic behavior (constantly getting in the way of the lens!), I'm sure that this isn't the last post about her!

Slavery: An Overview

Today I want to talk a bit about slavery—a topic of conversation I've been well-known for!  Some of you may not know this, but slavery exists in nearly every continent and in all countries.  There are twenty-seven million slaves throughout the world, half of which are children.  To warm you up to the subject a bit, I wanted to share this quote from Zach Hunter, a teenage abolitionist, in his book, Be the Change.

"You may be wondering how people become slaves.  Many think it all starts with a dramatic kidnapping, but that is rarely the case.  Usually, it has to do with money, or lack of it.  Sometimes a family allows a child to go with a trusted family friend who promises a good job to help meet the family’s needs.  The child soon discovers this “friend” has sold them into slavery.  Or, in some instances, a desperate parent will sell their child into slavery.  Often the parents are misled to believe their child will have better living conditions and maybe an opportunity for a better education.  Instead, the child becomes a slave."

Here are some facts that I've uncovered about modern day slavery:

1. The term “slave” means a person under the threat of violence and unable to walk away.
2. Slaves live on every continent, and in most countries.
3. There are 27 million slaves in the world today- that’s more than all 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade, put together.
4. It is an estimated 2 million children are trapped in forced prostitution.
5. The trafficking of humans the third most profitable underground trade, Illegal drugs and weapons.
6. There are at least fourteen thousand, five hundred slaves trafficked into the United States every year.
7. Six hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand people are trafficked each year.
8. Approximately two children are sold every minute.
9. Up to seven thousand Nepalese girls are sold each year, mostly to brothels.
10. In Haiti, one in every ten children are slaves.
     

Slavery erases confidence and any thought of freedom.  It also erases the dreams and hopes of many people, both young and old.  It destroys whole families, and even whole cities.  Can something this terrible be ended?  If enough people think that it can be stopped and make it their goal to stop it, I really think it can.  Ending slavery is a large task but with God, all things are possible.  We need to act though; we can’t just sit and wait for God to change things. We need to be willing to get out and be His hands and feet in the world.  One of the most important things we can do is pray.  We should be praying for the people all over the world who are enslaved in so many ways.  Children in carpet industries, girls in brothels, families in brick yards– pray for them all.  This is the most important things that can be done.  Just by praying, we could be changing 27 million people’s way of life– that’s how powerful prayer can be!  Please take a few minutes today to sit down and pray for slaves all over the world! 

   

The Room, by Joshua Harris

This is the account of a dream that Joshua Harris had in 1995. I've heard the story numerous times, and I still love it. It illustrates the grace that Christ gives us perfectly. The beginning and the end of the video are sort of grainy—don't let that stop you from watching it!

(Energetic) Emily

Emily's one of the two family drama queens (Sophia, the other one, will be introduced next week.).  She is also Samuel's hero.  She's probably the most bouncy, happy child I've ever seen—almost always wearing a smile on her little face.  Right now she's seven years old, and she's been learning to read at an amazingly fast pace over the last six months.

This is Emily's "excited" look.  She gets that look on her face, either folds or claps her hands, and starts jumping up and down if she's watching a suspenseful movie, or, in this case, her older sister playing a computer game. 

I think that one thing we'd all miss seeing without Emily is the joy that she inspires.  She's so happy and joyful that it's hard not smile at her, even if you're having a bad day.  And the silliness that goes along with joy at her age just makes it even harder not to smile!

And that's about it... Emily at her best. 

New Music—Anthem Lights

Anthem Lights released their first CD May 1st, heading it up with one of my latest favorites, "I can't shut up." This is the first music video Anthem Lights has officially made... and I think that it went pretty well!

Moving Backwards?

This is one of the many starts of a book I'll never write (or maybe I will write, but I'll now use a new beginning!).  The story at the opening is true—something I experienced about half a year ago. This is basically a challenge to other teens to "get their act together and do something."  Hope you like it!

I was at the library the other day and I saw a sight I wish I never had to see.  As I was browsing through the young adult section I saw three teens sitting around the table, complaining about something.  As I drew closer, I found out what. 

“I wish that I could go to so-and-so’s house tonight instead of going to youth group,” one of the two guys said.

The other young man looked at him mournfully, saying, “So do I.  Although, if I could go to your youth group, it’d be more fun—we could totally cause some trouble.  It’d be great.”

The girl, probably a younger sibling by the looks of it, sarcastically said, “But if you don’t go youth group or church, then you know what’ll happen to us, don’t you?  Lightning will come down and kill us all!”  She chuckled, showing that she didn’t believe a word of it.

“Oh well—my mom’d probably kill me before the lightning could, because she’s, like, so sold out on this “Christian” stuff.  I’ve played hooky before and gotten into big trouble—grounded for a week, man!” he shook his head like he didn’t know what was wrong with his mom.

“I guess that it’s our destiny to be trapped in church all the time,” the second boy said, texting furiously with one hand and holding up his head with the other. 

After listening to a few more minutes of their complaints and wishes that youth group would be canceled, I left the young adult section.  I didn’t understand at the time how deeply I could have been able to help the kids just by going up and talking to them.  I also didn’t see their problem—for me, going to church and youth group are good things.  I can connect with God and the others around me.  Apparently, not all teens feel this way.

What’s the problem here?

Why did I “happen” to come across this in the library?  I don’t think that it was a chance situation.  I’ve seen kids like these ones before—apparently the library is a pretty good hangout for tweens and teens who want to get away from parents.  They can go to the library to do homework, and get it done fast so they can play around with their friends.  Unfortunately, some of their play isn’t very quiet.  One time the librarian had to threaten to call the police because of a particularly loud and unruly group of teens got overly excited about something.  What has our generation come to?  Why would a librarian need to threaten to call the police because some kids were “playing around?”  That’s not the kind of playing around that my mom would be too happy to see me involved in, and I’m sure that if parents knew that their kids had needed a threat, they wouldn’t have been very happy about it, either.

We need to get our act together… and act.  Have you noticed that young adults in their teen years are looked upon as immature, disobedient and wild?  Did you realize that adults think of us as uncontrollable and unmanageable and that some younger kids think of us as disruptive and even scary?  We need to change that view and get the teens of today back on track. 

If you flip through the Old Testament you will find that many of the kings were still in their teen years or early twenties when they became king.  Their country needed them, and teens were looked on as responsible adults.  They were looked on differently than we are.  They were trusted to do things that most moms and dads would probably never even dream of trusting us with.

How can we change?

True change is also known as a revolution or a transformation.  True change means giving up the ways of the past for a new way, a better way.  We need to exchange our old life for a new one, one that is forgotten in the modern day world.  That means that you boys don’t need to show disrespect to get attention!  You girls out there, you don’t need to be immodest to be loved!  I know where to find love—in fact, I found it nine years ago on my knees in my parent’s bedroom. 

We are matches, little sticks that will burn out eventually, but if placed together, could burn down a house with the blaze.  We have to make sure that the blaze we are setting is the one that Christ spoke about when he said that we are the light of the world. 

Our goal is one of ancient origin—it is to save the world from the clutches of the enemy.  We are one in the body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Through being a part of this body, we are proclaiming that we will revive the world and stir up the love that binds us all together.  We will teach and help non-believers, and love them as one would love a sibling.  Our God taught us the meaning of sacrifice, and then he taught us that we can sacrifice as well.  Many people have sacrificed their time, money, love, family, and even life for the Lord.  We, also, must sacrifice. 

That way we can show the world that it’s possible to change.

The Gospel: a short film

This only takes about twelve minutes of your time, but it's totally worth it!