Our Wallets expose our Hearts:

in 2008, traffickers made an estimated $31 billion buying and selling. In the same year, approximately 0.5% of this figure was spent by the GLOBAL community to combat human trafficking. ~ UNIAP

 To help that number sink in here are some other statistics.  McDonald's on average makes $21 Billion a year.
155,000,000 is .5% of 31 Billion.  That's also about the same amount that people spent on Halo 3 on it's release day.  Comparatively, The Dark Knight made 155 million in it's first weekend. 

About a week ago Avatar passed $550 million in ticket sales domestically.

The weighted average global sales price of a slave is calculated to be approximately $340, with a high of $1,895 for the average trafficked sex slave, and a low of $40 to $50 for debt bondage slaves in part of Asia and Africa.

The money spent on Avatar in a month could have freed 290,237 trafficked sex slaves.  The same amount could have purchased 11 Million slaves out of their debt bondage working conditions.  There are believed to be roughly 29 million slaves world wide. The Jump!

Your Flashforward:

My wife and I are pretty big fans of LOST.  We've watched every episode.  It all started during a tremendous weekend with our good friend the stomach flu.  When I got feeling better she came down with it and date night turned into holding the trash can while the other "evacuated".  I think it was my sister who loaned us season 1 & 2 on DVD.  With all the downtime we devoured every episode.

JJ Abrams, the creator of LOST, has a new show out (Which is chock full of ex-LOSTies).    I've been watching it with a family in our church because my wife works on Thursday nights.  The set up helps fight the loneliness and gives me a chance to build community.  On a side note, I love this family.

I also, love Flashforward, the new JJ show.  It's like LOST if LOST was a cop drama . . . and made any sense.  The premise is that for one minute and thirty-seven seconds everyone passed out and got to see what they were doing six months into the future.  Of course a lot of carnage occurred during that minute and a half, but for the most part the show is about the visions.  Some people get hopeful visions, others see their marriage ruined, but most frightening of all, some people see nothing.  The race is on to figure out why the blackouts happened.

Take the jump to read some more of my thoughts and how this show asks a question we should all want to answer.

The Jump!

How to see the future:

I got a chance to sit down with a couple of my high school students tonight. Originally, my plan for the evening was to eat something and fall asleep as hard and as fast as possible. I'm glad my plans changed because I got to have a really good heart to heart with them. They shared their concerns about the future and how daunting it is to feel pressured into knowing what you want to do for the rest of your life at 16. Take the jump to read my thoughts.

Also, I'll be interposing pictures of what people thought the future would look like in the 1950's. If you think they add some depth or meaning that's awesome, but I'm just doing it because they make me chuckle.

The Jump!

A Beautiful Thing:

There is a graduate in my youth group who has been very special to me ever since I started working at Euharlee. I've watched her grow and come out of her shell. She has endeared herself to me. I love to tell stories about the things that she does. I love to remind myself of her loving servant heart. She's a rolemodel to me and probably doesn't even know it.

I've been through some of the ups and downs of her life with her, but it seems like lately there have been a lot of "downs". Family trouble keeps popping up, money is tight and they recently suffered the loss of a loved one. Her aunt passed away yesterday after suffering from a stroke. I could tell on her face that something was bothering her. I reminded her that if she was a Christian then death was an upgrade and we'll see her again. That seemed to help her, as did the See You At The Pole event.

When we got back to the church her mom came to pick her up. Her mom, by the way, is just like her. Mom asked me if we could step inside, away from the insanity of the rest of the youth. When we got in she looked at me and said, "I just need a hug."

It was her sister who had passed away. She came to me to be consoled. I don't know why I was lucky enough to be the one she confided in, but, it was a beautiful moment as her mom wept while I hugged her. I tried to say some pastoral things, but realized pretty quickly she didn't need them, she just needed a hug.

We talked for a minute afterwords. Things are tough for them. Please pray for them. Join with me as I praise God for giving me the chance to be part of something so special.And here is the rest of it. The Jump!

Sportsmanship:

The video I'm posting today seems like one of the ultimate shows of sportsmamship. Giving a young man with Downs Syndrome the chance to score a touchdown seems like the ultimate type of class, right? Why do I keep feeling like it was more pity than class? The coach will only let him play when the team is in an impossibly bad spot. He asks the other team to let him through untouched. The kid ran the play, let him say he played the game, not got babied.

All I'm saying is, is coddling the same as sportsmanship?

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And here is the rest of it. The Jump!