Category Archives: Adult

The Letter Keeper

09 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by in Adult, Adult fiction, Social Issues, Uncategorized, Young Adult

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by Charles Martin

I almost didn’t pick this book up in my library. The cover didn’t impress me. I had never read anything by this author, and it was marked as number two of a series. But I am very glad that I did take it out anyway. It was on the NEW shelf. It has a copyright date of 2021, but I suppose it was new to my library.

It is the most moving tale I have ever read of sex-trafficked children and the effort it sometimes takes to free them–not just from the clutches of their abusers, but also from the prisons that abuse has made in their minds and hearts. It is also a tale of sacrificial love by a man who was trained as a military special operator, who became a priest and a writer. This man is Murphy Shepherd, an author, who spends all of his money to rescue children in sexually slavery and to restore them to normalcy.

In doing this he is nearly killed several times, yet he does not kill those who attacked him. He turns them over to law-enforcement. He loses two of his sanctuaries to someone who are trying to stop him from destroying their business.

He has his own personal problems. He seems to lose those he loves. Consequently, he has trouble opening himself up to love, and when he finally does his life is turned upside down. Like the Great Shepherd who goes to search for the lost sheep, he drops whatever he is doing and goes to look for those who are lost.

The psychological trauma these victims endure is clearly spelled out in the pages of this book. It not for the squeamish reader, but it will open your mind to what others may be enduring. It also gets the reader thinking about what life is worth, and whether or not sacrificing your life for another is worth the cost.

I highly recommend this book for mature teens and for adults. It does have a Christian message, but it is not fake or preachy. It is the most honest book I have read in a long time. I fully intend to find other books written by Martin.

The Road Back by David & Lisa Frisbie

05 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in Adult, Missions

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Every adult person is probably knowledgeable to some degree  of the  existance of slavery in our world.  Most are not aware of its extent. Here are some facts: There are 27 million persons in the world who are in slavery.  The majority of them are enslaved for the sex trade.  Among those who are enslaved for sexual trafficking, 80% are women and half of those are underage females.  Each facilitator, or pimp, averages 4.5 people in their group. A significant and growing number of these facilitators are women. Many teens in the U.S are trafficked while they are in middle school or high school  The first contacts are usually made through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter This is not a big city problem; four Tennessee counties each reported more than 100 cases within their borders in a 24 month period.

The above are a few of the facts the reader will learn from this book. The first part of the book, before the actual chapters begin introduce the reader to the purpose of the book, the authors of the book and their credentials, a prologue which explains how the authors came to be involved in rescuing trafficked people, and a dedication to those who helped in this cause. In each chapter are personal stories of those who have been saved from sexual slavery.

Chapter one is devoted to the problems in the Asia and Pacific area, in particular to the Philippines where most of the trafficking is done online.  Surprisingly, I discovered that the parents, themselves, are often the purveyors of this type of pornography.  The economic conditions they face force them into the business as a way of survival. Those who want to help must approach the problem from several different avenues. Helping the economic situation is often part of the solution. The Church of the Nazarene has established one children’s home which can handle up to 20 residential children at a time. The church partners with several other groups to provide the physical, psychological, and social care needed. Maria’s story is told in this chapter.  She and her two sisters were rescued in 2016. Maria was ten.

Chapter two discusses a program that the church has founded in South Africa named S-Cape.  This program was developed by a woman named Madison Barefield from the U.S who interned  in Hawaii then continued her studies in South Africa. There her heart was moved for the plight of those people taken into the sex trafficking business. She began to actively search for ways to help them.  Partnering with Business Tech, she learned that 250,000 persons are being victimized in the RSA. Business Tech estimates that of those exploited people only one percent will be able to leave it in their lifetime. That is only 2,500 that may one day be rescued. Madison engaged the help of another woman, Miryam Cherpillod.  Together they campaigned and helped the RSA to pass the Trafficking in Persons Act of 2013. S-Cape is centered in Capetown, RSA.  Kathryn’s story tells of how she was enticed by another woman to go with her to get a “good job” and how that job led to her enslavement.

Chapter three discusses efforts in Europe to deal with the issue.  It was in Europe that the authors first began their work with a Romanian pastor’s wife named Monica Boseff. The three of them worked to begin a Center that would provide a safe refuge for exploited women.  Monica traveled all over Europe and North America to spread her message of hope and to raise money for the Center.  Her efforts drew the attention of the BBC .  The piece they broadcast further helped in her mission.  During a visit to Romania, then vice president, Joe Biden gave an award to the Center and to its director for their efforts in stopping the exploitation of women. The story in this chapter is about how a concerned neighbor worked with the Center in Romania to help a young mother and her child escape a husband who was trafficking her.

Chapter four provides many facts about the sex business in San Diego county of California. In that one area there are more than 8,000 victims a year.  As many as 110 separate gangs are involved in it.  Human trafficking revenue is second only to drug trafficking there because it is highly profitable for the gangs. Jamie Gates, a graduate of Eastern Nazarene College and of the Nazarene Theological Seminary combined his interest in cultural anthropology and his heart for compassionate ministries to found and fund the Center for Justice and Reconciliation at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Working with Ami Carpenter of the University of San Diego, he produced a report about the  extent and nature of sex trafficking in San Diego and the Tijuana, Mexico region in order to bring awareness of the problem to people who can help make changes. The story of Jessica Kim, a survivor of sex trafficking is told here. She benefitted from a program the CJR provides called Beauty for Ashes,  That program helped her earn a college degree.  She, in turn, is helping others.

Chapter five takes the reader to middle America and the state of Tennessee. Heather Edwards a young girl who benefitted from the social services of Rutherford county and their residential center for domestic abuse began to look for ways to help more women as she enrolled in a graduate program at Trevecca Nazarene University.  She began to work as a resident manger for Rest Stop, a program that attempts to reach the sexually exploited and to provide them a safe haven while they transition to a normal life. Rest Stop is part of the Compassionate Ministries of Hermitage Church of the Nazarene in Nashville. This chapter is loaded with facts about what Rest Stop and the State of Tennessee are doing to stop this horror in our society.

The book ends with suggestions for how the reader can get involved into helping those enslaved and in helping end the trafficking of other humans. The authors suggest organizations the reader could become involved with and provides several web sites.  It ends with the telephone number for the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-7888.  I recommend this book to all who want to be an instrument of change.

If you are interested in obtaining this book, you may contact any Church of the Nazarene.  They may have it available for loan. Or, you can go directly to the publisher: The Foundry Publishing Company at https://www.thefoundrypublishing.com   Here it is sold as a set with two other missionary books.

I highly recommend asking a church for it. If they don’t have it, most will be willing to purchase the set for others to read.

 

Dark Agenda by David Horowitz

27 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by in Adult, Non-Fiction, Social Issues, Uncategorized

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Once in a while I am given a book that demands my full attention. This is such a one. A friend of mine had suggested that I read this and tell him what I thought about it. To be honest, I thought that it would be a bunch of one-sided political ideas. It is that to some extent, but it is much more than that. Horowitz takes the reader on a stroll through history since the French Revolution to the present day. From the day that those revolutionaries changed the name of the Cathedral of Notre Dame to the “Temple of Reason” Christianity began to be under serious attack on the political front.

Horowitz then proceeds to inform the reader of step-by-step very calculated moves to bring the world in line with the position of Karl Marx that religion is “the opiate of the people and “the sigh of the oppressed.” We are very clearly seeing that happening in America. I have recently seen posts online of the “hatred” spewed by “evangelicals” in America. Speaking out against sin itself is now considered “hate speech.” These comments are the outgrowth of the movement to dismantle our religious freedoms and thus to take down our very country.

I celebrate the idea of free will. Horowitz says, “Free will is what makes us equal.” only as truly being individuals and expressing our thoughts, as such, are we really free men. Our society has begun to try to force us to think of ourselves ONLY as a part of a group (black, white, male, female, gay, straight, etc.) “In identity politics only collective rights matter.” This is truly “politics of hate.” He says, “The left has no conscience or restraint when it comes to destroying people that stand in its way.” We have definitely seen this played out in the riots after the election, the attack on the Supreme Court nominee, and now the blatant attacks on churches and evangelicals.

One term which the reader will have to come to grips with is “social justice.” Many churches are using that term to describe their philanthropic efforts. Horowitz says that the use of that term is just a synonym for “communism,” but since its use is more socially acceptable in America the leftists have latched onto it as a useful tool. There are many social issues that Horowitz explores in this book. Each one is carefully documented and fully explained.

One such issue is that of abortion. Horowitz discusses how that issue is playing out in America. He points out that Margaret Sanger was mostly interested in building a master race, and that in order to do that, all substandard people must go. Her movement for contraption and abortion was not to benefit the lives of the poor but to limit the growth of African Americans. Delores Grier, an American black woman pointed this out. She said, “Abortion is racism.” Yet, America has bought into this without even knowing what it was really doing. It is no accident that most abortion clinics are in predominately black neighborhoods. In 2013 more African-American babies (29,002)were aborted in New York City alone than were born there (24,788).

Another social issue is that of LGBTQ rights. Andrew Sullivan, a gay liberal activist, began to realize how the left was beginning to use gay rights as a tool to destroy America, In 2018 he warned “The whole concept of an individual is slipping from the bedrock of American experiment. Free speech, due process, and individual rights are now being understood as masks for “white male power.”…Any differences of opinion are seen as “hate.”” I found it interesting that a gay man would see the problem so clearly and to see it before some so-called “intellectuals” see it.

Horowitz ends with the conundrum of how religious institutions can support such a morally flawed individual as Donald Trump. It is probably best summed up by Tony Perkins. ” My support for Trump has never been based on shared values; it is based on shared concerns.” Trump’s message is clearly that of, “Our country has gone off-course, and we need to bring it back.”

Dark Agenda: Read it if you dare. You may or may not agree with his conclusions, but you will not look at what is happening in America the same way as you once did if you take time to read this book. Unfortunately, many people will blindly continue to ignore his warnings, and discussion of the content may become impossible. Many will see his writings as “hate speech.” The fact that they do see it that way only proves his position, but they will not see it.

Sometimes You Have to Cross When It Says Don’t Walk by Lesley Visser

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Adult, Non-Fiction

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I rarely ever do not recommend a book, but that is exactly what I am doing with this one. While this book is about a highly acclaimed female sports writer (the first one ever inducted into the Football Hall of Fame) it is not a book that young people will pick up and read.

It is a memoir of the life of a woman in her 60’s. There are no chapter titles to help the reader find things. There is no index. There is a chapter of acknowledgements that goes on for 12 pages that are mostly a list of names – page, after page of them.

The writing is rambling and very disjointed. A written organization of some sort, perhaps chronological or a type of sport being covered would perhaps have helped. There are at least seven pictures that are clearly labeled, but the person standing with Lesley in these pictures are NOT mentioned in the text where they are placed. All pictures are grainy, but that might be better in true publication because the copy I read is an advanced publication. I see no possible use for this book in any school library.