***This is my new favorite when it comes to fair trade. I personally own Punjammies and absolutely LOVE THEM!!! The light weight fabric can be a bit see through with the lighter colors but they come packaged in beautiful bags and are perfect gifts for the ladies in your life!***

The Story of PUNJAMMIES™

Each PUNJAMMIE™ is created in an after-care facility for women who have been rescued, released or escaped from a life of forced prostitution. Their lives have been marked by a message – you are a commodity – to be used for other’s gain.

Whether sold by her own family, trafficked from another country or driven by desperation, she was a slave to this life. Each story is as unique as each girl.

When one manages to escaped from this life of horror, she has few options where to turn. Aside from the emotional and psychological trauma, women formerly working as prostitutes cannot easily enter schools, return to family systems or secure jobs to support themselves in India. A high quality after-care center is one of the best options a woman has at rebuilding her life.

Holistic aftercare involves quality medical care, emotional safety, education and the tools to create a new way of life for herself.

Empowering each woman with an opportunity to learn a marketable skill and become a part of a viable business is the purpose of PUNJAMMIES™. In providing for her basic need to support herself, she sees that she has value far beyond what the lies have told her. She begins to see her rightful place of value – a princess.

Every PUNJAMMIE™ purchase creates
A fair trade wage
Deposit into a savings account
Financial support for holistic care
Capacity building for more women to enter the after-care center

Every PUNJAMMIE™ tells the story of a girl who was once voiceless. You can be a part of rebuilding lives shattered by modern-day slavery.

Wear PUNJAMMIES™. Wear hope

For more information about International Princess™ Project, visit our website at www.intlprincess.org.

Tis the Season

Last year I made a change in how I did my Christmas shopping. All of my gifts were fair trade meaning that the artist/worker earned a fair wage for their work and in the majority of the cases my purchase was helping to sustain a living for people in some of the poorest conditions in our world.

A story came with each gift that I gave. There was meaning and a knowledge that people were benefitting from my gift-giving. I loved it and love the concept so much that I thought I would share with you all some websites that are doing cool things along these lines.

Today I am highlighting SUUBI! http://www.suubiafrica.org. SUUBI means hope and they are working with women in Uganda to make and sell the paper bead necklaces. These make for a beautiful and unique gift. What I am loving about SUUBI is that they are going the extra mile...Not only do the women in Uganda desperately need help but in their blessings they have decided to bless others. So right now they are running the Pink Campaign and $4 from every necklace sold is donated to the American Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

I wrote about hesed love a while back. The love that is expressed when someone does for another what they have no right to expect or even ask for someone to do for them. SUUBI is an expression of Hesed. They have blessed the women of Uganda by giving them a market to sell their goods and a platform to share their story. Ugandan women have been shown hesed and now are turning around and showing it to women here in America by donating some of their profits.

There are so many organizations out there that are raising the bar and expressing hesed! Decide to give gifts with meaning this year and enjoy telling the stories!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

I don't have kids of my own but I am not without children...my HS students kill me on a regular basis with the things that come out of their mouths...here are some nuggets from today:

1. I picked up some girls from school today and one was being extremely quiet in the back. This was her response when I asked her why: "I'm just thinking about eating my candy bar when I get to your office because I don't want to poop in your car."

2. One of the girls wanted to make sure that I knew the following: (I received this via text) "Okay...you do not look like a dog, or a fish, and I am NOT going to kill you." To be fair this was quite a relief since she informed everyone that she was going to kill me so she could have my job:o)

3. "I decided to take the suspenders and bow tie off for group time...wanted to be more casual." -senior guy.

4. "What would you do if you woke up in the middle of the night and I was in your room dressed up like Pocahontas writing a poem about you?"

Yep. They keep me on my toes...and keep me laughing, A LOT!

WE DID IT!

There were 50 of us who joined together today under the team name of Jesus Freaks! to walk 10k through the streets of West Hollywood in hopes of raising awareness and funds that will hopefully quicken a cure to end this horrible disease.

Highlights:
1. The students and adults raised $1400 for APLA!

2. At one point half our group was waiting for us to catch up and were sitting down. Some asked if they were protesting the AIDSwalk since they weren't walking...my students responded...NO! Of course not. AIDS is our problem we are walking to support the cause! (Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE my students?!?!)

3. I can't move. Seriously, I am hurting. But I did it...with a smile.

Here are some pics from the day:

AIDS WALK Los Angeles

Tomorrow I will walk with thousands of others to raise money and awareness in hopes of finding a cure and bringing an end to the awfulness that is AIDS.

I had never heard of AIDS Walk before a sophomore student of mine let me know that he thought it would be a good idea for our HS ministry to participate in. He has signed up our team under Jesus Freaks and took on the responsibility of promoting the event amongst his peers. There will be a group of about 50 of us going from my church to walk 6.4 miles tomorrow.

6.4 miles. This coming from a girl who passes out in gym class, who throws up on a bike ride, and thinks exercise might possibly be a scheme of Satan (ok, maybe I wouldn't go that far)...but regardless...I do not like to exercise. I do not like to walk or run or lift weights.

But tomorrow I will willingly lace up my nike tennis shoes and walk 6.4 miles because the cause and purpose of the walking is greater than my dislike of the activity.

Unfortunately there are many who have made AIDS a gay issue. My experience tells me otherwise. I have held a sweet girl named Juliana who died of AIDS at 1 1/2 years of age. I danced and sang with Mommy Joy and Kavina and Esther and they are living with AIDS. None of these individuals are gay. AIDS is bigger than all of us. It is all of our issue. There are thousands who are orphaned every year because their parents have fell victim to this disease. So I walk tomorrow for my friends, for those I have loved and lost. I walk in hopes that someday they will discover a cure.

AIDS isn't a gay issue. Its my issue. And because of that...I will walk. Each and every mile.

Church Gone Wrong: The Church is Homophobic

I am in the middle of a series right now with my HS students called Church Gone Wrong: hear us out before you write us off. We are looking at common misconceptions that the outside world has about the church and as a result are causing them to stay away from church.

We've talked about the church being judgmental and arrogant for claiming to be the only way. We talked about our need to take a humble approach and communicate love with our actions. This weekend we are looking at the claim that the church is homophobic and I have to say...I'm nervous about it.

This has become such an emotionally charged topic in our culture and has become a "highlighted" sin in our church. While I believe that homosexuality is wrong I do think that we have failed in the church in the way we communicate this message.

I think the thing I struggle with the most is how it seems as though we treat this sin differently than the others. So often the message is come to Jesus with your mess and your brokenness and he will make you clean. It is the process of sanctification. We sing songs about coming as you are. And yet...with homosexuals we hesitate to let them in the church, we communicate that they need to give up their sin before they can be welcomed. We treat them as so 'other' that somehow it is okay to condemn and reject because they don't belong.

I struggle with this. I struggle with why it seems that God has placed restrictions on practicing this kind of lifestyle. I have close gay friends that I love and respect very much. However, I think there is a way to stand for my convictions and hold onto love at the same time. One out of five HS students question their sexuality. If they feel as though they are rejected by the church from the start, then where are these kids going to go with their questions and their issues? We need to work at providing a safe place for people to ask their tough questions.

I don’t think Jesus wants this label on His Bride. I think He wants us to love our way out of that label. I think we can. I think we can turn this thing around and instead of being known as homophobic we can be known as a welcoming and loving community that communicates truth in love.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I just finished Donald Miller's new book this week. In my opinion it is his best one to date. I heard him speak on the book tour in Hollywood last week and was all the more excited about reading this story about story. One of the main premises of the book is that the same elements that make up a good story, one worthy of being told in the movie realm, are the same elements that make up a good life.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Not living a better story would be like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you die, and it's not natural to want to die."

"the stories we tell ourselves are very different from the stories we tell the world."

My Favorite: "A God storyteller speaks something into nothing. Where there is an absence of story, or perhaps a bad story, a God storyteller walks in and changes reality. He doesn't critique the existing story, or lament about his boredom, like a critic. He just tells something different and invites other people into the new story he is telling."

I want to tell good stories with my life. I want to be a part of the rewriting process in the stories of the broken and the hurting that surround me. Where death and despair have been spoken I want to speak life and love and wholeness. I want to tell different stories and bring healing to the brokenness. I want to help the girl in the brothel to tell a new story. I want the orphans in Uganda to have a story that includes family and the water deprived nations to tell stories of wells overflowing.

I want to call my students and myself to a bigger story. A story that is bigger than any of us. A story that requires the very power of God to show up in order to make it happen.

Here are some of the stories that we are helping to rewrite as a High School Student Ministry:
1. The students at McKinley Elementary School who are at an economic disadvantage will be receiving coats this weekend.
2. Hundreds of struggling families will receive bags of food during the holidays.
3. Our neighbors in Tijuana will be given more funding to provide clean water and more food to feed their community.

I am blessed to be in a community of people that desire to live big stories. My heart seems to be a little A.D.D. these days in trying to figure out what area of the world or what issue to focus on. My heart is moved and stirred by so many things and it is my natural desire to want to be a part of it all. So, while in the process of allowing my story to be continuously rewritten I will commit myself to speaking something into nothing where I am. I commit myself to a bigger story...whatever that may be.