ETERNAL FLAME NEWS

Thursday, March 24, 2011

A walk on the seamy side, to help exploited girls

A small, eclectic advocacy group tackles the tough streets of South Florida, looking for young victims of sex traffickers.

By AUDRA D.S. BURCH

aburch@MiamiHerald.com

The outreach workers and volunteers fan out in some of the toughest, most unforgiving neighborhoods of Miami, searching neon-lit streets, darkened corners and alleys, and motels for victims of sexual trafficking.

Too often, it is a search for baby faces.

“You look in their eyes and you know they are young and scared and they have no business being there,’’ says Sandy Skelaney, program manager of Project GOLD, a Miami-based, anti-sex trafficking outreach program . “You know they are living a life of chaos.’’

As part of Project GOLD, Skelaney leads a changing cast of community volunteers — a ballerina, an attorney, a teacher, a Marine, students and mothers — in an ambitious effort to reach minors in crisis and shift the thinking that underage prostitutes are criminals rather than victims. Twice a month, the group heads to the streets to find the underaged and victimized, home-grown or brought to South Florida by force or false dreams, only to become sex workers.

The volunteers often face girls in denial, steeled against strangers. Rescues are more about laying the groundwork to help girls find a way out than whisking them away from it all. And if the girls do take that first step, it takes fortitude and a whole lot of assistance to help restore their lives, rebuild their self-esteem and establish stability.

It’s difficult to pinpoint statistics but authorities and advocates rank South Florida among the nation’s hotspots for human trafficking. Nearly every area law enforcement agency has tackled the problem through individual initiatives, partnerships or task forces including government and social-service agencies.

FORGING TIES

On this Thursday night, the volunteers include a cop, a social worker, a homeless advocate and a student. They descend on the seamier stretches of Biscayne Boulevard, 79th Street and State Road 7 in North Miami-Dade. Each tract, divided by the group, is distinguished by cheap motels, hookers and hustlers amid the drive-thrus, laundromats and food markets.

The mission is to find underage sex workers and missing children, even those who may seem to be walking the streets voluntarily. They also hope to forge relationships with hotel and motel staffs, business owners and members of the community who may come in contact with young victims.

“Our greatest challenge is finding the victims. We know they are there,’’ Skelaney says. “We have dealt with more than 100 clients in two years, so we know they are here, somewhere, holed up in hotels or strip clubs. Maybe crashing on somebody’s couch.”

It’s just before 11 p.m. and one of the eastern blocks of 79th Street is buzzing. A male, in heavy make-up and feminine clothing, paces and talks on a cellphone. Two school-age boys, still in uniforms, walk by. A small grocery store is full of customers buying cigarettes and lottery tickets. Ami Lawson, a longtime homeless advocate, photographer and volunteer outreach coordinator, walks into the store carrying pictures of missing teenage girls and toting her pet Maltese Rufus, a help in disarming strangers. She waits for the clerk as he makes change behind a bullet-proof window. She shows him photos of 18 faces, all from Miami-Dade.

“We are out here looking for these girls,’’ Lawson says unflinchingly. “We are hoping they aren’t in trouble.’’

Japan disaster: over 27,000 dead or missing

More than 27,000 people are officially dead or missing after the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11th.

According to the National Police Agency, 9,811 people are confirmed dead as of 9 PM on Thursday.

The agency says it has received reports of 17,541 people missing.

Most of the dead and missing are from the 3 hardest hit prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.

The number of confirmed deaths in Fukushima totals 839, far smaller than the more than 5,800 in Miyagi and about 3,000 in Iwate. This may be due to the suspension of search operations in areas within 20 kilometers of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, because of radiation leaks.

Figures appear almost certain to rise because of the absence of family members to report the dead and missing. In some areas, entire families appear to have perished in the tsunami that followed the magnitude 9.0 quake.

Emergency shelters are accommodating more than 200,000 people, mostly from the prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima, according to NHK figures. More than 30,000 people, mainly from Fukushima, have fled their hometowns to other prefectures.

Read more at NHK

Burma hit by two 7.0 magnitude earthquakes

North-east Burma has been rocked by two 7.0 magnitude earthquakes, close to the borders with Laos and Thailand, the US Geological Survey has reported.

They struck seconds apart at 1355 GMT and were centered about 70 miles (110 km) from the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai, the agency said.

The first quake was shallow, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10km), while the second was much deeper at 142.5 miles (230km).

Create a Special U.S. Envoy for Religious Freedom!

Dear Friends,

I’ve never been afraid to attend church or wondered if my family would be murdered just because we’re Christians. Unfortunately, this is the reality that many Christians around the world face every day. It’s easy to take our own freedom of religion for granted, but instead of taking it for granted, we should use it to speak up for those who face constant fear of persecution due to their faith in Christ.

Will you take a moment to speak out for those who don’t enjoy religious freedom?

Congressman Wolf recently introduced a bill in the House of Representatives called H.R. 440. This bill would require the Obama administration to appoint a Special Envoy for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia, the area of the world that contains the most countries that actively persecute Christians.

Open Doors USA is asking you to contact your U.S. Representative to ask him/her to co-sponsor H.R. 440. If this bill is passed, the Obama administration will be required to appoint an expert on international religious freedom to directly confront religious persecution in this part of the world.
Read bill for details>>

Please send your message today, and ask your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 440 and to vote “Yes” when the bill is brought up for a vote. Thank you for speaking out for those without a voice!

Advocating with you,

Lindsay Vessey
Advocacy Director
Open Doors USA

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Start Praying? Religion May Become ‘Extinct’ in 9 Countries

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion,” the band R.E.M once sang. For select countries across the globe, that could be true. And while the prediction doesn’t currently include the U.S., there are ominous signs that could change.

According to a new study by the American Physical Society (APS) using census data, religion in nine countries is slowly dying — and, as the BBC puts it, may even become “extinct.”

Those countries include Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

The study was published earlier this year and recently unveiled at an APS meeting in Dallas. It uses a mathematical model to “account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one,” the BBC reports. The result is scary: “religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.”

One of the study’s authors, Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the University of Arizona, explained to the BBC that “The idea is pretty simple.”

“It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility,” he said.

Translation: it seems it’s becoming popular not to be religious — and the more popular that becomes, the more people will join.

“In a large number of modern secular democracies,” he explained, “there’s been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%.”

New Oilspill CONFIRMED in Louisiana

Just hours after a new sizable oil slick was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, a Houston-based energy company came forward to claim responsibility for the latest round of crude tainting the area.

Anglo-Suisse Offshore Partners issued a statement last night expressing "surprise" that what it claimed was a minor leak from a well that's been out of use for some time could have produced miles-long slicks that garnered national media attention. The company has been in the process of permanently plugging the well -- located in a shallow area about 30 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La. Anglo-Suisse owned a cluster of five platforms in that area that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

According to the Times-Picayune's David Hammer, Anglo-Suisse has filed three incident reports with the Coast Guard since last Friday. In those documents, Hammer reports, the company explained that as it used a remotely operated submarine to plug the well, some oil had been discharged into the Gulf.

However, the company claimed in those reports that it had spilled less than five gallons of crude -- an amount far too small to account for the scope of the spill shown in aerial photographs. Nor would five gallons of crude square with reports of oil washing up over a 30 mile stretch of Louisiana's shoreline.

A new pro-life law ... a lurking lawsuit

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU plan to ask a judge to strike down as unconstitutional a new law in South Dakota that requires women to wait three days after meeting with an abortionist to have an abortion.

On Tuesday, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed the controversial pro-life bill into law. The law, to take effect on July 1, is primarily designed to reduce bullying of women and girls into getting abortions. It requires the abortionist to have direct contact with the woman seeking an abortion, a 72-hour waiting period, and counseling at a pro-life pregnancy center -- in other words, a second opinion.

Valerie Johnson of South Dakota Right to Life tells OneNewsNow she is aware of Planned Parenthood's threat to file a lawsuit.

"Of course they're going to object and they can say they're pro-choice," she says, "but what it comes down to is [that abortion is] their business -- and so they want to protect their business, I am sure."

According to the pro-life activist, Planned Parenthood's primary objection to the new law is the required visit to a pregnancy care center. Johnson explains the purpose behind that aspect.

"It's just to make sure that the mother is not being coerced [into an abortion] and so that she can give more of an informed consent," she explains. "As it is, the pregnant mother goes in [to an abortion clinic] and signs a consent form and pays for the abortion the same day that she receives that abortion."

Read more at OneNewsNow

35,000 Bibles Released in Malaysia Under One Condition

This is a related story to the one I posted previously. This is from our friends at Mission Network News today.

Malaysia (MNN) ― Christians held a protest yesterday against the release of 35,000 "Christian-only" Bibles in Malaysia.

In 2009, 5,000 Bibles were confiscated by the Malaysian government. Since then, attempts to import the Bible in Malaysia's national language, Bahasa Malaysia, have been thwarted, according to Christian Today. 30,000 more copies are currently being withheld.

The reasoning lies in one disputed word within the text: "Allah."

"There has been a lot of upheaval in Malaysia regarding the use of the word ‘Allah' to describe God. In the Christian Bible, that word is used to describe God," explains Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs. "Muslims in Malaysia have protested against that, saying, ‘Wait a minute. That's going to confuse Muslims because Allah is really the God of Islam. If the Christians are using that word, too, that's going to create some problems.'"

Interestingly enough, in a 2009 case against a Catholic newspaper, the High Court in Malaysia ruled that they were allowed to use the word "Allah" for God.

In what Nettleton says appears to be an effort to get Christian votes in the upcoming elections--and yet appease Muslim Malay who are afraid of others getting confused by the Bible's teachings, the government is releasing the Bibles under a few conditions.

"Now the government is saying, ‘Okay, we'll go ahead and release these Bibles, but we want you to stamp on the front of them that these are for the use of Christians only, not for the use of other religions,'" says Nettleton. "They also want each of the Bibles to be stamped with a serial number, which obviously then presents the opportunity for them to be traced. If the Bible turns up later in the hands of a Muslim or in the hands of someone they say shouldn't have it, they could trace it back and say, ‘Okay, where did this Bible come from? Who was it?' and try to get back to the people who are distributing Bibles there."

The 5,000 detained Bibles from 2009 have already been stamped without permission.

Christians have mainly responded in outrage to the government offer to release all 35,000 Bibles if stamped. Believers say they won't accept delivery of the Bibles under these threatening conditions. Protests took place yesterday morning to reject the so-called "desecrated" Bibles, and more protests are rumored to happen again this weekend.

The action seems to threaten evangelism if only Christians are allowed to have the Bibles. Nettleton says it also appears to support the idea that the government desires Malaysia to remain a mostly-Muslim country.

"I think what it means is that the government is going to do everything they can to make it difficult, particularly for Christians who are evangelizing, and especially evangelizing among the Malay people," Nettleton notes.

Prayers are needed for our brothers and sisters in Malaysia. Pray for wisdom in how to approach the situation, and for God's Word to come freely into Malaysia soon.

Posted by: Stacy L. Harp via Persecution Blog

Uncertainty in Japan opens faith door

Japan (MNN) ― Japanese officials are presenting conflicting messages about the nuclear emergency at Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Some suggest stored fuel rods are exposed, risking complete meltdown which would create even more problems for the nation.

That, coupled with the earthquake and tsunami damage, has Japanese people in a place they haven't been since the Japanese Emperor denounced his divinity after World War Two, creating a spiritual vacuum there.

Neal Hicks has spent 30 years working in Japan with The Mission Society. His co-workers are okay, but two of them, Koz and Emiko Kinoshita, have lost loved ones. Emiko just returned from a visit to her family in Onagawa. "That town no longer exists. It's totally gone. Emiko and Koz are just in shock and disbelief. Her immediate family and all her relatives -- all gone."

This story is being repeated all over the region. And the uncertainty of the nuclear issues has the entire nation on edge. Hick says many Japanese who have become so materialistic and almost agnostic are changing. "Their gods of money, self reliance and even technology have failed them miserably, and they are absolutely shaken to the core and don't know which way to turn."

Less than 1% of the Japanese population is evangelical Christian.

Acting legend Elizabeth Taylor dies of congestive heart failure in hospital

Actress Dame Elizabeth Taylor has died at the age of 79, her publicist confirmed in a statement today.

The star passed away from congestive heart failure in hospital last night having suffered from the condition since November 2004.

She was admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles 'for monitoring' last month.

Her publicist confirmed: 'Legendary actress, and fearless activist Elizabeth Taylor died peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.'

The English-American star, considered one of the great actresses - and great beauties - of Hollywood's golden age, was surrounded by her children: Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton.

Dame Elizabeth's son, Michael Wilding, said in a statement: 'We will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.

'My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour, and love.

He added: 'Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.

'Her remarkable body of work in film, her ongoing success as a businesswoman, and her brave and relentless advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS, all make us all incredibly proud of what she accomplished. We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mum having lived in it.