Thursday 12 July 2007

injustice...

God hates injustice! it goes against everything he is...
over the course of summer madness God has been dealing with my apathy to the injustice going on around the globe... i see things with new eyes now...

27 million people today are enslaved
(http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/Default.aspx)

Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders (some international and non-governmental organizations place the number far higher), and the trade is growing. (U.S. Department of State. 2004. Trafficking in Persons Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State.)

Of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year, 70 percent are female and 50 percent are children. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. (Ibid.)
(http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html)

According to the World Health Organization 34.3 million people in the world have the AIDS virus

1. 24.5 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
2. Nearly 19 million have died from AIDS, 3.8 million of them children under the age 15.

we have a voice to deal with this... there are more of us than we could imagine when we stand up instead of standing by....


BUT...

as much as i am burdened about at least 35 million people, including an estimated 17 to 21 million children, are facing serious food shortages...

my heart breaks for... Steven, 15... Christian guy struggling to maintain his faith amongst dealing with the temptation of booze all around him,

'roody' 17, right eye swollen, right arm bleeding after falling on the street, but he doesn't care because his mates just handed him another bud...

Ashley 16, annoyed at her mum because she wont let her drink tonight... so she heads round the corner with her mates for a quick WKD when no one is watching...

for Alan 19, telling me about how the condom split this afternoon while 'ridin' some girl he just met... and laughing about it as if its a normal occurrence... it probably is...

for Glen 16, just taken to hospital after getting a kickin for looking at someone the wrong way...

for 'legend' 16... who so graves someone to love him and pay him some atention that he takes his clothes of and streaks down the road in front of a couple of hundred people... then gets arrested for indecent exposure while his 'mates' cheer on and throw empty drink bottles at the police.

for Kirk 12, some responsible adult has bought him his first carry-out... i've just left him home after he fell asleep in his own sick in the rain at the side of the shops...

for 'mo' 19, i asked him has he got a Job, 'fuck no' he replies, 'am on the brew... an shes pregnant so we're getting a house for free, happy days'

injustice...??

i only spent 90 minutes at the Ballysillan bon-fire tonight and this is what i saw... there are many more stories from this brief encounter tonight... kids i used to work with from the BB, youth club... this is injustice if i ever seen it...

tonight it was wet, miserable... thats how i feel... i know that God must feel far worse about it...
he wants this to stop... he wants it different... he needs to use us... we are his hands and feet on the planet...
how can we show them the hope that we have!

stand by or stand up...

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