Helping those with Depression

A must read!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/how-help-friend-fight-depression#lzRgSGEdy55pQfUJ.01

A little personal

Last week my depression went into overdrive.  It's tough.  I'm not seeing much "fruit" here.  It's tough to come to this church and face the feeling that I'm on my own.  You'd think after feeling like that my entire life, I'd be used to it, but I never really escape it.

This week, we had a family visit with small kids.  They seemed to like it here, which is good.  But I was told "You won't get people to staff the nursery."  In other words, the church wants young families to come, but not provide anything for these young families.  They just want to pad their numbers without the cost.

Moreover, I'm very lonely, especially when I'm around people.  The guy who arranged for this job and was supposed to help me never showed when he was supposed to this weekend, which is really great when I'm feeling discouraged and ready to quit.

I had a very angry, very confrontational prayer time before getting in my car and leaving.  Most of the time, I want to get in my car and just drive off and find a place to live in the woods somewhere, off grid and away from pressure.  I'm tired of feeling like my entire life is lived out of obligation.  I'm sick of being obligated to other people.  I feel like there are several things that I am supposed to do, but can't because nothing that I do works.  Doors get slammed in my face.  Windows never really open.  I just get trapped, with others staring at me like a performing monkey.  I never get to be myself, because I only get to me who I have to be.

As I talked through with some friends of mine, I'm not even sure who I am anymore aside from what other people force me to be.  So I'm cutting back on some obligations.  I'm trying to decide if ministry needs to be one of them.

Human Trafficking Crisis

If you have been watching the news at all, surely you've heard about this crisis in Nigeria.  One man and his small army has kidnapped nearly 300 girls as they were going to school, and has made a public video saying he is going to sell them as slaves, which probably means in the sex trade.

My question is this: why is this a bag deal?

Don't get me wrong.  This is a big freaking deal.  But why did it take nearly 300 girls kidnapped before it mattered?  Shouldn't ONE girl be unacceptable?  Should this be a big freaking deal everyday? 

And believe me, this is an every single day issue.  It happens all over the world.  It happens right here in the United States.  According to Unicef, it has been reported in all 50 states.  Many of them are foster children.

Human trafficking can be forced labor (like migrant workers).  Most often it is the sex trade.  It happens like this: a fifteen year old girl goes to a typical high school party.  After being roofied and raped, she is photographed and blackmailed.  One girl's story, she told that she refused to go back, then her little dog disappeared.  She got a call where she could hear the dog barking in the background, until she heard a gunshot.  Then the caller said, "Your little brother's next."  She went to a hotel room where twenty men took turns, and left her bleeding and broken in the hotel shower.  When the maid came to clean, she called 911.  They took her home, where her parents chastised her for running away from home. 

This girl was picked up again the next night, and taken from Virginia to California, where she lived as a prostitute, locked in a fleabag motel, where she was raped daily until a police raid, when she was finally returned home.

I wept as I listened to her tell this story.  What if this was your mom?  You sister?  Your daughter?  Your niece?  Your friend?

The question isn't why the case in Nigeria is a big deal.  The question is why aren't the rest of them?

If you would like to help, I have recommended and will continue to recommend International Justice Mission.  www.twitter.com/IJM, or www.ijm.org.