Rebuilding Together Houston

Meet Rose.  Having saved up enough money, she decided it was time to replace the siding on her house. She looked around for a contractor and found one who promised to take the siding off of her house and replace it with new siding.  After removing the siding and taking the full amount of money, he was never to be seen again. Rose was left to endure the winds of hurricane Ike in a house without any siding.

Thankfully, Rose became aware of an organization known as Rebuilding Together Houston, who sent First Presbyterian Church of Kingwood, the church I work for as a student minister, to finish the work on Rose's home.  One of the work weekends, we took some FPC-Kingwood high school students out to help Rose. They were eager to scrape and paint and hammer. It was also great to watch the interactions between the high school students and the other church members.  As a student minister, you realize any opportunity to have adults and students working together towards a common goal is a good opportunity.  

Here are some pictures from the event:

Before:

working hard:
After:

CALL+RESPONSE

CALL+RESPONSE  is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined. 

click the link above to find out where and when the film is playing at a location near you.

Wake up, brothers and sisters! Slavery isn’t something solely happening in a far away distant land. It’s happening right here in America. In our own communities. Slaves are brought here for sex, domestic servanthood, the service industry, manual labor. See where it is happening in your community and become a part of ending it.

Driving to work today, I was more aware than ever before of the businesses I drove by; Especially as I was driving by this one area where “adult” stores and mysterious buildings extend for a couple of blocks on both sides of the freeway. No longer do I solely believe everyone working there can come and go at anytime they please. It’s not just happening in Cambodia or Thailand or Vietnam.

This is America where we pride ourselves on Freedom, but our consuming society doesn’t seem to care about anyone else’s freedom but its own. As long as my rights aren’t being forfeited... As long as I get the best deal, I don’t care where it came from, who made it, or how they were treated as they were making it. This is the message we send the world by our actions.

Do you know where your morning coffee came from? the clothes on your back? your shoes? your computer? your car? As Christians, we need to be aware. Are we identifying with the oppressors or the oppressed?

Justice is Love played out in public. - Cornel West

Now do something: 

http://chainstorereaction.com/
http://www.fairtradefederation.org/
http://www.ijm.org/