February is Black History Month. Which means it’s a great time to stir up reminisces about some of our country’s African-American greats.

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

• In 1773, slave poet Phillis Wheatley wrote “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” the first published book by an African American?
• Nat Turner, an enslaved African-American preacher, led the most significant slave uprising in American history?
• George Washing Carver, agricultural chemist, discovered 300 products that could be made from peanuts?
• Fredrick Douglass founded an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star?
• Harriet Tubman, best known for her work on the underground railroad, was never captured?
• In 1870, Hiram Rhoads Revels (R-MS) became the first African American U.S. Senator?
• Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947?
• Howard University’s first female law student, who also became the first black woman lawyer in 1972, was Charlotte Ray?
• 5,000 Blacks, both slaves and freemen, fought in the Continental Army on the Patriot side during the American Revolution?
• African slaves combined elements of several African tribal languages with English to creat their own unique language known as Gullah?
• The Father of Gospel Music was Thomas A. Dorsey?
• In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize?
• A nuclear-powered submarine is named after inventor George Washington Carver?
• The Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott lasted throughout the year of 1956?
• School segregation was determined to be inherently unequal and in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)?
• The first black person to hold a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court was Thurgood Marshall?
• Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State was born in Harlem?
• Barack Obama became the first African-American president and the country’s 44th president in 2009?

Can you add to this list? Let’s make it pages long!

I know, I know.  Everyone wants a donation from you.  Well, not everyone.  This just in from International Justice Mission (IJM):

Over the last year, you’ve stood with IJM in advocating for the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA) – the foundation of our country’s efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery around the world. You have helped secure broad bi-partisan support in the House and Senate for this critical legislation, and the bill passed out of key committees in both bodies in October.

Since that time, however, the bill’s progress has become mired in the highly charged debates that are typical of election year politics. The Senate bill, S. 1301, is stronger than its House counterpart and is the closest to passing — it just needs to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

This is why I want to ask for your help again. Please take two minutes today to call your Senators and ask for their help in getting the TVPRA passed as soon as possible. Feel free to use the sample script for your call, and let us know how it goes by contacting us at justicecampaigns@ijm.org.

If passed, this bill will make a difference for children and families who need help. We are deeply grateful for your ongoing support!

Eileen Campbell
Director of Justice Campaigns

P.S. You can see whether your Senator has co-sponsored the TVPRA here.

Feel free to use this sample script for your call:

Shortly before Christmas, President Obama declared that January 2012 would be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Thank you, Mr. President. Not a moment too soon!

Did you you know there are over 27 million slaves worldwide?  Sadly, it’s true.  And it is in our power to help put an end to this scourge.

Nearly a century and a half after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, President Obama issued this proclamation:

Presidential Proclamation — National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2012

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Nearly a century and a half ago, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation — a document that reaffirmed the noble goals of equality and freedom for all that lie at the heart of what it means to live in America. In the years since, we have tirelessly pursued the realization and protection of these essential principles. Yet, despite our successes, thousands of individuals living in the United States and still more abroad suffer in silence under the intolerable yoke of modern slavery. During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we stand with all those who are held in compelled service; we recognize the people, organizations, and government entities that are working to combat human trafficking; and we recommit to bringing an end to this inexcusable human rights abuse.

That’s how it begins.  To read more, follow this link National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

to console those who mourn in Zion,

to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,

the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be  called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:1-3

The Savior has come!

Blessed Christmas

Taped to my computer is the picture of a small girl in a ragged blue dress.  I first saw her in a huge trash dump in India where she lives, busily searching for something her father could sell… or she could eat. 

I tried to talk to her, but she stared in silence with her huge brown eyes.  Then I blurted out the question I ask of children everywhere:  “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The little girl continued to stare.  As I turned to walk away, she whispered, “I can’t be anything.”

The world might look at that little one, standing ragged and barefoot in the garbage dump with a tattered collection bag over her frail shoulder, and agree with her.  But they are wrong.  Two Christian Indian women have started a school in the dump, and I’ve seen the options education can open up.  Donors support the women.  Other donors send school supplies.  Caring people in diverse places pray for both the teachers and the children.

None of us need do everything.  We only need to do our part.

Blessed Christmas!

For two weeks Wardo walked, her 1-year-old daughter on her back and her 4-year-old son trudging at her side.  They were fleeing Somalia’s horrible famine.  They had almost reached the end of their journey when the little boy collapsed.  The child didn’t even have the strength to drink, so Wardo poured the little water she had left over his head to cool him off.  She begged other struggling people to help her, but no one dared stop.  They were too worried for their own survival.

Wardo had to make a horrible choice:  Which of her little ones had the best chance of survival?  Too exhausted to cry, she left her son lying on the road.

I know, I know.  Too much knowledge of horror is overwhelming.  On the other hand, if we don’t know we can’t act.

Have a blessed Christmas.  Give the gift of rescue and restoration to moms like Wardo and their little ones.  Check out www.ijm.org/giftsoffreedom.

“Finally, I decided to leave him behind to his God.”

 Wardo Mohamud Yusuf

Breaking News Flash: I was just notified that The Triumph of Grace, book 3 in the Grace in Africa trilogy, was named in Booklist’s top 10 Inspirational Fiction books of the year. It was featured in the November 15 issue of the American Library Association’s Booklist Magazine.

Cool, huh? Especially since book 2 of the series, The Voyage of Promise, received the same honor last year.

In celebration of this, I will be giving away a signed copy of The Triumph of Grace. My impartial husband Dan will draw a name at random from all who stop by and leave a comment to this post. We’ll have one drawing on this website, which is built around this trilogy and dedicated to social justice and 21st century abolition, and another on www.kaystrom.wordpress.com . Visit both, leave a comment on each. You will double your chances of winning!

Yay for Grace!

This Sunday, November 13, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  As you consider the many areas that need prayer, please add Afghanistan to your list. Last month the U.S. State Department reported this devastated country now has no church buildings left.

That is not to say that the church doesn’t exist in Afghanistan.  Only that each believer exists alone. Can you imagine the fear?  Can you imagine the isolation?  Can you imagine the discouragement?

This is just one of the desperate places, of course.  Please join with Christians around the world who will be in prayer for the more than 100 million believers now suffering persecution.

We are, after all, family.

He was an Iraqi soldier fighting under Saddam Hussein in Desert Storm, one of a privileged class who lived well and wanted for little.  Amazingly, he was a Christian.  When Saddam rained poison gas down on the Kurds as punishment for their lack of support, the soldier saw it all—the terrified parents rushing terrified children forward, the young men running with their grandmas on their backs, the families tossing aside the last of their worldly goods in their struggle to escape the poison gas. 

The soldier gathered his own family together.  He locked the front door of his lovely house and tossed the keys to his luxury car to the neighbor.  Then he joined the crowd of running Kurds.  He would not be back.  He knew it.

Saddam Hussein is no more.  The Kurds are living a better life.  The soldier?  He and his family have cast their lots with the Kurds. 

The soldier’s compassion brought his family to the Kurds, but it is their faith that sustains them there.  His family are all Christians.  But not they alone, for day by day, more Kurdish Iraqis join them.   It is the family of God at work.