Actions speak louder than words...
Words are very important because many times we speak of that which our heart is full, but that isn't the case all the time. I can be told I'm loved a million times, but if I don't see the love, I won't believe it.
Over the last few years I have learned what living a "christian" life is all about. It's not about what church you go to, how many years you've gone to church, how many bible verses you know, or how many hours per day you spend in "prayer". Being a christian is being Christ-like. I'll be the first to admit that I have spent some time bitter at the modern church for it's lack of love and compassion for our neighbors, but have come to realize that no fruit comes of such feelings. I must ACT and do something to show Christs love and sacrifice.
Recently, a horrible, sick, and disturbing tragedy happened to someone I know. On top of the sadness I felt for this person, I also felt helpless. I wish I could have done something...and I did. I know it probably didn't take the pain away, but God knows my heart. That very Sunday, the church I am attending started a series called "STOP". This series is to bring awareness of the modern day slavery. Yes, that's right. Slavery...it still exists. I couldn't stop thinking about the little girl I knew that had just lost her life, and although her tragedy was not related to slavery I vowed that I would start acting out against slavery and sex trafficking in honor of her. Again, although that tragedy was not related to slavery in any way, I would do this in her honor and memory. I wanted to save little helpless girls who could not fight for themselves. It may be an indirect help, but it's what I'm going to do for that precious girl who is now with my Father.
Below is an excerpt form the book "The Slave Next Door" and I'm hoping that this story moves someone to also take action again kidnapping, human trafficking, sex trade, and all other forms of slavery.
Meet Sandra Bearden. Sandra was a twenty-seven-year-old home-maker in a comfortable suburb of Laredo, Texas - a neighborhood of solid brick homes and manicured lawn. married, the mother of a four-year-old son, she lived a perfectly normal middle-class existence. By all accounts, Sandra was a pleasant woman, the sort you'd chat with at the mall or supermarket...the sort who might live next door. Yet she is currently serving a life sentence, convicted of multiple offenses, including human trafficking and slavery.
It started innocently enough. At first, all Sandra wanted was a maid - someone to do the housework and help with her small son- but she didn't want to pay a lot. So she drove across the border to a small, dirt-poor village near Vera Cruz, Mexico, where she was introduced to Maria and her parents. Maria was only twelve when she met Sandra Bearden. She had very little schooling and dreamed of getting an education- a dream that her parents encouraged by could do nothing to achieve. Over coffee in their small kitchen, Bearden offered Maria a job, as well as the chance to attend school, learn English, and taste the rich life of "el Norte."The work, as Bearden described it, was much like what Maria was already doing at home, and, with the promise of education and opportunity, Sandra's offer made a very enticing package. The fact that Sandra herself was Mexican born helped Maria's parents feel they could trust her, and they gave their permission. Sandra smuggled Maria across border in their extensive car and drove her to her home in Laredo.
On arrival, maria was dragged into hell. Sandra Bearden used violence and terror to squeeze work and obedience from the child. From early morning till mid afternoon, Maria cooked, cleaned, scrubbed, and polished. If Maria dozed off from exhaustion, or when Sandra decided she wasn't working fast enough, Sandra would blast pepper spray into Maria's eyes. A broom was broken over the girl's back and a few days later, a bottle against her head. At one point, Bearden tortured the twelve-year-old by jamming a garden tool up her vagina. That was maria's workday; her "time off" was worse.
When Maria wasn't working, Sandra would chain her to a pole in the backyard without food or water. An eight-foot concrete fence kept her hidden from neighbors. After chaining her, Sandra would sometimes force Maria to eat dog feces. Then Maria would be left alone, her arms chained behind her with a padlock, her legs chained and locked together till the next morning, when the work and torture would begin again. Through the long afternoon and night Maria would fade in and out of consciousness from dehydration, and in her hunger she would sometimes scoop dirt into her mouth. Like most slaves in America, Maria was in shock, disoriented, isolated, and dependent. To maintain control, Bearden kept Maria hungry and in pain.
About one-third of slaves freed in the United States each year come to liberty because of an average person sees something that he or she just can't ignore. Luckily, one of the Beardens' neighbors had to do some work on his roof, and that probably saved Maria's life. Looking down over the high concrete wall into the Breaden's backyard, the neighbor saw a small girl chained up and whimpering; he called 911.
The police found Maria chained hand and foot, covered in cuts and bruises, and suffering from dehydration and exposure. She was too weak to walk and had to be carried to freedom on a stretcher. Her skin was badly burned from days in the sun. Photos taken at the time show one of her eyes bloodied and infected and thick welts and scars on her skin where the chains had cut into her. She hadn't eaten in four days. The district attorney said, "This is the worst case I've ever seen, worse than any murder. It's tragic all the way around." Later, at Bearden's trial, the policeman who found maria wept. "She was shaking and crying and had a scared look in her eyes. She was in severe pain, " Officer Jay Reece testified. he explained that he had tried to remove the chains from Maria's arms with bolt cutters but couldn't. As he tried to move her arm to cut the chains, she twisted and whimpered because she was in so much pain. "I've never seen anything like it before," Reese said, and sitting in the witness box, this policeman began to cry...
We all ask, "How could someone so abuse a child-to stake her in the sun, feed her excrement, beat her bloody...Surely, only a monster could do this." yet Sandra Bearden's treatment of Maria is not unusual. How a seemingly normal person can descent into a spiral of violent control and abuse of another is one of the mysteries of slave holding..."
-"The Slave Next Door" by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter
This story is not a fictional story or one found in a move. It's reality. A factual horrid story that happened right here in our country. Where so many live free, this girl, many other girls, boys, women, and men are held as slaved in so many different ways. It's a similar story to that of Jaycee Dougard...just a different type of slavery. It happens all the time, but we just don't see it. We don't know exactly how to identify it. We pretend like it's not real. But it is real...very real. It's time we did something because the wise thing to do is to learn from other's mistakes. I don't want to wait for this to happen to someone I know.
I encourage everyone read this book. This book is filled with factual events and statistics. It makes recommendations on what we can do to help stop this horrid crime. Prayer is great and effective in so many way, but it's time to ACT. Jesus didn't just speak, HE acted. It's time we started to do what we were called to do. Save the lost and free the imprisoned...in more ways than one.
With lots of love,
Andi
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