Inhuman Trafficking
Listening to the World of the Marginalised and Discarded
We realise:
That Human Trafficking is not about the freedom to go where one wants to go but being exiled from the home and loved ones, in order to bring a new hope to their despair and destitution.
That the life of the peoples on the move is not about autonomous mobility or social advancement but being caught in a web of intrigues that bring us to the brink of submissive servitude, bordering on slavery. It is on the contrary, a movement organised by forces outside our control, often through subtle deception and overt manipulation, with the promise of a life of freedom and fortunes.
That the new Home the victims of trafficking were promised and dreamt of turns into a nightmare to be lived each day and night. They still long deep within their hearts for the joy, intended to be planted by You in every human heart. When cast ashore on desolate shores they learn to stand alone in the land of strangers and foreigners. It is only the God that we believe that makes us face the sun each day and wish the sunset will bring new dreams as we lay our heads in the night.
Speaking to the Lord in the Depths of our Being
We believe:
That You don’t want to know what religion each of us belongs to. You want us to experience and express our oneness with You in and through our relationship with others, especially those who are dejected and despised. This is indeed the most important task for everyone, who truly believes in the God of Divinity, who longs to take root in the Heart of Humanity.
That to be truly God’s People is a continuous invitation by You to keep searching for Your Divine Presence in all that is fully Human. This is always and forever your desire that is deeply embedded in our vocation to becoming Man and Woman alive to one another in Your Created World.
That the painful path to Goodness involves creating a new space in our Hearts, for You are the God of Peace. We are challenged to set aside our egoism that pushes us to make materialism and hedonism a way of life. Without You we will surely place new created idols in the temples of our souls. Without You the Others don’t matter. Only money and mammon, power and prestige grip the strings of our hearts.
That when Your face is effaced from the faces of Human Persons and from the face of the Earth, we are confronted with the realisation that humanity is in need of a new salvation. You want us to become the agents of your Mercy and voice of Your Conscience.
That our journey into the lives of the miserable and the vulnerable is the only path for humankind to regain our humanity. To resist evil today calls us to pursue a path to You, the God of Goodness. We restore Your Goodness Within us by giving up the Self for the weak and the feeble, so that they will all experience Your Glad News.
Crying Together to the Heavens
Dear Spirit of the Universe and the Master of Humanity
You are the one God of Creation and of Humanity
Our Home is in your Being and we want to walk with you in freedom
We believe that you will one day allow us to experience the love of the Divine Within
Dear Saviour of the Weak and the Wounded
You are our only strength: for the vulnerable and weak, the women and children
Have no one but You to bring peace that we long for within
We know you will shed your guiding light on our steep and winding paths.
Dear Lord of Justice and Reverence
In your presence we await patiently to hear the voices of condemnation
Against the evils of the greedy, the governors, the agents and their customers
We are convinced that to be treated thus is against Your law and design.
A New Listening to the God Within
Lord, we often can’t hear the voices
Of those who are out of sight, hidden in the backstreets, backrooms and backyards
They are indeed far from us and of course from our hearts
But listening to Your Sprit has led us to get closer to them
We are ready now to put a face to their names
We can now say we want to journey with them in their new homes.
Lord, they began this journey in search of life to the full
Wanting to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and despair
They think they were pushed by fate and may have lost faith in themselves
We want to restore the meaning of life and all that it holds
We want to share the gifts given to us, to offer them food, shelter and dignity
Through our hands and deeds, they will know You are our Loving God.
Lord, we have seen that many of your special children
Have nurtured the hope in You and new horizons have emerged
We really want to walk with them out of the world of pain and misery
We really want to stride hand in hand with them
We want to face together a new world born of Your Spirit
So that humiliations and disdained can become a memory of the past.
A Renewed Compassion for the Weak and the Vulnerable
Lord God, the Soul of our Being
How can we remain silent?
In the face of the reality of the lives of millions of human beings who have lost their dignity in the world of sex tourism, prostitution, migration and smuggling.
How can we remain indifferent?
When we know that to be pushed and pulled violates the inherent freedom given by God, as the hallmark of being children of God and citizens of the Kingdom Divine.
When we become aware that the space is our divided hearts has only now a place for the ego of the self and no place for God and God’s special suffering children.
When we realise that children and women are treated in cruel, inhuman and degrading ways by the market-driven world of commerce and commodities and for pleasure and perversions.
We can turn our Silence and Indifference into Empathy:
When we become convinced that they often grew up in environments in the home, where there was neglect, thriving on corporal punishment and sexual and verbal abuse even by their “loved ones”. They have often been numbed into existence and thus unable to understand the meaning of what is right and what are their rights because their lives have always been “wrong and wronged”.
We can turn our Silence and Indifference into Commitment to Compassion:
When we dare to get closer to those in pain and anguish, we will begin to discover persons behind the persona. Their stories will become the good news for our ears turning our emptiness into encounters with Divine Compassion. Listening to them is the path to our conversion.
When their stories of shame and embarrassment allows us to grow in our convictions that desolation and wretchedness, hopelessness and gloom, despondency and disdain, even for the self is not the plan of the Divine for Humanity. Their tears become our saving waters to wipe away the dusts from our eyes. We in the process can also learn to cry with the God of Compassion for the children so dear to God’s Heart. We will have the courage to turn their tears of sorrow into tears of joy. We can walk with them along the path to self confidence and a new consciousness to the shelters we will create for them new home in our land.
We can turn our Silence and Indifference into Solidarity:
When we dare to listen to their stories of shame and despair, embedded deep within their being, we understand the scripts of their stories and the masked actors on the stage. We become aware of the forces that have driven them into desperation and deprivation. We begin to understand the logic of the market and policies of the market mechanisms.
When we realise that the task of combating trafficking cannot be separated from the fight against poverty. We want to make the promotion and defence of human rights a way to a world of justice with peace. We need Your strength and courage to dismantle gender discrimination and redesign gender roles in the family and in society.
When through our participation in civil society and through policy advocacy contribute to a greater awareness of the lives of the vulnerable. Through education and legislation eradicate poverty that drive people away from their families and friends into the hands foes and fiends.
When clear migration policies are fully implements and supervised by a new alliances of networks that will safeguard the inherent rights of the weak and vulnerable, who are on the move.
Lord, give us a new Empathy
So that we can become united in You
Lord, give us deep Compassion
So that we can share with them Your Love
Lord, give us a renewed sense of Solidarity
So that the world will reflect Your Designs
Anthony Rogers FSC
20th October 2007
We realise:
That Human Trafficking is not about the freedom to go where one wants to go but being exiled from the home and loved ones, in order to bring a new hope to their despair and destitution.
That the life of the peoples on the move is not about autonomous mobility or social advancement but being caught in a web of intrigues that bring us to the brink of submissive servitude, bordering on slavery. It is on the contrary, a movement organised by forces outside our control, often through subtle deception and overt manipulation, with the promise of a life of freedom and fortunes.
That the new Home the victims of trafficking were promised and dreamt of turns into a nightmare to be lived each day and night. They still long deep within their hearts for the joy, intended to be planted by You in every human heart. When cast ashore on desolate shores they learn to stand alone in the land of strangers and foreigners. It is only the God that we believe that makes us face the sun each day and wish the sunset will bring new dreams as we lay our heads in the night.
Speaking to the Lord in the Depths of our Being
We believe:
That You don’t want to know what religion each of us belongs to. You want us to experience and express our oneness with You in and through our relationship with others, especially those who are dejected and despised. This is indeed the most important task for everyone, who truly believes in the God of Divinity, who longs to take root in the Heart of Humanity.
That to be truly God’s People is a continuous invitation by You to keep searching for Your Divine Presence in all that is fully Human. This is always and forever your desire that is deeply embedded in our vocation to becoming Man and Woman alive to one another in Your Created World.
That the painful path to Goodness involves creating a new space in our Hearts, for You are the God of Peace. We are challenged to set aside our egoism that pushes us to make materialism and hedonism a way of life. Without You we will surely place new created idols in the temples of our souls. Without You the Others don’t matter. Only money and mammon, power and prestige grip the strings of our hearts.
That when Your face is effaced from the faces of Human Persons and from the face of the Earth, we are confronted with the realisation that humanity is in need of a new salvation. You want us to become the agents of your Mercy and voice of Your Conscience.
That our journey into the lives of the miserable and the vulnerable is the only path for humankind to regain our humanity. To resist evil today calls us to pursue a path to You, the God of Goodness. We restore Your Goodness Within us by giving up the Self for the weak and the feeble, so that they will all experience Your Glad News.
Crying Together to the Heavens
Dear Spirit of the Universe and the Master of Humanity
You are the one God of Creation and of Humanity
Our Home is in your Being and we want to walk with you in freedom
We believe that you will one day allow us to experience the love of the Divine Within
Dear Saviour of the Weak and the Wounded
You are our only strength: for the vulnerable and weak, the women and children
Have no one but You to bring peace that we long for within
We know you will shed your guiding light on our steep and winding paths.
Dear Lord of Justice and Reverence
In your presence we await patiently to hear the voices of condemnation
Against the evils of the greedy, the governors, the agents and their customers
We are convinced that to be treated thus is against Your law and design.
A New Listening to the God Within
Lord, we often can’t hear the voices
Of those who are out of sight, hidden in the backstreets, backrooms and backyards
They are indeed far from us and of course from our hearts
But listening to Your Sprit has led us to get closer to them
We are ready now to put a face to their names
We can now say we want to journey with them in their new homes.
Lord, they began this journey in search of life to the full
Wanting to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and despair
They think they were pushed by fate and may have lost faith in themselves
We want to restore the meaning of life and all that it holds
We want to share the gifts given to us, to offer them food, shelter and dignity
Through our hands and deeds, they will know You are our Loving God.
Lord, we have seen that many of your special children
Have nurtured the hope in You and new horizons have emerged
We really want to walk with them out of the world of pain and misery
We really want to stride hand in hand with them
We want to face together a new world born of Your Spirit
So that humiliations and disdained can become a memory of the past.
A Renewed Compassion for the Weak and the Vulnerable
Lord God, the Soul of our Being
How can we remain silent?
In the face of the reality of the lives of millions of human beings who have lost their dignity in the world of sex tourism, prostitution, migration and smuggling.
How can we remain indifferent?
When we know that to be pushed and pulled violates the inherent freedom given by God, as the hallmark of being children of God and citizens of the Kingdom Divine.
When we become aware that the space is our divided hearts has only now a place for the ego of the self and no place for God and God’s special suffering children.
When we realise that children and women are treated in cruel, inhuman and degrading ways by the market-driven world of commerce and commodities and for pleasure and perversions.
We can turn our Silence and Indifference into Empathy:
When we become convinced that they often grew up in environments in the home, where there was neglect, thriving on corporal punishment and sexual and verbal abuse even by their “loved ones”. They have often been numbed into existence and thus unable to understand the meaning of what is right and what are their rights because their lives have always been “wrong and wronged”.
We can turn our Silence and Indifference into Commitment to Compassion:
When we dare to get closer to those in pain and anguish, we will begin to discover persons behind the persona. Their stories will become the good news for our ears turning our emptiness into encounters with Divine Compassion. Listening to them is the path to our conversion.
When their stories of shame and embarrassment allows us to grow in our convictions that desolation and wretchedness, hopelessness and gloom, despondency and disdain, even for the self is not the plan of the Divine for Humanity. Their tears become our saving waters to wipe away the dusts from our eyes. We in the process can also learn to cry with the God of Compassion for the children so dear to God’s Heart. We will have the courage to turn their tears of sorrow into tears of joy. We can walk with them along the path to self confidence and a new consciousness to the shelters we will create for them new home in our land.
We can turn our Silence and Indifference into Solidarity:
When we dare to listen to their stories of shame and despair, embedded deep within their being, we understand the scripts of their stories and the masked actors on the stage. We become aware of the forces that have driven them into desperation and deprivation. We begin to understand the logic of the market and policies of the market mechanisms.
When we realise that the task of combating trafficking cannot be separated from the fight against poverty. We want to make the promotion and defence of human rights a way to a world of justice with peace. We need Your strength and courage to dismantle gender discrimination and redesign gender roles in the family and in society.
When through our participation in civil society and through policy advocacy contribute to a greater awareness of the lives of the vulnerable. Through education and legislation eradicate poverty that drive people away from their families and friends into the hands foes and fiends.
When clear migration policies are fully implements and supervised by a new alliances of networks that will safeguard the inherent rights of the weak and vulnerable, who are on the move.
Lord, give us a new Empathy
So that we can become united in You
Lord, give us deep Compassion
So that we can share with them Your Love
Lord, give us a renewed sense of Solidarity
So that the world will reflect Your Designs
Anthony Rogers FSC
20th October 2007
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