What #Dressember Taught Me

http://www.thea21campaign.org

Each morning this past December, even when I spent the day at home, I got up, got dressed and prepared to meet the day in freedom and grace. 

There were days when I felt depressed and sad for no apparent reason.  Being in a season of mid-life and the realization of time and moments past that didn’t go as well as I had hoped has left me mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted to the point that I would rather not face some of the days that present themselves.  I know.  Poor me. 

What I have faced and am facing in life is of no consequence as I consider what others are enduring at the expense of greed. 

Each day in December as I dressed and prepared to face life’s demands, I CHOSE to wear a Dress as a symbol of solidarity and encouragement for all things feminine and the many things that are taken for granted and abused when it comes to being wonderfully created as a female by the workmanship of God. 

 

I dressed the way I wanted and went where I wanted.  Not everyone has that choice.  

Some have been trapped by those they thought trustworthy and others were sold by those they love.

“the poor don’t have much in the way of money or possessions to steal—so it turns out that the most profitable thing to steal is the whole person.”
― Gary A. Haugen, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence

There are women-many very young and some young men-who have been entrapped by the darkness of the evil one in the sad and wicked sex and slave industry.  Not just around the world but right here in the US and even in our very own backyards. 

Wearing a dress each day, I wondered if anyone noticed, did they pay attention to my “selfies” on social media…

Honesty, I felt self centered at times and thought I would stop participating…then friends began to say things like “you didn’t post a picture of your dress yesterday!”  Oh, they noticed.  

And they were listening if even from a distance and not quite sure how to respond.

http://www.thea21campaign.org

“Every 30 seconds, someone becomes a victim of modern-day slavery.”

All of my picture posting led to a conversation with a friend who asked more about Dressember and then told me what I had dreaded to hear...

She mentioned working part time at a place near a “spa” and how the ladies were never seen outside of the “office” and were ushered quickly each night into a van and driven away. 

“As the world's fastest growing criminal industry, it affects every nation across the globe.”

The place is one I have often considered shady and felt it a place of sex trafficking… but not certain and with no means, experience or qualifications to do anything but pray each time I drive by.  

I feel lame and poorly equipped to make
a real difference. 

But I do have a voice.  Even if small. Even when I think no one is listening. Even when it doesn’t resonate around the globe…my voice resonates in the echoes of the valleys and hills of my community. 

There is a list of 21 things you and I can do to help bring awareness to this injustice in our everyday ordinary. 

The word of God teaches us to Love Mercy and to Do Justice.  I don’t know about you, but I am praying that God will grant me a LOVE for Mercy and that He will show me what I can DO to bring Justice to those who are held captive by those who are nothing more than money hungry or pleasure seeking at the expense of human life that God created. 

God is Worthy and He is Worth It.