The NEW Pizza Hideout

So a very wise friend of mine recently gave me a little bit of advice about blogging. He said that if you really want to write a blog well, you have to focus on something. you can't just write about anything and everything.

If you've read the pizza hideout before then you know that previously it has basically just been the musings of one Jesse Wilson. While I do admit that I myself am somewhat entertained by this, ultimately, it wasn't very good or information, or even interesting.

From here on out Pizza Hideout will be a blog about what it says: PIZZA. Every entry from this point forward will be about pizza places, pizza deals, pizza ads, etc. So stay tuned, because I got some good info coming down the pike. And if you are a pizza place, then feel free to send me some gift cards and I will check your stuff out and write about it. Peace.

Taken Displays the Gritty World of Human Trafficking

The recent film, Taken, is an action-packed thriller about a father, played by Liam Neeson, (who coincidentally is the voice of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia). Neeson desperately attempts to save his abducted daughter from the underground world of human trafficking. In the film, Neeson’s daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace, travels to Paris for a holiday with her friend. Upon arriving in the airport, the girls are targeted by sex traders and later kidnapped. Unfortunately for the sex traders, Kim’s father is an ex-government agent with all the skills necessary to track down the predators and make them pay for their crimes.

Despite the Hollywood ending—most girls are not the daughters of former secret agents and they are not rescued by daddy within 48 hours of being caught up in the dark world of human trafficking—Taken did accurately depict many details of this evil business.

Human traffickers often target young women and girls who are naïve, ignorant, and/or trusting. In Taken, a sex trader earns the girls trust in the form of an attractive and friendly young man who strikes up a conversation with the girls and then later asks them if they would like to go to a party later on, securing their address. Traffickers routinely use a charming, friendly face to lie to girls and promise them great opportunities such as parties, work opportunities, or family reunions. These of course are all lies to con girls into going with them to be later forced into the sex trade.

Taken also correctly depicts the traders forcibly drugging up the abducted girls. This does two things. First, it drastically lowers their coherence making it much easier for traders to use them as prostitutes and in brothels. Second, it builds up a drug dependency that the traders use to keep the girls in the brothel. The girls will become so desperate for the drugs, that they will do anything to get them, including any sexual desires of paying “clients”.

The sad reality is that there are more slaves in the world today than ever before in the history of mankind. Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world (drugs being the first). Total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion. Victims experience a loss of freedom and exploitation at the hands of the traffickers who buy and sell them in pursuit of profit. They are incarcerated in brothels that are nothing but prisons. Human trafficking is very much a modern-day slavery.

The U.S. State Department estimates that one million children are exploited each year in the global commercial sex trade.* These statistics are both staggering and tragic and the church can no longer stand idly by as millions of children and women are being abducted and abused for profit off sexual pleasures.

To combat this growing industry, CIY Missions has partnered with an organization called Rapha House to take short-term missions trips to Cambodia to help keep young girls out of the slave trade for the past two years. The Hebrew word for healing is Rapha, which is exactly what the girls at Rapha House receive. One of the tragic realities of human trafficking is that even if girls are rescued from the sex trade, they will often find themselves back in it again after a few months. This is because they have no other practical skills or trades with which they can earn a living. Rapha House provides a safe haven to harbor the girls and teach them valuable skills to use for the rest of their lives so they can make a living without resorting to prostitution. Instead of being a statistic, each girl is seen as an individual with hopes and dreams and potential to make a huge impact in the world. Tragedy plays a part in each girl’s story, but that’s not where the story ends. These precious girls are finding hope in place of heartbreak, healing in place of pain, and freedom in place of captivity.

Since January 2008, we have taken five teams to Cambodia to partner alongside Rapha House. Each group of students and adults is confronted with the harsh reality of human trafficking and the pain these girls have suffered. Many of these girls have lost their childhood. Teams are engaged in teaching English, VBS, sewing classes, Bible lessons, singing, games, and assisting in other vocational training classes, but the most important thing is showing the love of Jesus Christ.

As affluent, suburban living Americans, it’s easy to forget that the rest of the world doesn’t have many of the freedoms we take for granted. As Christians, we need to be disturbed about the issue of human trafficking and the sexual trends of our culture and the culture of the world. It is an injustice of the church to turn a blind eye to the helpless children being exploited, even if it is in another country. We have to be advocates against human trafficking—educating others and praying that the oppressed will be set free. Even more, we need to be the hands that help break the chains of injustice.

Hopefully, with the recent success of Taken at the box office, people will become more aware of the very real problems in the world regarding human trafficking and the millions of women and children being forced in the industry. Worldwide, moral standards have deteriorated to an all time low and the by-product is a sexually-charged society seeking pleasure through pornography, internet, rape, incest, and the sexual exploitation of children—a culture reduced to evil means in pursuit of sexual pleasure. Let’s pray that in the end, pain and injustice will not have the final say. Rather, hope, freedom, and love will have the final say.

*U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, “The Facts about Child Sex Tourism.”

Lindsay Lohan Speaks for a Generation

Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan recently posted online (www.funnyordie.com) a spoof eHarmony video stating that she was “searching for love”. Throughout the minute and a half video Lindsay details all the “qualities” that she is looking for in a partner while simultaneously poking fun of all the wild antics and debaucheries that make up her life and subsequently, most of her claims to fame that have enabled her to become Hollywood’s most notorious “Bad Girl”.

Throughout this eHarmony spoof Lindsay coyly laughs as she describes her favorite pastimes in form of her media-covered vices: excessive partying, drug usage, drunk driving, house arrest, and both heterosexual and homosexual promiscuity. And while much of America has applauded Lindsay for her prowess and ability to make fun of her own flaws, it’s apparent that both Lindsay and America just don’t get it. They don’t get why despite having the world at her fingertips, Lindsay’s life is in shambles and she is desperately trying to fill the void in her life. And while she may be laughing at herself and her many misguided attempts for happiness, it is a very unapologetic laugh with no sign of regret, change, or hope.

The cover story of the April 8^th issue of US Weekly has Lindsay stating, “I’m so alone”. It appears that after turning to the worlds of partying, drugs, both heterosexual and homosexual promiscuity, money, and fame, she has come up feeling empty. As a Christian youth worker, it’s no mystery to me as to why she has no fulfillment. With a world that clamors for her self-destruction to feed its entertainment appetite and a mother that exploits her for self-indulgence, I would guess Lindsay statement at the beginning of her video is true: she is looking for love.

It would be easy to write Lindsay off as a lost cause, but what would you tell her if you had the chance? John chapter 4 tells of a similar woman whose life had derailed. Jesus is sitting by a well in Samaria when a woman comes up to get some water. This woman had been married five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus immediately reached out to her, despite her heritage and past mistakes. As shown by the six men she had been with, she was desperately seeking love, desperately seeking something. Recognizing the broken person inside, Jesus showed her mercy and love.

This story is a great example of how the world had given up on this woman, but Jesus did not. She had spun out of control and had conceded to living in sin. And it is here that Jesus found her and loved her. He met her while she was still a sinner. Through this moment of acceptance and understanding, the woman is forever changed. In fact, a few verses later, John tells us that the whole town believed in Jesus because of this woman’s testimony.

We are called to do the same. The Barna Group recently came out with a study showing that less than one half of 18 – 23 year olds have a biblical worldview[1]. Lindsay Lohan is just one of a whole generation of American teenagers and young adults that are seeking fulfillment, but are looking everywhere except the church. Regardless if she cares, Lindsay is one of the voices of this generation. As she herself claims, she “single-handedly keeps 90% of all gossip websites in business”, making her the poster-child for out-of-control American teens. And while she wears this as a badge of honor, in reality, she is a role model for thousands of teens across America.

Lindsay obviously faces some challenges in her life that are unique to her position and her celebrity status, but her reactions are the same that many teenagers and young adults make in every part of the country and at every economic level. It’s easy to write people off as “lost causes”, but we aren’t called to do that. We are called to show them the love of God. While the world may be content to watch Lindsay self-destruct and then talk about it the next morning around the water cooler, God is not. And he is desperately seeking this lost generation. He has a heart for Lindsay and the countless other young people around the world following her lead.

We need to approach this generation the same way that Jesus approached the woman at the well. Because much like Lindsay, many of our youths are seeking love in all the wrong places and their lives are spinning out of control. They may not have the platform and publicity that she has, but you are naïve if you think that kids in your corner of the country aren’t flirting with and perhaps diving headfirst into many of the same issues: alcoholism, drug abuse, bisexuality, homosexuality, loneliness, self-mutilation.

The church is called to continue the work of Christ to this generation, especially those that are out of control. Lindsay and millions of kids need to know that God loves them regardless of who they are and regardless of what they have done. And it is up to us as Christians to show this generation that love.