End It Movement

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Today is Shine a Light on Slavery Day and Florida Divisional employees showed their support against human trafficking by coming together and putting a Red X on their hands.

Each day The Salvation Army is working together to bring awareness to each community about human trafficking.

The Salvation Army is committed to fighting against human trafficking (for sexual and labor purposes) and forms of commercial sexual exploitation linked to sex trafficking. This commitment emerges from both The Salvation Army’s mission – to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in His name without discrimination – and is rooted in the organization’s early history.

Join the Fight for Freedom and shine a light on slavery each day. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery – a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to over 40 million people around the world.

Did you know that Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery — a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to millions of people around the world? No matter where you live, it’s happening nearby.

From the girl forced into prostitution at a truck stop, to the man discovered in a restaurant kitchen, stripped of his passport and held against his will. All trafficking victims share one essential experience: the loss of freedom.

The Salvation Army Anti-Trafficking initiatives work alongside local law enforcement, FBI, ICE, and numerous other community partners to identify, rescue, and restore victims of forced labor and sexual exploitation. We help both foreign and domestic victims of all ages and ethnicities through our nationwide case management network. Along with giving immediate refuge and relief for victims, we take a holistic approach to healing, helping each person move from a state of victimized enslavement to God-centered self-sufficiency.

Contact your local Salvation Army to inquire how you can help and join the fight.

Together we can end it.

To learn more about The Salvation Army’s role in fighting for freedom visit www.sajustice.us.
If you need help: Please call or text the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
1 (888) 373-7888

National Human Trafficking Resource Center

SMS: 233733 (Text “HELP” or “INFO”)
Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week
Languages: English, Spanish, and 200 more languages
Website: traffickingresourcecenter.org

 

 

 

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An Answer to Prayer

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From the Heart of an Officer- Major Marion Durham

Today in Parkland….

The Family Assistance Center was much less crowded today. School will begin again next week so it was great to give away backpacks and gift cards to replace items lost in the quick evacuation of the school.

I enjoyed meeting therapy ponies along with the usual comfort dogs who have been here all week.

Today’s stories…

The first was an answer to prayer. We met a young woman yesterday who had left her bag in the classroom which included her identification papers. She’s a Canadian citizen and wanted to go home for a few days respite with her father. I woke up last night thinking about her and praying for her for many reasons. She was desperately working through her anger and had gotten a tattoo with Stoneman Douglas’ motto to honor her fallen classmates. First thing this morning she and her mother came back to the Center to book a flight through the resources there (thanks JetBlue) because school had made an exception and she got her papers back. Side note: she wasn’t in the freshman building. They may never get their items from that crime scene.

Also met a couple of young men today who were so impressive. They were sweet freshman, complete with smooth skin and braces on their teeth. The first wanted to replace a soccer jersey in memory of his lost friend. The other in particular is a hero. He herded 20 people into a classroom closet. They were really packed in there. His mother showed us the pictures he texted, including the pitch black one when they turned the light off to hide as they heard screaming and gunshots. They were Colombian and we held hands with the family and Enrique Azuaje prayed over them in Spanish.

Billy Graham died today. The Billy Graham Chaplain Ministry has been here all week too. They spend quite a bit of time at The Memorial and have had a beautiful presence. I wanted to go offer my condolences to them as they offer grief counseling to folks here, but it seemed unnecessary. Promoted to Glory and Home at last, they carry on his ministry in Jesus Name.

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Love is Good – 7 Ways to Do the Most Good

“The chief human need is to experience love.” – Chosen to be a Soldier

February is known as the month that celebrates love, but what if we practiced showing love doing the most good through acts of kindness and compassion every day?

 Consider donating time or food to your local charity

Whether you donate time, money or food it helps! More people than ever are in need and it’s not just the homeless. Children make up a large percentage of those needing food. Even with so much food in America many children and adults face poverty and hunger in every county.  In 2016, 41 million people struggle with hunger in the United States, including 13 million children. (FeedingAmerica.org)

 Recycle your Gently Used Clothes and Items to Your Local Thrift store

When you shop, or give to a Salvation Army Family Store, you are supporting local initiatives as well as our Adult Rehabilitation centers that help those battling addictions, progress towards recovery. A gently used item that you give brings families back together and is saving lives.

 Send a hand-written Thank you note

In the age of digital our email box is overflowing and our ding from text messages doesn’t ever seem to stop. When was the last time you wrote a thank you note? When someone opens a special thank you note just from you the smile you bring them might just make their day! There are also health benefits for you! According to Harvard health, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improves their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

 Smile

When you smile, you will feel happier and brighten someone else’s day.

Psychology Today has found that smiling helps transform you and the world around you. Each time you smile it activates neural messaging that benefits your health and happiness. You never know if the person you smile at is having a bad day and your smile may be one thing that makes their day better. Smiling is contagious, so smile!

 Focus on Being a Better Listener

Practicing better listening skills and taking an interest on how others are doing is a self-less attitude.

According to FastCompany.com, ways to be a better listener include:

1)    Listen to learn, not to be polite

2)    Quiet your agenda

3)    Ask more questions than you give answers

4)    Pay attention to your talk/listen ratio

5)    Repeat back what you heard

6)    Wait until someone is done talking before you respond

 Hold the door open for the person behind you without expecting a Thank you

How often have we opened the door for someone and not received a thank you in return and got upset? Keep doing good, keep opening doors and be kind. Open the door with the intention of giving and not receiving. If you don’t get a thank you, realize you have sown an act of kindness without expecting anything in return and that is awesome. If you get a thank you that’s even better!

If everyone would do little things that they would like done for them it adds up over time.  You cannot control others but you can control what you do and setting a good example of what kindness is and should be is a great place to start.

 Pay for someone’s coffee or food in the drive-thru or pay for a stranger’s meal

Recently, at a McDonalds drive thru, 167 drivers paid it forward. It took one person to pay for a meal that started a ripple effect. Frank Ward, the owner of the Scottsburg McDonald’s, described the chain as an “act of kindness.”

When the woman, whom Hostetler described as being in her early 60s, saw there was a man with four kids in the car behind her, she told Hostetler she’d pay for his $36 food order too.

“She paid it in full and told me to tell the dad Happy Father’s Day,” Hostetler recalled.

When Hostetler told the man that his four Happy Meals and other food was paid for, he offered to pay for the next two cars behind him. (ABC News)

One act of kindness can affect many people you will never meet and you do not know what that act of kindness can do! Keep sowing love, compassion and kindness one act of kindness at a time.

Love is Good and being kind and loving others never goes out of style. Here is to being kind every day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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