Shared Hope International

Leading a worldwide effort to eradicate sexual slavery...one life at a time

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A Personal Experience with the Defender’s Pledge

I am deeply passionate about this issue of sex slavery. I have three little girls of my own and I cannot imagine any of them going through what many of the girls saved by Shared Hope have gone through. I am so grateful for the work that Shared Hope is doing and I want to thank you for taking a strong stand as a man to see this horrible injustice come to an end.

As for how the pledge is working out in my daily life, I can say that I am doing my best. I have abstained from pornography, prostitution and any form of commercial sex . . . to the point that I hardly even watch television or movies any longer. Sex is used in almost every form of commercial entertainment and marketing, it is almost inescapable, but we must try to avoid it at all costs—even if that means canceling our cable, passing on the latest movie and choosing to skip the magazine aisle in the grocery store, whatever it takes.

I could do a better job of holding my friends accountable for their actions toward women and children. I know everyone around me knows where I stand on the issue, but I wish I were more outspokenon the issue. I am continuing to pray for boldness in that area.

I feel I am taking action to protect those I love from this market. I am trying to instill in my little girls an understanding that they are beautiful because they are created in the image of God, not because the culture or anyone else tells them so. I don’t want them to ever fall into the trap of being more concerned with their outside beauty than what is on the inside. I know that sounds like a cliché but I believe that is one of the fundamental lies that lead girls and young women into the commercial sex lifestyle.

Aaron

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CNN – As Sex Trade Increases around Conventions, Shared Hope Steps Up

 

“Our message is not to accuse America’s political leaders of engaging in the commercial sex industry,” Shared Hope founder and president Linda Smith said in a statement. “On the contrary, we are asking them to no longer be disengaged on the issue.”

 

“As the leaders of our nation, we need lawmakers to stand against the driving force of the illegal commercial sex industry that claims thousands of American children each year,” said Smith, a former congresswoman. “That driving force is demand.”

FULL STORY:  As Sex Trade Increases Around Conventions, Faith-Based Groups Step Up Efforts

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Reunited: How Reshma Reclaimed Her Baby

Reshma looked like a child herself as she lay sobbing for her baby.  In painful recovery from a C-section, but with no baby in her arms, she was inconsolable.  Seven months earlier, she had nearly decided to abort, but a missionary she happened to meet in Kathmandu urged her to preserve the life and promised to take the baby and raise it. Besides abortion, that was her only other choice.

Reshma’s pregnancy was the result of one of the many times she was raped.  From a remote village in Nepal, she was lured to the city with the promise of work, and ended up enslaved by a bar owner that sold girls for sex along with the drinks.  She had no family to run to, no friends in the city, knew of no place to flee where she and her child could survive, so in mid-May when the baby came, the nameless little girl was delivered from Reshma’s womb into the hands of the missionary family.

The family had heard about Shared Hope’s partner, Asha Nepal, outside Kathmandu—a place that understood and loved young women like her and would offer her a place to recover from her surgery—and they made arrangements for Reshma to come to Asha Nepal.  She was received with warmth and tenderness, something she was amazed to experience.  But more than that, she learned that this was a place that was alive with children also!  As she lay on her bed, hearing their voices, the regret of giving up her baby overwhelmed her.  She had no idea there was a place like this–that would love and care for her—much less her child too!

The Shared Hope team arrived at Asha Nepal the day after Reshma came to them and was immediately caught up in the dramatic events as Asha Nepal’s director interceded with the missionary family to reunite mom and baby.  With sadness but with blessing, they agreed to give back the precious little one that Reshma named “Angel.”  There was great emotion at Asha Nepal and a joyful welcome into their new family when little Angel was placed in the arms of a beaming Reshma.

The timing of the Shared Hope visit was serendipity!  It gave us a first hand, vivid demonstration of how our supporters love and generosity changes tears of sorrow to tears of joy!  We’re so thankful!

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Defenders Guest Blog: The MST Project

My name is Jon Bean and I along with Steve Neyman make up the staff of the MST Project – Stateside. My journey toward the MST Project began early in life when I encountered pornography for the first time. I really had no idea what it was, just that I liked it. Oh, and I felt very, very ashamed.

This cycle of pleasure followed by shame became a constant habit for me. It took on many different forms but that cycle was always there. I heard a lot of judgment directed at me as well as others that shared my struggle as I went through life and that just succeeded in driving me further into myself, which was a bad place to be.

I tried accountability which I still do to this day but that only worked as long as I had the commitment to be completely honest and too many times my need for secrecy as well as a newly blossoming need to feel affirmed by others usually derailed those efforts. As I spiraled down, I started to feel like it was hopeless, that there was no chance that I would ever see freedom. This led me down paths of anger, apathy, isolation, fear, even suicidal thoughts.

I tried to lead this double life of addiction in private, while still balancing a healthy seeming life in public. One of the most destructive things about sex addiction is that there are no outward symptoms that people can look at and see that something isn’t right. If you can lie, you can hide.

A combination of things has contributed to my path to freedom including the forgiveness of my family and others that I hurt. An intellectual understanding of Gods grace, combined with a direct and personal experience of that grace in my life. I have seen that grace demonstrated by my wife and friends and I have seen it demonstrated by men who understood and cared about my healing and restoration.

It wasn’t an overnight process and it wasn’t just one man. It was a series of honest and open relationships based on compassion, honesty, and hope for what my heart could be when I allowed God to change it.

The men and women that make up the staff of the MST project come to this from different perspectives. We don’t have identical life experiences but what we do share is a compassion for men and a desire that will have a chance to experience the change that only God can make to their hearts.

We have heard some say that there isn’t really a point to this, that men don’t want to change and we should just leave them alone. We don’t agree. We have all experienced on a personal level the restoration and redemption that only God can give. We see this as a responsibility to take this message of love and redemption to men, one by one, and meet them where they are. We don’t wait. The love of God brought to them in a place and in a way that they don’t expect can have a powerful effect. We know that God’s love is available to all people in all places and we don’t have any other option but to put that into practice.

We know that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. That includes broken and hurting men in red light districts, men looking at porn or visiting strip clubs or however they try to medicate this brokenness. This is why we choose to take that message of God’s hope, healing, grace, and love to them.

Jon Bean is on staff with The MST Project – Stateside along with Steve Neyman. You can find them online at www.mstproject.com, on Twitter at @jonmstp and @stevemstp or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/MST-Project-Stateside

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