Show your Support

Dear Virginia Blogger,

On Thursday, April 7th, Senator Webb of Virginia is calling a hearing to review the work of the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) in East Asia. We want your help in thanking the Senator for holding this hearing as well as conveying our support for the TIP Office’s critical work to fight human trafficking worldwide. It is crucial that the Senator hear from you, his constituent, to k...now Virginians care about U.S. leadership in the fight against modern-day slavery.

The TIP Office’s annual TIP Report spotlights gaps in countries’ response to slavery and trafficking, and provides help to address those weaknesses. The Report encourages governments to free slaves and trafficking victims, bring perpetrators to justice, and deter the crime. IJM has seen the positive impact of the TIP Office firsthand.

Will you help flood Senator Webb’s office with phone calls to convey support for the TIP Office on April 6?

Making a call is easy: You can reach Senator Webb’s office at (202) 224-4024,
 and use this sample script:

Hi, my name is [Your Name] and I’m calling from [Your City], VA. I’d like to thank Senator Webb for holding this important hearing on the crime of slavery and trafficking around the world on April 7th and would just like to convey my support for the good work of the TIP office. Would you pass my message along to the Senator? Thanks!
Thank you for lending your voice to support the TIP Office so they can continue fighting on behalf of children, women, and men in bondage around the world.

Gratefully,

Annick Febrey

Program Coordinator, Government Relations

Barefoot

                       Can you go one day without shoes?

In many developing countries, children must walk barefoot for miles to school, clean water and medical care.

I am going through my day without wearing shoes. Join me!

Maria, Age 10, Guatemala

Why Shoes:

Mountainous and muddy terrain makes

farming difficult, both physically and

economically, and Maria has never owned

a pair of new shoes. This leaves her exposed

to infection, intestinal worms, and cold weather illness.

Long-term Benefit:

With additional protection from illness and

infection, Maria can spend more days helping

her family and building her potential in school.

Blessings
Charity for
        

Take a stand.

Just recently, I found out that 

President Obama has instructed Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the federal courts.

DOMA passed in 1996 with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 342-67 in the House and 85-14 in the Senate and was later signed into law by President Bill Clinton. House Speaker John Boehner vows that the House will defend the law.*

Christians need to understand this complicated issue and prepare themselves for another battle in the war over traditional marriage.


Just today, as I was reading through the news, I feel upon an article in response to Pres. Obama's decision:

Just weeks after the Obama administration announced it would no longer legally defend the Defense of Marriage act, some of the president's biggest Hollywood supporters have signed a letter urging him to go a step further and legalize same-sex marriage.

Anne Hathaway, Martin Sheen, Jane Lynch and Ellen DeGeneres are among the actors who have signed an open letter sponsored by Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy group working to promote marriage rights for same-sex couples.**
Can you believe it? Anne Hathaway, along with many other actors we know are urging Obama to support same-sex marriage. 
Can it get worse?


Now, dear readers, I urge you to take a stand. 
Do something to stop this.


Post about these articles on Facebook and blogging. 

Sign the "The Manhattan Declaration" and get more updates on current issues going on in our country.
Blog about Manhattan Declaration.
Read other pieces from those who are taking a stand against this.


For you girls, I encourage you to write Anne Hathaway***. 
For me, I used to admire Anne Hathaway. But her taking a stand for same-sex marriage has really lowered my view of her.
Write her and tell her what you think. Write multiple times. 
Blog about it and encourage others to write.


We may be but one person, but one person is more than none.


Take a stand. 
Tell others.
Don't let this go unanswered.


"God has a plan to help bring justice to the world, and His plan is us."
-Gary Haugen
Pres. of IJM


Seek Him First,
Charity Anne for

*Manhattan Declaration article 

**Yahoo article

*** Anne Hathaway's Address'

Fan Mail Address: Anne Hathaway Management 360 9111 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90210 USA Address Information: Management 360 (Talent Management Company) 9111 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90210 USA Phone: Fax: (310) 272-0070

True love.....for real?

Love......when did this word really come into being? When the world was made?

2010 years ago, on a dark night in the city of Bethlehem a small child was born. A child that would save us from our sins, God made man. That night love was made *real*. God sent His only child, to a world of pain and sin, and why? Because he loved us.


The meaning of Love now in our culture is so different from what it was 2010.
The media has twisted that word and changed its meaning, "Give love to get love back."

Where has that *real* love gone to? The love God gave us that we did not deserve. Can we ever get it back?

Guess what? It never left, God's *real* love is here even more, and it is our place to bring it out. Send it to every tribe and nation, every tongue and dialect. God loved us expecting nothing back, we can also love others in that same manner.

Here is one way we can spread God's *real* love:

Loving your neighbor as yourself.
"For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." 1 John 3:11

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40

1 JOHN 4:7-21~God's Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Love is not an option, it is an expression of our union with Christ.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Ephesians. 4:1-3


Speaking the Truth in Love to one another:


1. Honor one another (Rom 12:10)
2. Encourage one another (1 Thes. 5:11, Heb. 10:25)
3. Confess to one another (James 5:16)
4. Pray for one another (James 5:16)

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1 John 3:13-15

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:18

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 3:23

To love God is to love others.

♥God is love.♥ If we do not love others, we do not love God.

Today, tomorrow, seek out someone in particular to show God's love to, and be reminded of just how much God loves you.

Tonight, when you have a quiet moment, grab a blanket and your favorite drink and sit down to read Luke 2, the greatest Love story of all.

Much Blessings,
Charity Anne for

P.S For more on loving your neighbors and loving God, read 1 John 3 and 1 John 4:7-20