Have you seen these toilets??? They're GINORMOUS

Christmas is almost here!!!!!!

Which means time to watch ELF

Christmas Vacation, Santa Clause (my favorites), time to make Christmas cookies for the neighbors and co-workers, time to deck the halls while listening to NSYNC, Whitney Houston and my favorite,

Luther Vandross' (R.I.P) Christmas albums and....... time to shop till you drop, literally?

Truthfully the past 3 Christmases have been rather....hmmmm flustering I would say. My great grandfather passed away during one of those Christmases and the others were just rather stressful due to where I was financially at that time. BUT now, I'm a little better off financially, I weeded out some negativity in my life AND I am determined for this Christmas to be filled with lots of love, laughter, worship, and giving back!

This Christmas season, my hope is to fill someone's life with

Whether it's by sharing the story of Jesus, buying a cup of coffee and listening to someone's story,

baking all sorts of yumminess,

helping a non-profit, or random acts of kindness...these are the things on MY Christmas list.

sooooooo, with that said...here are some of my ideas for Christmas presents for my friends and family and I would like to share them with you just in case you may want to do the same.

fashionABLE This organization has beautiful hand woven scarfs by women who have been exploited due to poverty. By purchasing, you help creating sustainable income for these lovely women and their children.

My beautiful friend Courtney and her husband Brandon are trying to adopt a sibling group from Ethiopia! To help raise money they started their own Etsy store iheartetheopia AND they partnered with JustLoveCoffee who sells fair trade coffee and $5 of every bag sold goes towards their adoption fees.

Want to help war affected children??? Give a gift on behalf of yourself or someone else to Invisible Children in order to fund all the amazing programs they have for children affected by the war. From setting up a scholarship fund to building schools so these precious kiddos can have an education, these are just a couple of ways Invisible Children is making a difference in Uganda. You can also check out their online store, way cool apparel and much more. You should buy a bracelet, I did last year. I wear it all the time and it comes with a DVD that tells you more about Invisible Children.

Falling Whistles I actually just bought myself a whistle a few weeks ago and looooove it. This organization is helping to save the children who are involved in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All the money from YOU purchasing the whistle goes towards advocating for these children and providing rehabilitation for them! Be a whistleblower for peace! These children need YOU, they need US!

eXile International Bethany Haley and Peggy Cox co-founded this organization to help serve the hurting and displaced people of Africa. They partner with existing African organizations to provide art therapy and counseling, the HOPE Initiative, to Congo and East Africa. On their site, you can purchase beautiful photos of the heart of Africa, hand crafted beaded jewelry, and apparel, all which make great stocking stuffers and help provide trauma care to war-affected children.

Thistle Farms is a social enterprise that is run by women at the Magdalene House located right here in Nashville. Magdalene House is a residential program for women who have survived prostitution, violence, and addiction. They provide food, medical and dental needs, housing, education, job training, and therapy all without charge or taking any government funding. These women create bath and body products by hand which they sell online and in local stores. All the proceeds benefit them!!! While working there, they are able to learn skills in manufacturing, packaging, marketing, sales, and administration in order to better help them prepare for a bright future.

Mocha Club. Give the gift that gives twice! All the money from purchasing their apparel and accessories benefit Africa!!! Not only that...but you can also give up 2 mochas a month ($7) and just that small amount can help provide Africa with food, water, education, and HOPE. You can also decide where you want your money to go. They have programs for children and mothers at risk, education, clean water, HIV/AIDS, and orphan care and vulnerable children.

International Justice Mission. Give the gift of FREEDOM! by giving to IJM, you can send an IJM investigator undercover for a day, pay for all the court fees required to take a trafficker to trial, provide counseling and rehabilitation for human trafficking victims, and give a voice to victims of sexual violence. oh yeah, IJM is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression.

XXXChurch Jesus Loves Porn Starts Too...yep he does. XXX Church is designed to bring awareness, openness, and accountability for those affected by pornography. They are an online community that tours the world speaking to churches, colleges, and community centers. They have soooo many creative ways of reaching out to others who work in the pornography industry, who are being sexually exploited, and those who are entangled in their addiction to porn. They go into some of the most darkest places where religious people fear to go or just won't go. You are able to support them by purchasing their sweet apparel, books, dvds, and software or just by donating money to help them continue to be a light in a very dark world.

Okay, so these are some of the amazing, life changing organizations that I have purchased items from for either myself or loved ones for Christmas! You should do the same...just sayin! Give the gift of life and freedom this year: freedom from addiction, freedom from chains, freedom from poverty and freedom from sin. Give someone hope, give them your time, your love, and Jesus =)

For more ideas check out these organizations:

Blood Water Mission

Free the Slaves

Love146

Made By Survivors

Somaly Mam Foundation

Call + Response

Love, Megs

A Survivor of Sex Trafficking

While doing some research, I came across the story of, Tina Frundt, an amazing women who is fighting to free the slaves! She recently won the Fredrick Douglas Freedom Award, an award given to an individual who has survived a form of slavery and is using his or her life in freedom to help others!!!

I thought Tina's story and the wonderful work she is doing should be told......

Tina was forced into prostitution by a young man in his 20's who she met when she was 13 years old at a neighborhood store. He befriended her, gained her trust all while planting seeds of manipulation. As time continued, they developed a romantic relationship and Tina thought she loved him. Around the time she turned 14, he convinced her to go with him to Cleveland, OH, to meet his family. She had no idea that his "family" meant herself and three other girls. From there on, he picked out her clothes, told her what to say, how to walk, what to wear, what to say to "Johns" and how much money she needed to bring back to him. When she did not bring the right amount back, she would then be beaten and burned with cigarettes in front of the other girls along with being locked in a closet during the nights as her punishment. For more than a year Tina was forced to serve up to 18 men a day.

She finally made it out of this earthly hell during a raid by the police when she was 15. Instead of being treated like a victim and receiving proper services, she was treated like a delinquent and sent to a detention center where she did not receive counseling or treatment for the trauma she had endured. She remained there for a year and came out with no referrals for any services.

Through all the abuse Tina had experienced, she made a decision to turn something awful into something beautiful, to take those life experiences and use it for a purpose, a purpose to help others to freedom. With her knowledge and her beautiful heart, she developed Courtney's House and Shea's Place.

Courtney's House is located in Washington D.C and reaches victims through street outreach. They meet the boys and girls where they are at...on the streets of D.C.. Tina and her outreach team causally walk the streets handing out small trinkets with a hotline number on it. It's a disguised encounter that her and her team work hard on so the traffickers do not recognize them. I only wish I lived in Washington D.C right now so I could be involved in this!!!! It's an aaaaamazing program and something I may consider starting in Nashville.

Shea's Place is the group home for Courtney's House and it is located in Northern Virginia. It is designed to be a long term home for girls between the ages of 12 and 18 with the maximum stay of three years and a two year aftercare program. Shea's Place has many services they provide for boys and girls involved in trafficking. These types of services are intake assessments; medical services; education, home, school, and life skills; group therapy' survivor-led support groups and intensive case management.

If you live in the D.C/Northern Virginia area and would like to learn more or maybe even get involved in this great organization, check out their website, http://www.courtneyshouse.org/default.html

Find out how YOU can help break the chains of human trafficking!

Love, Megs