Martin Luther King Jr.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Martin Luther King Jr.

He delivered his "I Had a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial to around a quarter of a million people of all different ethnicities.

MLK Jr was participating in the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" where they raised awareness of the conditions for blacks in the southern united states. They also made demands to end racial segregation in public schools, to implement laws prohibiting racial discrimination in employment, for protection of civil rights workers from police brutality, and a demand for $2 minimum wage for ALL workers.

He was also involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Albany Movement, the Birmingham Campaign, the protests in St. Augustine, Florida and Selma, Alabama, Bloody Sunday, the Poor People's Campaign just to name a few. I would go into more detail about how he was involved in all these events, but you can research yourself =)

"This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day." Martin Luther King

Standing Up For Freedom

Today I remember one of the most amazing women in history, Rosa Parks.

her smile melts my heart =)

I would give my left arm to sit and have coffee with her

Known as the "1st lady of Civil Rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement"

Changed the nation by refusing the bus driver's order to give up her seat for a white passenger

Her action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott that started December 1, 1955.

Back then, African Americans could not just sit anywhere they wanted to on the bus. They had to sit towards the back. They would hop on the bus, pay the fare, get back off of the bus to walk around and re-enter through the back door. Sometimes the bus driver would drive off before they even got back onto the bus.

She was the secretary for the Montgomery, Alabama, chapter of the NAACP. She had a passion to change things that were unjust. She was tired of the treatment that she along with other African Americans received on a daily basis.

In her autobiography, she writes, "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

In a 1992 interview, she said "I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became."

the boycott lasted for 381 days and marked one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation.

Rosa Parks was not the only person who had been arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat on public transportation. Irene Morgan, Sarah Keys and even 15 year old Claudette Colvin all had the courage to stand up for their freedom and fight to end racial hatred and discrimination.

Don't ever think that you can't make a difference, you have the power within to fight and speak up for the ones who do not have a voice.

Memories of our lives, our works and our deeds, will continue in others. Rosa Parks

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

New York New York, Big City of Dreams

yepppp I knew that once I started a blog that I would have a hard time committing to it. So much has happened since the last post, so I will need to catch up!

In July I went to New York for about 2 weeks with my bff, Jodie, to see her sister, Kelsey!! Kelsey was one of the photo interns for Elle magazine. We had loads of fun but was definitely over NYC by the time we left. It was a super fun place to visit, no doubt, but to live.....would not be my first choice.

oh the things we did:

1. I hauled what it felt like a 50lb backpack over 10 blocks to meet Kelsey because I refused to pay for a cab.

2. First dinner in NYC- garden burgers and instant mashed potatoes. Saved lots of money by eating in. Great idea!

3. Met my lovely cousin, Laura, and her co workers for beer and pizza at John's Pizzeria.

4. Met Kelsey's German friend, Paul, for chips and salsa and margaritas. What a swell guy.

5. Fell asleep on a sidewalk (wasn't drunk, just tired from the day's festivities, fyi)

6. Woke up to Jodie puking her life away because she wasn't use to American food quite yet. She had spent the last 5 mths in Austria. Poor thing.

7. Rode the NJ transit to go visit my family!! Grilled out by the pool and went out for ice cream.

8. Spent 8 hours out on Governor's Island waiting for She & Him to perform. Oh yeah it was hott as HELLo, BUT it was FREE!! Free ferry ride, free show= perfect day.

9. Grabbed a burrito and watched the fireworks. Happy 4th!

10. Dylan's Candy Bar...only the sweeeetest candy bar everrr!!

11. Grabbed a yummy salad and spent the day in Central Park people watching and listening to music.

12. Visited Tiffany & Co. Didn't find my dream ring, oh well.

13. Explored through China Town and Little Italy (my personal favorite) Ate chicken parmagiana, penne vodka and sangria.

14. Met some locals at Planet Hollywood while watching the Holland Uruguay game. They took us around to some more places to hang out, one of them being a sushi/karaoke bar where we sang Smells Like Teen Spirit a few times. We didn't pay for a thing!! SCORE

15. Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, found a cute inexpensive restaurant, and walked on the pier.

16. Watched the Germany Spain game at a Pub. Grabbed some cupcakes afterwards and walked down to the Pub that How I Met Your Mother is based off of. (Favorite show!)

17. Jodie & Kelsey's mom and brother and his friend Sam arrived in NYC!!

18. Rode the Staten Island Ferry, which was FREE. Saw the Liberty Lady and all her Glory!

19. Visited the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) Free on Fridays after 4pm.

20. Met up with my cousins, Laura and Dana, and her co workers for margaritas and bowling. My family is the best!

21. Tried to buy tickets for Wicked, the Lion King, Mary Poppins, and Memphis, but it was a flop. We ended up seeing Westside Story. Did not plan on it being depressing at the end, but it was enjoyable.

22. Said goodbye to Kelsey and loaded up the car for the drive home. Had to leave the kooler behind because there wasn't enough room. We were PACKED in!

23. Drove around 17 hours!!!

24. Stopped somewhere in VA at Ruby Tuesdays to watch the Finals!!! Sad that Holland lost!

25. Back home in Nashville!!!!

Now something about proclaiming freedom, the whole reason I started this blog:

While in NYC, I remembered an organization I once researched that is located there called GEMS. GEMS stands for Girls Educational and Mentoring Service. They are the only organization in New York that is designed to serve young women who have been sexually exploited or trafficked in the US. They have many different programs for empowering survivors from prevention, outreach and court advocacy to trauma based therapy and educational mentoring. Definitely check out their website to learn more and learn how you can make a difference and watch the Very Young Girls trailer to see what these very young girls experience on a daily basis.

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.” Isaiah 10:1-2

sooooo I really suck at blogging...dang...but I need to tell you of an experience that rocked my world that happened...well around Easter. This is pretty long because I have soooo much to say.

My lovely friend Mindy and I joined Amos House Community on a spiritual awakening and understanding on the streets of Nashville during Holy Week. This was not an urban plunge but rather a spiritual pilgrimage. As described in Amos Houses' blog: just as Jesus sacrificed himself and embraced conflict and suffering, we too want to embrace the conflict and suffering that the poor and homeless experience on a daily basis. We knew that everything we were going to experience did not even measure to what a homeless person faces on a daily basis, but we wanted to walk the streets where they walk, read scripture on the streets, pray over the city, listen to one another, and learn from each other.

They told us in the beginning to not bring cell phones, money, food or extra clothing with us. We were allowed to bring our Bible, a journal, a water bottle and our id. We were to depend on the hospitality of others for food, a place to lay our heads, and a place to go to the bathrooms. This pretty much made me anxious about how this was all going to work but very excited on what I was about to embark on!

We started out on Good Friday around 4pm meeting at the church street park (the one across from the downtown public library) and began walking through downtown Nashville to participate in what was called the "stations of the cross." A little background about the "stations of the cross" because I really didn't know what it exactly meant. BUT the "stations of the cross" were a way to help Jesus' followers retrace his steps to the cross. The object of it is to help the faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer through meditating on the chief scenes of Christ's suffering and death. Soooooo a group of about 25-30 I would say walked to the jail, the courthouse, the state capitol, Downtown Presbyterian Church, St. Mary's Church, the construction site of the new convention center, and the downtown public library reading scripture, praying, and contemplating on what the stations of the cross mean for us today and for the impoverished and homeless in our community.

Jeannie, Lindsey, and Andrew, our fearless leaders, did an amazing job leading us through this and teaching us about how the poor are betrayed, condemned, crucified, helped and consoled on a daily basis.

After we finished the stations of the cross, majority of the people left and it was down to a group of 10 of us. We sat down and chatted for a bit about who we were and why we decided to partake in something like this. We also decided what were going to do for dinner which came to the conclusion that we were going to panhandle. This was an extremely difficult process for me. I hated the idea of asking people for money or food. I don't know why it was so difficult. Maybe because I was afraid they would ask me questions about why I was asking and I would fumble over my words or blow my cover or whatever. I'm not that good of a B.S'er. Anyways, new friend, Ian and I decided to see if we could get some chips from El Rey, one of the Mexican restaurants downtown. Ian literally had to coach me into talking to these people sitting on the patio for about 10 minutes. Once I finally had the nerve to ask, I walked up to them and asked if we could have their leftover chips....which they so kindly handed over to me...all bug eyed. Mindy and Rebecca were able to scrounge up $11 and some leftover Roma pizza that was sitting near a trashcan. The rest of the team found hot dogs and even more chips from SATCO!! I love SATCO even more now since they donated some of their food!!

Once we were all back together we went back to the Church street park and participated in the Lord's supper as well as supper of our own. I remember sitting there, not really even hungry and REALLY not wanting to eat the food that we found in the trashcan BUT I thought it wouldn't be right of me to not eat it because it came from the trash. Sometimes people can't choose where they want their food to come from, they just have to take what they can get at the time and this is what we could get, so I needed to eat it. As I was sitting there eating my cold bar-b-que chicken pizza in the church street park where many homeless people meet on a daily basis to rest their heads and chit chat with each other, I looked around seeing all the many high rise condos, which are most likely empty. I thought to myself....this would be miserable to sit here every day and watch all these people in their nice fancy suits go in and out of these buildings, seeing them watching television on their flat screen tv's from the comfort of their own couch, ( I could see inside their windows) wondering what it must be like to live the life they lead. I wonder for a homeless person if it sends them spiraling into depression or instills a fire of determination in them to try and get out of homelessness.

The rest of the night we talked about where to sleep and where to use the bathroom. We decided to break either into pairs or groups of 3 so we could go use the bathroom in the Renaissance Hotel with out being noticed. We were never noticed. We slept on the concrete steps ofMcKendree Methodist Church which I will mention why this church is amazing later on in my blog. It was so cold and all I had was a blanket. I spooned with a total stranger, well it was Rebecca, but I just met her and I didn't even care. I also spooned with Mindy too. I don't even like spooning that much. We slept out on the grass at first, thinking it would be softer, but it was so cold that we decided to get under the awning. I ended up sleeping on the doorway step using the Bible as my pillow. I did not get very much sleep.

Around 5am, we woke up and started on our Journey across town to the Nashville Rescue Mission where we sat outside of it and discussed the organization as well as the Command Center which stands across the street from it. At the command center, a day labor agency, homeless men from the streets line up there on a daily basis between 4 and 5am in hopes of getting chosen for work. The Command Center charges these men, who don't already have any money, for supplies to use while on site, such as work goggles, hard hat, work boots, transportation to and from site, lockers to keep their belongings in, and lunch. An 8 hour day of hard manual labor could add up to around $35 after you take all the fees out of it, which by the way, is absurd! And on top of that, you have to pay a fee in order to cash your check there! Some people may say, "well why don't they just go out there and get a better job?".....well gaining better, stable employment is more difficult for these men and women when they have criminal/misdemeanor charges on their backgrounds and they don't have a home address, proper identification, cell phone or transportation. Sometimes this is all the have to resort to. It's really sad that this agency is ran the way it is. Do away with all the dumb fees and pay these people what they deserve for their hard earned money. Give people a chance too!

The rest of the day we walked all around downtown Nashville in the pouring rain at first and then we finally had sunshine, praise Jesus! We used the $11 we had for breakfast at McDonalds! Dollar Menu definitely came in handy! We then walked to the public library to check out the civil rights floor which by the way is amazing and I need to spend more time there! While we were there we each read a part of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech." Honestly, I had never read the full speech before. It brought tears to my eyes and made me even want to change the world more than I do. I love love love MLK and wish I could take him out for coffee. The rest of the day was filled with things that blew my mind...things I did not know happened involving the homeless.

Although I would love to write about everything my eyes were opened too and all the things that blew my mind, I believe that Jeannie and Lindsey said it best in this article: http://amoshouse.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/enter-the-gates-and-weep-the-foolishness-of-mercy/

This has a powerful message and it's very long, so take some time to read through it.

I met so many amazing passionate people on this trip! Some were my age and out of college, some were older and much wiser, some lived under bridges in tents, some shared houses with each other, some were fixing to get married, some were with child, some were Vietnam veterans, some thought we were crazy and preached Jesus at us, some were generous and bought us hot dogs, some were homeless and some were not, some played beautiful music with spoons, some served us food underneath the Jefferson Street bridge, some told us about their family, the pain they were going through and some even prayed for us.

In the end, no matter who we are or where we came from or what we even did, we are all human beings who are loved by God and who are called to love each other. We aren't called to just sit there and do nothing about all the injustice in the world, nothing about the ones who are lost, the ones who are hurting....no we are called to do something! The time is now...not later....just do something!

If not us, then who?? If not now, then when??? John Lewis 1961

If you actually read ALL of this, I am thoroughly impress. Way 2 Go!!

Show LOVE

so you wanna change the world??? What are you waiting for?

Last Monday, March22, 2010, was WORLD WATER DAY and in honor of WWD, my sweet friend Chad Ray and I decided to attend the Water Walk put on by Blood:Water Misson, an organization whose mission is to empower communities to work against the HIV/AIDS and water crisis in Africa!
Over 300 million Africans lack access to clean water. That is more than the population of the US. CRAZZYYY, I know! I mean isn't this the most beautiful girl you have ever seen. Doesn't her smile melt your heart?!
Now you can obviously go to their website and check them out, which you definitely should but here is a brief summary in case you don't want to read a lot =-)

Blood:Water Mission focuses on 2 things: the HIV/AIDS crisis and the Water crisis.

To help the HIV/AIDS and Water crisis, they are funding programs that address the full spectrum of prevention, treatment, and support for the HIV/AIDS crisis

AND

they are funding programs in iWash which stands for Integrated Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. They believe the future of Africa rests in the hands of its people therefore instead of providing hand outs, which usually lead to failed projects, they seek to transform the communities from the inside out by enabling them to be advocates of change. This leads them on a journey of self discovery and a better understanding of their capabilities and their assets.

There are many ways you can get involved with Blood: Water Mission. One way is through the water walk we participated in downtown Nashville. We started out with our buckets in hands at the Symphony Plaza and walked over the Cumberland River, which runs through Nashville, down to the river to "fetch a pail of water" as the old nursery rhyme goes. Everyday thousands of Africans have to walk for miles to gather water and often that water is contaminated.
So in honor of those who walk everyday, most likely several times a day, we wanted to take a walk in the shoes of our friends in Africa.
I do not have a camera anymore, so thank you Chad for letting me use your pictures in my blog to capture the awesome experience of raising awareness and impacting the lives of others! Check out the video blog he did!!

The entire time of walking, I had the Point of Grace song "Shall We Gather At The River" stuck in my head. Either that or "Down to the River to Pray" by the Soggy Bottom Boys.
On our way back, we walked in silence in honor of our friends in Africa. We walked I think it was 1.1 miles carrying buckets of water. My bucket was a 3 gallon bucket. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty tough. I had to keep switching the bucket back and forth between my hands, so my arms wouldn't get too wore out.
My new friend Daniel, who is too the left of me, carried the entire bucket of water on his head. Impressive? I would say so.

So take action by starting a water walk in your town! It's a great way to raise awareness!

Also $1 can give an African water for an entire year!!

"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward"

Matthew 10:42

(this verse is actually the verse I am thinking about getting in a tattoo design of mine)