Dressember 2015

It's the final day of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's been pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that for
this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone has a right to freedom no matter their age, sexuality, sex, culture, religion or socio-economic status.





Since starting Dressember on the first of this month I have learnt so much about what human trafficking is and how bad it really it. Before this month I knew of human trafficking and that it was bad but now I know so much more about it, as well as  which organistations in South Africa are working against it to bring freedom to victims. One of the main things that stuck out to me during this campaign is how we can do something to help with what we have. The person who started this a few years ago used a dress - it's what she had in her hand. I thought that I would use my blog to help create awareness, it's what I had in my hand. I really do hope that it does help create awareness of humn trafficking.

 

xKx

Human Trafficking - Red Light SA

It's day 28 of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone has a right to freedom no matter their age, sexuality, sex, culture, religion or socio-economic status.

The Red Light Anti Human Trafficking Initiative is an NGO based in Durban that not only creates awareness of human trafficking but helps to rehabilitate rescued people. This initiative was started in 2009 when a group of young adults after watching a movie on human trafficking decided to do something to help. They used what they had in their hand - the ability to make jewelry and to teach people how to do it as well to impact people who were trafficked in some way.

This victims who have been rescued from trafficking make jewelry out of wood to show that they are not forgotten. This is not only a way of creating awareness of human trafficking but also a way of restoring dignity to the people who make the jewelry.

 I think this picture, (above) says it all when it comes to how this initiative is helping people - click on it to make it bigger. 

xKx

Human Trafficking - Grizelda Grootboom's Story

It's day 26 of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone has a right to freedom no matter their age, sexuality, sex, culture, religion or socio-economic status.

Here is a snippet from Grizelda Grootbooms of how she got trafficked in Johannesburg when she was 18 years old.

Here is another short clip of how she is no longer stuck in the horror of human trafficking and what she is doing to help people.

xKx

Human Trafficking - Organ Stealing

It's day 22 of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone has a right to freedom no matter their age, sexuality, sex, culture, religion or socio-economic status





Whenever I thought of human trafficking my mind automatically jumped to thoughts of  people being sold for sex or forced labour. Recently I've discovered that people also get "trafficked" for their organs. The word "trafficked" here doesn't mean the person gets sold to someone who then removes their organs. When someone is "trafficked" for their organs it means they have been exploited for their organs.

There is a HUGE black market for organs because more people need organ transplants than their are organs available. transplants and organs available for transplant.  There is also a huge poverty problem in the world and some people will do anything, including sell an organ to get some money to change their situation. Organs get harvested from poor people or people who are desperate for some money to be sold to people who are desperate to receive an organ transplant. The black market often has a "broker" who sells the organs to people who want them.  These "brokers" are reported to be sneaky in how they obtain organs for people.

The most popular organs that get removed are kidneys and liver. All other organs can also be removed even if they end up killing the person for the organ, such as the heart. Organ trafficking happens in three ways.

1. Victims are forced to give up their organs.
2. Victims sell their organs but are not paid as they were promised. They either receive less than agreed on or not at all.
3. The person is told they have something wrong with them and they receive treatment for this false illness, when they don't seem to get better the organ is removed.


Health 24 posted an interesting article called The dark world of Internet kidney trafficking. You can read more about it here.

xKx

Two Super Special Baby Showers

Yesterday I went to two baby showers.The first one was Sonja and Greg's and then it was Chaana and Mathew's in the afternoon.

Sonja and Greg started the process to adopt a baby last December and they finally heard that they are getting a baby boy on 6 January. They received the exciting news earlier this week! I am SOOOOO excited for them! Sonja was sharing with us how they had spoken to their social worker earlier this month and she has said that it didn't look promising for the rest of the year. Greg then told the social worker that all he wanted was a baby for Christmas. We all know that God is in the miracle business and He answered their prayers for a baby. This has been one of the MOST special baby showers I have ever been to. The whole thing was a surprise and it also helped to get them into the "excited" or "more excited" stage of a baby is coming.   

The second baby shower was a good friend of mines - Chaana. Her baby is due in February and I am SUPER excited to meet little Isabella. I kind of feel like I already know her a little bit just from the pictures of her scans that Cha has been sending me. I already have so much love for the little girl inside of her.The afternoon was filled with celebrating the soon arrival of little Isabella with cake, games and presents. 

With all the cute things I saw when shopping for their presents and when I saw all the cute things they received, my heart kind of went all squishy and I almost felt broody... BUT I'm not there yet. :-)

xKx

STOP Trafficking of People

It's day 18 of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone has a right to freedom no matter their age, sexuality, sex, culture, religion or socio-economic status.

Stop Trafficking of People is a Christian organision based in Stellenbosch that helps create awareness of human trafficking. They have also partnered with various organisations to help combat human trafficking in South Africa. Their mission is to educate, warn and protect South Africans against this global phenomenon called human trafficking in order to prevent South Africa from becoming a human trafficking hot spot.

They create awareness by creating training material and various other resources that gets handed out to different groups of people from teachers, care-givers and parents. They can then use these packs to educate the children and adults they teach and even the people round them about human trafficking.  Another way they create awareness is with media, which is one of the quickest ways of reaching people now a days because we all have access to TV, radio and the Internet where adverts can be placed, or even short articles to make people aware of this.

Stop Trafficking of People have joined with law enforcement organisations to help combat human trafficking, as well as various other organisations, (such as Straatwerk, Justice Acts, Salvation Army, National Freedom network),  where they work together to combat this huge issue in the world. They have also started safe houses so that when someone has been rescued they have a safe place to go and stay and get rehabilitated back into society.

xKx

Human Traffiking In South Africa - Candice's Story

It's day 12 of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone has a right to freedom no matter their age, sexuality, sex, culture, religion or socio-economic status.





I stumbled on Candice's story now when I searching for organisations in South Africa that to combat human trafficking.  Here it is below...

After watching this I realised that to be sold to someone it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be sold to someone in another country. You can be sold to someone in the same country or even the same city that you live in. Imagine being "kidnapped/stolen" and then sold to someone in your own city. You would be so close to your family and friends but unable to reach them or contact them because you're most likely trapped in a place with no access to communication tools to contact them or even a means to escape. I kind of imagine being trapped in a house where you are watched all the time.

xKx

Our First 10km Run

A couple of weeks ago I had a mini melt down because I felt like all the goals I had set myself for this year were becoming unreachable. It then all spiralled out of hand when I started thinking that I was never ever going to achieve anything because it felt like the world was against me when it came to achieving my goals. One evening I sat down and I was like, "No, I am going to do a 10km run no matter what." I then switched on my laptop and Googled 10km runs and chose the first one I found and decided I would do it. When I told David he made a schedule of how far I would need to run each time I ran for the next two weeks and he came along on my training runs. A week before the run he told me he would do it with me.

On Wednesday this week we did the race. We were far from ready - we only ever ran 6km. We aimed to do all 10km before the actual day, but that kind of never happened. Ho hum.. 


We did the run in 1 hour 13 minutes, which was quicker than I thought, I  was estimating 1 hour 20 minutes. The last 3km were a bit tough, especially the last 1km but we pushed through and finished. I thought I would struggle more with the distance especially since I never knew how long 10km was but it was easier to maintain pace and to keep going than I thought. It was also a lot of fun! I was so stoked! I'm also super glad I did it.

 

I also remembered how much I LOVE running during this run.

xKx

Human Trafficking in South Africa

It's day 9 of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. It's also a great way to remind myself that everyone deserves to be free and not to be exploited.





According to People Search And Rescue Unit, (PSARU), South Africa is a source, transit and destination city for human trafficking. South Africa In 2013 the Prevention and Combating of trafficking in Persons Bill was signed by Jacob Zuma. Before this bill was in place the statistics of how bad human trafficking in South Africa was hard to find because people were tried for sexual exploitation. The Children's Act also has a portion that covers the trafficking of children specifically. Both theses Acts provide protection for victims and support for them to overcome their traumatic ordeal. 


Besides putting the Act into place, South Africa had a round table discussion earlier this year with various stakeholders on how to prevent human trafficking, as well as setting up a human trafficking desk in the organised crime department to help combat human trafficking. You can read more about the discussion here.

I think one of the main ways that South Africa can help to combat this is by creating awareness through educational programs, campaigns and by advertising it to the country.

xKx

We hosted our own Shabbat dinner

Last week Friday David and I hosted our first Shabbat dinner with some of our close friends. While I was preparing for the big event I learnt SO much about Shabbat and the Sabbath as the way Jewish people understand it. The main reason for wanting to do this and learn more was because we, Christians should also take a Sabbath, (a day of rest) just like Jesus did and God did. 

The main reason Jewish people have a Shabbat dinner is to remember who God is, how he has provided for them and to praise Him. This is done with your family and friends, basically your community. Over supper you catch up with "your" people with what has happened over the week, share about what God is doing or has done in your life that week. I think this is super awesome!

Before supper two candles are lit, one is to remember that God is the creator of all the heaven, that he rescued His people from Egypt. The second one is to remember to set it apart and to keep it holy. After this there is a wine/grape juice blessing before the challah, (bread) is broken and another blessing is given. I lit the candles and David did the wine and challah blessing. I liked how he put a bit of Christian spin on it and read from both the new and old testament of the bible.

If you want to read more about the traditions around Shabbat, you can read it here.  A friend of mine sent the link through to me and I found it super informative when I did my preparations.

My favourite part of the whole evening was spending the time with some of my close friends over a meal.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the table, the food or the evening. I was too busy getting everything ready and then being with my friends that I totally forgot to take photos.

xKx 

A21

 It's day six of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. Some people in my office have already asked why I've been wearing dresses every day. This creates the awesome opportunity to share with people why I'm doing this and to tell them about Human trafficking and what I am discovering about it this month.

I first heard of A21 a few years ago when I went to watch a movie about how a couple, (I think) tried to help a little girl who had been kidnapped/stolen by someone who had then sold them to a guy who would then sell them to men to be used by them. I don't think I had really heard of human trafficking until then come to think about it.

Since watching that movie I have discovered A21 an organisation that fights against human trafficking, which was founded by Christine Caine. Christine Caine is a phenomenal women who lives for Jesus, as well

A21 works with law enforcement to rescue women, children and men who are stuck in human trafficking, as well as help prosecute traffickers. Once they have rescued them they put them in safe houses and help rehabilitate them, unit them with their families and help them to be new, whole people again. They also create awareness of human trafficking in numerous ways through walks against trafficking, (some of the members of our church participated this year in one).  I've been handed a flyer at the station once telling me about the things they do. They also ask people to partner with them by volunteering with them or just spreading the word so people hear about human trafficking.

xKx

What is human trafficking?

It's day three of Dressember, and I have been "dressing" it up. It's pretty great putting on a dress every morning knowing that this month when I get dressed it's more than just a dress I am wearing. Some people in my office have already asked why I've been wearing dresses every day. This creates the awesome opportunity to share with people why I'm doing this and to tell them about Human trafficking and what I am discovering about it this month. 

 

Human Trafficking is way bigger than I thought. 3287 people are sold, kidnapped or forced into slavery every day? That makes it 136 people an hour. This is pretty scary! I read these statistics of the Force 4 Compassion website.

Human trafficking is basically the trading of someone for forced labour, sexual slavery or exploitation. I understand it as being abducted/taken by force and then made to do something that robs you of your human rights as a person. There are various different types of human trafficking - not only for sex trade as I have previously thought. Human trafficking can be in the form of sex trade which can be forcing someone to do sex acts or for pornography, forced labour where someone is forced to work against their will, or as bonded labour this is where someone is forced to work to pay off a debt.

People end up being trafficked when they are blinded by the people they meet. People get lied to by the person doing the trafficking as they lure them in by telling them lies about possible job opportunities, promising marriage or educational opportunities. When a lie is spun really well, people are desperate for change, especially for people living in poverty, or when life is really tough, or when things just look really good in a relationship and you believe anything that is said people get fooled by the "trafficker" and then the next thing they know they are stuck in something they never saw coming.  It's scary to think there are people out there who can lie about a promising future and then destroy every dream and trap them in a version of hell.

Luckily there are organisations out there who are working with the authorities to stop this, as well as create awareness.

xKx

War Room - a REALLY good movie!

Last night David and I watched an incredible movie called War Room - watch the trailer here

I'm not going ruin it for you and tell you what the whole movie is about, all I'm going to say is that it's on prayer and how we need a battle strategy for praying for victory. In the movie a "war room" is created, a place to go and stick your prayers up and to pray - it's the place they went fight the war against the devil and to speak to God.

At the end of the movie I felt really challenged to do more battle in my prayers - to actually pray for God's victory in areas of my life, for my friends, family and community. I want to take my prayer life up a notch and start going into battle a bit more enthusiastically and with a more determined attitude. I already know that God has the victory - so I think it's time that I started praying from a place of victory, with power and as a warrior and not someone who is powerless.  I also want to start sticking up some of my prayers so that I can be reminded to keep on fighting and also to tick off/mark when God answers the prayers. There's just something super awesome and encouraging in seeing God answer a prayer!

When David and I walked out of the movie last night I said to him that I wanted a room like that and he said I can have the man cave.... I was like that's not really fair on him so I've decided that I shall use a small section of the man cave to use as a war room for us to pray in, stick prayer up and encounter God in a new way.

xKx

Dressember

On Saturday a friend of mine was telling me about Dressember and asked if I would be interested in doing it. In a nutshell it's where you commit to wearing a dress every day throughout December. I was like "Yes, I would LOVE that" and the girly girl inside of me jumped up and down at the though of wearing a dress ALL the time for a month.

I then did some research into Dressember and discovered a whole lot. Dressember was started by a lady who wanted to do more with what she had in her hand - dresses. She started creating awareness and raising funds for an organisation involved with freeing people from human trafficking. Here's more of her story on You Tube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGuTpWTcSE8

I was challenged by this and not because I have LOTS of dresses or that I love wearing dresses and thought "I could commit to wearing every dress I own this month" but because human trafficking is something that strikes a cord in my heart. I believe that no human being should be sold or trapped in slavery. I then began to wonder how I could create awareness and not just by wearing a dress because if I wear a dress most people consider it normal. I have decide to blog about I through out the month of December. My topics will include facts on human trafficking, organisations out their to help and a few posts of the dresses.

I'm pretty excited to do this and to learn more about stopping human trafficking this month.

xKx

Four Chairs - A play by Wayne Ronne

Last night we went to watch Wayne's play, Four Chairs at the Masque Theatre. He wrote and directed the play himself - so super proud of him!

The show is about Andrew and Chad who are best friends and room mates, Sarah, Chad's girlfriend and Abby her best friend, as well as the nosey neighbour and the maintenance guy who has a bit of a crush on the neighbour. Andrew is a bit broken and is struggling with a breakup, everyone notices that there is something deeply wrong with him - that he lost his sparkle and they all try and help him.  One of the ways is with a dinner party that kind of goes wrong.

This play captivated me from the beginning with the realness of emotions shown and the friendship dynamics. It was a real emotional roller coaster ride of laughter and heart plummeting moments as the  you found out more about each character and their love for each other as a group of friend.

As my husband David says; "The whole thing was my favourite part!" 

This was a really, really good show!

xKx

God vs Aliens

The other day, actually quite a while ago I was scrolling through News24, (which I do occasionally so that I stay up to date with what is happening in the world around me), I came across a news story about aliens in JHB. That evening while I was driving home from work they are talking about it in the radio and the picture had been edited etc. to make people believe it was real. What shocked me quite a bit  about this was how people really believed that there were aliens out there even though there is not proof of aliens, we've never seen or experienced aliens people still believed it was true. The reason I was shocked was because people believe in aliens where there is no evidence they exist but they don't believe in God even though there is proof that he exists - He created the world.

People will spend hours looking for aliens, reading up on aliens and how people think they have "visited" earth but in reality no aliens have been found in space. No matter how hard astronauts look or how far they look they still can't find them. There has been new research found that there was or is water on Mars but this does not mean that their is life there, and even if there was that does not mean there are aliens living there.

People also spend hours searching for God and He has satisfied their search and revealed himself to them. I can speak from experience here, I've spend many hours searching for Him, reading up on Him and He has shown me Himself. He has spoken straight to my heart and I have experienced Him in numerous ways and on numerous occasions. It even says in the bible "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart" Jeremiah 29:13. I believe this is true because I have done this.

It's crazy how people place their hopes in finding aliens who never interact with us, but are closed to searching for God, who says we will find Him when we seek Him.

xKx

a little birthday hike

It was David's birthday earlier this month and I really wanted to surprise him with something RAD. It had to be something that he would LOVE and really enjoy. So... I planned a hike. We went to Jonkerhoek Nature Reserve, where they have various different types of hiking trails that you can choose from. we chose the two waterfalls trail. The views were stunning, the picnic great and the company the best.

Spreading The Love

My dad introduced me to a lady with three little girls a few years back. I'm not really sure how my dad met her and her little family but her three girls managed to worm their way into my heart. They would also come and spend the afternoons at our house while their mom and gran was working and my mom would look after them. They would be at our house when I got home from work and their cuteness kind of made me love them a bit.... One sunny day two years ago David and I took them out for an adventure of train rides, ice-cream and a picnic. After that day we kind of decided that we want to do it more often.

We got married and doing it more often kind of took a back seat for a while because we never really had time. When I saw them at my dad's funeral I was reminded of this and said to David that we have to make a plan. It was as though God had burned this on my heart... I also think for now it would be pretty cool to spend time with them, give their mom Saturday of me time and to just share Jesus with them in some tangible way, (if that makes sense).

A few Saturday's ago we had planned a boat trip and bird park visit but the rain quickly made David and I come up with a plan B. We headed to the Rainbow Puppet Theatre in Constantia for a puppet show on Rose red and Rose white. The girls and I loved it... I also think David enjoyed it. We then went to feed animals at the Barnyard in Ottery. We got spat at by llamas, hands nibbled by horses and enjoyed a HUGE milkshake together.

Lunch was a picnic in the rain on the green belt. It was quite an adventure eating under the shelter of a tree with rain coats on.

I think if you have fun and kids can see this then they are also quite happy to have fun with you - even when it rains.

xKx

5km run

On Sunday the LARGE competitive part of my brain got a bit of satisfaction when the small stupid part won over logic and I did a 5km road race. 5km sounds like a small distance BUT for someone like me - who hasn't run 5km in maybe two years it was a bit of a challenge - BUT I LOVED IT! I also managed to talk David into doing it with me and I think deep down he also loved it.

We took part in the KFM gun run, which started in Moullie Point and ended at Green Point Stadium. It was a beautiful day for a run - no wind and not to hot and vibe at the water points was lots of fun - unlike at the start. The presenter at the start needed some help - but she gets 10 points for effort.

Besides rediscovering that I am quite competitive, I have also rediscovered my love for running and for working towards a goal. It kind of makes the aimless runs after work more exciting as I work towards something. I also want to do a 10km now - lots of training ahead of me. I just need to find a 10km in about 2 - 3 months time to do to motivate me.

xKx

 

Starting the new vegetable crop

A while ago I ordered a bunch of seeds from a really cool website called Seeds for Africa for me to restart my vegetable garden now that spring is on the way. In Winter we get very little sun in our back garden so everything we currently had in the garden went a bit dormant and grew very  slowly... but now that spring has arrived, well just about arrived I've decided it's time for a revamp and planted some seeds.

I planted melon, egg plant, cauliflower, two types of tomatoes and cabbage seeds in prepared seeding trays and some egg boxes. This is to prevent worms and whatever else may decide to eat them or stop them from germinating. It also allows me to keep the soil damp so they do grow.

 

 

 

 

Once everything was watered I then realised that I needed signs for my vegetables so that I know what is what when it grow... the problem was I had kind of forgotten where what was planted.  The other problem was what to use as markers. Using paper tags was the first idea, but not really ideal with water washing the ink off. I then decided on cable ties - which I think was pretty clever.

 

These got stuck into the pots where I kind of think I planted the seeds that matched the labels... all shall be revealed when they start growing.

Eeeeeeek! I get super excited thinking about my seeds growing. I can't wait for them to grow!

xKx

 

A LONG weekend away with FRIENDS

A bunch of us went away for the long weekend two weeks away. We all headed off to the Franskraal house for a weekend of adventure and LOTS of good food!

On Sunday we headed to The Birkenhead Brewery for some wine and beer tasting. I must say that this did not live up to my levels of expectation. I kind of expected something more. We were seated at a table in the restaurant and then the beer and wine was bought out to us. The beers were given nice write up's of the flavours etc, but the wine was just placed in front of us with the name of the wine. We were then left to do the tasting. I kind of expected someone to explain what we were tasting etc. They were also busy - which could have been why nothing was explained, but then I think they need to hire more staff. The area around the brewery is SOOOOOO pretty though - I think Dave and I should have lunch there one day.

 

After all the alcohol was consumed we definitely needed something to soak it all up so we headed on a mission to find some pancakes - this was a lot harder than we thought it would be in Gansbaai.

 

The rest of the weekend was spent doing weekend away type of things such as walks on the beach and coffee in front of the fireplace.

 

Not to forget all the yummyy food we made and ate, especially the chocolate lava pudding Kyle made. A weekend way with friends is never complete until someone makes French toast...

All in all - going away with friends is the best! It's definitely on my top 10 favourite things to do list...

 

xKx