Stories of injustice are no longer a surprise to me; however, they never cease to make me angry.  Recognizing there are more people being bought and sold at this moment, than in the entire 300 year history of the Atlantic slave trade ought to incense anyone.  Yet, my frustration only increases when I put a face to these slaves and recognize they do not exist solely on the other side of our globe.  Many of these modern day slaves consist of young girls caged by invisible chains, surviving blocks from where you and I live, go to work, and attend church.  Each time I look into the eyes of another young victim or hear another tragic story of coercion and slavery I am reminded why we must continue to fight for justice!

Nonetheless, I stand in awe surveying this growing movement of modern day abolitionists who continue crying, “Not in our Backyard”.  God’s heart beats for justice and scores of you reading these words have displayed the heart of Jesus in your passion to eradicate child sex slavery.  You resonate with the Psalmist’s words – “…He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him.” (Psalm 72:14).  May we never lose sight of how precious each of these victims are!  May we continue to find the strength of the Lord in this struggle for justice! 

…Be Strong!

Say not, “The days are evil.  Who’s to blame?”

And fold the hands and acquiesce – oh shame!

Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name.

Be Strong!

It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,

How hard the battle goes, the day how long;

Faint not – fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.

-Be Strong by Maltbie Davenport Babcock

To the left is an illustration sketched by Todd Fiedler, brother of co-worker Jami Throne.  The lined paper indicates it was something inspired and drafted quickly.  Todd’s explanation for his inspiration is a vivid summation behind the purpose and vision of Streetlight:

“… I chose the verse Genesis 1:3-5 as inspiration for this sketch -”God saw that the LIGHT was good, and He separated the LIGHT from the darkness.”  The use of this verse is because of the word ‘light’ and how it relates to your name Streetlight.   The darkness is the side most people do not see – prostitution, violence, abuse, and the unnerving feelings that darkness gives.  The light brings us separation from the darkness, just as Streetlight brings separation from the literal and figurative ‘darkness.

In the sketch:

I chose graffiti to spell the word STREET…Graffiti has harsh edges, is often unrecognizable…Although it represents a darker side, often it can be visually appealing and beautifully artistic to a passerby – much the way young girls are coerced into prostitution…its initial appeal appears harmless until they are in it.  In the sketch the graffiti STREET represents darkness and mystery.

A lamp separates the darkness from the light…both the words and literally. It hangs next to STREET representing that despite how bad something gets, God can shine His light into that bleak area. The “L” for the word “light” is made by the actual lamp.

The girl is mid to early teens: jeans, skater shoes, those rubber bracelets. As the average age of entry is 13 she represents the most common age.  She is not dressed skanky…She is just sitting alone looking like any normal teen…most would never suspect she is in trouble. I tried to make her face both sad and ‘lost’…I also placed her under the LIGHT to represent hope and indicate that Streetlight exists to shine LIGHT on all lost children and women.”

 Streetlight’s three-tier strategy of awareness, prevention, and aftercare presents a hopeful solution to prevent further risk of exploitation, provide safe housing, and promote healing for victims of child sex slavery.

Governor Brewer signing HB 2238 at Streetlight facility

Margaret Mead stated, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  It is a familiar quote; however, this past week I was reminded of its truth.  Three years ago I first learned that child sex slavery was a heinous crime that not only existed on the other side of the globe, but also down the street from where I live, go to work, and go to school.  It quickly became apparent we needed to create a movement of passionate people, modern day abolitionists, who would stand on the shoulders of hero’s like Wilberforce, Lincoln, Stowe, Bonheoffer, Ghandi, Mandela, and King crying NIMBY – Not In My BackYard!

As we formed the Branded/Streetlight initiatives our focus was on the rescue and restoration of these child victims (Thus our 3-tier strategy of Awareness, Prevention, and Aftercare).  Last week we reached a milestone in this fight – Governor Brewer, other Legislators, Law Enforcement, Pastors, Media, and many who have partnered in this fight for justice gathered at our Streetlight safe house to sign House Bill 2238, essentially removing the excuse “I didn’t know” from those who solicit sex from underage victims.

I often state, “We cannot call ourselves a just and stable society if we do not fight for the safety of our children.”  HB2238 gives cause for celebration as a reminder that leaders and thousands of passionate, zealous individuals continue to wrestle, struggle, fight, bleed, and pray for JUSTICE!  Last week I was privileged to observe a group of modern day abolitionists be the hands and feet of Jesus in this broken world.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. 

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.”

Micah 6:8

I found myself lying awake in the wee hours of the night intoxicated with physical and emotional stress.  At times the strain of life causes me to realize, and miss, my days as a young boy where some of my greatest concerns were whether I would ride my bike or climb a tree.  However, as I am well aware we are unable to return to those carefree days and must deal with the cards dealt us I was reminded of several random quotes I have collected concerning “Problem Solving”: 

• “Problems are like weeds; the more you ignore them the faster they grow” –Ancient Proverb
• “There is always an easy solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.” –H.L. Mencken
• “You cannot solve a problem on the same level it was created.  You have to rise above it to the next level.”  -Albert Einstein
• You can always tame an idea, but you cannot pump one up.  Wild ideas indicate creative thinking
• “We experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can’t come up with real lasting solutions!” -Margaret Wheatley
• “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” –Colin Powell
• “If I give you a dollar bill and you give me one we each have a dollar still – That’s not much gain, you see….If I give you a new idea and I get one of yours – now each of us has 2 because ideas are double-doers” –Jack Moss

One of the first men I met upon our move to Phoenix was Pastor Steve from the central corridor.  I will not soon forget Steve’s explanation regarding his radical paradigm shift for the mission of his church.  He had been feeling bad about the declining membership and praying about why the community was not coming to their church.  Steve recollected the day he clearly heard God say, “Quit wondering why they are not coming in to your church and go out to them.”  You can imagine how this philosophical shift drastically turned this church’s day to day operations upside down, or as Steve quipped, “turned everything right side up.”

Sadly many churches and non-profits are more about their name than their cause.  The proverb “It is easy to write a mission statement and hard to live up to it” is legitimate.  One of the great questions we must continually keep in front of ourselves and our teams is “Who are we and why do we exist?”  My supposition is that the answer to this question will nearly always lead our church and/or organization to be externally focused and mission oriented.  I speculate that rarely will the answer to this question lead to “holy huddles” but instead to decentralized institutions attentive to their cause and focused on changing the world!

Consequently, there are many churches and/or organizations that remain focused on who they are and why they exist – many are having powerful and profound results in changing lives and communities.  Recently, I had the privilege of speaking at a small church in Payson, Arizona and was amazed to hear the story of how they have impacted their own community.  Expedition is a church for people “who don’t like to go to church” and was launched with the philosophy of giving away half the money it recieves from offerings.  Donovan Christian, the pastor (seriously, if you had to give a pastor a name could you get much better than that?), shared that a quarter of their resources is directed to aid international efforts and a quarter remains to help their own community.  One week the leadership made an innovative choice to allow the people of the church to give away the money as “they are the ones who know best where the need is.”  So on a Sunday everyone 13-17 was given $50 and everyone over 18 was given $100 with the direction to use it that week to meet the needs in their community.  The results were staggering and as Donovan shared, “There is no way our leadership team could ever have planned or identified all the needs met that week.”  Consequently, this radical idea stemmed from the words of Donovan and one of Expedition’s core beliefs, “We don’t exist to build our own kingdom”!  (For more information on Expedition you can read an article from their local paper here.)

A pastor recently shared with me, “We have quit being fishers of men and have become keepers of aquariums.”  Few of us would argue.  Yet, there are many who have not allowed their focus to become more about their name than their cause, many who don’t exist to build their own kingdom, and many who continue to ask, “Who are we and why do we exist?”  And like Expedition Church they are part of changing the world!

Recently a man passed me with a t-shirt reading, “think twice; act once”   My initial thought was the depth of this principle, but upon further reflection I had to laugh.  Anyone who knows me well understands I often do the opposite – “think once; act twice…or maybe three or four times.”  While I love the principle of thinking twice and acting once I also recognize that too often people “think twice; and never act”.  Instead they continue to think, and think, and think.  They attempt to contemplate everything that may go wrong, to have every outcome lined out, and have an answer to every question.  The truth is that eventually the Wright brothers had to climb in the plane and attempt to fly.

The great Winston Churchill once declared, “I never worry about action, but only inaction.”  Another writer stated, “To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.”  I have read one of the greatest regrets for many is not necessarily what they have done, but things they never attempted, dreams they never pursued, ideas they never launched. 

My wife and I read a book some time ago.  It is a story of a family that sold everything, bought a boat, and left New York to sail down the East Cost, around the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific.  Ultimately it is a tale of adventure at sea and a disaster that saved them.  At one point in the story the wife writes, 

“But here is where history caught up with us.  Here is where we would have to live out our own mortal adventure on this planet and not just observe.  Here we would share a story with the frightened souls of the “Julia Ann”.  If you want to know what it was like for the people of the “Julia Ann” that night, and in the days following, you can simply crash your boat where they crashed theirs and suffer as they suffered, and that’s the best way to learn…You need not go that far, but my point is that getting an education is about getting out in to the world and seeing and feeling the planet for yourself…If real life catches you by the heel sometimes, it is worth it. Life is short anyway, so it may as well be beautiful.”

 Mark Twain said it best, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover.”

One writer quipped, “Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.” Humorous, but true!  Today ushers in dramatic adjustments for my family as I am approaching my final hours directing Food for the Hungry’s City Initiatives.

For the past several months my family and I have been wrestling with a decision to either continue our ministry with Food for the Hungry or transition to a position with Streetlight – a safe-house, in-part, developed from the City Initiative and ‘branded’ movement that will meet the wholistic needs of young girls rescued from child sex slavery.  Following much prayer, and far too many meetings, we have felt a clear call to help lead the growing and innovative movement to eradicate child sex slavery in Phoenix.  As of next week I will begin working with Streetlight.

In many ways this new venture only continues a vision started over 4 years ago.  City Initiatives was strategic in launching our 3-tier strategy – awareness, prevention, and aftercare – in combating this injustice.  Our dream of different sectors working together, of actually solving problems instead of simply talking about problems, of developing a movement of modern day abolitionists, and of having the Church lead the charge is coming to fruition with our Branded/Streetlight partnership.  We continue to believe that Phoenix could become an example to other cities in our nation and around the world of the enormous potential when different sectors of society work together to meet physical and spiritual needs.  Streetlight and Branded are examples of this vision!

www.streetlightphx.org
www.brandedphx.com

Also – as of Monday, March 8th, my new email address will be pat@streetlightphx.com

Years ago, as a coach,  I adopted a practice from the great John Wooden.  At the conclusion of each coaching season I would note 3 key items I learned – These axioms became strategic in my personal growth.  Recently, I assumed this practice with City Initiatives and scribed 5 significant lessons I learned from my past 4 years of work.

1.  Steward what I do

• The reality is there has to be accountability in any organization; therefore; it is imperative that I steward my role with an organization by carefully measuring and revealing the value I, and my team, deliver
• Some call it “stewardship”, some “self-promotion”, and some refer to it as “accountability”.  What ever you call it the truth is that somewhere a board and/or leadership team, who may know very little about who I am and exactly what I do, is looking at the numbers to determine the organization’s ROI regarding my particular program.  If I fail in clearly revealing my “measured” value it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for those boards and/or leaders to make proper assessment of my program

2.  Leadership is crucial to start and maintain any initiative

• People empower those who clearly cast a vision and continue to “fill their bucket” with this vision
• Find the “sticky message” and speak to it again and again
• No matter how great an idea is on paper if the right person is not leading it will go no where

3.  Humility is fundamental for collaboration

• Learn, learn, learn – Never, ever believe you have arrived…always remain in that learning, morphing, growing stage
• There is something amazing about the person and/or group that continually says, “How can we serve you?” or “We want to learn”
• There is no such thing as an “expert”; only those further along on the learning curve

4.  If collaboration/partnerships were easy we would see more of them

• Collaboration does not naturally occur – Someone has to wake up every morning thinking “what can we do together that we could never do alone”
• Whoever “leads” collaborative efforts must be willing to be walked on and often “forgot” in the process of success
• Collaboration by itself leads to nothing.  Collaboration around an issue can rock the world. (My “intuitive leap” two years ago was “What if we actually solved a problem?”)

5.  Find the right people

• Any innovative idea needs an initial core group who will continually motivate, inspire, believe, and empower others toward that imperative “tipping point”
• If you do not have several “leaders” who inspire others or “influence the influencers” any initiative will remain stagnant, regardless of how many people “believe” in the idea

Last week a Gilbert Police Officer, and childhood friend, allowed me to “ride along” during one of his shifts.  Along with observing humanity’s brokenness, exhibited in drug and alcohol abuse (we had some crazy ones), I was reminded of a critical leadership principle – one cannot make everyone happy.

In the midst of responding to a 911 call I observed my friend and two other officers making a decision concerning an arrest.  Since the incident was in my friend’s patrol area, the verdict rested in his hands.  The other two officers had differing opinions; therefore, my friend was forced to choose an option that would not satisfy everyone.  Individuals in leadership positions, whether it be parenting, coaching, teaching, pastoring, or managing, quickly recognize the impossibility of gratifying everybody’s desires and ideas.  Too often we exhibit paralysis in our decision making simply because we fear our inability to please everyone.  No one is in danger of this ineffective leadership more than I.  I am a people-pleaser.  I never want to ruffle feathers.  I want every human being on this planet to like me.  However, one cannot lead successfully, or efficiently, by basing their decisions on pleasing everyone.

Consequently, this principle of “not pleasing everyone” leads to another truth – Our strengths can become our weaknesses.  One of my personal strengths is being likable.  However, if I am not careful, striving to be a likable person in every situation becomes a disadvantage.  “Decision-making paralysis” based on my unrealistic hopes of pleasing everyone will, unfortunately, deter my God-given relational strengths toward ineffective leadership.

After observing many leaders over the years I have noticed that the GREAT ones have learned to make decisions based on what they believe is RIGHT for the situation or the vision/mission of their company, organization, and/or church.  Most often these decisions are at the detriment of pleasing everyone.  In addition these GREAT leaders have adequately grown in their self-awareness of their personal strengths and are attentive in not allowing these strengths to deteriorate toward weaknesses.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby

In June 2007 I facilitated a meeting with local sector leaders asking the question, “Is now the time to come together to meet the physical and spiritual needs in our community?”  (I recognize it is a rather dumb and obvious question.  When is it not appropriate to unite in meeting needs?)  It was during this meeting that I first learned of the child slavery that is rampant in my own neighborhood, city and country.  In the midst of our meeting a question was raised that continues to haunt my thoughts, “Where are God’s people?”  It is a question that rings true in our world – “Where are God’s people?”  In our nation – “Where are God’s people?”  In our own communities – “Where are God’s people?”  My dream is that we would answer this question so emphatically that it begins changing the cultural view of the church!

Last week I was interviewed with one of our vice officers regarding the collaborative efforts focused on combating child sex slavery.  During the interview the officer was asked, “In your 25+ years of service have you ever witnessed churches rallying around a cause like this and what has it done for those of you on the front lines?”  The officer smiled, laughed and replied, “No, I have not seen anything like this and it has given us hope – but I am waiting for it to end.”  Those words stung me and motivate me.  I don’t want people believing we will rally to a cause, stir up some dust, and move on.  For too long the church in the west has been known primarily for their passionate work on the other side of the sea.  Do not misinterpret my words – I rejoice for all that has been accomplished around the world.  I understand that there is so much more to do and recognize it is our MANDATE to go to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  But let us not forget our own “Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria”!  We need a GLOCAL vision that lavishes compassion, mercy, hope, and justice both locally and globally!

May we never lose sight of the tremendous needs across the ocean!  However, as my brother scribed so eloquently in his poem below, we have too often turned away from those across the street on our way across the sea.  It is not an “either/or” but a “both/and” – a GLOCAL vision incorporating those next door and those in another land and culture.  My brother’s poem hangs in my office as a powerful reminder of the need in our own backyard:

This Time In Between

“This time in Between

After my birth

And before my death

This time on your side of the sea.

What will you do, Christian?

Will you feed me and defend me?

What if I live across the street, not across the sea?

What if I have taken and beaten and used?

Will you lift me up and rescue me?

Or only those across the sea

.

This time in Between

After my birth

And before my death

This time on your side of the sea.

What will you do, Christian?

Will you shelter me and give me new sight to see?

What if I am dirty and full of disease?

And my sin is here and not across the sea.

This time in Between

After my birth

And before my death

This time on your side of the sea.

What will you do, Christian?

I’m right here in your way

To your work across the sea.

Is your only tragedy across the sea?

I’m right here in your way

To your work across the sea.

Please listen, Christian.

Is my rape less violent?

My hunger less painful?

Is my ravaged, addicted body

My suffering soul

Worth less than those across the sea?

This time in Between

After my birth

And before my death

This time on your side of the sea.

Please tell me

What will you do, Christian?

I’m right here in your way

To your work across the sea.