EBF Anti-Trafficking Network Message
EBF Anti-Trafficking Network Message
70 representatives from 18 countries were gathered from 26-28 November 2010 in Beheimgasse Baptist Church in the centre of Vienna, Austria for worship, Bible studies, fellowship across the borders, share and listen to each others.
We were well cared for by the hosting church and organizations in Vienna and the conference was running smoothly with a lot of time for personal contacts.
Most of the participants heard and experienced a lot that either led them to have to think through the way things are now, or was encouraged how to prepare a good start. The conference was divided into small groups that stayed together during Saturday and had time to talk about the input and their local situation. It was a very useful way of reflection and interaction with what was presented.
We had a feeling that God was speaking directly to us about taking home what we heard and acting on it.
The worship times were led by people from Herzwerk in Vienna and became an "outflow" of the ministry involved in the work and the conference. This gave an extra dimension to sharing before God. On Saturday night the conference went out in the streets and in one park of Vienna from 10.00pm to 11.30pm in minus 2 C degrees we held a service with worship, prayer and a short sermon about beginning new life.
The Bible studies were on the importance and meaning of the name and the church view of the Whore in Babylon described in the book of Revelation.
We also had a drama about the Yellow Ribbon, a real good installation of a bonded human being, some Poems, a Drawing that all were very touching.
EBF Action Plan according to the conference in Vienna
Overall Ideas we need to consider:
- How we feel about prostituted women
- What attitudes is existing to prostitution in the churches,
- To involve women in East who know and understand how to approach and work in Eastern countries
- How to deal with shame
- A change in the hearts of "Madams/Sponsors" in W. Europe is an important way to stop the trafficking of Nigerian women
Practical Ideas what to do:
- Address advertisement of sexual services
- Prayer walks
- Addressing demand, pornography and addiction in churches, especially to men
- How love of money is the root to all evil – churches could campaign against where the money is
- Support to families to prostituted girls
Project:
- Employment Check – a strong desire for EBF Network to participate in this as a concrete project, we need to find financial support
- Economic empowerment is an important part of prevention and rehab.
- Business as part of Christian perspective, this is not for everyone, we need to involve business people into our networks
- Prayer Network
- Many churches in the West have partner relationships with churches in the East. These relationships can be a platform for encouraging prevention work in the East
Volunteers and training:
- There is a need for training in all areas
- Volunteer – could be done a lot more around this. Some organization need volunteers in their work, churches can have people who want to be sent as a volunteers for a period. This could be coordinated through the network
- Need for identification of projects able to use short-term volunteers
- 2 coming training courses:
- Training centre in Amsterdam – street works, long weekend in Amsterdam
- An academic course in Stockholm at the Baptist College Human Rights Program, three weeks intensive
Networking:
- Organizing like criminal network; we can be hard to discover, moveable, flexible, quick to adjust to changes etc…
- Lean on existing structures; we don’t have to create all new ones
- Work with Catholic Church
- List of participants and resources and projects to all participants