Look at the lives of others and then think of your woes
Mood:  sad
Perhaps not a suitable read for younger children (Use your own discretion)

Taken from a PBS website

Myths and realities
Is child sex slavery an isolated problem, or a global epidemic? Why are the children involved getting younger—and what can done to help them? Find out more about this often misunderstood worldwide human rights violation and get the facts.

Child sex slavery is a result of numerous factors, including poverty and organized crime syndicates that profit highly from trafficking. The complicity of politicians and police officers make trafficking even more systematic, as well as more difficult to eradicate. As USAID health technical advisor Matthew Friedman says, “the amount of crime associated with [the child sex trade] is probably equal, if not exceeding, the drug trade…. It’s very, very systematic.”
Children who come from the lowest rung of the economic ladder are at the most risk for sex trafficking. Girls, who hold a lower social status than boys, are especially vulnerable and accessible to traffickers. There are three ways in which a girl is trafficked: she is sold by a family member, friend or neighbor; she is tricked into going to another country with the promise of a job or a marriage proposal; or she is kidnapped and forcefully taken away. Once in the hands of brothel owners and pimps, the girls are subjected to a tortuous "break in period" that often includes multiple gang rapes, beatings, deprivation of food and being burned by acid or cigarettes. The abuse can continue for weeks or until the girl complies with the wishes of the brothel owners.

Brothel owners will go to any extreme to protect their lucrative "property,” employing guards and enforcers to keep the girls from leaving. Those who do escape are beaten or murdered then used as examples for the others. Girls are disoriented and psychologically tortured until they lose the will to run away.
In some cases, girls are told that they can work to buy their way out of servitude: they must work for the brothel until they earn the price for which they were purchased. But the girls are charged for shelter, food, clothing and medical expenses. Their debt continually escalates and in reality, they have no hope of ever earning their freedom.

There has been an alarming increase in the number of young girls who are trafficked to work in the sex industry. Two decades ago, most women in India’s brothels were in their twenties or thirties. Today, the average age is 14, with some victims as young as seven years old.
Virginity and youth have long been commodities, but as Friedman says: “There is a myth that says if you have sex with a young girl, it will revitalize you. It will make you youthful. It was also a sense that because she’s young, she’s got to be healthy. I can’t get a disease from her, or if I have a disease, she will take my disease away from me.”

Sex trafficking is a highly sophisticated industry that is present in almost every country, including the United States. The United Nations estimates that approximately one million girls and women are forced into the commercial sex industry each year. In Nepal, an average of nearly 20 children a day are trafficked to India and the Middle East.
Yet the number of girls trafficked from Nepal is relatively small compared to other countries around the world. Trafficking is an endemic problem worldwide. The human rights violations associated with the trafficking of persons are staggering, resulting in a form of modern day slavery. Likewise, the public health implications are also significant. In Nepal, girls who manage to escape from the sex trade and return to their villages are often not accepted into their communities: they are considered "spoiled." In order to survive, they are forced to go underground, where they continue selling sex.
Of the more than one million women and girls who are sold, transported and forced into sexual slavery each year, 50,000 are in the United States.
In Bombay alone, 90 new cases of HIV infection are reported every hour. Girls who work in the brothels are powerless to insist that men wear condoms, and suffer an 80 percent HIV/AIDS infection rate. Many of the girls and women who return to Nepal with AIDS find that they are shunned by their families and friends. Those who do not have the disease are still presumed to be infected, and are treated as outcasts.
In Nepal, an average of nearly 20 children a day are trafficked to India and the Middle East. There are 300,000 Nepalese child prostitutes in India and 650,000 child prostitutes in Asia under the age of 16. Once oriented into the sex trade, a girl might be forced to have sex with up to 20 clients a day.

Statistics
In 2003, an estimated 4.8 million people worldwide became newly infected with HIV, more than any year before. Today, some 37.8 million people are living with HIV, which has killed more than 20 million since 1981. Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 account for half of all new cases of HIV, and for 10 million of those living with AIDS.

What about Halloween?
Mood:  bright
Taken from a clerical source

What About Halloween?

In order to understand Halloween, it is important to understand the history of this fall holiday. Halloween, which directly stems from Irish, Scottish, Welsh and British folk customs, was celebrated as the Druids' autumn festival. The Druids were an order of priests who worshiped nature. They were accomplished magicians and wizards at the height of their influence some 200 years before the birth of Jesus.

This holiday was originally celebrated to honor Samhain, lord of the dead, on October 31 (the end of the summer). The Druids believed that on this date, Samhain called all the wicked souls that had been condemned within the last year to live in animal bodies. He was believed to have released them in the form of spirits, ghosts, fairies, witches and elves. According to Druidic tradition, these souls of the dead roamed the city on Halloween night and returned to haunt the homes where they once lived. The only way the current occupants of the house could free themselves from being haunted was to lay out food and give shelter to the spirit during the night. If they didn't, the spirit would cast a spell on them. That is where the phrase "trick or treat" comes from: They would be tricked if they didn't lay out a treat.

The jack-o'-lantern was also a part of this belief system. The carved pumpkin symbolized a damned soul named Jack. According to the tale, Jack was not allowed into heaven or hell. So, he wandered around in the darkness with his lantern until Judgment Day. Fearful people hollowed out turnips (and later pumpkins in N. America), carved an evil face on them, and a lit candle inside to scare him and other evil spirits away.

In addition to being Halloween, October 31 was also the New Year's Eve of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons. To celebrate, they built huge bonfires on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits, and often offered their crops and animals to them as a sacrifice. The Romans began the conquest of the Celts around A.D. 43 and ruled much of what is now the United Kingdom for about 400 hundred years. During this period, two Roman autumn festivals were combined with the Celtic festival of Samhain. One of them, called Feralia, was held in late October to honor the dead. The other festival honored Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

Some people have thought that Halloween's only significance was as the evening before All Saints' Day, a festival of the Catholic Church honoring all Christian saints. The Mass said on All Saints' Day was called Allhallowmas. The evening before became known as the Eve of All Saints, the Eve of All Hallows, All Hallows' Eve, or Hallow Even, which has given us the name Hallowe'en. Although All Saints' Day contributed to the naming of Halloween, All Saints' Day itself did not exist until A.D. 700 when it was instituted by Pope Boniface IV. Originally it was celebrated in the spring on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The date was changed to November 1 by Pope Gregory III, (reigned A.D. 731-741) in an attempt to add a Christian influence to the traditional pagan customs still being celebrated on October 31 by Celtic converts. When sending missionaries to convert native peoples, the Church encouraged the redefinition of local customs into Christian terms and concepts. Therefore, All Saints' Day and Halloween became unified, because of the same ties to reverencing the dead. The combination of these customs eventually became the traditional celebration we call Halloween. It is important for parents to realize Halloween is a holiday centered around fear and death.

Modern day witches and wizards believe this night to be the most suitable night of the year for magic and demonic activity. In Deuteronomy 18:10-11, God forbids us to participate in any kind of occult practices or witchcraft. Further, in the New Testament, we are told to abstain from the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

Homosexuality and the Church
Mood:  on fire
I would just like to address this issue because it has been viewed in a very misleading manner. If you are gay or a gay activist and have ever felt condemned from the church I am sorry. This should never be the way and I am disappointed with the unwelcoming attitudes of some groups or individuals. The main goal and purpose of being a Christian is to LOVE, this is the kind of love that is expressed in 1 Corinthians, verse 13. We are nowhere near prefect, only God is perfect and we mess up time and time again (Christians or not). It hurts me to know that homosexuals feel that the church is against them and I can't say I blame them for thinking that way. As I said before, nobody is perfect and Christians mess up every day and even though we try our best sometimes we can still poorly represent God. There are no levels of sin, God sees the smallest lie to the largest killing spree as the same sin. This means that God is so pure and so without sin that any kind of sin will hurt him deeply. Society measures sin but God does not. If an alcoholic, a liar, or an unfaithful spouse is welcomed into a church then there is no reason not to accept everyone on every level who wants to know the love and passion of our Father. On behalf of God's word I would like to apologize to those who have felt unwelcome by the church (for good reason) and to let you know that what matters most is that God loves you very much and despite what SOME (not all) judgmental church leaders may make you feel, please know that you are ALWAYS welcome in the presence of God and He ALONE can and will show you the way, plan and purpose of your beautiful life. :) Also, if you are a Christian reading this, how about embracing your fellow children of God. Please e-mail us at simple.truth@hotmail.com (all e-mails are confidential)