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  • What I Have Been Through Is Not Who I Am

    Published May 24, 2013

    by Brendan Welsh

    Carol Smolenski, executive director of ECPAT-USA, spoke to yesterday’s seminar group from the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, NJ about her organization's work to protect American children from sexual trafficking. In her organization’s film What I Have Been Through Is Not Who I Am we meet Katrina, a young woman who was coerced out of her job as an Atlanta restaurant hostess when she was 17 by a patron who, unbeknownst to her, was intent on making money off of her through the sex trade. The man gained Katrina’s trust not only by paying ...

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    From Swords into plowshares

  • Only a glimpse

    Published May 24, 2013

    by Marissa Costello

    I was inspired today by three speakers whose presentations all related to one atrocity: human trafficking and forced labor. Ryan Smith, Presbyterian representative to the United Nations, Kevin Cassidy, Senior for the International Labour Organization, and Carol Smolenski, executive director of ECPAT-USA, each spoke to a seminar group from the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, New Jersey. I was inspired by each speaker’s passion to change the world one life at a time, which just left me in pure awe. Let me tell you a bit about one presentation.

    Mr. Cassidy presented a PowerPoint that incorporated pictures ...

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    From Swords into plowshares

  • Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church follows Jesus into the public arena

    Published May 24, 2013

    Why do followers of Jesus work in the public arena - that part of our life where communities and countries and corporations and the nations of the world make policies that shape our common life? What theological principles and Biblical stories call us to and sustain us in such ministry?

    How do we witness and work in the public arena?

    On Saturday, May 18, I had the privilege to explore these and related questions with an intergenerational group from Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kensington, Maryland.

    Certified Educator Jan Moody, Pastor, the Rev. Kirby Lawrence Hill, and Director of Music John ...

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    From Swords into plowshares

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