Wellspring Living's news

It's good to see this on the Home Page of CNN.

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If you haven't already read this story, then please read and forward to as many people as possible. This story is a very real and painful reminder to the severity of this problem.

ABC NEWS: OHIO TEENS FORCED INTO HAVING SEX FOR MONEY

Here is a news trailer for tonight's story:

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21 children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of networks of pimps who force children into prostitution.

The Justice Department says it targeted 16 cities as part of its "Operation Cross Country" that caps off five years of similar stings nationwide.

Many of the children forced into prostitution are either runaways or what authorities call "thrown-aways"-- kids whose families have shunned them. Officials say they are preyed upon by organized networks of pimps who lure them in with shelter or drugs, then often beat, starve or otherwise abuse them until the children agree to work the streets.

"We together have no higher calling than to protect our children and to safeguard their innocence," FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday. "Yet the sex trafficking of children remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes in this country."

In all, authorities arrested 345 people-- including 290 adult prostitutes-- during the operation that ended this week. Since 2003, 308 pimps and hookers have been convicted in state and federal courts of forcing youngsters into prostitution, and 433 child victims have been rescued, Mueller said.

The cities targeted in this week's sting are: Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Md.; Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix; Reno, Nev.; Sacramento, Calif.; Tampa; Toledo, Ohio and Washington.

The problem of child prostitution has taken on a new urgency in recent years with the growth of online networks where pimps advertise the youngsters to clients. The FBI generally investigates child prostitution cases that cross state lines.

The cases aren't easy to convict.

In April 2006, for example, charges against a Nevada man resulted in a hung jury after his 14-year-old victim refused to testify against him. Months later, however, a second jury found Juan Rico Doss of Reno, Nev., guilty of forcing two girls-- ages 14 and 16-- to sell sex in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Oakland.

A University of Pennsylvania study estimates nearly 300,000 children in the United States are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses-- "most of them runaways or thrown-aways," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"These kids are victims. This is 21st century slavery," Allen said. "They lack the ability to walk away."

Please pray for God's provisions for the rescue and restoration of these children!


FBI Director Robert Mueller, center, with Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, left, and acting Assistant Attorney General Matt Friedrich, take part in a news conference at the FBI headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, June 25, 2008. Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21 children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of networks of pimps who force children into prostitution.

Almost 10 years ago, a group of women on Atlanta's south side came together to organize the city's first diverse Christian women's event. The event was a huge success, and several years later, those same women joined forces across the metro-Atlanta area to host an even larger event for 20,000 women.

As these ambitious Atlanta area women interacted, bonded, and became friends while working on these events together, they realized that they wanted to continue working together for the good of their communities and the kingdom of God. They became motivated to reach out to those who would never darken the door of a church. Their hearts were impassioned to serve others for the sake of Christ, and they wanted to be the hands and feet of God to the hopeless and broken. After much prayer and discussion, Wellspring Living, Inc. was born.

From its inception, Wellspring Living has operated as a grass roots organization by building relationships and credibility through effective large events, intimate retreats, and sacrificial service through the Wellspring Home. Since March 2001, Wellspring has touched thousands of lives in Metro Atlanta.

THE WELLSPRING RESULTS

27,000 women through large events
621 pastors' wives through retreats
75 women through the Wellspring Home.
Over 200 family members of Wellspring participants served.
1,525 volunteers engaged
$1.8 million given in contributions
7 Metro Atlanta counties served
90% of participants now employed or attending college
95% of families reunited.

Wellspring connects a caring community with women seeking a way out of unhealthy lifestyles, promoting healing, wholeness, independence, and family restoration through Biblical principles. For women who are hurting and looking for a change, Wellspring is the first holistic change organization, dealing with the body, soul, and spirit. Wellspring accomplishes this by providing a unique blend of recovery, personal development, and continuing care in order to completely transform the women, their families, and the community in which they live.

Wellspring offers an individualized focus for each participant in the Wellspring Program. The responsibility of redirecting a life is an enormous one that we do not take lightly at Wellspring Living. The unique mingling of pain, grief and struggle in each life requires us to provide specific and individualized attention, mentorship, counseling, coaching, teaching and prayer in order that God can deal with the deep issues of the heart. Each woman in the Wellspring Program is absolutely matchless in her design by God and so must be her healing.

Wellspring Living is a volunteer intensive organization. Wellspring believes that most people desire to make a difference in their communities and in the lives of hurting people. However, often times, they do not know how. Wellspring Living gives people who care about changing the world an opportunity to do so. Whether volunteers are mentors for the participants, teachers for life skills classes, greeters for large events or prayer support for the staff, they are definitely "Changing Our World by Changing Hers."