David and I met up with our friend Vindra, from Hemel Hempstead, yesterday.
We had arranged to meet in the newly refurbished Methodist Church in Marlborough Road, St Albans. The church has introduced a new venture called ‘Thinking Lunch’. Once a month, people of all faiths and none, are invited to come along in their lunch hour with their sandwiches to listen and join in discussion on a variety of current issues.
In today’s photo the minister, Rev Rosemary Fletcher is seen introducing Ruth Dearnley OBE, the Chief Executive Officer of ‘STOP THE TRAFFIK’. An inspirational speaker, Ruth describes herself as “simply a wife and mum married to an Anglican vicar, but with a passionate desire to stop the trade of exploitation of millions of fellow human beings.”
From the website we read –
‘STOP THE TRAFFIK is a pioneer in human trafficking prevention. Acting globally, thinking locally. Human trafficking and modern slavery are truly global issues. Therefore, our work reaches all corners of the globe. Our goal is to build resilient communities, by turning them into places where it is harder for traffickers to hide their activities and their victims.
Given the organised nature of these crimes, we believe that the only way to combat them is through intelligence-led prevention. As such, we are collecting data and stories from around the world and building intelligence. With this, we can target human trafficking and modern slavery at their source and defeat them for good.’
What started out as a simple meeting with a friend turned out to be an amazingly informative, disturbing, yet inspiring time.
I never cease to be amazed at how often we end up in the right place at the right time to hear what we need to hear.
‘The right hand of God is pointing in our land, pointing the way we must go:’ SfF 715 v2
Every blessing, Sandra
