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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

BFA Founder on Anything But Ordinary Radio 6/30/10 12pm EST


ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY RADIO INTERVIEW with GUEST JULIE SHEMATZ: Wednesday, June 30th 12:30-12:55pm EST

The show airs live on Wednesdays from 12pm – 1pm EST on BTR an internet radio station with millions of listeners and shows in a wide variety of categories. Listeners can hear the stream live a http://www.blogtalkradio.com/anythingbutordinary. Julie's episode will also available for download and on iTunes and archived at http://www.anythingbutordinary.net within 48 hours of the broadcast.

Public Communications and Outreach
Beauty From Ashes Ministries
For more information, visit BFA's Founder, call 239.939.9218 or email

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Beauty From Ashes Story - Human Trafficking Victim Graduates High School as Valedictorian

Human trafficking victim graduates high school as valedictorian

Dramatic turnaround triggered by 'angel'

Rosita Curry, who was featured in a Dispatch article on human trafficking a year ago, graduated from high school as a valedictorian this month.

On a chilly, rainy April night on Hudson Street, Rosita Curry was ready to give up. She had no money or food, no place to go. Her left leg had gone numb from the cold.

On the streets for seven years, Curry, just 19, was tired of having to sell her body, being abused by pimps, feeding her insatiable need for drugs, sleeping in a cardboard box instead of a bed.

"I don't want to die out here!" she recalls thinking. "God, won't you please give me just one person that will stick with me?"

It seems that God was listening.

Just 15 months after that night of despair, Curry found herself walking across a stage at Columbus State Community College, dressed in a spotless white graduation cap and gown with a bright yellow sash that proudly told the world that the girl from the streets who nobody wanted was valedictorian of her high-school class.

Lynn Kee, Curry's probation officer for several years, was in the audience at the June 13 graduation, tears of joy rolling down her cheeks.

"Her turnaround was about as dramatic as you get," said Kee, now retired. "This is the first real success in her life. It shows that even under the worst of circumstances, you can excel."

Just a year ago, Curry was one of several young women profiled in a Dispatch package about human sex and labor trafficking, a festering problem in Ohio that is no longer confined to foreign countries.

Curry's story began when she was 13 and wandered E. Main Street looking for the two brothers she hadn't seen since their parents died several years earlier.

Eventually, the fragile teenager was taken in by an older man who clothed, fed and cared for her. However, he soon sold her to a pimp who began prostituting her.

Nearly seven years later, on that rainy April night in 2009 when she cried out to God, Curry was arrested and charged with offering oral sex to an undercover police officer for $20.

At her lowest point, lost and bewildered in the Franklin County Jail on Jackson Pike, the "one person" Curry prayed for showed up.

Marlene Carson, the founder of Rahab's Hideaway, a small local shelter for human-trafficking victims, had been asked to visit Curry by both Kee and the Columbus police officer who arrested her.

"Oh, she was a mess," Carson said. "I saw somebody that had been very abused and very neglected. It was looking in a mirror from my own younger days."

"I just started crying," Curry said. "I felt like she was an angel."

Carson gave Curry a place to live, helped get her in drug rehabilitation and encouraged her interest in enrolling in Youth Build Columbus Community School, 1183 Essex Ave. The school is a place for troubled youth dropouts ages 17 to 21.

Curry buckled down to study for the first time in her life. She found math hard but English easier. She did well in all her classes, focusing on nursing-assistant training. Toward the end of the school year, she was surprised to hear her grades had earned her the honor of valedictorian in her small graduating class of 15 students.

"They surprised me," she said. "I didn't even know what a valedictorian was."

Curry is considering going to college, or taking more training as a nurse or a cosmetologist.

While she's come a long way in 15 months, some of the street still clings to Curry. She doesn't like crowded rooms because she said you always have to "watch your back." Sometimes, while watching television, something will jog a suppressed memory and she will blurt out a sad story from her past.

But Curry plans to move forward, not backward.

"I already know how to do bad," she said. "Now, I want to learn how to do good."

For more information about Rehab's Hideaway, visit: http://www.rahabshideaway.org/

BY ALAN JOHNSON

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

Monday, June 28, 2010

Urgent Needs 4 HT Survivors, Radio, Volunteer Mtg, Strip Club OutREACH & More


URGENT NEEDS FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS: Fort Myers, FL - 21 year old mother of small child & 23 year old woman. Apartment needed that costs around $500 a month and all furnishings for apartment/home. For more information, contact Alex Oliveras at 239-677-6162 or aolivares@ccslee.org

ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY RADIO INTERVIEW with GUEST JULIE SHEMATZ: Wednesday, June 30th 12:30-12:55pm EST The show airs live on Wednesdays from 12pm – 1pm EST on BTR an internet radio station with millions of listeners and shows in a wide variety of categories. Listeners can hear the stream live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/anythingbutordinary. Julie's episode will also available for download and on iTunes and archived at http://www.anythingbutordinary.net within 48 hours of the broadcast.

"The greatest plan that Jesus ever presented in His ministry
was the ministry of service."

- Smith Wigglesworth

VOLUNTEER MEETING: Saturday, July 3 9am-12pm Fort Myers, FL BFA will have our monthly volunteer meeting for existing and new volunteers. We are in need of mature, faithful, responsible and committed servants in the following areas/positions: Administration, Beauty Supply Inventory, Gift Assembly, Outreach & Gift Assembly Coordinators, Outreach Cooks, Case Management, Mentors and Social Media Team. If you've wanted to get involved, now is the time. We do video conferencing for those not in the Fort Myers area. Become a slavery abolitionist & join the BFA FREEdom™ Team today! Call 239.939.9218 for more info.

STRIP CLUB OUTREACHES: We do monthly strip club outreaches on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Our next will be July 10 and we will be delivering gifts as well as food. We need assistance with gift bag assembly for approximately 35 employees. Please contact us if you would like to help. If you're interested in being a cook, please contact Tirzah Brown at 239-410-2585 or tirzah.brown@yahoo.com

"I am among you as the One who serves." - Jesus
(Luke 22:27 NLT)

BFA TRAINING & HUMAN TRAFFICKING EDUCATION: One of our goals is to educate the community and equip others to reach, rescue and restore victims of commercialized sexual exploitation and trafficking with the message there is help and a way out. Since 2005, we have been educating and training locally and across the United States in the development of our victim centered model. Currently we have equipped 27 other organizations and produced a 40+ page national curriculum that covers all aspects of sex worker outREACH. We also utilize international and national trafficking curriculum in presentations. Programs we offer:
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking
Human Trafficking - Hearing from the Victims & Addressing Demand
Sex Worker AfterCARE
Street OutREACH
Strip Club OutREACH
XXX OutREACH

PLEASE PRAY WITH BFA: Agree with us that those we have influenced will receive revelation of who God is and who they are in Christ. May their faith increase, they be strengthened, doors of opportunity be opened and that they walk in the fullness of all God planned for them.

theCALL2XXX: Join us for weekly global prayer to abolish slavery and for the organizations reaching, rescuing, restoring and advocating for the victims. Fridays 8-9am EST. For more information and prayer guide: CLICK HERE

PRAYER REQUESTS: We care for you and have a team that prays over your every need. Please send them to prayer@beautyfromashes.org

BFA E-NEWSLETTER SIGN UP: CLICK HERE

DONATIONS: We need your help to continue providing awareness, advocacy and reach, rescue and restoration services to victims of commercialized sexual exploitation (CSE). Please consider giving a tax deductible gift today. For $35 or more we will send you our Child of God CD. For secure online donations, CLICK HERE or mail your check, cash or money order to Beauty From Ashes, 5100 S. Cleveland Ave., Ste, 318-148, Fort Myers, FL 33907.

A very special thank you to everyone that responded to my appeal to help my family in Indiana who suffered a total loss of their home in a tornado. Aunt Rhonda told me they have received gifts cards and packages from all over. I know Kimberly, Alex and Alexis are grateful for your generosity and kindness.

Together we are better and are making a difference.

In His love & service,
Julie Shematz
CEO & Founder
Beauty From Ashes™ Ministries
Where Victims Become Over-Comers
239.939.9218
877.4BFA SOS (877.423.2767) Toll Free Help Line

AWARENESS & PREVENTION • REACH & RESCUE • TEACH & DEMONSTRATE • TRAIN & SEND