Spirit in Action
Adults Saving Kids
I have no hands but yours to tend my sheep No handkerchief but yours to dry the eyes of those who weep I have no arms but yours with which to hold The ones grown weary from the struggle and weak from growing old I have no hands but yours with which to see To let my children know that I am up and love is everything I have no way to feed the hungry souls No clothes to give and give, the ragged and the morn So be my heart, my hand, my tongue Through you I will be done Fingers have I none to help I'm done The tangled knocks and twisted chains The strangle fearful minds Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmead. Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Above all, I'll seek out light, love, and helping hands Being shared between our many neighbors on this planet, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life I have no way to open people's eyes Except that you will show them how to trust the inner mind Today on Spirit in Action, we'll be visiting with Mary Mulstad of the group called "Adults Saving Kids" It's an organization dedicated to preventing sexual exploitation of kids by a unique combination of education and prayer Mary became involved with "Adults Saving Kids" out of her therapy work with victims of sexual abuse and a desire to stem the flow of abuse rather than drown in the aftermath She was raised with constant synod Lutheran, but left that Lutheran group to join the ELCA out of a desire to claim and uphold the worth of woman's work and being "Adults Saving Kids" works to prevent sexual exploitation of youth through innovative combination of publicity, education, and recruiting adults to pray for children daily in their congregations Good morning, Mary. Welcome to Eau Claire Good morning, Mark. Thank you for inviting me You're here to do a presentation tonight. Could you tell us about the presentation you'll be giving? The presentation is about a program with which I'm involved called "Adults Saving Kids" Our mission is to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children and to bring accountability and responsibility to all relationships What does that mean, accountability to all relationships? Basically, our desire is for people to blame their own part in a relationship, their behavior, how they feel about other people and that they take responsibility for their actions They can make changes and that they don't just excuse what they do, how they feel about other people that they say "I'm going to make a change, I want to love and accept people in the same manner that I was loved and accepted by God" Can you give me a specific example of a place where that might apply? In a place where one person takes advantage of the vulnerability of another person In order to make money, in order to use that vulnerable person for their own benefit People need to take responsibility and say "I am not going to be a user, I am going to work with this vulnerable person to help make that person stronger, not take advantage of them" It seems to me that there are two parts to any relationship and so while you're encouraging the adult to be responsible you must also work with the minors, the kids that you're involved with to claim their power The children that we work with, we do not do that on an individual basis We are doing this in a group in a way that will teach children new tools to protect themselves And as they are protected, then they can grow and they can accept the power that they have They have to also accept the responsibility in relationships to the point that they can be responsible How far back does this group go, when did it start? The group began in 1990, it was put together by Reverend L. Erickson who was a Lutheran minister still is of the ELCA He was working in downtown Minneapolis in a grassroots ministry Working with a lot of people who were involved in commercial sexual exploitation in the industry prostitutes, strippers, pimps, people running strip clubs His life became personally involved in this industry when one of his relatives was recruited into the industry And he began to look closer at how this recruitment was done Our program is not directed at getting people out of the industry Because there are a lot of programs around the country that do that So there must be an educational portion to it Are there more components or how does your education work? There are three components to the program The first component is what we call speaking, which is getting the message out The second component is an education based component for at the moment middle school and high school children And the third is a prayer component Working with congregations to help them develop prayer projects that will cover all of the youth in their congregation That sounds like a unique perspective, a lot of places get involved in education But the prayer component where you actually involve the congregation in that How does this work? How do you involve the congregation? Does this happen amongst the broad based religious communities or is it ELCA mainly? This program mainly has been working within the ELCA But we do definitely hope to branch out The prayer component is one of our strongest programs right now We encourage churches to put something together So that each child in their congregation will be covered by one adult Praying for that child by name and intentionally on a daily basis We have a number of congregations now in Wisconsin That start the day the child is baptized and go through the age of 23 And we have taken it through the age of 23 Because of the new work that has been done on brain development in the adolescent And also to cover students in college When did you get involved with this work and why? I got involved in this work in 2001 I became involved because professionally I have been doing trauma resolution With adults and children who have been physically and sexually abused Been doing that for over 25 years Have worked with various prevention programs And have been concerned about the prevention programs And wanting something that I felt would not re-victimize the child or the adult who has been assaulted I did a lot of research on the program And I became involved because it was faith-based And it was an opportunity for me to put the two most important things in my life together And that was my faith along with relationships and especially children Does this program including the prayer component work with boys as well as girls? Definitely, absolutely. Boys are victimized just as girls are victimized And very often the victimization can be different This is an industry that wants to get our boys into a certain mindset Which is not healthy for them It dehumanizes boys as much as girls We are working to prevent that What is your background that you were working with the trauma survivors? What kind of training or experience do you have? I began on a volunteer basis working with battered women in Charleston, South Carolina In about 1978, grassroots movement went back to college, finished up that education And realized that in order to do what I was doing but to get paid for it I needed an extra piece of paper and that was a master's degree Which I was able to get at the University of California Berkeley And at that time I was thinking, "Well, I probably won't be working with a survivor group anymore I will now be working with people with a diagnosed mental health problem" That did not pan out What I found was that the people coming into my office requesting mental health counseling Were the same people that I had been seeing previously These were the walking wounded People who were having problems in their present life related to some previous trauma And they had gone through their lives in relationships that were not healthy for them Not healthy for their partner and trying to deal with things without having worked through the trauma That really began all the problems So I'm kind of assuming that this trauma that you're referring to often is abuse that they received as a child? Yes, that sets people up into a pattern of vulnerability for the rest of their lives A district attorney once asked me what it would cost for counseling For a child who had been sexually assaulted About 20 years ago I worked it out to somewhere around $70,000 over a period of their lifetime Well, of course, everything has got more expensive so that has to go up And the problem is that when a child is victimized, is sexually assaulted, molested, incested It is going to affect them at many stages of their emotional development Their physical development continues and we can see them grow But their emotional development is behind that physical growth timeline How does that wounding end up affecting their behavior in the future? It can end up affecting them in many different ways Alcohol and drug use beginning very young as a way to anesthetize their feelings Doing poorly in school because they have trouble concentrating Increasing anxiety and anxiety attacks What I call AODAS use which is not just alcohol and other drugs But would include things like shoplifting, overspending, gambling, sexual promiscuity Or not being able to relate sexually to another person It will affect them at various phases of their lives Graduation from high school or grade school, getting into a relationship Getting into a serious relationship, becoming engaged, getting married, having children When one of their children reaches the age that they were when they were first assaulted Who they choose as their partner? What happens to them when their perpetrator dies? All sorts of things goes throughout their life Look at the ceiling, the shadows are bare I wonder what's on the TV And daddy's hands rub me all over, I wonder Do leaves in the creek find their way to the sea My mashed potatoes and pores in the milk Silently smoked cigarettes, I wish she would hug me or look at me then I'd trade my allowance for that Billy plays tag with me all the way home after school Boy he's really a brat, but we didn't do nothing and it's not fair for dad To make him go home just like that Look at the ceiling, the shadows are bare In hurricanes where the birds hide And daddy's hands rub me all over, I wonder Where butterflies learn how to fly The county fair ones had a merry go round I loved to watch mom and dad ride We used to laugh and they used to hold hands And neither of them used to cry When the spiders scared little Miss Muppet away How did she know where to run? Oh I'd love to sleep in the bathtub all night Wake up as clean as the sun Look at the ceiling, the shadows are bare Oh I'd do bees die when they stink And daddy's hands rub me all over, I wonder Where do balloons go when you cut the string? Are those kinds of issues you dealt with Mary in therapy with people that got you involved in adults with kids? Those are the issues that I would deal with in a therapy setting I became involved with adults saving kids Because personally I was feeling like I was underneath the waterfall Running from one side to the other Trying to catch one drop coming over the waterfall I wanted to get at the people that are throwing our kids into the water So that they go over the waterfall And I became involved with adults saving kids Because of their emphasis on relationships From my faith, I think that's what it's all about Is relationships If we can bring honor and accountability and responsibility to all relationships We're talking about dealing with sexism, ageism, racism All of the isms in the world Because it's all about relationships And for me, it begins with our relationship with God Tell me a little bit about your religious background Mary Have you been Lutheran throughout your life? Was this important to you early on? I have been Lutheran throughout my life I was raised in a family where going to church and our faith was very very important I was just very blessed that way I went through a Lutheran grade school through high school Then I got out into the real world I remember in high school a teacher telling us that we were very naive And of course, when you're a senior in high school, that's the last thing you believe And a year later, having gone to the university, I came back and I said Hmm, you were right to this particular teacher My faith has been important to me, but it has gone through a lot of changes over the years I made some changes in the faith group in which I began and I made a few changes that way But what really strengthened my faith was working with survivors Because every time a survivor would walk into my office, I would be overwhelmed at the gifts that God has given us To deal with the most horrendous things that can happen to a person And I would see in each of the survivors this possibility and how they could grow And they would say, "Oh, but I've done this terrible thing of gambled Or I've used drugs and alcohol to cope with that And I'm thinking, what a wonderful gift because it got you here Got you to the point that you are still with us and that you are willing to work on What has happened to you because of what someone else did to you And I'm still, I am just overwhelmed with this mind and this gift that God has given us I don't think we've tapped anywhere near what we can Are you able to hold that kind of prayerful conscience as you do therapy? Is this permissible? I realize that there's a lot of people who say, "I don't want this religious baggage in my therapy sessions Don't say the word "God" here. How do you approach your therapy? I have been in private practice and I have worked in community mental health settings I do not believe that for me as a therapist it is my duty to bring my beliefs into the therapy session If the patient I'm dealing with has a belief system I need to honor that belief system Not to argue with it, not to dismiss it, but to honor it Because again, it's part of what has gotten this person to this particular point My belief system may be different, but it's part of who I am It's part of the therapy I do My daily prayer on my way to therapy and to the office Is, Lord, you know what the people I'm going to be meeting with need to hear Put those words into my mouth But I don't believe that my clients need to know that Does this honoring their religious beliefs include honoring I can only describe it as baggage There are a number of people who believe, I think I would describe it as fundamentalist belief That they're evil, that they're sinful That they got raped because they deserved it, this was God's vengeance on them It seems to me that at some point it becomes important in their healing to find a different way of believing That belief that somehow they are responsible That's a universal belief for people who have been assaulted That somehow they did something wrong I don't see that as a religious belief It reminds me of the deer crossing the road You know, we all know about deer crossing the road in front of the cars You know, it's not the deer's fault They were in the wrong place at the wrong time And if we're driving the car and we hit the deer We're in the wrong place at the wrong time For most victims of sexual assault, they were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time And it's not their fault You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe that There are a lot of people who say their behavior or what they were doing You know, they deserved it I don't believe that You know, when you're dealing with children and they say, "What did I do wrong?" Children will tell you that they will develop a type of almost superstitious ritualistic behavior To try to keep the abuse from ever happening again One woman I dealt with, her father, insisted her for a number of years In order for it not to happen, she would tap each step twice on her way up to bed That was how she tried to keep herself safe Tapping each step is not going to keep an ancestor from insisting that child It's not the child's fault Children are told that this is being done to them for a reason Children believe adults If adults tell us we're bad, as children, we're going to believe that So very often children feel that they have been a part that they colluded with the assault and this is never true I want to pursue you a little bit more about the religious beliefs Because I do believe that there are religious beliefs that say It's not only that all fall short of the glory of God It's that you are a sinner and you've sinned from your first day on this earth It's from right there in Genesis where God says woman because you have original sin You're going to have difficult pregnancies and births and all of that I think there's a lot of women who are affected strongly by that kind of fundamentalist viewpoint And it carries into here's why I was assaulted I'm supposed to be obedient to men So I can't imagine you not somehow having to confront that eventually in the course of your therapy There have been times when I have had to confront that When I'm working in a community mental health clinic I have to be a little more careful than when I'm in private practice Because I really cannot bring any of my religious beliefs in there But what I can say is this is a different way of looking at it I understand original sinned, I understand that we are all sinners But that doesn't mean to me that it explains one person's victimizing another person I don't believe that as part of religion What I believe in is love To try to take a child's mind and turn it That somehow it's their fault because of original sin I have trouble with that And I am going to in therapy if that comes up bring up another side [Music] Does God see me? Yes God sees you Everybody's seen in the house of God Does God know me? Yes God knows you Everybody's known in the house of God Every little seed, unto the tallest tree Everything in between God sees What makes the grass grow, what makes the wind grow What makes the world go God knows Does God want me? Yes God wants you Everybody's wanted in the house of God Does God love me? Yes God loves you Everybody's loved in the house of God All things beauty is Else in peacefulness All in abundance God wants Watching from above God We know that less much more than her best God knows Does God want me? Yes God wants you Everybody's wanted in the house of God Does God love me? Yes God loves you Everybody's loved in the house of God Everybody's wanted in the house of God Everybody's known in the house of God Everybody's seen in the house of God Everybody's known in the house of God You mentioned that you changed which religious group, I guess, within Lutheran Church you associated with You're now associated with ELCA which I consider either mainstream or liberal leaning as far as Lutherans go depending on the specific parish you're with Of course, were you part of either Missouri or Wisconsin Senate or another Lutheran group growing up? I was raised Wisconsin Senate Most of my family is either Wisconsin Senate or Missouri Senate I am now involved in an ELCA congregation and it's probably a more conservative congregation than I would have found in San Francisco I did not make the change until we came back to Wisconsin and a lot of it had to do with my own beliefs about the status of females in the Church I want to make sure I understand this Are you saying you switched from Wisconsin Senate to ELCA because of your beliefs about the status of women? Yes I did In 1989-1990 the Wisconsin Senate came out with a declaration on the status of women having two daughters and myself I did not agree with them We made the change as a family to an ELCA Church because of that For our listeners who don't know anything about Lutheran spectrum, what kind of beliefs were you, I guess, fleeing from Wisconsin Senate? What was it that was not palatable about that to you? I grew up and I knew that I would never be able to be part of a Church Council that I could not be a part even of a meeting on Church issues I could never be a pastor in the Church and I accepted that but when this particular document came out part of what it said was that women were not too advised men well that meant that I would have to give up my profession because I could read that as I would not be able to do therapy with a man and I have felt within myself when this profession was chosen by me it was a calling that God had given to me and to deny that calling I couldn't do that so we made the change and we've been very happy it's still a mainstream Church I know that a number of my relatives feel that it's a very liberal Church but they need to deal with that what would you say the ELCA attitude towards women is? probably a lot of people might say that it needs to grow even further but coming from Wisconsin-funded background and seeing a female minister in pulpit has definitely given me the feeling that I am a part of the Church the ELCA from my experience definitely takes women seriously takes our issues seriously has been very open to what I have to contribute it's probably that I'm more reticent in contributing only because of my background it's been said that a prophet has no honor in his own country are you accepted authority in your local Church? are you able to speak to them? or is it only you have to leave town to go carry your prophetic message? I love that question because I'm afraid it's twofold the message has been accepted in our Church we have wonderful congregation members wonderful officers and pastors in the congregation who understand what I'm talking about we have a synod in the lacrosse area of the ELCA that has 83 churches in it it's probably the smallest synod in the United States we have the first female bishop in the United States as in our synod we have really taken over leadership role in spreading the message adults saving kids and working to keep kids safe now on the secular side of it I have been accepted as an expert witness in child sexual assaults in other counties but not in my own county I have had other district attorneys come to me for some education but not our own county so it comes and goes and it all depends on the area and it's okay tell me a little bit more about adults saving kids how big is this organization? how big is it locally in Wisconsin? at the moment I think we have around 11 synods within the United States from Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan North Carolina we're spreading the message Pastor Erickson who began the program is acknowledged as a national expert in the field of prevention he has spoken to U.S. congressional committees on missing and neglected children he has done seminars for the Baptist Seminary in Texas has been a speaker at the University of Toledo's initial conference on commercial sexual exploitation last year we have been a source of information for the Oprah Winfrey shows that she has done on children in prostitution in various areas we are spreading one of the associate district attorneys from Hennepin County spoke to us several weeks ago at a gathering and said that she is very supportive of our program because it's prevention and that that is a unique program there is an attorney at Winona State University, Victor Viff who works on violence issues and we've spoken with him also are you the lone local representative Mary in your area or are there other members like a local chapter? Do you have a local chapter there Mary? Or do you have to travel statewide to connect with other members of adult saving kids? In the La Crosse area we have quite a few people who are involved with the program my job right now is based on a grant that we receive from the Siebert Foundation and that is to start other groups of people throughout Wisconsin and upper Michigan doing this program the three parts of the program and that's one of the reasons I'm up here in Eau Claire this evening is to work with people in the Eau Claire area to start this growing in their area our structural role model is Mothers Against Drunk Driving where I don't see us as having chapters but we want congregations to take ownership of this program and continue it because someone from Minneapolis says that they are to continue it but because they see what is going on in their community they are checking on community zoning codes they are in touch with what is going on in the schools what is going on in the area as far as when kids get together people need to take back what is going on in their community as has been said it takes a community to raise a child as a community we need to take that seriously to take responsibility for each child in the community whether they are a member of our congregation or not and make it a safe place it strikes me that because a lot of the issues are incest a lot of the sexual abuse that does happen is whether it's an uncle or whatever that as you are doing you are praying in the church you are heightening the potential perpetrators awareness of the transgression they are being drawn toward how do you deal with those adults then when their potential status as a perpetrator emerges is in them is there a way to deal with them and get them therapy so they don't become a perpetrator either molest or incest the children is not the focus of adult saving kids we are more interested in dealing with the industry that promotes a belief system that it's okay to dehumanize one person for the gain of another person it strikes me that that means you have to take on the entire advertising community that almost all of our advertising is based on money and sex of sex and power being closely related so how do you take on such a behemoth of an adversary through education people need to understand that what they are seeing from the advertising industry has a purpose that purpose is to separate them from their money and if that means dehumanizing other people in order to do it what they will do I recently spoke with a man who was involved in distributing pornographic videos he ran a manufacturing company that had nothing to do with pornography but one of his customers was unable to pay his bill and said well I have all of these pornographic tapes that I will give you to pay this bill that I owe you the manufacturer said to a salesman you know how do we get money from these because that's all it was to him was a way to get money and they worked out a plan to market the videos well that plan worked so well that within five years they went for making nothing on videos to making 25 million dollars a year on pornographic videos having three studios in Orange County California producing these videos for them based on what they were hearing from their customers that their customers wanted if you were talking to this man who was responsible for this has he changed his ways? is this part of your prayers? yes he has changed his ways which is one of the reasons we have the information that he gave us they always talk about these ways well I always say God has a sense of humor because things happen and you just wouldn't believe one thing will be related to another which will be related to another and go on down this man had a daughter who went to a summer Bible camp for two weeks with a friend of hers came home and told her family about having accepted Christ and would her family please go to church with her and he started everything moving since that time not only has he gone out of the business but he has lost his marriage because he got out of the business and did not have the income that his spouse was used to this has been economically and emotionally a difficult move for him to make he has given up a lot what is your attitude or maybe the organization's attitude I'm afraid that there's a lot of people who assume that you're taring sex with a broad brush that you're in fact saying sex is bad if you're engaging in premarital sex therefore you're evil in other words that by praying for people as regards to this victimization that you're also including in their sex and they're making them shame-based as an organization sex is not the topic is relationships the topic is exploitation and that's what we are dealing with period do the kids that you're praying for know that they're being prayed for adults have a child's name is what I think I heard you say do the children know which adults are praying for them when we first began in the lacrosse a number of the congregations chose not to have the children who was praying for them and then there were other congregations who said we want the children to know what I have learned from the experience now is that it seems to be extremely healthy for the children to know who's praying for them because that's another relationship and that relationship becomes accountable in that the children often point out to their friends who is praying for them who will talk to the adult who's praying for them about what's coming up in their lives we've even have children saying well what can I do for you and the adults have said well you could pray for me every day too you know so often we talk about this generation gap what we have seen in the number of our churches is a bridging of that gap people going to church and having meaningful conversations with each other in church following the liturgy having a sermon and getting up and going home when you hurt you hide it away you carry the pain where it rains every day so deep inside where no one can see when someone hurts you don't trust nobody you need love it's the only medicine medicine love makes you feel better my friends love it's the only medicine love makes you feel better my friends we suffer abuse from someone we love we stay even though we know push turns to shove we hold on to long we stay in injury we know we should go but sometimes we don't see we need love it's the only medicine love makes you feel better my friends love it's the only medicine love makes you feel better my friends love it's the only medicine love it's the only medicine love it's the only medicine love it's the only medicine love it's the only medicine love it's the only medicine love it's the only medicine only love can heal you only love love love can heal if someone is me we know right away that one has a wound yet that one is in pain that soul has a wall crushing the heart they pass on the herd and again it will start they need love it's the only medicine love makes you feel better my friends love it's the only medicine love makes you feel better my friends love it's the only medicine love it makes you feel better my friends love it's the only medicine love it makes you feel better my friends love it makes you feel better my friends prayers for a child take what are you praying about specifically? when we do prayer trainings we have a number of sample prayers that we hand out so that people have a place to start what we found is people will say well I know the Lord's Prayer but praying is something that the pastor does I don't know how to pray I don't know what words to say if we give people a format to follow then they later will go off on their own and develop their own prayers for the child from the spirit if we say to people it'll just come to you it's not going to work can you give me some of the material of some of those standard prayers that you hand out one of the prayers is like a two sentence prayer and it says something to the effect of your father today I bring to you and then the name of the child goes in I ask that you watch over this child today that you keep this child from harm that you encourage this child to discern your will for them and that doesn't seem to mention anything specific about sex or exploitation no it doesn't are there others that do mention that specifically or is that just not necessary you know I haven't read over all of the prayers so I can't say for sure that it mentions commercial sexual exploitation explicitly I'm going to digress one woman said to me you know I have a four year old and I'm so afraid of what's going to happen to that child when I can't be with them 24/7 and my comment was I know someone who can be with them 24/7 my belief is that God's love encompasses all of the dangers that we face in the world because God knows the dangers even when we don't is it necessary specifically to say please protect this child from commercial sexual exploitation I don't know God knows do you have children that are your prayer partners yes I do my congregation was one of the congregations that chose that the children didn't know who it was and I have to admit that since I'm fairly new to the congregation I didn't know who these children were either but about six months ago I did have occasion to ask our church secretary and I had been praying for that child for about oh a year and a half and she told me that one of the children made a positive turn around in their life at school now I can't say that's the result of my praying and I don't even care I'm going to continue to pray for that child is it always one adult with one child or can adult have two or three children of course an adult can have two or three children is it a little bit like becoming a God parent with an interesting concept I guess it is you pray for your God children on a daily basis and you pray for these children on a daily basis there's a sense of connectedness that grows through being the prayer for that child clearly this is a movement that's still growing are there any stunning victories are there any stunning changes that you can say there's less prostitution happening what you said is the primary goal is relationship can you somehow quantify the overall effect? Mark one of the problems for funding is you can't prove prevention programs and this is true of anything we do if you're looking for numbers no I don't have any numbers I have seen individual cases where it has made a difference how much is a child worth if we spend a hundred thousand dollars to set up programs in every church in Eau Claire and one child is saying to me that's worth it I mean a child is worth more than a hundred thousand dollars it's sort of like I used to have fellow therapists say why do you work with the population that you work with Mary how can you do that because it's so frustrating because it's long term this is not a three or four visit thing that you do when you do trauma resolution my answer was I can say to a person you've come as far as we can go right now you are doing wonderfully support yourself love yourself and just keep doing what you're doing it's the same thing with children one one child and then everything's worth it my guess is though that when you submit for a grant they want some kind of numbers what do you tell them? the numbers that we're going for are number of churches number of young people who have participated in either of the educational programs that's what our grant right now is looking at which church are you speaking at tonight? Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Cedar Street do I take it there ELCA? Yes there it's an ELCA church how big a deal is prostitution in Wisconsin? I have no idea to my knowledge I've never met a prostitute in Wisconsin the upper Midwest is a primary for recruitment for prostitutes and for strippers and for the pornography industry that reason is we have the number one product we have the most valuable product that they can offer for sale we have light haired fair-skinned light-eyed naive children who you can ask for directions say well would you come with me and show me how to get there and the children will do that in Minnesota they call it Minnesota Nice well it's Wisconsin Nice it's Michigan Nice it's North and South Dakota Nice it's Iowa Nice we are raised to be nice you talk to people from the East Coast or the West Coast and I've lived on both those coasts you know in a way they sort of laugh at us because we're friendly I was watching the Packer game yesterday and they were talking about the friendliness of the people in Green Bay well that's who we are and there's nothing wrong with that but we also need to be aware of possibilities on any given night in Las Vegas one-half to three-quarter of the prostitutes who will be arrested are from the upper Midwest there are a number of prostitution rings that run throughout the Midwest that transfer girls from Detroit to Chicago and Milwaukee and the Twin Cities there is a major drug distribution network that comes from Chicago up to the Twin Cities through rural Wisconsin in fact right through my hometown and most people don't know about it recruitment of young girls especially vulnerable young girls is not a difficult thing to do I think very often we think that it's done through violence and kidnapping but for young girls and young boys very often it's done through people who are very very nice to these kids who treat them well who agree with everything they say who tell them yeah their parents are too hard on them who tell them you have a right to live your own life in 1986 when I was still out in the San Francisco area a vice cop told me that he could pick up a telephone make one call, tell the person on the other line what hotel, what room they would be in there and say and I want a six-and-a-half-year-old blonde-her-blue-eyed boy at seven o'clock tonight and it would happen now that's 1986 that is before cell phones and that is before the widespread use of the internet our youth believe that when they're on the internet they know who they're talking to I mentioned before the latest studies on brain development we need to look at those as adults to remind us that as Christ told Peter not only have to feed our sheep but we have to tend our sheep and just because a child is six foot three doesn't mean that that child can make decisions for themselves what is your response to people who say that you're being naive that praying for kids really doesn't make any difference you know for me prayer is something that comes from my faith and that's what I'm going to do for me to somehow try to quantify that to argue with people that it does work is really a waste of my energy one of the things I can say is try it for six months and if it doesn't work for you then it doesn't work for you it's sort of you need to use it to know whether or not it works I want to thank you Mary for spending the time with me tonight I wish you well in your presentation tonight at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and I hope that your work flourishes throughout the state thank you Mark and thank you for this time to be with you [Music] Johnny Mary Claire [Music] Jeannie Kevin [Music] Jeff Patty Nancy [Music] Johnny Mary Claire [Music] [Music] Johnny Mary Claire [Music] ♪ ♪ ♪ Shadows growing longer lights are growing dim ♪ ♪ Suppers on the table, everybody come in ♪ ♪ Ben Blaine at the river and I'm tired of the bone ♪ ♪ She's calling all the children ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Home to the table and the big black pond ♪ ♪ Everybody's got enough though we ain't got a lot ♪ ♪ No one has forgotten, no one is alone ♪ ♪ When she's calling all the children ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Everybody's sitting in everybody's place ♪ ♪ With their fresh scrubbed fingers and their fresh scrubbed face ♪ ♪ It's quiet just a minute while sister says a grace ♪ ♪ Like she's calling all the children home ♪ ♪ Home to the table and the big black pond ♪ ♪ Everybody's got enough though we ain't got a lot ♪ ♪ No one has forgotten, no one is alone ♪ ♪ When she's calling all the children home ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Like you hear her voice in the middle of a crowd ♪ ♪ It was never too late, it was never too loud ♪ ♪ Smell just like home by the time we hit the door ♪ ♪ There was always just enough, there was always room for more ♪ ♪ We're out in the desert, down by the sea ♪ ♪ Hear the voice calling all the yolly and free ♪ ♪ From the city to the forest where the wild beasts roam ♪ ♪ We're calling all the children home ♪ ♪ Home to the table, home to the feast ♪ ♪ Where the last are the first and the greatest are the least ♪ ♪ Where the rich will end me what the poor have got ♪ ♪ Everybody's got enough though we ain't got a lot ♪ ♪ No one has forgotten, no one is alone ♪ ♪ When we're calling all the children home ♪ ♪ Home to the table and the big black pot ♪ ♪ Everybody's got enough though we ain't got a lot ♪ ♪ No one has forgotten, no one is alone ♪ ♪ From the shack, subsoya to the ice ♪ ♪ Of know from bank that city to the streets of Rome ♪ ♪ We're calling all the children home ♪ ♪ Moisture, hear so bellow, see if you can ♪ ♪ Oh, come and make me a red hockey ♪ ♪ Johnny, Mary, Claire, Tulu, Jeannie, ♪ ♪ Kevin, Jack, Patty, Nancy, Ron ♪ - Our guest today on Spirit In Action was Mary Mulstad of Adult Saving Kids. You can find more information on this group via their website, adultssavingkids.org. Music featured on this program includes Look at the Ceiling by Peter Alsop. Love is the only medicine also by Peter Alsop. Carol Johnson Song Does God Love Me and John McCutchen Song Call All the Children Home. You can find further information about this program and listen to it and other programs via my website, northernspiritradio.org. The theme music for Spirit In Action is I Have No Hands But Yours by Carol Johnson. Thank you for listening. I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. You can email me at helpsmeet@usa.net. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit In Action. ♪ I have no higher call for you than this ♪ ♪ To love and serve your neighbor ♪ ♪ Enjoying selflessness ♪ ♪ To love and serve your neighbor ♪ ♪ Enjoying selflessness ♪ ♪ To love and serve your neighbor ♪ ♪ I have no hands but hands ♪ [MUSIC PLAYING]