“Al ser los primeros en responder, desempeñamos un papel muy importante en el descubrimiento de la trata de personas que, por lo general, se manifiesta en la forma de violencia doméstica, controversias laborales o prostitución. Tenemos la oportunidad de identificar y detener a los tratantes y proporcionar justicia a las víctimas”
Jefe Mary Ann Viverette Gaithersburg Police Department, Maryland

No se exponga a ser mercancía de trafico de los coyotes.

Vivo en Estados Unidos, soy de Centro América y sé que en nuestros países no se escucha las tremendas situaciones a las que muchas personas están expuestas, especialmente, niños, jóvenes y mujeres; es importante que conozca que en la actualidad si usted desea venir de manera ilegal a Estados Unidos, usted no solo estará expuesto a los riesgos que el camino le presenta sino que también se expone a ser vendido a traficantes de personas quienes no solo abusaran de usted desde el camino, maltratándolo, explotándolo para hacer trabajos, en muchas ocasiones en el comercio sexual, le privaran de su libertad, una vez en USA le amenazarán con reportarlo a las autoridades de inmigración si usted se queja o trata de escapar.

Si un familiar suyo venia para Estados Unidos por tierra y ha desaparecido, probablemente sea víctima, está siendo explotado/a, abusado/a y no pueda escapar.

En el caso de mujeres, jóvenes y niños inician a ser abusados sexualmente desde el camino y vendidos para que otros pagando dinero también puedan abusar de ellos; al llegar a USA los estregan al establecimiento que los compra, puede ser prostíbulos, bares, restaurantes, fabricas, y hasta compañías de construcción como recientemente se descubrió en una construcción en Orlando.

Por favor, no se exponga a tal situación. Su vida, es preciosa y valiosa para Dios. Dios le ama y le puede bendecir donde usted está. Su palabra dice que el suplira. Mateo 6:25-40.

Si, aun después de conocer esta situación, usted se anima a viajar, asegúrese que tiene referencias de la persona con quien viaja, viaje en familia o con amistades cercanas, tenga un plan de acción si esto le sucede.

No mande sus hijos por ninguna razón, no confíe a nadie sus hijos. Lea esta triste historia de una joven de Guatemala

http://wgcu.org/yourvoice/radio/lucia.html

Hortensia

¿Qué es la esclavitud moderna?
La esclavitud moderna es trabajo forzado. Free the Slaves calcula que actualmente existen 27 millones de esclavos alrededor del mundo. La gente es comprada como propiedad y luego forzada a trabajar bajo amenaza física, mental y usualmente sin paga alguna. La esclavitud moderna se puede presentar de diferentes maneras incluyendo la esclavitud sexual, el trabajo infantil y la prostitución infantil.

Pornografia es el segundo cancer de este mundo. Sabia usted que ES la peor addiccion y supera los daños que cualquier otra drogra le podría ocasionar? Sea inteligente, deje tal practica e inicie a utilizar su tiempo y talentos para cumplir el plan para el cual Dios lo trajo a este mundo.

Porque ese fue el plan de Dios para salvación del mundo.

En primer lugar, debes reconocer que eres pecador. “Por cuanto todos pecaron, y están destituidos de la gloria de Dios” (Romanos 3:23). Por cuanto eres pecador, estás condenado a la separación eterna de Dios. “Porque la paga del pecado es muerte” (Romanos 6.23). Esta muerte incluye una separación eterna de Dios en el infierno. “ . . . está establecido para los hombres que mueran una sola vez, y después de esto el juicio” (Hebreos 9:27.
Sin embargo, Dios te amó de tal manera que dio a su Hijo unigénito, Jesucristo, como tu sustituto. El pagó por tu pecado en la cruz y murió en tu lugar. “ . . . por nosotros Dios lo hizo pecado [A Jesús, quien no conoció pecado] para que nosotros fuésemos hechos justicia de Dios en él” (2 Corintios 5:21).

Jesús tuvo que derramar su sangre y morir por ti. “Porque la vida de la carne en la sangre está”, (Levítico 17:11). “Sin derramamiento de sangre no se hace remisión” (Hebreos 9:22).

“Mas Dios muestra su amor para con nosotros, en que siendo aún pecadores, Cristo murió por nosotros” (Romanos 5:8).

Nuestra mente no alcanza a comprender cómo Jesús fue juzgado por todos nuestros pecados, pero Dios así lo afirma en su Palabra. Así que Jesús pagó por tu pecado y murió por ti. Esto es verdad, Dios no puede mentir.

 “Dios . . . ahora manda a todos los hombres en todo lugar, que se arrepientan” (Hechos 17:30). Este arrepentimiento es un cambio de mente, es aceptar delante de Dios que eres pecador y necesitas apropiar lo que hizo por ti en la cruz.

En Hechos 16:30-3l, el carcelero de Filipos les preguntó a Pablo y Silas: “ . . . Señores, ¿qué debo hacer para ser salvo? Ellos dijeron: Cree en el Señor Jesucristo, y serás salvo . . . ”. Simplemente cree que él pagó por tus pecados, murió en tu lugar, fue sepultado, y resucitó. Esta resurrección le asegura al creyente que tiene vida eterna cuando recibe a Jesús como su Salvador personal.

Simplemente tienes que creer que él pagó por tus pecados, murió en tu lugar, fue sepultado y resucitó por ti. Luego invócalo. “Porque todo aquel que invocare el nombre del Señor, será salvo” (Romanos 10:13. “Todo aquel” te incluye a ti. “Será salvo” no significa que quizá sea salvado, sino que afirma que será salvado. “Mas a todos los que le recibieron, a los que creen en su nombre, les dio potestad de ser hechos hijos de Dios” (Juan 1:12).

Si deseas que te ayude como puedes hacer la oración por favor escríbeme , sera un tremendo gusto ayudarte.
Hortensia

Whatever the origins or history of Halloween, Halloween is celebrated in many different ways by all sorts of people around the world. Traditionally, it was known as All Hallows’ Eve, when the dead were remembered. Over time, it became cultural. For Americans, it has become extremely commercialized. We begin to see Halloween decorations in the stores as early as August. Unfortunately, the emphasis on this commercialized holiday has shifted from the little cowboys and Indians to a much more evil and pointed attraction to all things hideous and pagan. Satan has undoubtedly made this commercialized holiday into something that has subtly focused on the ugly and demonic.

Many believe the festival of Samhain to have been the beginning of the Celtic year. At Samhain, farmers brought livestock in from summer pastures and people gathered to build shelters for winter. The festival also had religious significance and people burned fruits, vegetables, grain, and possibly animals as offerings to the gods. In ancient Celtic stories, Samhain was a magical time of transition when important battles were fought and fairies cast spells. It was a time when the barriers between the natural world and the supernatural were broken. The Celts believed that the dead could walk among the living at this time. During Samhain, the living could visit with the dead, who they believed held secrets of the future. Scholars believe that Halloween’s association with ghosts, food, and fortune telling began with these pagan customs more than 2,000 years ago.

Many of the customs of the pagan Celts survived even after the people became “Christianized.” In the 800′s A.D., the church established All Saints’ Day on November 1. About two hundred years later, it added All Souls’ Day on November 2. This day was set aside for people to pray for friends and family who had died. People made many of the old pagan customs part of this Christian holy day. Some people put out food for their ancestors, or they left a lantern burning in the window so that ghosts could find their way home for the night. Through the years, various regions of Europe developed their own Halloween customs. In Wales, for example, each person put a white stone near the Halloween fire at night and then checked in the morning to see whether the stone was still there. If it was, the person would live another year.

In the United States, many early American settlers came from England and they brought various beliefs about ghosts and witches with them. In the 1800′s, many immigrants from Ireland and Scotland arrived in the United States and introduced their Halloween traditions. Other groups added their own cultural influences to Halloween customs. German immigrants brought a vivid witchcraft lore, and Haitian and African peoples brought their native voodoo beliefs about black cats, fire, and witchcraft.

Whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween can be a very controversial topic. Some Christians celebrate Halloween simply by dressing up in a costume and having fun, seeing it as innocent and harmless. Other Christians are equally convinced that Halloween is a satanic holiday established to worship evil spirits and promote darkness and wickedness. So, who is right? Is it possible for Christians to celebrate Halloween without compromising their faith?

Halloween, no matter how commercialized, has almost completely pagan origins. As innocent as it may seem to some, it is not something to be taken lightly. Christians tend to have various ways to celebrate or not to celebrate Halloween. For some, it means having an “alternative” Harvest Party. For others, it is staying away from the ghosts, witches, goblins, etc., and wearing innocuous costumes, e.g., little princesses, clowns, cowboys, super-heroes, etc. Some choose not to do anything, electing to lock themselves in the house with the lights off. With our freedom as Christians, we are at liberty to decide how to act.

Scripture does not speak at all about Halloween, but it does give us some principles on which we can make a decision. In Old Testament Israel, witchcraft was a crime punishable by death (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27). The New Testament teaching about the occult is clear. Acts 8:9-24, the story of Simon, shows that occultism and Christianity don’t mix. The account of Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:6-11 reveals that sorcery is violently opposed to Christianity. Paul called Elymas a child of the devil, an enemy of righteousness and a perverter of the ways of God. In Acts 16, at Philippi, a fortune-telling girl lost her demon powers when the evil spirit was cast out by Paul. The interesting matter here is that Paul refused to allow even good statements to come from a demon-influenced person. Acts 19 shows new converts who have abruptly broken with their former occultism by confessing, showing their evil deeds, bringing their magic paraphernalia, and burning it before everyone (Acts 19:19).

So, should a Christian celebrate Halloween? Is there anything evil about a Christian dressing up as a princess or cowboy and going around the block asking for candy? No, there is not. Are there things about Halloween that are anti-Christian and should be avoided? Absolutely! If parents are going to allow their children to participate in Halloween, they should make sure to keep them from getting involved in the darker aspects of the day. If Christians are going to take part in Halloween, their attitude, dress, and most importantly, their behavior should still reflect a redeemed life (Philippians 1:27). There are many churches that hold “harvest festivals” and incorporate costumes, but in a godly environment. There are many Christians who hand out tracts that share the Gospel along with the Halloween candy. The decision is ultimately ours to make. But as with all things, we are to incorporate the principles of Romans 14. We can’t allow our own convictions about a holiday to cause division in the body of Christ, nor can we use our freedom to cause others to stumble in their faith. We are to do all things as to the Lord.
www.gotquestions.org

Halloween, celebrated each year on October 31, is a mix of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic  and Roman religious rituals and European folk traditions that blended together over time to create the holiday we know today. Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity and life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. Halloween has long been thought of as a day when the dead can return to the earth, and ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off these roaming ghosts. The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children’s holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

 The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.

Halloween Comes to America

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.

It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

Today’s Traditions

The American Halloween tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.  

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

History.com

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