Mark your calendars! WHOLE Women’s Conference is coming Saturday, September 7. For our 2nd annual conference, we are doing something a little different that we hope you will find unique and creative.

Our ministry was originally founded and has thrived through the use of technology (support groups, community, webinars, etc.). So why not make use of technology and bring our conference to women around the world? No flights to book. No hotels. No outrageous registration fees.

How you say? Well, WHOLE 2013 will be held entirely ONLINE via web streaming and entirely FREE to attend.

So whether it’s just you in front of your computer in your pajamas, you and your friends deciding to get together to attend or perhaps your church signs up as a live watch site, we are coming to YOU through the power of the Internet.

And we are excited to officially announce our keynote speakers. That’s right. Speakers. Three dynamic women to be exact. And they are in no particular order:

• Annie Lobert, founder of Hookers for Jesus
• Dannah Gresh, author & founder of Pure Freedom
• Lisa Whittle, author of {w}hole and more

Additional testimonial speakers (TBA) will also present on a variety of topics including Emotional Health, Substance Addiction, Porn/Sex Addiction, Divorce, Abortion, Spiritual Abuse, Adultery, Teen Relationships and more.

FOR YOU SUPER EARLY-BiRDS, REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN… CLICK HERE. By registering early, you will be first to know when new speakers are announced, will be privy to special giveaways and more!

PRICING: As stated above, WHOLE 2013 is entirely free to attend. However, for an optional and nominal fee of $25, you can receive WHOLE ALL ACCESS. This special registration option entitles you to unlimited access to ALL the video content following the conference. An excellent choice for anyone who can’t attend the live webcast or who wants to share the content with their team/friends/family. Pretty cool, huh?

CHURCHES: We are all about community. So while attending a conference in one’s pajamas sounds great, we would LOVE for women to gather together to attend this conference. And in what better place to gather than at a church in their own backyard? If your church is interested in being a watch site, we want to know about it! We will provide printable promo posters/flyers, list your church on our website so women know you’re there and will add your church location to our registration form so you can track potential attendance. Contact us to get started.

SPONSORS: Just because we can offer this conference free of charge, that certainly doesn’t mean it is free for us to put on :) We will be relying even more heavily on advertising partners and sponsors to pull off WHOLE 2013. We have an assortment of sponsor options to choose from. If you are interested in being a financial sponsor, please check out our sponsor page.

We are currently featuring guest posts from a several of the women who are leading breakout sessions at WHOLE.

Today’s post is from Blaire Pilkington, Director Of Intervention at Exodus Cry. She is leading the breakout session called “Sex Trafficking: The Battlefront of the 21st Century” at WHOLE. Don’t miss Exodus Cry’s hard-hitting documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls at WHOLE: After Hours following the main session August 24.

While Blaire hasn’t personally experienced what it is like to be trafficked, she has vast knowledge and experience in working with women who have been. You will learn a lot from her!

REGISTER TODAY

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Breakout: Sex Trafficking: The Battlefront of the 21st Century
Leader: Blaire Pilkington

When people first learn about the horrors of human trafficking and the modern day sex trade they are shocked, horrified, grieved and angry. As they face the reality that slavery is anything but history- they begin to ask, how can this injustice be happening in our modern day society? What can I possibly do in the face of such a wicked system of injustice?

I was 19 years old when I was first confronted with the shock of sex trafficking. At the time I was serving in impoverished areas of Cambodia with Youth With A Mission. Everywhere I went in this small nation, injustice seemed to thrive; but one of the darkest manifestations came from a thriving sex trade just under the surface. While there I witnessed older western men fondling teenage Cambodian girls on the beach, girls lined up outside of dingy store-fronts illuminated by the pinkish glow of the red-light behind them, and young prostituted girls waiting in line for STI checks at a clinic. These instances and many more are seared upon my memory and greatly shaped the course my life would take to one day work full-time to help these girls come out of the dark existence that is prostitution. Upon returning to the states and heading to college I began to research and read every book I could get my hands on related to this growing epidemic called human trafficking. What I would soon discover was that this issue wasn’t limited to tiny Cambodia, and was in fact, was a global billion-dollar industry effecting every nation in the earth. After graduating university several years later, I found myself working with a new organization called Exodus Cry and giving my life in a greater way to the Lord and to serving His heart for the ending of sex trafficking in our day.

Ten years ago trafficking was a little-known reality, yet in a short time this global injustice has been thrust into the lime-light in such a significant way that can only be an answer to the prayers of those who have contended for the light of Christ to expose this hidden crime.

In reality many women and children across the earth are recruited and forced into lifestyles of systematic rape and abuse called prostitution, this truth is beginning to be understood to a greater degree. Old cliché’s about prostitution being “the oldest profession in the world” are being undeniably refuted as many begin to understand that prostitution is one of the oldest oppressions in the earth, and that trafficking in persons is largely for the purposes of sex.

My own journey has led me to some of the darkest places in the earth where these women and children are sold to the highest bidder, from Tel Aviv to Rio De Janeiro, Amsterdam to South Africa, their stories aren’t all the same. Yet most have a background of sexual abuse as children that left them vulnerable to the recruitment strategies of those who exploit. Before they knew it, they were drawn in or simply taken into the underworld of forced prostitution where they are taught what they must do to survive. . A Canadian study revealed that women in prostitution have a mortality rate 40 times higher than the national average. The life of girls forced into prostitution is not one of choice, as its advocates claim; but rather a lack of choices that leads to destruction. With few options for escape many lose hope and give up on their freedom, accepting prostitution as their fate.

As Christ is in us, and His light emanates from us, we have the incredibly unique opportunity to walk into the dark places where exploitation occurs and bring the Light of Christ with us. To visit these ones in the place of their trouble with a message that transcends the darkness of their circumstances. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome. John 1:5 That light in us is like the striking of a match in a dark cave, a ray of hope, a flash of light that points to the way out. There is a way of escape for girls trapped in the cycle of exploitation, and His name is Jesus, His love knows no limits and is able to pierce even the hardest heart, heal the most broken.

For love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can floods drown it. Song of Songs 8:6-7

WINNERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED!

Congratulations to #21 and #22 respectfully, Anna Smith and Kaela Morgan. You will be contacted by email to confirm your prizes.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE FREE STUFF?

Well, with very little effort you can be entered to win a WHOLE bundle prize pack consisting of books by Lisa Harper, Lisa Whittle, Mary Southerland, Katie Newell and Crystal Renaud, Natalie Creel‘s CD “You Changed Everything”, the hard-hitting documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls on DVD, PLUS 2 free tickets for you or friends to attend WHOLE Women’s Conference.

TWO WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED AND EACH WILL RECEIVE FULL BUNDLE PRIZES!

HERE’S HOW YOU ENTER TO WIN (2 STEPS):

1. Leave a comment below stating how you found us (this is how we’ll draw names).

2. Help us get the word out about WHOLE  by Tweeting, Facebooking and/or Emailing this: WHOLE Women’s Conference with Women of Faith’s Lisa Harper, August 24-25 in KC. Register today! #whole2012 http://bit.ly/GRlLIj

We’ll randomly select and post the two winners at 8am CST on Monday, August 13. Winners will also be notified via email.

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MORE ABOUT WHOLE:

Dirty Girls Ministries in partnership with Westside Family Church presents WHOLE Women’s Conference on August 24-25 featuring author and Women of Faith speaker Lisa Harper.

Based on Mark 5:34a, “Daughter, your faith has made you whole,” this conference experience will tackle tough subjects normally left untouched by the typical women’s conference. Topics that both Christian and non-Christian women struggle with in today’s culture.

WHOLE is for ALL women, from ALL walks of life. Teen girls too!

REGISTER HERE

Price of admission is $35 and includes a breakfast devotional led by author Lisa Whittle, lunch provided by Chick-fil-A, teen modesty fashion show presented by Nuance Style House, over a dozen breakout choices & all conference sessions and materials. Registrations received after August 17 will not include lunch.

Conference Times
• Friday, August 24 from 7pm-9pm
(doors open at 6pm, with optional after hours events)
• Saturday, August 25 from 9am-4:30pm
(with optional 7:30am breakfast devotional).

UPDATED: June 12 at 12:30pm CST

Last weekend, one of our own here in the DGM community admitted that she had runaway to work in the adult film industry.

It all seemed so sudden. So hasty. Many replied to her announcement. Encouraging her to make a better choice. Some even offering to come get her. But as the week progressed, much of her story wasn’t quite lining up and our team began to do some research.

What we came to find out is that she has actually been in the industry for a long time. In her brokenness, she lied to us. And in an effort to tell us her real story, she created another story. We didn’t even know her real name. Her decision-making is rooted in her brokenness. Her own self-worth. Which we can obviously tell is very low, if she believes that performing sexual acts for money on film is the “only thing” she is good at doing, as her replies stated.

Here’s what I know: She is not a bad person. She’s experienced a lot of pain. She’s experienced a lot of loss. Of which I am not a liberty to share with you here. She’s in need of healing, just like all of us. She is believing lies about herself, about God and about what choices she has in life. We know these are lies from the enemy. We know she is worth more than this life she is choosing.

Here’s what else I know: A lot of prayers have been said for her and a lot of scripture has been spoken over her. And God’s word does not return void. These prayers and these words of biblical support to her were not and are not in vain. And while DGM is not equipped to serve those exiting the industry, but we know many organizations who are. If and when she is ready for help – we are here to help her get to the right people and the right places to do that. That invitation remains.

For many of the women in the community, this experience of watching this woman’s story unfold, has caused the truth of their pornography use to become very personal. That pornography is real, full of real people.

What it is being watched behind closed doors on the computer is not harmless. The images and the people on the screen are not fake. They are real men and women performing real sexual acts. Someone’s friend. Someone’s daughter. Many of which are doing so against their will, while high on drugs and unprotected & at risk for STDs.

Nobody wants to see our friend pop up on one of these sites. But that is the very thing that will happen if their porn use continues and this woman continues in the industry.

The adult film industry is one of the most dangerous professions out there and many of the women and men within it are trafficked beyond their control. It’s not glamorous. It’s not safe. It’s not harmless. It’s not what they get them to believe.

It’s a death sentence.

Pornography is all about supply and demand. If there wasn’t a demand for it, it would not be produced. It is the same with human trafficking. If people weren’t paying for sex, there wouldn’t be a need for men and women to be trafficked.

And did you know that the porn industry is a form of human trafficking? Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. And the demand for commercial sex is directly linked to pornography.

It is estimated that there are 2,000,000 sex slaves worldwide. And between 100,000-300,000 children & teens are trafficked into prostitution AND pornography every year in the United States alone.

Roaming the streets of Bangkok back in March, I lost it. And began to weep in the back of a cab as I looked out and saw young women, barely and likely not even 18-years-old, selling their bodies because there’s a demand for it in this broken world. And doing so against their will, for fear of death or worse. And most who are trafficked are first desensitized through hours and hours of prolonged viewing of pornography.

As someone who was addicted to pornography for 8 years, I am ashamed that I contributed to someone’s misery. I know I am forgiven, but the consequence remains.

We are not a ministry that is out to put an end to the porn industry. But we must begin to look at pornography differently. Especially those who are addicted to it. This is real, friends. There is a real battle out there. Bigger than any of us can comprehend.

We’re all in need of His grace and mercy. Every single day. We are here to help women find help, hope and healing from pornography and sexual addiction. And yet, I kinda hope this post convicts you too – just a little. The kind of conviction that lights a fire under you to no longer be complacent or believe this isn’t a problem.

The 1000+ women we serve in our online community are not the first women to become addicted to porn. And unfortunately, they won’t be the last. But we have a choice today whether we’re going to contribute to the demand. In their moment of weakness, in their need for prayer, when they have no where else to turn… this community is for them.

And your donation ensures that this community will be here when they need it.

Humbly,
Crystal Renaud
Founder, Dirty Girls Ministries

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