Oregon- www.chronline.com- Sometimes this big world seems pretty small, but at times people in this small world face huge problems.
At the Oregon Christian Writers conference in Eugene Saturday, I listened as keynote speaker Cindy Martinusen Coloma of Redding, Calif., told a bit about her background and mentioned “Shared Hope International,” words that struck a familiar chord.
Hmmm. Isn’t that the group started by our former 3rd District Congresswoman Linda Smith?
Sure enough. Coloma, who has written eight novels and more than 100 articles, has been collaborating with Smith on a nonfiction book about the sex slave trade in the United States.
Smith, a Vancouver Republican, won a primary contest for Congress via a grassroots write-in campaign in September 1994 and defeated Jolene Unsoeld, a three-term Democrat, two months later. She served two terms in the House before giving up her seat in 1998 to challenge Patty Murray for U.S. Senate, but Murray won handily.
Instead of retiring from politics to a life of leisure, Smith focused her notable energy into ending human trafficking of sex slaves by founding the nonprofit Shared Hope International, which “exists to prevent, rescue and restore women and children in crisis,” according to the Web site at www.sharedhope.org. She became aware of the problem in the fall of 1998 while traveling in India, where, at one of the world’s worst brothels, she saw “the hopeless faces of desperate women and children forced into prostitution.”
I’ve seen Smith on television in recent years, discussing human trafficking and efforts to rescue young girls who are victims of sexual slavery. Earlier this year, in the United States, the FBI rescued more than 45 child victims of sex slavery and arrested over 50 pimps. Seven of those exploited children, six adult pimps, and three “johns” were in the Portland metro area.
You can learn more about Smith’s calling and the modern-day worldwide sex slave industry by ordering a free book, “From Congress to the Brothel: A journey of hope, healing, and restoration.”
The 102-page book published in 2007 is available through the Web site at www.sharedhope.org/press/congresstobrothel_book_form.asp.
It’s remarkable what can happen when people devote time, energy, and money into resolving what may appear to be an insurmountable problem, as Smith and others have done through Shared Hope International.
I’ve ordered Smith’s first book, and I’m anxious for the release of the second.
After driving nearly 190 miles Friday, I entered the room at Northwest Christian University in Eugene Saturday morning, sat next to a woman I had never met, and introduced myself.
She said, “I’m Joanna Stricker. I’m from Centralia, Washington.”
“Wow,” I responded. “I’m from Toledo — Washington, not Oregon — about 25 miles south of you.”
It is a small world.