25% done!

I hit the quarter mark tomorrow: 2500 push-ups!  Come celebrate the milestone with me at 12:30pm.

Email Your Friends

Want to really help the cause?  Would you consider sending this email to all your friends?

Dear All,

I wonder if you've seen Paul the Push-ups Guy in Martin Place recently?  I'd like to tell you about his "10,000 Push-ups to Crush Slavery" campaign, at http://www.crushslavery.com

When he learned that we have 27 million slaves in the world, and read some of the gut-wrenching stories about what many children and sex slaves have to endure, Paul got so upset that he put together this campaign, to do 100 push-ups every day for 100 days in Martin Place, in the heart of Sydney, just to raise awareness about the issue.

After many months researching the best methods to combat slavery, he believes the best way is how Wilberforce did it last time: to change public opinion, which in turn forces the hand of government.

So he doesn't want your money - just your influence.  Will you help us raise awareness by forwarding this email to all your friends?

What you can do:
1) Check out http://www.crushslavery.com/2011/06/press-release.html
2) Sign the petition to address the root cause of slavery, which is poverty http://j.mp/slaverypetition
3) Join the Facebook cause http://j.mp/slaverycause
4) Forward this email to all your friends.

Alone, he's just one crazy fella making a fool of himself in Martin Place.  But together, we can make a difference.

Thank you!

Why am I doing this?

I couldn't say it any better than Rob Morris, of Love146.org:

"The number pinned to her dress was 146..." 

In 2002, the co-founders of Love 146 travelled to South East Asia on an exploratory trip to determine how they could serve in the fight against child sex trafficking. In one experience, a couple of our co-founders were taken undercover with investigators to a brothel, where they witnessed children being sold for sex. This was their experience. This is the story that changed our lives.
 

"We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children...raped each night... seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us, with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl...

"...All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her…" 

“Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid, and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives."

1200 push-ups done, 8800 to go!
That's 12% already.  Wow, this will fly past.

Thanks to everyone who's signing the petition - we just reached 100 signatures!

I'm gonna drop the 8:30am session, as there's heaps more folks around at 12:30pm. Every day I get one or two people asking me what I'm doing.  Now, just to get those folks to spread the word to their friends!

Come join me, every dry weekday, in front of the MLC Centre in Martin Place:

The Country Where Slavery Is Still Normal

The Country Where Slavery Is Still Normal: Half a million Mauritanians are enslaved - about 20 percent of the population. "Mauritanian slaves are forbidden from owning property, a last name, or legal custody of their own children."

See You at Hillsong

I'm off to the Hillsong Conference for the next few days. They just asked me to do my push-ups on stage on Wednesday night before the night rally. All 100 in one go, in front of 25,000 people! Bring it on!!!

450 down, 9550 to go...

Push-ups with Christine Caine

This is way more than mere coincidence. This is amazing.

So on my first day of doing my push-ups in Martin Place, who happens to stroll by but the couple that first brought the whole issue of human trafficking to my attention: Nick & Christine Caine of The A21 Campaign! She even did some push-ups with me!

I'm blown away by the serendipity. I believe we call this a "God-incidence".

100 push-ups down, 9,900 to go!

Well, the first day of my campaign went well. I did 30, then 25, 20, 15. Lots of positive responses. MX newspaper called me up, with an interview on Monday. I appeared in the bank's magazine yesterday. This Backyard Abolitionist training is really exciting - the pieces are really starting to fit together for me. Thanks to all for your support. I'm pumped to be making a difference! :D