One Dress. One Year by Bethany Winz with Susanna Foth Aughtmon - REVEIWED

About the Book:
One girl. One dress. One year. For freedom. 
When sixteen-year-old Bethany Winz learned about the millions of men, women, and children around the world trapped in slavery, her stomach churned. How can anyone do that to another human being? she wondered. And why aren't we doing something?

This is the story of Bethany's "something."

Journey with her as she wears the same black dress every day for a year to focus attention on the lack of choices people in modern-day slavery face and raise money to help end human trafficking. As Bethany works to bring freedom to people worldwide, she'll discover how much she too needs freedom. You'll be inspired not only to change the world in your own way but also to experience the life-changing freedom of God's irrepressible love.
My Thoughts:

“When I’m exposed to evil, I want to do the same thing.  I want to close the cabinet door and pretend I never saw it in the first place.  The problem is that I did see it.  I know it’s here.  That makes me responsible. If I don’t face it, then who will?....Slavery still exists, and you know about it.  Will you face it?  Will you do something?”  (p. 58)

This profound revelation is discovered by a sixteen-year-old girl as she fights to raise money to free others from modern day slavery.  During the year of her fund-raising fight for freedom she faces medical challenges, grievous emotional hurt(some young folks are still very mean spirited), discouragement, and a host of other challenges.  Along the way she learns some very powerful spiritual truths that set her own spirit free!

“I believe in freedom from slavery for others.  I’m just not sure I’ll ever find freedom for myself – freedom from self-loathing, freedom from being a people-pleaser, freedom from the sense that I’m not good enough and never will be.” (p. 118)  Can I get a good amen, folks?  I’m decades older than this young lady, and I’m still fighting for freedom from some of these very things!  What a blessing to learn this truth at such a young age!!

But she doesn’t stop there!!  As the reader follows her through her year and all of its many facets, public speaking, public scrutiny, private exhaustion, and private discovery, Bethany’s conclusion, as she enters her first year of college is this:  “Your truth is the same as mine.  God loves you dearly. It may take years to understand it, but it’s the only truth that matters.  And the craziest part is that when you truly believe it, you start to find freedom.” (p. 146)

This is a significant book in many ways!  Yes, I learned many facts about human trafficking.  Yes, I know that I now have a responsibility to do something.  But more importantly, I know that God knows exactly where I am financially, emotionally and spiritually, and HE will show me exactly what I can do to help others find freedom! 

Go.  Read this book.  Allow God to transform your life!  I am grateful for young adults that are already light years ahead of me on this spiritual journey! I am challenged to seek God more earnestly than ever before, for the rest of my days!!  PRAISE GOD!!

About the Author:

Bethany Winz is studying social justice at Trevecca Nazarene University where she's learning to love Nashville and urban farming. She already loves Jesus, hot tea, good books, and bacon. She processes the world by writing and blogs about the adventure of growing up and what she's learning about justice at www.bethanywinz.com.

Susanna Foth Aughtmon is the author of All I Need Is Jesus and a Good Pair of Jeans, My Bangs Look Good and Other Lies I Tell Myself, and I Blame Eve. She coauthored A Trip around the Sunwith Richard Foth and New York Times bestselling author Mark Batterson. A pastor's wife and mother of three, Susanna blogs about life's adventures at www.tiredsupergirl.com.