Today is Shine a Light on Slavery Day, established and promoted by the End It Movement. (You can read my first post on its inception in 2013 by clicking here.) As explained on enditmovement.com,
END IT is a Coalition of the leading organizations in the world in the fight for freedom.
The #EndItMovement has mobilized thousands of people, corporations, and organizations to bring awareness, prevention, rescue, and restoration on behalf of the 20-45.8 million people trapped in modern day slavery.
How YOU can shine a light on slavery
The topic of slavery seems overwhelming…and it should. There are more slaves today than at any other point in human history. It appears impossible to conquer, but you can make a difference!
Begin:
Draw a red X on your hand, take a selfie, and post it using #EndItMovement. That’s all it takes to add your voice to the growing number of freedom fighters around the globe.
Keep going:
Want to spread the word, but don’t know what to say? Share this post on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using the sharing buttons at the bottom. For more information on Modern Day Slavery, follow the link at the top of the page.
If you want to go farther, visit End It Movement to share stories or videos to help raise awareness among your friends and family who might not know slavery still exists. When I first became a freedom fighter, most of my circle of influence had never heard about modern day slavery. You can be the one to tell those you love about those who have no voice.
You can also donate to one of the End It Coalition Partners or find a local organization in your area like:
If that doesn’t satisfy you, consider using your unique gifts and talents to take part in the fight.
Raise money through a 5K or freedom ride
Write articles on your blog
Make jewelry, blankets, downloadable art, stationery, or whatever makes you happy
Use the resources in your hands now to impact others. God gave you these special gifts as tools to be a blessing. Get creative!
Love your neighbor
When asked what the greatest command in Scripture is, Jesus responded,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. – Mark 12:30-31
Personally, I cannot imagine a better way to love my neighbor than to fight for those enslaved in my town, my state, my country, and around the world. Will you join me?
Click EndItMovement.com to find resources, read freedom fighter stories, locate partners, brainstorm ideas, and even purchase clothing to promote the End It Movement.
Click here to sign the International Justice Mission petition to ensure the End Modern Slavery Initiative (EMSI) is given the resources it needs.
One week ago today I had the privilege of meeting a young woman who had just days before experienced rescue from a life that many of us could never imagine. For several hours I was able to sit alongside her and two others who had been ministering to her, loving her, and providing for her basic needs. What I witnessed was a miracle in progress—the beginning of a beautiful story of restoration and recovery, of love and redemption.
I have studied human trafficking and victim statistics for about 18 months now. I had a certain level of understanding of what I should expect, and on the other hand, I had no idea what I might encounter.
My first impression surprised me. She looks a lot like my aunt sans 20 or so years. She is petite, fair skinned and freckled. She loves to draw and was working on a project to give to those who had been helping her as a way to thank them. Her love and gratitude was obvious, even though there was a visible battle of fear and mistrust trying to overcome her at the same time. She has a puppy that she loves and is concerned for, even more than her own welfare. She is just like you and me.
Except she isn’t.
Long before she was able to legally drive, someone that should have had her best interest at heart sold her for the money. During a time in her life when school and fashion should have been her main concerns, she was trying to survive unthinkable cruelty. Years of abuse followed, aging her physically and stunting her emotional and mental development. Her body was used as a commodity with no thought to her well-being or basic human rights.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there.
Justice Ministries in conjunction with Rise Up Ministries was able to provide safety, clothing, and shelter for this beautiful girl in Jesus’ name. Words of hope and healing were spoken into her soul. Constant reminders of Jesus’ love for her were shared. Given time, I believe she will accept them and believe them for herself and true rescue will take place. I pray this happens soon.
I am so thankful for this up-close view of the power of God. I too was once separated from God. And just as Jesus saved me from my sin, He can save every young women still trapped in lives of slavery. I am reminded of the promise given in Isaiah 61:7-8.
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Those rejected by their earthly families can have the opportunity to be adopted into a heavenly one that will love them as the precious sons and daughters that they truly are. It’s our job to offer this to them. To provide them rescue from harm and share with them the love of the One who can redeem their souls.
Will you pray with me as I seek to do that very thing in Jesus’ name? It is my desire that years from now I will have seen hundreds of such rescues take place. You can take part as well through your prayers and gifts to organizations like Justice Ministries, Rise Up and Citylight. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. (Luke 1:37)
Today is the official launch of the End It Movement. A coalition of seven anti-slavery organizations have joined forces to spread the message that not only does slavery still exist in our modern world, but that there are more slaves now than at any time in human history.
Shine a Light on Slavery
The mission of the End It Movement is simple.
We want every man, woman and child to know that there are 27 million men, women and children, just like them, living in the shadows. In brothels. In factories. In quarries. Working as slaves. In 161 countries. Including our own. We are here to shine a light on slavery. No more bondage. No more sex trafficking. No more child laborers. No more, starting now.
Approximately 27 million people are enslaved worldwide, many of them in the United States. Eighty percent of them women. Many, many of them children. For an average of $90 per person, a slave can be purchased and put to work where ever their owner deems fit, making them part of a $32 billion dollar industry.
This has to stop NOW.
One of the passages that I consider to be part of my personal calling and manifesto for my life is Isaiah 61: 1-4.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
This prophecy foretelling the coming of Christ and His mission says that He came to “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” How can we as His ambassadors do anything less? We must make freedom a top priority in our lives. Freedom from physical captivity as well as spiritual captivity.
I understand that this is a difficult thing to grasp—men, women and children being forced to do unspeakable things for the profit of another. It’s evil and ugly and we would much prefer to turn our heads and look away. But I beg you to think for just a moment…what if it was your child? What if it was your daughter kidnapped off the streets and forced to live and work in a brothel? What if it was your brother forced to work eighteen and twenty hour days in the sun doing back-breaking labor with no pay and very little food or water? What if it was you? Would you want someone to fight for you? Pray for you? Rescue you?
Indifference is not an option. I encourage you to go to EndItMovement.com. Learn the facts. Find out how you can help. Take the pledge to become part of the movement to end modern day slavery in this generation.
We can make a difference. Together we can ” repair the devastations of many generations.” I’m in it to END IT. Will you join me? Click here to sign the pledge.
These words may bring images to your mind of candy and costumes, but they mean a very different thing to the victim of modern day slavery.
(Warning: This post contains information that may be difficult for a sensitive or young reader.)
When a child or young woman (and often young men as well) is coerced or sold into sex slavery they are often forced to turn “tricks” many times a night. This means that their bodies are sold for another person’s pleasure to be used, abused, raped, beaten, strangled, etc. They are considered purchased property and therefore anything goes. If they resist their client, they may receive worse from their “daddy” when they come off the street for the night. If they don’t make their quota or do something else to make their controller unhappy beatings, torture, starvation and more can occur.
When a person is “treated” it means that they are severely degraded or insulted. This is a relatively minor and commonplace abuse these victims endure. I say “minor” not because it isn’t devastating, but as a comparison to other physical abuses. Emotional and mental manipulation is one of the ways owners or pimps wield control over their victims. This causes victims to experience high stress, depression, anxiety, Stockholm Syndrome, PTSD and other psychological distress.
CSEC is sexual activity involving a child in exchange for something of value, or promise thereof, to the child or another person or persons. The child is treated as a commercial and sexual object. CSEC is a form of violence against children.
In New York City alone there are an estimated 2,200 children victimized by commercial sexual exploitation annually (OCFS 2007 Prevalence Study).
The Department of Justice estimates the most frequent age of entry into the commercial sex industry in the United States is 12–14 years old (www.usdoj.gov).
100,000–300,000 children are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation each year in the United States (Estes & Weiner, 2001).
70–90% of commercially sexually exploited children have a history of child sexual abuse (Murphy, 1993).
So on a night when many dress up in scant costumes for entertainment, I plead with you to realize that so many hurting people will be walking the streets tonight in similar attire with more than a sugar high on their minds.
I encourage you to pray for those in the bonds of sex trafficking tonight.
Pray for their release and healing. Pray for their captors to come to Christ. Pray for physical, emotional and spiritual freedom.
Do you have questions about modern day slavery? Visit the modern day slavery page for more information or post a question in the comments section below.
Today is the birthday of America. A great country that I am proud to be a citizen of during my existence on this planet. Today we celebrate freedom, but the cost of this freedom weighs heavy on my chest in a way that it never has before.
Freedom for the American and for the Christian was purchased through blood. Blood of the innocent. Blood shed willingly for those who were willing to die so that others may live in comfort and security. And yet, the tyrant of evil still reigns in this great country of ours and even in our churches, yet we turn a blind eye to its destruction and go back to our cookouts and sparklers.
I was once this way. I didn’t want to know about the sin and death around me. I felt helpless to stop it and incapable of making a difference so I didn’t watch the news, I ignored the headlines, I thought of the terrible wickedness portrayed through stories on tv, film and books as fairy tales. Oh, I’m sure those things do happen in the world somewhere, but it isn’t my concern.
But one day God made it my concern.
God opened my eyes to the terrible wickedness of human trafficking. He shocked me out of my complacency. How? By revealing to me that not only was this evil real, but that it happens in my communities, my neighborhoods, to people that I encounter every day and to children as young as my nieces and nephews, and even younger still.
No longer was rape part of a story line in a novel that finished with a nice story of redemption and rescue at the end so that I could sleep well at night. No. It was real. And the victims were the faces of those I loved. Young women who should be loved, protected and sheltered from such evil were being sold for drug money by those who should have been willing to die for them. No longer could I turn my eyes from the truth.
At that moment there was no going back.
Stories are told of Christians gathering during the World Wars as the trains of prisoners traveled past their little churches, crying out for someone to help them. Someone to care. Did they rise up? Did they rescue those poor souls on the way to their deaths? Did they pray for courage to fight back? No. They just sang louder.
Today I look around at my lovely home, my family and friends who are safe and happy and my many blessings and I am truly grateful. But no longer can I merely enjoy my comfortable life and sing until the screaming stops. Maybe I can’t single-handedly stop this moving train of abuse, kidnapping, forced-labor, rape and pornography by myself, but I can do something.
I can pray. I can get involved in petitions and law changing efforts that will help bring healing to the abused and justice to the perpetrators. I can learn how to reach out and help those who are trying to put their lives back together. I can use my words to raise awareness to those who haven’t yet chosen to look into the face of the evil and see the truth of the world around them. I can research ways to buy slave-free goods and write letters to companies to encourage them to use fair labor. I can sacrifice some of my comfortable life to donate to organizations that are actively fighting against the evil and helping to restore victims to wholesome lives once again.
On several occasions I have shared similar thoughts with other Christians and on more than one occasion have gotten a response back along the lines of “I can’t think about those kinds of things. It’s too much. I have to push those thoughts from my mind or I’ll never sleep at night.” I wonder what Jesus would say to that? Do you think He came to die for us and for every soul trapped in their personal hells on this earth so that Christians can live in luxury and security and turn a blind eye to the world around them? NO!
Moments before being arrested Jesus prayed for us. He prayed that we would bring the Father glory as we were sent into the world to fight against the evil. He didn’t expect it to be easy. He told His disciples that they would suffer like He was about to suffer. I ask you—are you willing to rise up out of your comfort zone and bring the glory of Christ into this world of darkness? Are you willing to accept the truth of the evil that surrounds us and determine to do something about it?
I beg of you to take off your blinders this Independence Day and rise up for FREEDOM. Freedom for the helpless. Freedom for the needy. Fight for the freedom of those that Christ died to set free. Let us not just enjoy the freedom that has been given to us by others. Let us blaze a trail for freedom for those still bound in the chains of sin and death all around us.
Let us once again make America the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!
