I’ve always been free. I’ve always been patriotic. I have family members who served in the military. I grew up watching 4th of July fireworks over the capitol building in Washington. Christmastime included a visit to the National Christmas Tree. I went on dates in the shadow of the Washington Monument. I invited the President to my house for dinner. (No, he didn’t come …) The problem is, when freedom doesn’t personally cost us a lot, our gratitude tends to be shallow. Too often, we simply watch it cost other people on tv. You’ve probably always been free too.
For free people like us, it’s hard to appreciate what enslaved people feel. We can try to imagine it. I can relate it to the only slavery I know of, slavery to sin and the Evil one before I was purchased by Jesus. I’m only completely free because God made me that way, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). I love that word “indeed,” as if God is saying, “for sure” or “yeah, baby!” or “100%.” If the Son hadn’t set me free, I would still be under the control of Evil. But not any more. Maybe you can relate to that kind of freedom too.
But can you really wrap your mind around the fact that 20-30 million people are slaves … right now? Today? While we celebrate the 4th of July? Or in the week Canada celebrated Canada Day? While I’m grilling burgers and making coleslaw, there are people who don’t believe freedom is possible for them … ever. It’s hard for me too, but on this day of lighting up the sky with declarations of freedom and independence and the blessed privilege of taking deep breaths and deciding what we’ll do and eat and where we’ll live and walk and how we’ll love and give, I think it gives meaning to our freedom to think of those with none.
Because freedom is truly precious, I want to share 4 examples of those who give a voice to those who have none. If you will take 5 minutes to read, I pray it will grow your gratitude for your freedom, as it does for me, and I ask you to offer a prayer today for the 20-30 million who long to know what we take for granted.
The Thriving Sex Trade
Read what Suzanne O’Dell of World Help shares about Nari Mata. Her story will help you understand why generations of young girls have been led by their own mothers and family members into lives of sexual captivity.
“My mother did it for my elder sister when she turned 12 years old. Now it is my turn because Neetu is the oldest among my three daughters. It is my duty to get her prepared for her new life.”
In only a few days, Neetu will be turning 12. Like other firstborn daughters from her caste have done for hundreds of years, she will follow the Nari Mata tradition by joining her mother in a life of slavery and prostitution.” READ MORE …
NightLight International
Working in tourist destination cities like Atlanta, Branson, Los Angeles, and Bangkok, NightLight is an international organization committed to addressing the complex issues of commercial sexual exploitation through prevention, intervention, restoration, and education. This is one example of an organization founded on the gospel of hope in Jesus Christ, addressing the sex-trade through meeting practical needs. Through NightLight, survivors produce beautiful jewelry as a means of economic support, breaking the shackle of poverty which lead so many women and children into trafficking.
Their aim is to do “whatever it takes” to affect change within the global sex industry. They seek to build relationships with victims of commercial sexual exploitation and those who are at-risk and provide hope, intervention, rescue, and assistance by offering alternative vocational opportunities, life-skills training, and physical, emotional, and spiritual development to those seeking freedom. Find out about NightLight here.
Journey Across the City
Churches across my own city are joining hands in prayer about the issue of human trafficking in our own state. For nine months, we are gathering together to use the powerful weapon of prayer against the Enemy’s sex-trade strategy. We’re praying in anticipation of a National Day of Prayer Against Trafficking on January 14th and an awareness RUN to be held on January 11, 2014. Prayer is where the real work begins. Find out more about our prayer Journey Across the City.
Almost Sold
It’s not easy to find a resource about sexual slavery that is easy to recommend. The stories are hard. The images are vivid. The details are unforgettable. Sex trafficking is a hard, ugly truth.
When a friend recently shared a new resource with me, I was cautious, but hopeful. Most people can imagine foreign faces of the enslaved, but it’s a hard sell to get people to believe that typical, “American” girls are being victimized. But they are.
We need tools to help us understand how this insatiable evil is reaching out and taking hold of the all-American girls, as well as victims in exotic places. Almost Sold
Almost Sold
It feels so good to be free. I’m so grateful for my freedom today. But there are those around the world who have experienced what it is to be owned, to be captive, to be enslaved, and their gratitude plumbs greater depths than mine can reach. Maybe a blessing of daring to learn more about today’s slaves would be a deeper gratitude for our own freedom. On this Independence Day weekend, would you take a moment to pray and ask God to free millions more of the enslaved? Let’s pray that they would find relief from their human captors, but also that they would be “free indeed.”
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,” (Isaiah 61:1).
