freedom

Q&A with Slavery No More Founder, Jocelyn White

Carrie Nye — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:32:10 -0800

Jocelyn White is Co-Founder and CEO of Slavery No More. Taken from the Slavery No More website, the mission of Slavery No More is to resource a diversity of the most effective organizations working to combat and abolish modern-day slavery and human trafficking, and to create awareness and a diversity of opportunities for meaningful personal engagement.

Recently I had the priviledge of asking Jocelyn a few questions about Slavery No More and how they are working to abolish modern day slavery.

How did you become aware of modern day slavery and human trafficking? I first became deeply aware and moved to action when watching a Leadership Summit DVD that featured Gary Haugen, President of International Justice Mission. As he showed photos of their clients, I began to see my own nieces and nephews, cousins, friends, and it became personal.

How did Slavery No More come about? Slavery No More was something my husband, and Co-Founder, had felt led to do many years ago, but we hesitated because we felt there were so many under resourced anti-trafficking agencies, but after years of operating as a Community Based Organization, it was time to formalize it into a non-profit that existed to support the great work that was already being done.

Slavery No More has a desire to be a bridge builder. To bridge law enforcement with non-profits, and people who are doing something to directly rescue and restore victims of human trafficking and slavery to those who have a desire to combat this problem. We truly believe that “awareness becomes compassion when it takes action.” We want to mobilize people from awareness to action, thus showing compassion.

What dreams and hopes do you have for Slavery No More? Our deepest desire is to see modern day slavery abolished- completely abolished on this earth. It would no longer be an organized crime where oppressors take advantage of the weak. We know this doesn’t happen overnight, but we do believe that if enough people do something, even if it’s just one thing, we can collectively see slavery abolished in the 21^st century. According to a report by UNICEF in 2001, 27 million people are enslaved today. That’s more than any time in history. We would love to see 27 million people offer their voices, talents, and influence to seeing them freed.

I often hear people express feelings of being overwhelmed by the realty of modern day slavery and as a result they are unclear on how they can help. What action steps do you recommend for those just learning about the enormity of the issue? A house doesn’t move from not existing, to being a house. Foundations are laid, one brick at a time is strategically and properly placed, and each portion of a house can be divided up into parts. That’s what can be done with combating human trafficking. As one educates themselves, they can align their skills and areas of influence to the part of the issue they are passionate about. Slavery No More helps mobilize people into meaningful engagement.

What projects is Slavery No More currently working on that anyone can participate in? On January 26, we are assembling our first 200 Freedom Bags. These first Freedom Bags will be given to 200 victims of human trafficking as they enter an aftercare facility in Southern California. We hope to see the Freedom Bags go all across the nation. One can visit our site about the Freedom Bag Campaign.

February 18, we have a Justice Matters Conference hosted by Calvary Chapel Murrieta. Registration is currently open our site.

May 5 we are co-chairing a benefit dinner for International Justice Mission at the Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles. IJM, in our opinion, is one of the leaders in fighting trafficking.

One can sign-up for our event and volunteer notifications on our website, as well as get daily updates on Facebook and Twitter- join the discussion.

IJM founder and president Gary Haugen once said, "The victims of injustice in our world do not need our spasm of passion; they need our long obedience in the same direction. They need our legs and lungs of endurance." How do you maintain your long obedience and endurance of your legs and lungs in the fight against slavery? I often think of Alex, a commercially sexually exploited minor I had the privilege of knowing and spending time with. She was trafficked here in the United States, and she was only 16 years old when I started working with her. Her story is sad, yet tragically typical, but her triumph is nothing short of miraculous. Her family wasn’t looking out for her, the people who are supposed to love and protect her. She was groomed by a pimp who promised to meet her needs. She was quickly forced into prostitution and had no way out…but someone took the time to know her story and decided to help her.

What if no one was looking for her, listening for her cry, what would have happened to her? There are an estimated 300,000 children trafficked within the US, many of whom have no one looking for them- that’s what motivates us- finding them. I honestly feel haunted imagining their cries late at night when I’m going to bed. Witnessing their rescue and restoration increases my faith. God is asking us to take back all of what has been taken from the innocent of the world by evil, and giving them back all the riches that God has born them to have.

God has a heart for the weak, the oppressed, and the forgotten. When we take it upon ourselves to respond to God’s invitation to participate in their rescue and restoration is when you truly see His power, mercy, and His people at work. Sometimes our willingness to go into pain and search in the darkness is when healing and light shine the most.

In what ways can we help prevent human trafficking today? Get Informed- Learn all you can about the issue. There are a lot of great resources on our website Store written by professionals in the field. Learn about the non-profits that are doing something to end human trafficking, and then take that first step- get involved in one of their campaigns and initiatives, or start attending and supporting their events.

Become an Abolitionist- Talk about it. Tell your family and friends what you are learning and why you want to see it put to an end. Some feel that bringing about awareness is nothing, but a supervisor for the LAPD increased my conviction that awareness IS prevention and awareness IS rescue. Often times the victims are too traumatized to testify, but if there is a witness, someone in the public that saw something and said something, that could be the one witness that could move a case forward. Also, an educated juror means everything to the victim because they understand the type of trauma and manipulation they have been under, and truly see them as a victim.

Are you part of the problem? Many don’t realize that they may perpetuate the problem. The sexualization of our culture has made many people numb to the fact that women are abused every single day. Pornography is a highway to human trafficking. Photos and videos aren’t just created out of thin air, people, who are often children, are tortured and abused to create them. Do you know the age of the one you are looking at? Do you truly know the age of the one you are purchasing a sexual favor from? Are you a responsible consumer? Seeking to purchase Fair Trade items as a regular practice?

Support Freedom- Finances is what allows programs to exist. Investing in the rescue and restoration of victims of human trafficking and slavery is the best investment you can make. Also, become a responsible consumer. Visit our Products That Free page on our website to proactively shop fair trade*, which ensures what you consume is not created by slaves, thus decreasing the demand and providing economic stability and dignity for the workers on the other end.

The national human trafficking hotline is 888-3737-888. If you see something, say something- a slave’s life may depend on it.

*Video by Trade as One featured on Products that free webpage.

Abraham Lincoln and Thanksgiving

Dave Sterrett — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:12:39 -0800

I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Maybe this year, you haven’t made as money as you would like. With our economy, many people have had a tough time, but I want to encourage you during this Thanksgiving season. Maybe like me, you have wished at times, that things were a little different here in America. Nevertheless, I still believe we still live in the greatest nation in the world. You and I have a lot to be thankful for. We still have a great opportunity to go out and be innovated and make money. We still have the rights to own property and make decisions and pursue education. We still have the freedom to worship through the religion we choose.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I want to invite you to think about the words of Abraham Lincoln. Hundreds of thousands of Americans had died during a horrible civil war, but he encouraged the American people to set apart a day to be thankful. Here’s what he wrote in proclaiming a day of thanks:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings.

A Story of Forgiveness

Carrie Nye — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:48:11 -0800

Earlier this week I read an article on CNN's belief blog that threw me into a stewing pot of thoughts. At the core is one simple word that seems so complex to live out, even in the shallowest of circumstances.

Forgiveness.

Celebrity Portrait Photographer Jeremy Cowart set out on a mission with filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson (As We Forgive) to produce a photo series project called "Voices of Reconciliation." Cowart and Hinson went to Rwanda. They wanted to give Rwandans the opportunity to make their own statements to the world about the 1994 mass killings and uprooting that took place in their backyards.

In the article Cowart says, "I grew up in the church and am a practicing Christian. I've heard "love your neighbor" and "forgive others because God forgave you" my entire life. But I don't recall my church ever discussing the idea of forgiving killers."

With the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas knocking at the door, I have been thinking about the gifts I'd like to give to my friends and family. I'm beginning to wonder what this season might look like if I gave the gift of forgiveness where I need to with others and with myself.

"He who is devoid of the power to forgive, is devoid of the power to love." MLKJ

"Without forgiveness, there is no future." Desmond Tutu

"Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again." Saint Augustine

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." Lewis B. Smedes

Cowart goes on to say in his blog, "While incredibly difficult to accomplish - especially if the offender has not admitted their wrong and asked for forgiveness, it’s a force that has the power to tear down walls and free hearts."

In terms of those in Rwanda who are the forgivers, Hinson said, "“For the victims, forgiving their offenders is a way of setting themselves free from the chains of anger and bitterness.”

Forgiveness is a powerful act. One that cannot be divorced from that of love. I'm incredibly touched by the radical grace these Rwandans have extended to each other despite the cruelest and most horrifying circumstances. I am humbled by their acts of love and forgiveness towards each other. It takes a lot of courage to snuff out the darkness with a ray of light.

Cowart touches on the fact that this type of radical forgiveness is not part of our culture. In fact, it's counter-cultural on every level. Forgiveness of this magnitude is Kingdom forgiveness. It's the kind of forgiveness that turns the ground over and sifts through muck. It up roots and replants. It seeps in deep and transforms from the inside out. It's redeems and it heals. It offers second chances and it sets us all free.

I hope this season of thanksgiving and Christmas gift giving is full of kingdom type radical love and forgiveness.

Check out Cowarts photo series of those Rwandans who have courageously chosen to forgiveness and love and who are now teaching the world to do the same; starting with me.

Rescued from Hell on Disneylands Doorstep

Carrie Nye — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:48:21 -0700

"Once we started looking for it - and almost stopped ignoring it - we started finding it everywhere." - Sergeant Craig Friesen, head of Anaheim's vice unit.

The CNN Freedom Project site headlined an incredible story of justice and bravery today. The setting of the story told is geographically in my backyard. Literally steps from the “the happiest place on Earth” (Disneyland, Anaheim), a 17-year old girl was trapped hell on Earth; child prostitution. Friesen, working as an undercover, arranged to meet the child at the Disneyland Hotel for what she thought was a typical day in her life servicing “Johns” with sex. God had a different plan in store for her today! Friesen and his team from Anaheim PD showed up, arrested the pimp and treated the girl, and another girl they were able to locate, as victims of human trafficking and not as criminal prostitutes.

You can read the story here.

The Orange County task force is one of 42 federally funded human trafficking task forces across the United States.

Lt. Derek Marsh of Westminster (the city where I spent most of my childhood) PD, had this to say about spotting human trafficking: "Human trafficking goes against why you become a police officer, why you're a human being. It's really an ethical imperative. There's really nobody who can stand seeing a child or a woman or a man exploited. It's who you are when you go to serve the public as a police officer. You're trying to make it easy so that everyone has an equal opportunity to have their shot at making something of themselves. And human trafficking takes that dream and twists it."

Lt. Marsh was also one of the panelists at the Justice, Worship That Matters to God conference that took place last Sat. in Chino, Ca. More on this conference to come…

I’m so encouraged by this news of the aforementioned article today. It’s time out nation wakes up to the reality that prostitution is a human trafficking victims hell. It’s time we revaluate our laws and change them where they need to be changed. We cannot continue to slap a pimp on the wrist for exploiting our nation’s children and the children of those who may have been brought here under false pretences, yet end up in a brothel. It’s sick and we must use our freedom to speak out against the evil in our neighborhoods and use our vote to eradicate slavery in our country. We must stop glorifying pimps (Pretty Woman for example) and call it is what it is: slavery.

I encourage you to check out your county and see if there is a task force in place. If there is not, contact your local congressman and law enforcement and hound them with the need for one until it happens.

A short while back, the Los Angeles PD, was planning to shut down their vice unit due to budget cuts. The police chief was inundated with pleas to keep the vice unit active. It worked! He recognized the communities phone calls, emails and signatures and saw the need for the unit to stay put and he decided to look elsewhere for ways they could cut back.

The OCHTTF (and I presume the other 41 task forces) are more than willing to help other counties set up a task force of their own. They’ve already begun to replicate in other counties throughout southern California.

Want to do something today to help end slavery?

Ask your senator to support the TVPRA! There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today - more than any other time in history. But there is a simple step you can take now to ensure that this number starts to change.In 2000, Congress passed an innovative bill called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to combat modern-day slavery around the world. This year, the law must be renewed in order to sustain the life-saving programs it established. Please urge your Senator to endorse the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2011. Take action and contact your Senator today!

Ray of Hope: Suhana's Story

Carrie Nye — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:13:21 -0700

The International Justice Mission has released a new short film in which, Suhana, a young human trafficking victim in India, has transformed into a survivor of the slave trade; not once, but twice. This is her miracle:

Who Is Truly Free?

Sean McDowell — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:29:23 -0800

One of the quickest ways to find out if someone is secular or Christian in their thinking is to ask how they define freedom. I often ask this to my students and the typical answer is, “Freedom means being able to do whatever you want without restrictions,” or something of that sort. In other words, freedom is having ultimate individual autonomy without being controlled by another. The great philosopher Immanuel Kant said the characteristic feature of modern man is the trust he places in his own reasoning as opposed to some external authority or tradition.

According to this definition, freedom is understood entirely as freedom from something. There is certainly something to be said for being free from tyrannical rulers or oppression. Those who have lived under communism knew the harsh reality of dictatorships. But is this all freedom entails? Ironically, it’s actually restriction of our time and talents that leads to genuine freedom.

If someone wants to be a good flute player, she must choose to practice for many hours. She must limit herself in order to be free to play the flute. Choosing to practice the flute puts a restriction on other things she may desire to do. If you have the natural aptitude, it takes time and discipline to release that potential. In other words, you cannot freely play the flute without limitations. That means restrictions actually set you free!

This does not mean we all have equal aptitudes. Some are better suited for sports and others for music (or something else). For someone with little athletic skills to spend hours training for basketball may be more restricting than liberating. In The Reason for God, Timothy Keller captures this point beautifully:

“Disciplines and restraints, then, liberate us only when they fit with the reality of our nature and capacities. A fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if it is restricted and limited to water. If we put it in the grass, its freedom to move and even live is not enhanced, but destroyed. The fish dies if we do not honor the reality of its nature” (p. 46).

Submitting to reality, then, is the first step in finding freedom. This is why truth is so important! We are free to believe what we want, but we are not free to change reality. The fool bumps his head up against reality, whereas the wise person embraces it. This is why Jesus said you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32).

And this is why the doctrine of creation is so bitterly opposed. If God created us then reality is purposeful. Just as there is a purpose for a pen, a car, or a building, there is a purpose for human beings. And we are only free when we find that purpose and live accordingly. There is a purpose for work, family, marriage, sex, and everything else in creation. We can choose to deny these purposes, but such choices come at a cost—they bring slavery, not freedom. The truly free person understands truth and has the capacity to live it out.

But if there is no God, then man decides truth. There is no purpose for the world and we can do whatever we feel like. If God does exist (as the external evidence and our hearts tell us), then we can only be free if we live according to His plan. This seems to be the question that it always boils down to: Is God the authority or are we?

Some of my skeptical friends like to refer to themselves as freethinkers. But, ironically, they are the least free. They reject the very source of their capacity to reason! So, who is truly free? It’s those who embrace the right restrictions and have the capacity to live it out. It’s those who embrace truth.

Have you Heard the new Freedom CD?

Carrie Nye — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:42:23 -0800

“To be honest, I don’t understand how anyone could not be excited about the work that IJM is doing. We feel that we are called to rescue,justice and mercy, and it moves our heart to see how effectively and passionately IJM exhibits all three. Since God broke our chains, we want to be involved in breaking the chains of others.”
— Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North, who contributed the new song “All I Have” to the compilation.

Tenth Avenue North is just one of the 40 artist you'll hear on Freedom, a new CD benefiting the work of International Justice Mission (IJM). Every purchase of “Freedom” helps support IJM’s work tobring rescue, justice and long-term aftercare to victims of violence.The collection, which retails for only $5, also equips supporters to become advocates for the 27 million children, women and men held as slaves today. Each album includes a bonus DVD featuring IJM’sdocumentary At the End of Slavery,designed as a tool to introduce others to the reality of modern-dayslavery and the hope for a final end to this crime, and an introduction to Family Christian Stores’ James Fund in support of orphans and widows.

What unites the diverse group of artists is their passion for the work of justice. “It is an honor for Third Day to takepart in the Freedom project,” explains Third Day’s David Carr, whose Grammy award-winning band contributed the album’s stirring opening number, “Arise.” “We have just recently been made more aware of the tragedy of modern-day slavery and the various ways it presents itself. This is an issue that upon learning about it, one cannot just look the other way, and we certainly have chosen not to. The work of IJM is monumental and we are proud to lend our support for their efforts. The body of Christ has to respond, and this is our hour.”

If you're looking for some good, purposeful music to fill some stockings this Christmas, consider picking up a copy of the Freedom CD. I have really been enjoying the varity of artists and and lyrics from such talented individuals who seek justice through their song.

DISC 1

Arise - Third Day
What Can I Do - Relient K
Hold On (Acoustic) - tobyMac
All I Have - Tenth Avenue North
Swing Low - Brandon Heath
When the Saints - Sara Groves
Instead Of A Show - Jon Foreman
Body and Wine - Jars of Clay
Prayer - Sixpence None the Richer
Hold Fast (Live) - MercyMe
The Living Proof - Sanctus Real
Amazing Because It Is - The Almost
Heaven - Derek Webb
Home (Acoustic) - Ntalie Grant

DISC 2

Don't Give Up - Green River Ordinance
Love Come Down (Reach) - Robbie Seay Band
Justus - Washington Projects
Poughkeepsie (Live) - Over The Rhine
Safe - (Acoustic) - Phil Wickham
Window - Philip Larue
Turn Down the Music - Shane and Shane
Love Come Down - The War
Anthem - The Wrecking
Daylight - Ten Shekel Shirt
Lost Dreams - Gabriella Dipace
Hope Again - Tal and Acacia

Here are a few of my favorites from the CD:

It's hard not to move a bit when The Washington Projects are doing what they do:

And this one by Natalie Grant:

And finally, Jon Foreman's Instead of a Show

Sabbatical Entry 2 "Should" - a poem

Crissy Brooks — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:18:00 -0700

Should, Must, Ought To

Words that plague my mind.

Ideas that urge me on, that work me into an anxious frenzy.

I should...

I sho, shh, sshh, ssshhh

Quiet. Be still. Rest.

There is nothing that you must

do.

Nothing.

There have been times of freedom,

of peace in heart and mind.

But the peace leaks

And the "shoulds'" barge through the door

Uninvited, Unwelcomed

and yet received.

Oh to hold onto to freedom,

to know my liberation well.

Laying Down our Masks

Abbie Smith — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:06:34 -0800

My greatest war is the war against my own heart. I don’t lie because I want to; I lie because I’m not accustomed to spaces I can trust. I don’t cheat because I dislike my current state; I cheat because I dislike myself. I don’t steal because I need something; I steal because I don’t know what I have. I don’t kill because I hate them; I kill because I hate me. I like to be polished on the outside and lend no hint of needing help. On the rare occasions of one too many Merlots, or a trustworthy late-night chat, you might barrow my flimsy walls. And once there, you inevitably find needs, pleas, and most notably, me. Rarely will I let one in by choice though. “It feels too weak, or isn’t worthy of your time. When you ask if you can pray for me, I’ll go on to convince you to focus elsewhere…God has to handle everyone else’s problems, right? (Plus inner dialogue of, “What would they think if they actually knew what I was thinking)?” In short, in my weakest states, I hide. I hide my thirsts, inabilities and insecurities, thereby protecting myself from ever being truly seen, heard, or known.

Masks mask us and that can be good. But, masks hide us and that can be bad, preventing that we never actually see ourselves. We never actually see what’s true. We never see the Truth. Masks keep us convinced that who were are is too much, or not enough. And that God’s pursuits of restoration, then, are insufficient. Masks convince us that we’re only safe behind the lie. Such “fig leaves” may change throughout the ages, but we all wear masks—and a multitude of them, at that. Some contemporary menu options are busyness, isolation, noise, notoriety, porn, perfectionism, asceticism, athleticism, sarcasm, self-comfort, self-help, self-loathing, self-help, false securities, false stories, false idols, fake identities, fake interests, fake lovers, fake boobs, fantasy anything, web surfing, “soul searching,” stock markets, subcultures, culture, cults, religion, reason, intellect and the list goes on. Some look stronger, or sexier, or more significant than others, but at the end of the day, they’re all still forms of fig leaves. And no matter how spiritual or self-helped I get, some form of hiding will always be at my bay. Masks will eventually start illegitimately sleeping with my longings, and stuff will get ugly, and destructive. It’s suppressions breed secrets; secrets breed shame; shame breeds silence; silence breeds silenced hopes; silenced hopes breed sequential let-downs; sequential let-down breeds exponential shame, and the cycle goes on.

That’s the paralyzing news. The freedom is that God knew of man’s Fall, before we fell. He knew all brands of our “fig leaves,” and how they’d fit on every human wardrobe, dressing nakedness and covering what we considered “too much,” or “not enough,” of ourselves. And He made a way out. The question is, can we trust that He’ll still be with us when we choose to lay down our masks?

--excerpt from from a manuscript in process titled, "My SIngle Story"

Freedom Awards Follow-Up and Living Water

Carrie Nye — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:13:43 -0700

Veero was in for a long walk – more than fifteen miles. Veero quietly slipped away from a farm where women were guarded by armed thugs and men were kept in leg irons. She was terrified but determined. When she reached the local police station, it took a three-day sit in to force officers to help. Veero’s risky walk to freedom paid off. She has shown 700 others how to follow her footsteps and stand up for their rights.

The Working Women’s Association, Shramajivee Mahila Samity (SMS) goes undercover in India to expose traffickers posing as legitimate labor recruiters. SMS traces missing women, and helps slavery survivors return home and rebuild their lives. SMS educates villagers to slave-proof their communities. Local committees learn to act fast when someone is taken. Women get help with opening small businesses so they can earn a living without moving from their home. Thanks to SMS, hundreds of slaves have been reunited with their families.

A Samaritan woman went to a well to draw water and saw Jesus although she was unaware at the time that it was he. Jesus asked her for some water. The woman was shocked because Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Jesus told her that if she knew who he really was, she would have asked for a drink of water instead. Still shocked, she asked him how he thought he could draw up water from a deep well without a bucket. Jesus told her that the water from the well will cause her to thirst again. But the water that he gives will be a spring within, gushing fountains of endless life. Of course the woman wanted this water that he spoke of. Jesus told her to go and get her husband so that he might drink to but she told him she did not have a husband. Jesus knew she actually had 5 husbands and a boyfriend. Jesus went on to explain to the woman what it means to truly worship. The woman then said that all would be settled when the Messiah came. Jesus then revealed to her that she didn’t need to look for him any further for he was in fact the Messiah, the Christ.

The freedom awards (an annual celebration honoring the heroes of the anti-slavery movement) that took place earlier this week honored the women mentioned above and more. These women know what its like to be sold and held captive. They know what it is like to long for freedom, truth and love. They have been set free and are now working endlessly to help other obtain their freedom. As I sat and watched the women receive their awards with such joy and gratitude, I was overcome with the reality of freedom that Christ offers each one of us.

The Messiah desires that all of his creation receive life in freedom and accept his living water. While the Freedom Awards is not a Christian event and the host organization Free the Slaves is not a faith based organization, the theme of the anti-trafficking slavery movement is the same theme you find in the gospel. People across borders and cultural divides seek freedom, truth and love. They gospel is where that can be found for eternity.

With this theme in mind, it was very appropriate that The Agape International Choir performed throughout the show.

I was so blessed by this beautiful choir. They sang with passion and determination to seek justice. Through their music they celebrated the legacy these women are living. They celebrated life, truth and freedom. As I sat and watched the celebration taking place before me, I asked myself, am I living a life that truly worships the Father? The kind of daily worship Jesus told the Samaritan woman about. Am I living a legacy seeking justice and freedom and life for all creation? Am I celebrating the fact that I am free and am I using the responsibility that comes with my freedom for the Kingdom?

I recommend hearing the stories of these award winners and survivors first hand via the videos found here. They are truly inspiring.

These women, along with several others are striving towards a goal of ending slavery in 25 years. How awesome would it be if Christians were known for making this happen in the time span of one generation? At the close of the ceremony, the host quoted Gandhi. Not to discredit Gandhi in anyway, at that moment, I craved the words of Jesus. Fifteen people started the anti-slavery movement in the 19^th century in England. They abolished the slave trade in their lifetime. Can we do the same today? I think we can. I think we have a responsibility to work to free the enslaved and to do so with the love and compassion Jesus gave to the Samaritan woman.