IJM

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:

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

The Freedom Campaign

Carrie Nye — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:33:14 -0700

Imagine for a moment you find yourselves at a crossroads. You have a decision to make. One that will change everything you’ve ever known and one that will ultimately determine the course of your future. You can stay where you are and continue your life as a slave, or you could risk everything; including your life and set out on an unknown journey in hopes of a better life; a free life.

What would you do?

It was the year 1849 and Harriet Tubman “Moses” fled from a life of slavery on a Maryland plantation and after a long and rigorous trek, reached freedom in Canada. Tubman did something remarkable. She returned to her plantation and led others out and into freedom as well.

The Underground Railroad was a remarkable and complicated system. It took the collaboration of brave abolitionists and the determination of those who knew they deserved a better life to carry out this organization of freeing Americas slaves of the mid-1800’s. And they succeeded. Slavery in the slave states eventually ceased.

Over 150 years after Harriet Tubman tasted freedom and helped countless other do the same, history books refer to her as an American hero. She stands tall with other hero’s of that movement such as Fredrick Douglas, William Stil and Susan B. Anthony.

Fast forward to today and you’ll find 15 cyclists who just finished riding along the Underground Railroad, stretching 1800 miles (see videos of the cyclists). The same miles former United States slaves walked. The cyclists are part of The International Justice Mission Five Weeks of Freedom Campaign. The campaign, which wrapped up end of July, focused its efforts on awareness and advocacy in support of IJM’s work to give a voice to the slaves of our world today and those facing unbelievable injustices.

In today’s world, slavery abounds. It may not be as obvious as dark skin laborers picking cotton in the open fields among the flatlands of America but slavery is out there and it is a thriving, multi-billion dollar industry. It is not only a problem in the developing world and the “over-there” places; it is an issue in your country, your state, your county, your community.

The Freedom Campaign cyclists did something about it. They rode their bicycles about 10 hrs a day with stops in various cities along the way that welcomed them with live music, speaking opportunities and the occasional celebrity appearance endorsements of the good works they are doing.

You can do something about it too.

Update your Facebook status with a statement about modern day slavery and a link to IJM for more information.

For you twitter users, tweet about the work IJM is doing and encourage your network to take action in the movement in their community.

Share modern day slavery and the work of IJM at your church, school, or in your home. IJM’s film, At the End of Slavery is a great documentary to show to get discussion flowing and people talking.

Become an IJM Freedom Partner and be part of the rescue of a person and in some cases, an entire village with your financial donation.

Click here for more ways to help.

Harriet “Moses” Tubman didn’t act alone. Neither did Fredrick Douglas or Susan B. Anthony. You don’t have to either. It wasn’t only 1 cyclist riding the historic route, it was 15. When we work together, we can accomplish more than we would be able to on our own. History has proven over and over again that when we work together and stand up for what is right and what is good, justice will prevail and victory will be won. Freedom will be ushered in and lives will be forever changed.

If the slavery of the 19th Century was abolished in America, I am convinced we can abolish it today. I encourage you to spend some time checking out the Freedom Campaign, watching the videos and reading the blogs. Sit with it for awhile and pray and seek out what your role might be in helping to demand our communities and our nations slave free for our children and our grandchildren.

5 Good Minutes with: Gary Haugen – Founder International Justice Mission

Christian Buckley — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:16:12 -0700

The Humanitarian Jesus Interview Series

Gary Haugen

There exists an intensity behind the eyes of every great lawyer who knows what it takes to win. It is that extra force of nature that quietly tells the opposition – “you can beat me or fight me, but you won’t outlast me.” It was the first thing I noticed in Gary Haugen when we sat down in his DC office. Gary started International Justice Mission, IJM, in 1997 after returning from his United Nations appointment to head the investigation of the Rwandan Genocide. There is no question that he brought the credentials and experience to do the job, but he brought something else with him that palpably filled the offices and staff of IJM on the day I was there…

CB: When you wake up every day, what are you waking up to do? What is “This is what I’m about”?

GH:I think every day is about living a life in God. That is to say, my life has been given to me by God and has been given to me for a purpose and a way of living that is His. And so every day is about living in that life that He has given and invited me to. And that is pretty much summed up by Jesus by living a life of love for God and a life of love for others. As far as I can tell that’s pretty much it.

CB: Did you grow up wanting to do what you do now or was there a point when the light switched on for you?

GH: No, it was a very incremental process. It is a paradox that so much of my life now with International Justice Mission (IJM) in recent years has been dwelling in these places of great suffering and violence, brutality and evil in the world because I grew up in a place that couldn’t have been further from all of that. I grew up in a nice suburb of Sacramento, California, in a nice Christian home, going to church and all the rest.

But I did have an earnest yearning for God and by the time I was in college there seemed to be something I didn’t understand of intimacy with God. My world was very, very limited, very, very sheltered from the massive reality of human suffering in the world. I had this sense that I really wanted to know God more deeply, but there’s whole parts of who He is and who I am that I was just not even getting to because I was living outside this deep reality of the world.

So it started as this very incremental toe in the water process of taking steps to experience human suffering and hurt in the world. Once you’re there, you have to start asking the questions -- What does it mean to be alive to God -- to love Him and love my neighbor here? That just got incrementally challenging, and incrementally interesting, and incrementally powerful. God made Himself so manifest in those places that the thirst was fed by that and continued to proceed incrementally in that way.

CB: So in ’97 you left United States Justice Department and found yourself here. Was and is there anything fundamentally different by what you did then and what you do now? Obviously you were in Rwanda as a state/UN official. Now you are fighting the same or maybe different injustices, but you’re doing it from a different chair. What’s fundamentally different?

GH: The thing that is different is that I am doing it in a community of fellow believers. I’m doing it in an intentional Christian community of prayer and spiritual formation.

The other thing that is different is I have a sense of missional purpose in inviting the rest of the body of Christ likewise into the work. This was not what I did previously. The technical work is in many ways very, very similar, but I’m choosing to do it in Christian community, largely for my own sense of health and well being and sustenance in doing it. I have done this work in the absence of Christian prayerful community and one’s a lot better than the other for me. The other is this sense of missional purpose in wanting to invite and encourage the rest of the body of Christ to do these things as well.

About the Book and Interviews “A corrective and a call to action all in one, Humanitarian Jesus shows that evangelism and humanitarian works can and should coexist harmoniously. In an accessible and non-academic style, Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson outline the biblical case for social and humanitarian investment and engage the topic through interviews with leading Christian thinkers, activists, and humanitarian workers—including Franklin Graham, Gary Haugen, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, Francis Chan, Mark Batterson, David Batstone, and more.” For a complete list of interviews and more information go to humanitarianjesus.com.

The Importance of the Rule of Law

Carrie Nye — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:06:51 -0700

The May/June 2010 issue of Foreign Affairs – one of the world’s most respected and widely read international policy journals – features an article co-authored by Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros, an IJM-friend and Federal Prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The article, entitled “And Justice for All: Enforcing Human Rights for the World’s Poor,” is dedicated to discussing IJM’s “collaborative casework” model – working with local law enforcement to enhance public justice systems – and is supported by powerful casework examples.

The article is available for purchase on the Foreign Affairs website and is really helpful in understanding the importance of the rule of law when it comes to ending slavery. Here is a summary of the article:

International norms and legal codes that are meant to protect human rights mean little for people in the developing world, who suffer abuse not for a lack of laws but because these laws are not enforced. It is imperative, therefore, that the human rights community build up political will and capacity among local law enforcement bodies.

For a poor person in the developing world, the struggle for human rights is not an abstract fight over political freedoms or over the prosecution of large-scale war crimes but a matter of daily survival. It is the struggle to avoid extortion or abuse by local police, the struggle against being forced into slavery or having land stolen, the struggle to avoid being thrown arbitrarily into an overcrowded, disease-ridden jail with little or no prospect of a fair trial. For women and children, it is the struggle not to be assaulted, raped, molested, or forced into the commercial sex trade.

Efforts by the modern human rights movement over the last 60 years have contributed to the criminalization of such abuses in nearly every country. The problem for the poor, however, is that those laws are rarely enforced. Without functioning public justice systems to deliver the protections of the law to the poor, the legal reforms of the modern human rights movement rarely improve the lives of those who need them most. At the same time, this state of functional lawlessness allows corrupt officials and local criminals to block or steal many of the crucial goods and services provided by the international development community. These abuses are both a moral tragedy and wholly counterproductive to the foreign aid programs of countries in the developed world. Helping construct effective public justice systems in the developing world, therefore, must become the new mandate of the human rights movement in the twenty-first century.

Go here to see a short video of Gary Haugen speaking more on this. The video serves as a help to understanding the importance of the rule of law. If you can pick up a copy of the entire article, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Abolishing the Sex Trade...

brianwurzell — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:44:31 -0700

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to hang with Bethany Hoang, Jeannie Mai and Naomi Zacharius. I had the chance to talk to each of them about the organizations they work with that are all aiming to abolish the sex trade. These are brilliant woman with hearts for God, influence, dreams, Kingdom driven minds and full of zeal to 'do justice' in their lives. This is just a very short video interview that I did with them at Catalyst Westcoast 2009. Check out their websites and get connected to some of these amazing organizations.

Abolishing the Sex Trade... from brianwurzell on Vimeo.