Saving 27 Million Slaves Starts With You

02Jun09

The above is footage from The Freedom Summit held at my church in Mountain View, CA. At the Summit were around 900 people and over 15 anti-slavery organizations. The goal was to inform, unite, and engage the Christian community to fight against this epidemic. It was an awesome conference. Everything from the worship (led by Phil Wickham and band) to the plenary sessions to the breakout sessions to the Global Village in which the organizations set up booths was fantastic. I played guitar for LaSundra so as a performer, I had the privilege of hanging out backstage with some of the speakers and musicians and took that opportunity to interview them.

If you’re new to the issue of human trafficking, here are the basics. Today, around 27 million people are in bondage. Slavery is still alive. In fact, there are more slaves today than in the 400 years of the trans-atlantic slave trade. The sale of human beings is the third largest illicit trade right behind the sale of drugs and weapons and it is growing at a faster rate. The cost of a human today is significantly cheaper than the cost of a human in those 400 years. Slave owners treat their slaves like stuff. If you buy an expensive item and it breaks, you’re more likely to invest in fixing it. But if you buy a cheap item and it breaks, you’re more likely to throw it away and replace it. Humans are viewed the same way. Today, slaves belong in the “cheap” category. 50% of the victims are children and 80% are women.

Now you know. And if you already knew, now you’re reminded. So now what are you gonna do about it?

It’s easy to do one of two things. One, to not care. Two, to be overwhelmed to the point of inaction. If you’re part of the first camp then you are part of the majority. But I do pray that you will have a change of heart. If you’re part of the second camp, then I’m here to let you know that you don’t have to figure out how to save 27 million slaves. In fact, nobody has figured out how to do that. If somebody has, this would not be an epidemic. You just need to figure out how YOU, as a unique individual who has been gifted with unique resources, unique talents, a unique personality, a unique background, and a unique sphere of influence, can contribute. Watch the video if you haven’t done so already. In it, I asked some of the main speakers and performers how a single person can tackle such a huge problem. It’s not for you to tackle alone. But it is for you to start to do something.

You also might be tempted to “get to this later.” Life is busy. There’s no time. To that, I would say that at this moment millions of women and children (and even men) are being raped. At this moment. I doubt that if one of those people were your child, you would get to it later. I’d bet that you’d make a little bit of time if it were your child. This is an emergency that needs immediate attention.

Francis Chan told us how he had made quite a killing with his book “Crazy Love”. More than half a million dollars. Now anybody in their right mind would do the smart thing and invest that money. It’s a lot of money and he worked hard for it so he, of course, should treat himself and his family with a small portion of it. Oh, and of course as a dedicated Christian, he should tithe 10% of it. Probably a little bit more for good measure. After all, he is a pastor. But what does he do instead? He gives ALL of it away! Not only that, he signs off all future royalties so that he can’t touch it! What a crazy thing to do! He should have at least saved some of it in case of an emergency! But wait, isn’t an emergency exactly what this epidemic is? 27 million people in slavery and millions being raped at this moment most likely qualifies for an emergency. Francis Chan has the right perspective.

You don’t have to give all your money to save the 27 million. But what I implore you to do, and what was a major theme at the summit, is to do something. And do it with a sense of urgency. Do it with the urgency that you would if your child is one of the 27 million. Do it with the urgency you would if Jesus himself was one of the 27 million. After all, didn’t he say that “whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me”?

If you’re wondering what to do, I can’t tell you exactly. I don’t know your talents, your resources, your background. Everybody can contribute in a unique way. But here’s a good place to start. The following is a list of the organizations represented at the Summit. Not For Sale and IJM are two highly reputable organizations that I’m most familiar with. David Batstone (President of Not for Sale) and Bethany Hoang (Director of IJM Institute and featured in the video) both spoke at the Summit. The other organizations are also impressive and really good at what they do. They need donations, they need your time.

Not For Sale
International Justice Mission
Trade As One
Hagar International
Project AK-47
Watoto
Life Impact International
Chab Dai Coalition

Courage To Be You
Home of New Beginnings
Sisters In Service
The Sold Project
SHE Thailand
Breaking Free
South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking
Agape International

Twitter is also a great way to keep abreast of what’s happening. Here are some of the twitter feeds I follow.

@Not_For_Sale
@IJMcampaigns
@IJMHQ
@Free_2_Play
@Free_2_Work
@slaverymap

Who else? Know of any good organizations missing? Any ideas?

Let’s re-abolish slavery.

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Tags: freedom summit, human trafficking, justice, slavery