...terrify no more.

"You hear O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more" Psalm 10:17-18

This is my prayer. That those who oppress and enslave will someday "terrify no more."

I learned so much this weekend. I would say I am still processing a bit but wanted to write some for all of you who are curious about my adventure. I arrived on Friday and after finally figuring out that my hotel did not offer a shuttle from the airport, and paying $22 for a taxi (ugh!), I checked in, registered, and lay on my super soft comfy bed with 6 pillows. I had been up since 5:00 so I thought I deserved a bit of blah time before the serious stuff began. My friend Candace arrived from New York and we headed down to the welcome banquet and evening worship. Dinner was nice, very tasty. Then the hard stuff started.

Worship throughout the weekend was phenomenal. Ten Shekel Shirt was there and they are amazing!

Here is my disclaimer. I have no pictures and I can tell no stories. IJM does so much investigative and dangerous work that I was not allowed to document it. I had to sign a contract that I would not pass on any facts of countries or people. So that is why this may be a bit vague.

Here is what I learned:
1. There are 27 million people in slavery today. That is an insane number of people. I don't even know how to visualize that.
2. 1 million children will be trafficked every year. Every year...not the next ten years, but every year. How can I stay silent?
3. Seventy international ministries were surveyed and they named the following as the most observed forms of injustice.
-abusive child labor
-abusive police or military
-child pornography and prostitution
-corrupt seizure or extortion of land
-detention or disappearance without charge or trial
-extortion or witholding of wages
-forced adult/teenage prostitution
-forced migration
-genocide
-murder of street children
-state-sponsored religious persecution
-state-sponsored torture
(Taken from Good News About Injustice By: Gary Haugen, 1999)

Saturday was spent hearing reports from field offices and praying for different countries. We got to choose 6 places to hear about and pray for. They had all of the countries spread out through the conference rooms and 45 minutes for each one. Then Saturday night we loaded up on buses and went to different memorial sites in Washington to pray. Candace and I went to the Lincoln Memorial which we thought was fitting. It was amazing to stand there in front of one man who abolished slavery and pray for it to happen again. To me it was proof that our work is not worthless. Things can change, big things. Sunday was more reporting, worship and communion.


These things are happening in the world around us, and here in our own country although few people know it. I prayed continually for God to show me my part. I know that when I get my degree I would be eligible to move to DC and work for IJM which would be amazing, but who knows if that is in the picture. I do feel that I am to gather resources and present this information to my church and hopefully more churches in the Colorado Springs area.

If you are interested in joining this fight you can start by praying. You can sign up to be a prayer partner with IJM and they will send you weekly prayer requests and even urgent ones regarding rescues or trials.

I had an amazing time and I am sure that as I process more and read the books I bought that I will have more to say. It was a great weekend and they do it every year. I hope to go again next year and take Matt with me. If any of you want to join me?!!

Oh, and then I got stuck in Dulles for 9 hours with the promise of First Class to Denver but then some employee took it away and stuck me back in economy....but that is another story!