Let's eat Grandpa!

International Justice Mission: Global Prayer Conference 2010

I had no idea what to expect when my pastor invited me to attend IJM’s 2010 Global Prayer Gathering in Washington DC. If you are unfamiliar with IJM, they are a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. Even though I didn’t know what to expect, I was looking forward to getting to learn more about IJM, as well as pray for their staff and clients.

Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. — Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk

God blew me away (as He tends to do). The conference was incredible. Nearly 1000 people attended, including my pastor, another like-minded guy from my church, and a guy who works for donor relations for IJM who attends my church. Now that I’m back in my normal life, I don’t know how best to process everything. Words seem incapable of expressing what I experienced there. Still, I’ll give it a shot.

Friday: Banquet and late-night worship

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” — Psalm 23:5

An opening banquet was held on the first night of the conference. During dinner, we were told the story of two very young girls who had been rescued from a brothel (let’s be clear: brothel = rape for profit). The IJM lawyers needed the girls to testify against their perpetrators, but the girls were scared to face their aggressors in court. The IJM team told them the story of David and Goliath. All that David needed to defeat the giant was a small stone and God’s strength. So they gave the girls a small stone with the word TRUTH written on it. They too, could take down their Goliath with this small stone and God’s strength. Because of the testimony of these girls, those who harmed them are now in prison, unable to violate any more children. We were each given a stone on which to write what God means to us right now. I chose AGAPE — His unceasing, unconditional love.

Late night worship, lead by Ten Shekel Shirt, was amazing. We sung a number of songs I’d never heard before, all of which suggested freedom, redemption, justice, restoration, and truth. My favorite moment of the night was when we sang “Come Thou Fount.” (I love some of these old hymns!) A line from the song is “Here I raise my Ebenezer.” Lamont told us that he had to look up the meaning of Ebenezer — it means “stone.” So we held up our David stones and sang to the heavens, knowing that God is our TRUTH, our AGAPE.

Saturday: Morning session, individual country prayer sessions, and evening session

I struggled Saturday morning. Despite going to bed at a reasonable hour, I was exhausted getting up at 6:00am . . . which was actually 3:00am for me. So I was dragging through the morning session. Still, it was great. We were introduced to three IJM field staffers and the difficulties and successes they see in the field. Worship was lead by Ten Shekel Shirt and Sara Groves, and then we were sent off to attend individual prayer sessions. We spent 40 minutes in each session. One of the IJM staffers from that country would share a bit about the work IJM is doing in that country, and then the rest of the time was set aside for prayer. Here is a rundown of each of the sessions I attended (note, I’m not using anyone’s name to protect the work that IJM does):

Kolkata, India

This session focused on IJM’s work to close down brothels that “employ” trafficked girls as young as five. Let me say that again. AS YOUNG AS FIVE. I’ll wait a moment while that sinks in. This is a relatively new office, but in the few years they have been operating, they have closed down six brothels and rescued more than 100 girls. But you could see the struggle on the field officer’s face. They still had an uphill battle. They’d been without a field director for months and he was doing the job of two people. Thankfully, a new field director had been hired, and we were introduced to him. We prayed in small groups for him and his family, for the others running the Kolkata office, for the local police and other authorities, and, of course, for the victims. At the end, we each received a handprint of a girl who had been rescued.

Cambodia

Cambodia, despite fighting the same problem as Kolkata, seemed to have a lot to praise. Many, many girls had been rescued, and a number of brothels had been closed. One city, once known for its reputation for underage brothels, is no longer a place where it easy to find a minor’s body that is for rent. Their team seemed strong, and it was here that I finally understood what these people give up to save the lives of others. We individually prayed for many of the same things we did for Kolkata, and we also wrote prayers on notecards for the team to read throughout the year.

Huanaco, Peru

I wanted to pick a country that I knew very little about, at least in regard to social justice. In Peru, IJM partners with an agency called Paz y Esperanza (Peace and Hope), which defends children who have been victims of sexual abuse, usually by family members. We were told about a mother’s fight for justice after her five-year-old daughter was raped, and who died due to the extent of her injuries. Let me say that again. FIVE YEARS OLD. She and the IJM team have been fighting for years to bring the perpetrator to account, and they finally have. As the director told the story of this girl and others, four people volunteered to pray at intervals.

Cebu, Philipines

Cebu also has a big problem with sex trafficking. We got a quick introduction to the work, but as we were all familiar with it by now, we moved quickly into prayer. There were necklaces in the back of the room, each with the name (pseudonym) of a girl who had been rescued, with her prayer request on the back. I prayed for “Razel” (best pseudonym ever), that she would be able to make wise decisions now that she was out of the brothel. We also wrote on cards to groups in the Philipines that IJM partners with — security, police, etc. We thanked them for their good work and prayed that they would continue to fight sex trafficking in their cities.

Aftercare (for all the countries in which IJM operates)

I was really excited to attend this session — I’m particularly interested in the aftercare part of IJM’s work. Many of the aftercare homes that IJM uses are run by other organizations, including Agape International Mission, which was started by a couple from a local Sacramento church. This couple saw a news story about the sex trade in Cambodia and simply asked, “now that we know, what are we going to do about it?” So they moved to Cambodia and run their aftercare home out of a former brothel that IJM shut down. A woman here in Sacramento heard about that couple’s story and was moved to build a home in Sacramento for girls rescued out of prostitution here (yes, it’s here too). That’s how the Courage House was born, and it’s a ministry that I support with my love, my talent, and my prayers. In the session, we prayed for each area in which IJM operates, out loud and in groups.

Kenya

I’d seen a lot of sex trafficking by this point, so I decided to attend the Kenya session. Here, we were told about illegal detention. In one case, a mentally handicapped man was detained for sixteen months without a trial for a crime that he did not commit. You can read his full story here. We also saw how the IJM lawyers in Kenya are slowly starting to change the legal system to make it more efficient and fair. We prayed in small groups for a number of different requests here.

Our little Sacramento contingent also attended a lunch session for churches on the West Coast. We talked about ways to reach out to our congregations and get them involved. We discussed ways to contact our state and federal governments so that they know that fighting human trafficking is important to their constituents. We decided that it would be great if there was some sort of network for social justice-oriented churches. That way, if there was an event or a call to action, it would be easier to rally the troops in our area.

That night we had our evening session. We listened to the IJM vice president of investigations and two investigators (all of whom were really funny — that was unexpected for some reason), interviewed by Andy Crouch. We also heard from a bunch via video — those who couldn’t attend the conference. I spent the whole time thinking about how thankful I was that there are people like this in the world. People who give up their lives to live out Isaiah 1:17: “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” It’s inspirational on so many levels.

Sunday: Morning session

I thought that by this point, I would have been done with the hardest part of the conference. But I hadn’t attended the session on Uganda, so I had yet to hear about that field team’s fight to defend the widows from succession-related property grabbing (SRPG). It’s not exactly an easy thing to explain — basically when a man dies, his brother comes and takes the land from his brother’s widow, forcing her off the land with threats . . . or a machete. These widows were left to fend for themselves and their children on the streets. Ugandan law makes it very difficult to fight SRPG. Most judges won’t hear cases, saying it’s a “family matter” and that they should learn to “get along.” Right. You try “getting along” with a MACHETE. Anyway, this hit me so hard. We never think about widows here in the US. If a woman’s husband dies, it’s incredibly sad, but it usually ends there. She still has all her rights to her home and her land. This isn’t the case throughout the world, and there are thousands of widows who have been forced off their land. And this breaks my heart. These poor women. . .

We also heard more about the continuing work in Kolkata, including the news that two of the most brutal aggressors in Kolkata had finally been arrested. One was accused of beating a young girl to death with a brick because she wouldn’t go into a room to be raped. We all were so thankful that these men were no longer able to terrorize young girls.

We wrapped up with a communion and few songs, including “Amazing Grace.” This might have been my absolute favorite moment of the conference. To sing “Amazing Grace” by itself has always been a moving experience for me. But to sing it alongside a thousand other abolitionists — that nearly brought me to my knees.

Gary Haugen, president of IJM, wrapped up the session at the end, thanking us for our prayers and asking that the conference not be the pinnacle of our prayer lives, but a catalyst. I do hope that I can continue to pray for everyone involved in this dangerous but incredibly GOOD work, and also find other ways to be involved. I hope you will pray for these incredible people and God’s work, too.