Monday, July 13 is a critical day for the case of Yuri, a client of ours in Peru.
8 year-old Yuri was brutally raped and murdered, and many years later, her family is still battling to see true justice won against her perpetrators. Key forensic evidence was lost early in the case and there has been much corruption on every level, but Yuri’s parents have never stopped believing that justice can rule the day.
I met Yuri’s family in the winter of 2006 while visiting our office in Peru. I will never forget their courage, their devastation, their resolve. Yuri’s attorneys - our IJM staff in Peru - are heros, and I ask you to pray for them as they continue this tireless fight against all odds.
July 13th, this coming Monday, is the final hearing in Yuri’s case, after many years. Please pray that justice will win, that corruption will be cast to the wayside. Please pray for Yuri’s family, for IJM’s attorneys (Paz Y Esperanza), for the court’s justices, for the other attorneys involved on both sides, and for those who know they commited this crime.
Pray for clarity, pray for conviction, and most of all, pray for hope.
Coming up next week - I’ll be speaking at the Freedom Summit in the San Francisco Bay Area, alongside David Batstone, Francis Chan, and other good friends who are fighting the global trade in rape for profit. Check out this video from the event’s website:
Wednesday I’m heading out to SoCal for the Catalyst West Coast conference. Have loved being a part of the Catalyst events in Atlanta, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to be a part of their first West Coast version of the event, along with 3,000 others. Ben Arment is the director of Catalyst West - if you don’t follow his blog yet, check it out and you’ll see what I mean when I say it’s a daily must-read for church leaders and those interested in innovation/creative development in general.
I’ll be interviewed main-stage during the Friday morning session alongside Naomi Zacharias and Jeannie Mai - if you’re there, be sure to say hello!
It’s been a fascinating expedition across sub-cultures over the past month: as I finished up my conversations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland I transitioned back to the States and soon found myself in the classical pulpit of American evangelicalism—Moody Church in Chicago. Interesting juxtaposition of contexts:
In both places I noted from many a sense of old worlds passing and new, uncertain futures unfolding (ready or not).
There was also, in both places, an emerging word of conviction that the ancient virtue of “justice” must somehow be at the foundation of any good tomorrow.
The next big stop for me is IJM’s Global Prayer Gathering. I hope many of you will come join me and our leaders from the field, as well as Lamont Hiebert/Ten Shekel Shirt and Sara Groves. I’m so very grateful to all of you who join with us in prayer day by day from locations across the globe - the most recent outpouring of prayer for the rescue operation in South Asia was just staggering. And the upcoming opportunity for us to join together in person at the GPG is, for me, the most powerful homecoming of the eternal mysteries of prayer and the daily, dirt-under-your-fingernails fight for justice in the real world. Come and dig in with us. I doubt you have experienced anything quite like it.
This just in from my colleague Ann Healing, Director of the Interns and Fellows program - we’d love your help in gaining excellent applicants:
“Do you know anyone who would make a great international intern or fellow for IJM for the Summer 2009? The deadline for summer deployment applications has been extended until January 23rd. Because of the great work that past interns and fellows have done we have more requests from our field offices than ever. Also, our best candidates are the people recommended by former staff, interns, fellows, and people who know the work of IJM. So if you know of someone who might be interested please direct them to http://www.ijm.org/internships for available placements and application information. Thank you for your help in spreading the word!”
Laurel Henshaw is nearing the end of her Southeast Asia journey. Today she is visiting with the hill tribe peoples near Chiang Rai, Thailand, shadowing our staff’s citizenship work (key prevention against sex trafficking crimes in the region). She has been collecting an enormous load of information that will aid our initial steps toward developing an international school presence through the IJM Institute. We’ll be leaking details through this blog overtime, but feel free to contact us with questions, as always.
Please pray for Laurel as she processes her experiences and seeks to encourage our field staff. Pray that God will give her clarity of mind, peace in her spirit, and renewed energy.
International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems.
Ted Haddock/International Justice Mission®
