It’s late Saturday night and we’re in the production booth wrapping Day #2 of GPG 2010, prepping for our final morning of worship and prayer. It has been an incredible weekend of gathering with prayer partners and IJM field staff from nearly every continent - the privilege of having these days together is simply beyond words…

There’s a constant buzz of conversation happening over on the GPG Online page - http://www.ijm.org/gpgonline—I hope you’ve been able to join. If you’ve missed any sessions, note that most of this weekend’s content was recorded and is available for download on-demand.

One of our staff members has been writing reflections on her experience at the GPG and we’d like to share those with you as well over the next few days. Alyson Quinn serves on our Donor Relations team, and here are her thoughts from the last night’s experience:

+++++
For me, a four-year IJM staff member, the Global Prayer Gathering starts here: 5 o’clock on Friday night, shivering in the stiff breeze outside of the Sheraton Premiere. IJM staff from across North America, Europe and the developing world congregate in the sunken garden for a brief meeting. Dressed all alike in immaculate black suits, the IJM uniform, we are also united in some degree of exhaustion. Long, exacting hours of preparation for the GPG have brought us to this point: cold, tired, and standing on the brink of a weekend of yet more work.

But in defiance of the sobriety of our dress and the numbing tiredness of our bodies, the meeting is charged, surprisingly, with joy. Laughter ripples through the throng of us. We cheer, clap and smile at the leaders who lead us in the litany of final details. Why should such gladness infuse us today, when the hours of preparation have led only to this: a Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the job?

For one thing, the GPG is our family reunion. The staff, many of whom labor in distant countries or in lone-ranger outposts, come together again. Our community rejoices in the fulness of its numbers.

But there is another reason behind the lightness of our spirits.

The reason lies in the nature of the work that we undertake this weekend. Our work will be the labor of prayer.

Make no mistake. Prayer is work of the hardest kind. 

Read more...

IJM is calling on the international community to immediately implement measures to protect vulnerable children from trafficking risks and other forms of abuse in Haiti. 

Read more...

This week, The Atlantic published an article “Island of Lost Children” by former IJM Chennai Communications Fellow Nicolette Grams.

This timely and thoughtful piece in The Atlantic highlights the multitude of dangers brewing for children in Haiti, calls on people to protect the vulnerable, and features IJM’s work and methodology as a solution to such horrors, wherever they may occur.

Please do share this article with others, especially if they are engaged in relief work in Haiti at this time. Questions are rising about the implications of the Haiti earthquake on the vulnerability of women and children - and the implications are indeed grave.

Please do consider this article to be a resource. We will continue to get other helpful resources into your hands as this crisis continues.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001u/haiti-trafficking

There is much on all of our hearts for prayer today… First to mind comes the people of Haiti - along with all those around the world who are relatives of loved ones in Haiti, waiting for news, wondering, feeling helpless and wanting to be able to do something to bring help and hope in the midst of chaos that defies description. Also on our hearts on those who are able to be present and to bring help right now - aid workers, doctors, nurses, faith leaders, government agencies… I definitely recommend choosing an organization to serve as an ambassador for the help you wish you could presently give. Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, Compassion International, Red Cross, along with many church denomination relief agencies (check UMC (with whom I went to Haiti in 1998), PCUSA, PCA, among many others) are all on the ground and can be trusted to use your funds well.

Have other recommendations? Please leave a note of guidance in the comments.

Also very much on our hearts here at IJM are a few critical operations at hand. I want to bring one to your attention for your prayers tonight. In a South Asian city for whom we have often waged much prayer, there is a rescue operation unfolding tonight, and as is sometimes the case, there are many ways this operation could be thwarted. The lives, dignity, and freedom of approximately 15 children are at stake in this operation. Please pray for:

-shrewd wisdom on the part of our staff team
-excellent collaboration with the authorities
-courage for the children as the operation unfolds
-safety for all involved

What is on your mind and heart tonight - how can we be in prayer?

Friends, as I write this, a trial is beginning in Cambodia to prosecute a man we believe to have trafficked many girls in the town of Svay Pak, Cambodia. If you joined us at this past year’s Global Prayer Gathering, or if you were with us this past Thursday night at the DC Benefit Dinner, you heard our VP of Investigations share testimony, photos, and undercover video footage of this precise case that we have been working on since February.

Please pray, now, throughout the night, and the days ahead as this trial moves forward:

Pray for two of the trafficking victims - one aged 16 and one age 9 - who will be testifying against this man, in person, in this small Cambodia court room. Pray that God would give them extraordinary courage and would use this in their continued healing process.

Pray that no corruption would enter this trial procedure. Pray there would be no delays.

Pray for the man being prosecuted for trafficking crimes - that truth and justice would reign over his life.

Pray that this man would never abuse or exploit another human being again, and that this case would send a strong message to traffickers throughout Cambodia, SE Asia, and the globe.

Please check back for updates - we will post further details as we are able. And click “read more” below for a more indepth description of the trial at hand and specific prayer requests, as written by our social worker in the Cambodia office:

Read more...

Just received this video from the student ministries department at Northland: A Church Distributed in Orlando, FL.
In short, they hosted a fundraiser for IJM… via food fight.
Note: they used expired food that was no longer viable for giving to others.

Read more...

We have received stunning photos from our field team from this ongoing rescue operation. We cannot yet share most of the photos with you due to pressing security concerns, but there are three photos I believe will give you a view, however oblique, into the lives of these 23 slaves and the unrelenting fight of our staff.

Here are a few words of narrative from our field team - they let us know, continually, how strengthened they are by your prayers, and how much they continue to need your prayers.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Over the past few days, our God has answered desperate prayers – from around the world – on behalf of these seven families forced to work as slaves at _______ Rice Mill.  He has demonstrated his supernatural power in mighty ways.  Let’s continue to pray with confidence to the gracious God we serve, together.  Here are a few photos: Part One of an unfinished story of freedom.

Six minutes before IJM arrived with the local authorities for the rescue operation, all of the slaves disappeared from the rice mill compound. IJM staff were confronted upon arrival with the harrowing emptiness of the completely abandoned facility (Photo #1).

Read more...

We just received another update and plea for prayer from our field team in South Asia. The operation that began last night (see earlier blog post) is at a stalemate but absolutely must move forward. Our staff team and the six families who have been in slavery are all at the govenment facility right now and will be there for the rest of the night. Here is how we need for you to pray. And please do leave comments of prayer and scripture to encourage our staff as they persevere through this long night:

The authorities have listened to one of the victim’s testimonies so far. This victim shared of the years of forced labor and the horrible treatment that they had faced at the hands of the owner.  The official was visibly moved by the recounting of the story, but there has not been any action yet and we are concerned no action will be taken. 

Please pray for:
• Safety of IJM staff & the victims as they spend the night in the gov’t office. 
• The government officials, that they would make the right decisions.
• Refreshment for the victims, as they are tired and worn out.
• IJM staff, that they would remain bold and strong.
• The victims to be granted release certificates tomorrow morning.

In the director of this field office’s own words,

“We have a long fight on our hands and we are ready for it.”

Please continue to join me in prayer for them.

Right now, we are launching an operation in South Asia on a facility holding over a dozen slaves. The owners are hyper vigilant in their supervision of these laborers and regularly subject them to brutal beatings.

Pray that the South Asia team will have flawless coordination with the local authorities.
Pray that full release and restitution will be granted to each slave laborer.
Pray that their aftercare will bring deep healing.
Most of all, please join with us in praying that tonight will be their last night as slaves.

I’m eager to introduce you to our National Director of Church Mobilization, Jim Martin. I’m sure some of you are already quite familiar with Jim, and I look forward to all of you getting a chance to know him better as he begins to guest blog here at the Institute on a regular basis. Here is an update from Jim on IJM’s brand new documentary, At the End of Slavery and details on how you can be involved in the movement!
******************************************

Dear friends,
As of today more than 85 churches have decided to host a screening of IJM’s new documentary film, At the End of Slavery. The response to the film has overwhelming! We are thankful and excited for the gathering momentum of this movement. Many churches see screening this 30 minute documentary as a rare opportunity for their church to be on the forefront of an issue that really matters to the people of their neighborhoods and community. And by following the simple suggestions contained in the screening kit (what we’re calling a “house party-in-a-box"), churches are not only providing their communities with much-needed education regarding the modern horror of slavery, they are offering something even more essential and rare: concrete action steps that every-day citizens can take to join the battle against violent oppression.