I did not end up going to India that coming summer on the trip that I applied to, mostly due to the fact that my best friend Chrissy as well as my older sister Sarah had both asked me to be the maid of honor in each of their respective weddings. Being a part of those celebrations was definitely not something I wanted to miss out on. I was not sure when or how, but I was confident I would wind up at least visiting India someday.
One day after a class I was taking at a community college I got a text-message from my childhood friend and soon-to-be roommate Alison Johnson. We had not talked extensively in quite some time so without knowing even knowing the place I was at in life, she asked me if I wanted to be a part of a student organization on Grand Valley’s campus the coming year that she and another friend were starting. What was it all about? Alison had volunteered during the summer at an organization called Women At Risk International that serves to rescue and rehabilitate mainly women who have been trafficked into forced labor situations. She was inspired to start this group to shine light into dark places by spreading awareness of human trafficking to other college students and bring hope to the oppressed. The name of the organization was ‘traffic light.’ I was so excited to be a part of this that I called her back immediately. |
| Alison and I at our table promoting 'traffic light' |
Being a part of traffic light has been challenging in more ways than one. It has been difficult to keep up with administrative stuff (which I find I am definitely not gifted in.) Also, being a part of it doesn’t allow me to take my eyes away and simply ignore the injustice being done to human beings all over the world. Like Gary Haugen points out in his book Good News About Injustice, our minds very easily work like that of infants who have not yet developed object permanence when it comes to maintaining an interest in the reality of injustice in the world. If it is out of sight, it is out of mind. From all the conferences and events attended, all the research I’ve done of the topic, and all the personal stories I have heard, it isn’t something that feels far away and unreal anymore. Sometimes it is so near that I can almost actually hear the voices of those oppressed crying out. Something I have to be really careful if is being overcome by despair. If I don’t come at it with the hope of Christ, I am overwhelmed and discouraged to the point of immobilization. I have to constantly remember that He holds the universe, that everything can be redeemed, and though this whole world is groaning, we were made to be healed for His glory. I have been working on developing what Gary Haugen deemed compassion permanence, or “conviction of the things unseen.” It is not unlike the plea of Hebrews 13:3 to “continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” It is burdensome to continually open my eyes to the hurting world, but no matter how big the burden, the hope of the joy and deliverance that Christ brings is much stronger. The key to the balance is to ask to see the world as God sees it, through His eyes.
I have been asked more than once what the point of trying is. “This is the world’s oldest profession. Do you really think you will be able to stop it?” I think it is exactly this kind of attitude that allows us to sit back and do nothing. One of the most encouraging words I have heard this year so far was from a trafficking victim named James Kofi Annan who was abducted, tricked, and sold into the fishing industry in a remote part of Ghana. He suffered physical and sexual abuse with trauma that still affects him. He was starved, beaten, raped, dragged, whipped, and forced to work from daybreak until dusk no matter what. But through it all, he managed to escape the cycle. He started an organization rescuing one child at a time that offers them education and an alternative life. One student attending the conference he spoke at stood up at the end and posed a question. She said it has been tried so many times to eradicate slavery and yet it still exists. “Do you really think we could end it for good?” His answer was strong. “Absolutely. We just need enough people to know it is possible.” To hear such a positive outlook from someone who had personally experienced slavery himself motivates me in times when my outlook is bleak.
You can read his blog here, if you want:
It’s not about what we can’t do. It’s about doing what we can.
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