Burning Bushes

"Yesterday, 19 people were rescued from a brutal rock quarry. They had been trapped there for 13 years, confined to live and work in miserable conditions. The manual labor was intense and exhausting. They were not allowed to leave the quarry, and several women even had to give birth in dirty sheds in the quarry compound. They were slaves in every sense of the word." 

This is the opening paragraph of the latest news story from International Justice Mission, the non-profit organization that I will be working for this summer as a legal intern in their field office in Kigali, Rwanda. As you can discern from just that one paragraph (and hopefully watched the inspiring video), they do really outstanding work. 

The mission is to rescue thousands, protect millions and PROVE that justice for the poor is possible. 

What a lofty task! I learned about IJM many years ago when I watched on NBC Dateline the team rescue girls from a brothel in Cambodia (some footage featured in the above video). Combining my love for mission work with my desire to pursue a legal career in international human rights, IJM has been my dream job for quite some time, and I am beyond blessed to be part of their great work. I want to urge you to spend some time exploring their website and reading more about their work, the story of the organization and the founder. I have included many links at the end of this post. 

On Monday, all the new interns, fellows and incoming staff sat around at tables listening to the founder of the organization, Gary Houghen speak on the Spiritual Foundations of the organization. What a calling we have as Christians to go out into the world and live out God's vision for a just world. Throughout the week as I prepared mentally for my nine weeks in Rwanda, I kept returning to the passage we discussed on that first day: Exodus 3:7-12.

"The LORD said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Gyptians and to bring them up OUT OF THAT LAND into a GOOD AND SPACIOUS LAND, a land flowing with MILK AND HONEY... And now the cry to the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. SO NOW GO. I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.' 

But Moses said to God, 'Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'

And God said, 'I WILL BE WITH YOU. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.'"

It has been quite some time since I had the pleasure of slowing down enough to type a post on this beloved diary of my travels and adventures. The last year of learning about the law has had a remarkably steep learning curve, but its been "the best-worst year of my life." I've met amazing people, worked for hours on projects, studied intensely and memorized pages of materials. The worst year is over, grades are in and I didn't fail out, so it's time for the next chapter. 

I will be blogging about my travels in Rwanda, as well as a bit about the work that I will be doing there. I hope that you join me as I now go onto this next phase of "defining my destination."

As God called Moses to be His instrument in bringing the Israelites out of oppression in Egypt, you and I are also called to join in the fight against injustice. I invite you to read along with me this summer, but more importantly, I beg you to join in the movement to fight for justice for the poor. 

Here's how. 

READ the rest of the story first mentioned in the post, and stay up to date on the absolute LATEST breaking stories at www.ijm.org/news

PRAY. Pray A LOT. Pray for safety for the IJM staff working in one of the SIXTEEN field offices across the world, the investigators who are putting their lives at risk to investigate these crimes, those furiously working on how to structurally transform these communities, the victims who are waiting to be rescued and the victims who are trying to restore their lives.  

Become a PRAYER PARTNER here: http://www.ijm.org/get-involved/prayer-partner

LEARN. Inform yourself. Spend some quality time exploring the links, factsheets, stories on this page: http://www.ijm.org/resources#factsheets

Here's how IJM accomplishes its mission: http://www.ijm.org/our-work/what-we-do

About the work IJM is doing in AFRICA: http://www.ijm.org/our-work/africa

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

http://www.ijm.org/node/2142

BE INSPIRED by reading about these incredible leaders: http://www.ijm.org/who-we-are/leadership

WATCH more videos like the one above here: http://www.youtube.com/user/intljusticemission/videos

CONTRIBUTE to the movement by telling someone else about what you learn and SHARE with your networks these great stories waiting to be told to ignite someone else to action. Like IJM on Facebook, subscribe to their emails, stay engaged and tell anyone who is willing to listen. 

PRAY some more. 

If God used a burning bush to get Moses' attention, what has He already done to capture yours?