Hope.

Do you remember the client that had the greatest impact on my summer in Rwanda? 
Well, hold on tight because this post holds little back. 

She was kidnapped, raped repeatedly and locked in a home where a candle caught on fire and burned her so badly her legs had to be amputated. Through counseling with her mother, we learned that she barely survived the genocide in 1994 and was staying in a shelter when a Ugandan man started "caring" for the women and giving them money. In exchange, he raped them. Jaime's mother was basically a sex slave for this man. When she got pregnant with Jaime, she stayed but hated suffering the man's abuse. When she got pregnant again, she finally left and left Jaime behind with her father.

When you watch the video, you see Jaime tell her story. She doesn't talk about the case, or about the intricate details of just how horrible her childhood was. She speaks of God's ability to instill hope when it seems it is lost forever.

I met her mother and father, who both abandoned her. Baraka, who speaks in the video, counseled with both of them and her father has actually been to visit Jaime and has helped financially support her. An incredible feat! I worked on her legal case against the two perpetrators. I met the principle one who kidnapped and raped her in court, and have never felt such a strange and disgusting feeling. The first guy claimed that he was under the age of criminal liability and caused us to go find his birth certificate. He was actually around 40 years old. As a legal strategy, we ended up asking the court to join the two men's cases together so that they would point fingers saying, "the other one did it" and that the Judge would see they both should go to jail for a long, long time. I do not know the outcome of the legal case, and it isn't relevant. I share this video with you because you prayed for her, because you prayed for me and my heartbreak after we met, and you pray for the incredible work that IJM does. The people and places in the video are REAL to me. I share it with you so that for four minutes, you have insight into IJM, into the emotionally charged nature of this kind of work, and into Rwanda.

Her smile is real, her hope is palpable, and her courage is astounding. I think its very possible no other client for the rest of my legal career will touch me like she did.

Please share her story, I know that I always will.

My original blog post when I first met Jaime: http://defineyourdestination.blogspot.com/2013/06/from-field-into-field.html

To read more from IJM and to donate to IJM's incredible life changing work: http://ijm.org/jamies-story

You are very TALL

There is an intriguing cautious line that has been taunting me at work. I try not to be overly reflective, but it's been difficult for me to ignore where I was this time last year. This time last year I was in Rwanda, a country that taught me so many things, challenged and stretched me. I suppose this is the value of a true experience - a gift that keeps giving, keeps teaching.

Working for IJM, I learned to be bold. I learned how skilled I actually am. I learned to appreciate that I am a valued asset to an office. I learned that I did not need to be told what to do; I needed to seek out things to do. I observed a group of people that worked tirelessly toward improving anything and everything around them despite the odds and challenges fighting against all their efforts.

Our clients at Christian Legal Aid have no other resource or other option.

On one hand, I am a stupid law student with mediocre grades at a run-of-the-mill law school. I have little experience, and I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. I am not bar certified, I have not taken several key required courses. I have little experience with the California court system. I have never been in poverty or in the awful situations my clients are in. I am impatient and get frustrated when speaking with a mentally ill client who cannot express herself very well. I am not an attorney! I have a long ways to go.

On the other hand, I am an American law student with a lot of experience. I survived Rwanda for Pete's sake! I know how to Google. I have a computer and a working printer with ink and paper. I can read a court document and begin to fill it out. I can encourage a client. I have a smile to offer. I can ask questions that lead me to answers as I continue to research for a solution. I can learn. I am more of an attorney than I am not an attorney. I have no straightjacket on.

Our clients have no other resource or other option. If I can't do it, nobody can. And so I am a can-do almost- attorney. There is no other choice. Thus, you also are a can-do person. You are a person of great assets, of great resources, who can be of great assistance. Get out there and give someone whatever you have to offer. Don't say 'oh well.'  Further, we believe in someone who is the great I AM. And so, when you are feeling crippled by all the things you are not, hold fast to your believe in the I AM. And through Him, you can do ANYTHING. This is how law school teaches you- by throwing you into the deep end and watching you struggle to doggy paddle until you wake up to realize you're actually swimming just fine in an olympic race.

So this is a plea for you to fight the line between feeling like you "can't" and just standing up and getting it done. A few travel friends and mine always say, "Figure it out!" when we are traveling. Whatever challenge, obstacle or bridge you have to cross, you CAN DO IT.

And for those out there who you think you cannot help, the smallest thing you have to give could be the greatest thing they've ever received.
It is a powerfully humbling thing to be a part of.
Join in.

so much more to life than we've been told

These lyrics so well reflect all my thoughts and feelings on my time in Rwanda.

“Farther along, we’ll know all about it.

Farther along, we’ll understand why.

So cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine!

We’ll understand this all, by and by.

Tempted and tried, I wondered why the good man died the bad man thrives

And Jesus cries because he loves them both

We’re all cast always in need of rope, hanging on by the last threads of our hope

In a house of mirrors full of smoke

Confusions and illusions I have seen.

But, where did I go wrong? I sang along to every chorus of the song that the Devil wrote like the Piper at the gates leading mice and men down to their fate, some will courageously escape the seductive voice with a heart of faith, while walking that line back home

There’s so much more to life than we’ve been told

Its full of beauty that will unfold and shine like you struck gold my wayward son

That deadweight burden weighs a ton.

Go down to the river and let it run, wash away all the things you’ve done.

Forgiveness alright

Farther along, we’ll know all about it.

Father along, we’ll understand why.

Still I get hard pressed on every side

Between the rock and a compromise

Like the truth and pack of lies fightin’ for my soul

And I’ve got no place left to go cause I got changed by what I’ve been shown

More glory than the world has known

Keeps me ramblin’ on

Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall I’m free to love once and for all

And even when I fall I’ll get back up for the joy that overflows my cup

Heaven filled me with more than enough

Broke down my levee and my bluff

And one day when the sky rolls back on us

Some rejoice and the others fuss cause every knee must bow and tongue confess that the son of God is forever blessed

His is the kingdom, we’re the guests

So put your voice up to the test. Sing Lord, come soon!

Farther along we’ll know all about it.

Farther along we’ll understand why."

-Josh Garrells, Farther Along

I came to Rwanda full of energy and enthusiasm and miraculously I am coming home with even more. I am coming home truly at a loss for words for how I will adequately capture my summer in just a few quick sentences in response to “How was Rwanda?!” or “How was your summer?” When you ask me what I learned this summer or what my favorite thing was. I am not a fool and this is not my first time coming home from being away. I know that many things have changed and many things have stayed exactly as I left them. I know that people do not want to hear me say “In Rwanda….” 100 times nor do people want a five hour long version of what I have experienced. I’ve tried to update my blog and to upload photos, I know that it is insufficient. That is not to say that questions about my experience are not genuine, it’s just that an answer is not easy to spit back.

This is something I’ve really been wrestling with. I will miss the work, the clients, the people I met dearly. It hasn’t yet hit me that I have to go back to learning inside of a classroom instead of learning on the frontlines, learning by being tossed into the deep end and forced to swim. Surely this has been the slowest summer of my life and I have so many things to share.

My quick response could be strictly about the challenges of living in Africa. No water pressure, intermittent hot water, bouts of hours without electricity from time to time. The language barrier or the cultural differences. The 100% starches diet. It could be about the poverty, the aftermath of 1994, the ongoing struggle of life for a Rwandan. I could scratch the surface on explaining about the work that I contributed to or the great faith of those I was inspired by daily. I could also gloat about my three day safari and proudly show my pictures that look like spreads from National Geographic magazine.

This summer wasn’t really actually about any one of the above things, but it was about all of them at the exact same time. I grew a lot this summer. Like an elementary school student wearing new shoes one-size up for the first time, I am proud of that growth but I am also still a little uncertain in it.

I’ve wondered many things this summer and tossed around a lot of questions that are still left unanswered. I wonder why I was in Rwanda instead of somewhere else. I wonder if I would ever step foot in a church again if my entire family had been murdered in one but I was spared. How has my perspective on justice been changed? What professional experience have I gained? What and who will I miss the most? How have I grown spirtually? What was God trying to teach me this summer? Perhaps more importantly, did I actually learn whatever He was trying to teach me?

All I know is that this song’s lyrics are the most eloquent thing I can offer. I know that this life is full of beauty that will continue to unfold. And farther along, maybe I’ll know the answers to each of those questions. In the coming days, I can only ask that you be patient with me as I struggle to answer yours. 

printer paper

The last few weeks the office has been in a complete frenzy over the process of re-registering IJM as a non-profit in Rwanda. This is an incredibly complex process as it involves reviewing IJM's Memorada of Understanding (MoU for short) with all of our partners - other nonprofits and governmental organizations. IJM staff meets with each of these partners to discuss and negotiate the "annual report" and "5 year strategic action plan." In addition to ensuring our annual report documenting the previous year, forecasted activities, and expected outcomes are in line with our MoUs, and our directives from IJM Headquarters in DC, each word on this 100-page-registration document must be approved by each of the three districts of Kigali City. All of our clients and casework must be divided into each district and described in detail to show what we did in Kigali this last year and what we are planning to do in the upcoming year. It has been a laborious process to say the least, and it may take up to six months to complete. I've only attempted to contribute minute details to these documents, and I've become overwhelmed by the challenges that the office faces to make each of the reported words successful.

Laws are vague and poorly written. Prosecutors and judges are overloaded, lacking the capacity to give time and attention to detail to each of the 30 cases on their docket for any one given day. There is no such thing as "grounds for appeal;" if you're unhappy with the verdict, you can just appeal. This substantially delays justice for our clients and the victories that we can report when in fact the cases are looming on appeal for many years. Children under the age of fourteen must have their testimony corroborated by extrinsic evidence. When evidence is rare in a rape case to begin with, asking that the victim's testimony be corroborated is a substantial hurdle to justice for these victims. Funding is limited. DNA testing is expensive. Medical reports are poorly written. Birth certificates are incredibly difficult to track down. Sentences are not given according to the Code. There is no safehouse to care for our clients if it is not in their best interest to live at home.

Trying to wage war on all these fronts, its astounding to see the incredible success that IJM has had. Every conviction is a victory of epic proportions. Yet, it's in our nature as Americans to constantly push towards improvement. We had X convictions last year, this upcoming year, we want to see X +10! This is how our minds process improvement. We like to measure results by raw numbers, statistics, names and short descriptions of the successes we achieved for our clients. And we like things to be clear- on paper in black and white. But the reality is that IJM's work is not best described on paper. Or in words.
It is best OBSERVED.
Certainly there is always room for improvement, but along the way, let's not get too distracted with the idea of "growing" that we forget how personal each step of that growth is.
I was sitting in the home of one of our clients, Louise, a humble six foot by eight foot concrete rectangle. Ignorant to the irony of her offer, she kindly asked if she could bring me a Fanta (a soda is an entire day's worth of wages for most Rwandese). In response to the question of what impact IJM has had on her life, she said, "I thought I would never again be happy for the rest of my life. But IJM intervened and gave me so much support to overcome my trauma and to finish my studies. IJM gave me a smile when I thought I never would again."

When her mother spoke about how tremendously IJM had impacted their lives, she said, "I don't have words to express my gratitude for what IJM has done for me and my family. I thank God everyday for IJM and IJM staff."

So, I get it Rwanda government. I understand your need for numbers and targets. But I just want to vent that it's unfair. IJM's work is too raw and real to be translatable onto printer paper, even 100 pages of it. The change that IJM incites in these victims is too amorphous and abstract to be filtered into targets and "progress measurements."
IJM gives smiles back to people.
IJM brings hope to these victims lives just when they thought it was lost forever.
And I have been so blessed to be a very small part of it.

I told the counselor who took us into the field that day that she had clearly changed Louise's life. She bashfully replied, "Only by the grace of the Lord."And it will be only by the grace of the Lord when IJM gets re-registered and gets to continue doing this amazing life-changing work.

to relish is both a blessing and a curse, but it is mostly a blessing

"What is it like there??" you've been asking.
Here's the best I've got. A typical weekday around here:
Wake up at 6:30: take a semi-warm shower. The "shower" is actually a tray on the ground against a corner with a loosely hanging curtain that only covers 1 side and leaves the side by the toilet completely exposed for water to go spraying everywhere. But it is a shower and not a bucket, which I am very grateful for.
Get dressed: work attire is business casual, I usually wear a pencil skirt with a nice top and cardigan or dress pants. Women dress very conservatively, professionals are expected to dress smart, and the backs of a woman's knees are the sexiest part of her body. So, shield your eyes America.
Eat breakfast: usually cereal (which costs about $8-10 per box), Mango Juice (a highlight of my day) with a piece of toast and jam if I am extra hungry. Milk comes in fortified Ziplock bags, which is the sketchiest thing ever, but thankfully it also comes in unrefrigerated boxes. Fermented milk is also big in Rwanda, but in the wise words of Shelley, "it tastes like milk with some hoof" so I stay away from that.
Walk to Work: this takes about 10-15 minutes and is about half a mile. It's usually crisp in the morning, by the afternoon it is hot.
8:00 am- Stillness - this is an IJM-wide phenomenom, a time of silence and reflection with God over the work. Taken more seriously at HQ than in the Rwanda office, it is still a highlight of my day. I have been reading through some devotionals that I would encourage you to add to your daily routine. Click here!
It is culturally expected to greet anyone as you walk past them, and with my desk at the very front lobby of the office, the mornings are full of Maramutse! Amakuro? Nmeza. (Good morning! How are you? Good.) to each person that walks in. This continues all day as clients pour into the office, visitors come in for various meetings and staff walks in and out.
I take this time to pray over the staff, IJM work globally, and to journal, read my Bible and pray for anything that comes to mind. Let me know how I can be praying for you by leaving a comment or sending me an email. I will add you to my morning routine!
8:30 am - Staff Devotional begins - Led by a different staff member each day, we usually sing 2-3 songs in either English or Kinyarwanda and take time to reflect over Scripture. Then we take Prayer Requests and Praises. We close with a prayer over all that's just been discussed and a blessing over each of us for the day ahead.
9:15ish - Check Emails, and get right to work on whatever is the most pressing. A few of the projects I've been working on:

• (current project) Preparing IJM for its annual registration with the Rwanda government. IJM activities must be in line with the government's priorities and their envisioned plans for the future of Rwanda. This involves making an "Action Plan" of all of IJMs activities, recording the realized activities from last year and also forecasting for the next years. We are applying for 5-year registration, and fingers crossed, prayers up - this laborious process will be easier next year if we get registered for 5 years. The registration paperwork must be approved by all of IJM's government partners AND by each of the 3 districts of Kigali. It is a huge, laborious process with documents that are 100 pages each.
• Writing stories of our clients for Headquarters to share on www.ijm.org
• Doing legal analysis on the strengths and weaknesses of potential client cases and making a recommendation as to whether or not IJM should accept or reject the case
• Doing legal research in several areas- criminal procedure, evidence law, Child Protection laws
• Preparing the quarterly report for headquarters from each department
• Assessing donor's needs and requirements, and whether or not we are meeting them
• Reporting on our compliance with our Memoranda of Understanding with our government partners
• Inputting cases from hard-copy files into the online case tracking system

We have a nice long lunch break in the middle of the day. If we aren't meeting someone, like the Pepperdine students working at the Ministry of Justice, or girls we have met through church, we usually walk home for lunch.
5:00 pm - on the dot, we all get kicked out of the office.
6:00 pm - The only decent window to talk to my boyfriend, who has been such a trooper to chat with me on his lunch break everyday. A huge highlight of my day!
Then, Carmen and I work out. We do these videos from Hell called Insanity. We have improved though from the first time I did it. But basically I end up laying on the floor sweating, as red as a tomato and thinking "this is what dying feels like."
Next, we usually attempt to scrounge together something for dinner. Sometimes, our house staff cooks for us, sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes we attempt to cook and fail, sometimes we attempt to cook and it is decent. We have learned quite a bit, but its still cooking in Africa and thus is a great gamble. We have made banana bread about 10 times and really have it down. We have also managed to burn rice and nearly set the house on fire. So, hey, you never know.
Sometimes we go do something like go on a walk to the cafe with internet, grocery shop or meet up with friends. Sometimes we watch a few episodes from the DVDs I brought, or read books, or play around on the Internet.
More or less by 10:00 pm, we are both in bed and exhausted.

They say that 9:00 is "Missionary Midnight" because the days are so jam-packed and the work is so mentally and emotionally exhausting. I read child sexual assault cases all day. Lots of words and phrases make me feel like I've been sitting in dirt like a pig rolling around in mud. Time passes quite slow here. It's remarkable because I am cognizant of what I am doing, each word I am typing, everything I am thinking. It's a nice treat to get to relish in a moment and truly appreciate it. Something we rarely, if ever, slow down long enough to do in the US. It is also troublesome to sit with the dirt and the challenges and the obstacles that the office here faces everyday. It is frustrating to not have power or Internet when the work is pressing. Frustrating doesn't even cover the feeling when you read the evidence for a case and then read the perpetrator was acquitted. Or that his sentence was much less than what the law explictly calls for. The time spent waiting on the power to return feels painstakingly slow. The weekends and the nights pass slower than a snail's pace. As it turns out, slow paced life is both a blessing and a curse.

Working for IJM has truly been everything I could have ever dreamed it would be. It has exceeded my expectations in every possible way (and my expectations were high). I love that I crawl into bed knowing that what I did that day could have made a legitimate difference in someone's life. I love the feeling when my head hits the pillow that I have done something with my day that was "worthy of the calling I received." (Eph. 4:1) And I love that I legitimately jump out of bed in the morning to do it all over again the next day. I've even kicked my atrocious snooze habit AND stopped drinking coffee!!
I repeat, I love that I legitimately jump out of bed in the morning to do it all over again the next day.

from the field into THE field

There are some moments in your life that you look back on and think, “wow, that was a really defining moment in my life” and there are others that before they even occur you know they are going to be more impactful than you could ever describe. Last Friday was one of those days. On Thursday, one of the counselors in the office asked if the other legal intern (Carmen) and I wanted to go with her into the field for a counseling session with one of IJM's clients. Of course we wanted to go. Once it was cleared with our boss, we showed up on Friday morning eager but our hearts full of anxiety of the emotional roller coaster we were embarking on.

You cannot imagine what horrors this girl has experienced, and I will spare you the details of the abuse she suffered. Last week in one of our morning devotionals with the whole staff, the counselor assigned to this case told us, “I saw God today” when she described the transformation that had taken place in this girl's life because of IJM. Afterall, this exact sentiment is stated in Jeremiah 22:16, "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. 'Is that not what it means to KNOW me?' declares the Lord." To defend the cause of the poor and needy, is to KNOW Him. And surely, I also saw God that day.

We drove almost three hours to see her at a facility for disabled children, where they can live, attend school, with doctors are on site. There were about 4 warehouse-sized buildings with just beds in rows – like something you would see from a war. For almost two hours, I didn’t see a single child with all four functioning limbs. Wheelchairs with broken wheels, worn crutches, children without any control over their own bodies. It was so heartbreaking, I cannot begin to describe the pain my heart felt. But the most disturbing thing of all, was thinking about these children’s future, and how they would possibly thrive in a country where 90% of the population works directly on the land to earn pennies for a living. Multiple kids were just laying helpless in their bed screaming. Tears streaming down their faces, like their face didn’t know how to look without crying.

Please keep IJM's client's recovery in your prayers. For her health, healing, strength, and faith. IJM needs to raise enough money to keep her at this wonderful facility and for her medical treatments. I beg you to keep the IJM staff in your prayers from all aspects of IJM’s work. The investigation team is still looking for the second perpetrator in this case, as he is on the run, and his location is unknown. The legal team needs prayers as they work to prepare and build a strong case against the principle perpetrator to ensure a conviction. The IJM counseling team also needs your prayers for discernment in her trauma-focused therapy, courage, and strength in sharing love with her.

This is the “field.” This is the work that is to be done. The people to be loved. And there is so much out there. Of the thirty cases or so that I’ve read in my first two weeks of work, hers is certainly one of the most heartbreaking of all the stories, yet it is only the smallest fraction of the heartbreak that is in this world. But I refuse to end this heavy post on anything other than the BOLD courage that this girl has. Her radiating beauty, the huge smile cemented on her face that we had come to visit, her chattering away about how happy she was just to be in a better position than so many of her new roommates, how thankful she was that she was alive, and that IJM had intervened in her life.

As we drove away, it was well-past lunch time, the car was hot, I was in the far back trunk of the SUV on a very bumpy road as I was getting jerked around, one of the staff said, “so are you guys hungry? Tired? Ready to go home? What?” But as I sat in the back of that vehicle, reflecting on the last two hours, all I could manage to reply was, “I am… blessed.”

You Are Welcome to Rwanda

When I had been living in Spain for almost a year and my list of visited European countries was becoming something I was proud of, I started to feel like everywhere I went just looked like a mixture of everywhere else I had been. Wild feelings of insecurity, unfamiliarity, extreme disorientation, intrigue from a new fascinating culture, a language spoken like ribbons out of a stranger’s mouth, these were the feelings that captured my attention about world traveling and diseased me with a thirst for wandering. And those feelings were becoming harder and harder to chase. A new country was not enough to quench that greedy thirst.

And so I accepted a position to live in Rwanda for nine weeks.

All I could think my first night laying in bed in my new home was, "you've really done it this time, Stephanie. You've really done it."

Everything about Rwanda is unfamiliar.

Everything brings ten questions. Where is the drinking water? (In that tub) How do we use it? How do we refill it? How long do we have to wait for the water to purify?

Sometimes these answers are helpful but they mostly lead to more questions or leave me speechless and much more confused than I originally was.

Example- Do we have to replace the filter in there? (in regards to the drinking water)

Answer - Oh no, it's a candle. It does it automatically and doesn’t need to be replaced.

OHH, DUH! A candle. That filters water. Inside of a large plastic tub. Of course.

The language barrier is really a barrier. The other intern and I are the only Americans in the office. Everyone speaks English, but it's obviously not the same. We need cultural translations for just about everything. We can't ask the Rwandans how to wash our vegetables. Despite their sweetness and genuine welcome wishes, they’re simply incapable of estimating just how helpless we feel in this entirely new environment.

Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, is like a large bowl with rows of little homes lining the edges. At night, it sparkles and during the day, you can see that beyond the bowl’s edges are rolling hills on all sides. Roads go from a red mud with dust kicked up by cars and pedestrians to a more sophisticated cobblestone, and only the major roads are actually paved. The street names here are all numbers (KG 645 or KG 9) and are not used nor known by the locals. On our walk from our home to school, we pass several non-governmental (non-profit) organizations. In a community that uses local landmarks and neighborhood names to describe addresses, someone new to the area that doesn’t speak the language seems to have little hope of getting around easily.

The home we are renting is actually owned by a church planting mission organization, and the owners have been so gracious to let us live here. The home is huge- intended for four children plus Mom and Dad. Although getting the water working, learning how to turn off and on the gas for the stove, lighting the stove, paying electricity, etc were all key components of the learning curve our first few days here, there is still much to learn.

Our first interactions with the office staff were over emails and our first day in the office the same sentiments were repeated. Each staff member would come up to me and say, “You are welcome to Rwanda” and then tell me their name. Despite our attempts to “do like the Romans do,” the other intern and I cannot help be perplexed by just about everything.  So, welcome to Rwanda where everything is a perplexing challenge followed by 90 questions without helpful answers.

You are welcome!

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?