Freedom Friday: 150 men, women, & children set free!

A woman smiles as she readies to return to her home village after living for months as a slave.

This is an amazing story of rescue coming out of IJM from this past month that I just had to share with you.

CHENNAI, INDIA – Today, nearly 150 children, women and men are celebrating freedom, rescued from slavery this week outside Hyderabad, India. More than 100 women and men – plus seven children as young as 3 years old – received official release certificates emancipating them from slavery in a brick factory.

The men and women shared how they had been physically beaten and forced to work 18 to 22 hours a day – sleeping for an hour or two and then resuming their back-breaking work in the brick kiln. A pregnant woman told how she had pleaded for rest when she was pregnant; instead, she was kicked by her manager. One man had raw wounds so deep that the bone showed through.

Freedom Friday: Caring for Widows

Continuing these Freedom Friday posts, as a way to share more about IJM with my own friends & family (who may not venture over to IJM.org on their own), I wanted to highlight one of our other casework types. Most people know IJM for our fight against bonded labor (modern slavery) and child sex trafficking. But in Uganda, we battle another form of violent oppression against the poor. We fight for widows & their children.

Straight out of Scripture: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” James 1:27

These beautiful videos can do a better job at introducing you to the topic than I could ever hope to. So please take a few minutes to watch them…

Freedom Friday: A brother who refused to give up hope

Photo: IJM.org

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to share more about IJM & our work, but haven’t been sure how to do it. For very understandable reasons, we have tight security issues, etc. So inspired by my former colleague, Jenny, I’ve decided to start up Freedom Friday, where I’ll share a story from IJM that you could probably find on our site somewhere, if you were in tune with the news stories there. This will be a great way to share more about IJM with my own friends & family, who may not venture over to IJM.org on their own.

This particular story really touched me. It is the story of a brother who refused to give up hope in finding his sister & bringing her back home. Please continue to pray for this family as they deal with life going forward and in getting Sundari counseling, etc.