My Pleasure

This morning, I woke up and worried about many things: finances, transportation woes of Washington, D.C., my crazy schedule for the week. But I didn’t worry that anyone in my family would be forced into slavery, that I would be forced out of my apartment today, or that my husband would be arrested and beaten by the police and held in prison for years with no charge being brought against him. These are the worries of many women around the world this morning and evening.

That is why it is a privilege for me to tell you about an organization that works to eliminate this

possibility from many women’s’ lives: International Justice Mission (IJM). IJM is not only dear to my heart but it’s also where I spend the majority of my waking hours, because you see, I’m fortunate enough to call it my place of employment.

If you’ve never heard of IJM let me take a moment to introduce you to the organization. IJM is a Human Rights organization that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. Much of the work we do has a direct impact on women who are oppressed in many different ways. During the month of April, I’ll be highlighting one area of the work we do each week, but for a quick overview, here are the areas of casework that IJM works in:

• Forced labor slavery
• Child Sexual Assault
• Sex trafficking of children and adults
• Illegal Detention
• Illegal Property Seizure
• Hill Tribe Citizenship

IJM works in conjunction with state and local authorities in our areas of casework to combat these injustices. One of the things I love about IJM is that the work is founded in our four-fold purpose: Victim Relief, Perpetrator Accountability, Victim Aftercare and Structural Transformation.

I’m excited to introduce you to some of our areas of work a bit more closely in the coming weeks, so I hope this gives you enough to chew on for now. If you want to know more, just check out our website at www.ijm.org.

One last timely tidbit: IJM is a Christian organization –and because what we do is so difficult, prayer is an integral part of our work. Each year, we have a Global Prayer Gathering here in the Washington, D.C. area (where our headquarters are based), and this year's GPG is this weekend. If you want to participate online, check out this link: http://gpgonline.ijm.org. It’s a great way to get a peek into our work and, if you want to, partner with us through prayer.