IJM and Lindsay Cade

Another Advent Conspiracy event that NC hosted this weekend was a viewing of the documentary "At The End of Slavery" from the International Justice Mission. Meredith Pace organized this event and had a great turnout. I happened to get to go by myself (whoo-hoo!) while Robert stayed home with the boys. The film was moving and inspired some great discussion afterwards. It's amazing how blind we can be, if we want to be, to the hurting and injustices in our world, even in our city.

The focus of this film was to inspire us to encourage our government to send strong messages to the countries where modern day slavery is most prevalent. In most of these countries, the law is in place against slavery, but the local governments are not enforcing the laws. IJM has teams of people in these countries who are qualified to train local law enforcements how to take down slave organizations in order to send messages to others, which seem to fall away when they realize the law is being enforced. There were also amazing success stories of children who have been saved from slavery and are involved in healthy environments now.

Our discussion afterwards also included talk about sweat shops and where we buy our clothing. Ignorance is bliss, and also irresponsible. I'm challenged to learn more about free-trade and socially responsible companies. Then we wrote letters to our congressman and senator encouraging them to support a bill that will support IJM's efforts.

To top off the night, Lindsay Cade performed some great tunes for us. LC was the first person to join us in Memphis before we started Neighborhood Church. She is such a beautiful person and has so much to share with the world. We sent her to Canada for a while and then Poland. And now she is in Nashville. I tried to tell her Memphis would love to have her back (and we would love her as a worship leader!), but she seems good in middle Tennessee.