by Omar C. Garcia
05 Jan 2012 | Kolkata, India

According to statistics, 27 million people on the planet today live in some form of slavery or bondage. That’s a disturbing statistic, the kind of information that gives us insight into the magnitude of a global problem. However, it’s important to peel back those numbers to learn the stories of those who live or have lived in some form of slavery. Personal stories are powerful because they can give us insight into how a person becomes a part of disturbing statistics. And, because personal stories tend to touch our hearts they can also compel us to become a part of the solution — to act in a practical and measurable way to make a difference. It’s easy for us to shake our heads and dismiss disturbing statistics and exclaim, “What a shame!” But, it’s harder to dismiss the story of just one person who has experienced the horrors reflected by the statistics.

A little more than two years ago, I led our missions ministry to became engaged in the fight against human trafficking. We now have several justice partners with whom we work both at home and abroad. Among these is an aftercare home for young girls rescued from the forced commercial sex trade in the brothels of South Asia. Every time I visit this home I am reminded of why we must remain engaged in the fight against injustice. And every time I listen to a young girl tell her story, I understand a little better why God is concerned about the welfare of the victims of injustice and all who are destitute, poor, and needy. Those trapped in the world of slavery need for us to hear their cries, to speak and to act on their behalf, and to champion their cause. You cannot unlock the shackles of the enslaved with the dull keys of ignorance, silence, and inactivity. We must become increasingly knowledgeable, intentionally engaged, and strategically active in order to bring about change.

Yesterday, I met a thirteen year-old girl who lives in the aftercare home we support. She is new here since my last visit. She has a beautiful smile but lonely and longing eyes. She approached me and stared at me for a moment and then said, “You remind me of my father.” I asked, “When was the last time you saw your father?” And with that, her story began to unfold. This young lady is from a small village in a neighboring country. Almost a year ago, her family sent her to visit her aunt in a larger city. While there, a neighbor invited her to accompany her into the city to run some errands. That was the last time she saw her aunt. She remembered waking up in a room where her descent into hell began. For four months she was kept in a drug-induced stupor so that men could have their way with her. Then she remembers waking up in a police station where she was told that she had been unconscious for four days. The courts placed her in aftercare where she is recovering from her ordeal.

I asked her how she survived through her unimaginably dark days in captivity where she was forced to service the sexual whims of evil men. “God was with me. That’s why I am saved.” And then she told me how much she misses her parents and wishes that she could contact them and just talk with them. But, she can’t even remember where her village is located. She hopes that one day she can find her way back home to her family. In the meantime, she has a safe place to live and to recover. I encouraged her as much as I could and then, as we finished our conversation, told her that she had a beautiful smile. “If I don’t smile,” she said, “I won’t be able to live.” That is a beautiful testimony to her faith and resilient spirit. This sweet little girl with the beautiful smile has hope and I am confident that one day she will be reunited with her family. I can only imagine that there will be lots of beautiful smiles on that day.

by Omar C. Garcia
Poipet, Cambodia

In a final act of desperation, a single mother and her children walked through the gates of the Imparting Smiles orphanage this afternoon. As our team concluded the final session of today’s Vacation Bible School, she sat with Noit Hyde, Steve’s wife, and unfolded the story of her life — a tattered tapestry of sadness. Her story, unfortunately, is not unique in a place like Poipet where evil people prey upon the weak, destroy lives, and never look back. The perpetrators of these evils are emboldened because they are seldom caught, seldom brought to justice, and seldom held accountable for their deeds. They do what they do with an arrogant spirit of impunity. The mother who walked through the gates this afternoon is just one of many whose lives are steeped in unimaginable pain and despair. This is her story.

This woman was married to a promiscuous man who died of AIDS about five years ago, leaving her to raise their children alone. However, her husband left her with one additional hardship — he passed the AIDS virus on to his wife and she is now in the final stages of her life. But, there is more to her story. As a young married woman, she found a baby boy in the woods while she was out gathering firewood. This baby had been left there to die of exposure. So, this compassionate woman took the child home to raise him along with her three other sons. A few years later she found a baby girl in the woods who had also been left there to die. She also brought that child home to raise as her own. This in itself is an amazing act of compassion because she did not have the means to care for such a large family.

After the death of her husband, a man approached this woman and told her that he was looking for young men to go to Thailand to work for a short period. He promised that her teenage son would make lots of money and then return home to help the family. Desperate, she agreed to let her son go, not realizing that the man who had approached her was trafficking kids to work as laborers in Thailand. This trafficker had no intention of letting her son return home. That was the last time she saw her son. Later, her other teenage son was taken from her by traffickers and she has not seen him again. And now, she has one teenage son left and the two adopted children who are 11 and 8 years-old. This grief-stricken woman brought her two adopted children to Imparting Smiles orphanage because she can no longer care for them. Steve and Noit accepted the children and told her she could visit them at any time and promised that her children would receive the very best care. The woman left with her 15 year-old son who will care for her and then bury her when she dies.

There are 27 million people in the world today who live in some type of slavery. Two of those 27 million are the sons of a woman dying of AIDS in Poipet, Cambodia. We must not remain silent or passive about modern-day slavery but must intentionally do something to help. Of course, we can and must pray for the oppressed. But we must also act with intention and compassion. Through our partnership with Steve Hyde, Kingsland's missions ministry is investing in initiatives that are making a difference in places like Popipet. Through the aftercare homes that we support in South Asia, Africa, and Central America we are helping those who have been rescued to start a new life. Through our local justice initiatives we are reaching out to women trafficked to our own country. Because God cares about the oppressed we must work to champion the rights of those who continue to suffer at the hands of evil people. We must continue to work toward the day when “man who is of the earth may strike terror no more” (Ps. 10:18).

by Omar C. Garcia

Kingsland’s Justice Ministry hosted our second annual Just Run for a Just Cause this morning — and what a fabulous morning it was. A total of 975 contestants participated in this community-wide initiative to raise awareness about human trafficking and the plight of the oppressed. People of all ages signed-up to participate in the 1-mile family walk and to compete in the 5k and 10k races. The parking lot in front of the church was a beehive of activity as participants pinned on their numbered bibs and laced their timing chips on their running shoes. The best thing was to see participation grow from 450 participants last year to 975 participants this morning. This is in large part due to the efforts of Kingsland member Kelly Isenberger and her team of volunteers. Over the past several months Kelly and her team have ironed out every detail of the race as evidenced by the success of the event this morning.

Our Just Run is designed to raise awareness about human trafficking. That’s why this year’s race featured a compelling wall of panels that stretched sixty-feet across our parking lot. Each panel sequentially illustrated the story of how young girls and boys are trafficked and how those who champion justice come to their aid. The final set of panels were designed for this morning’s participants to write a prayer on behalf of the oppressed. I was encouraged by the heartfelt notes and prayers that people posted on the justice wall. Many commented that this wall helped them to better understand why we must be engaged in working and speaking on behalf of the oppressed and those who have no voice. I am grateful to Susan Derbecker and her team of volunteers for the many hours they invested in making the wall a reality. We will definitely use it again throughout the year at other justice initiatives.

Those present this morning also had an opportunity to listen to a brief testimony from Mariam Kagaso, a child labor trafficking survivor who currently lives in Dallas, Texas. Mariam was brought from Africa to the United States under false pretenses and was forced to work in a home even though she was just a child. Although she was raised as a Muslim, she found new life and hope in Jesus Christ and was able to escape from the bondage of human trafficking. Today, Mariam continues to tell her story and to inspire others to get involved in championing the cause of the oppressed. Listening to Mariam this morning helped many to put a face on human trafficking. It’s one thing to hear that there are twenty-seven million people in the world today in some kind of slavery. But it’s another thing to actually see and listen to the story of just one from among the twenty-seven million.

We at Kingsland remain committed to the fight against human trafficking. We understand that this battle will not likely be won in our generation — but we are nevertheless determined to do all that we can to make a difference. And we are determined to equip and to pass the baton to the next generation. This morning, many people in our community learned about the plight of the oppressed. For many, this was their first exposure to the truth about a reality that they may never see — the dark world of human trafficking. My prayer is that each of us will make a commitment to pray for and to speak on behalf of those who have no voice and to financially support initiatives that result in the rescue of the oppressed. My favorite quote on the justice wall sums it up best: William Wilberforce said, “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

by Omar C. Garcia

Managua, Nicaragua

Casa Esperanza is situated at the end of a dirt road that is scarred by erosion and flanked by tall tress. Hundreds of women in prostitution in Managua know this road well because it is the road to hope. Every week these women, many with children in tow, make their way to Casa Esperanza, the House of Hope. They walk there to hear an encouraging message from founder April Havlin and to make greeting cards and jewelry, part of a vocational training program offered at Casa Esperanza. April is committed to loving and empowering women in prostitution to leave the world’s oldest profession in order to realize their greater potential in Christ. And, women in large numbers are responding to her invitation and efforts to help. The difficulties and challenges of her work do little to slow her down. April is a woman on a mission — on a rescue mission.

In 2006, April started a new initiative to give women a hand up rather than a hand out. She offers women micro-grants to start businesses that can help them to support themselves and their families without having to return to the brothels. Since starting the program, April has given $75 grants to more than one-hundred fifty women who had good ideas for business ventures but did not have the resources to realize their dreams. The results are impressive. Out of more than one-hundred fifty businesses started, at least 75% proved successful. These are just some of the businesses started and that continue to provide income to women who once sold themselves in order to support their families:

• A piñata-making business.
• Selling flip-flops.
• Making and selling hammocks.
• Various baking and pastry businesses.
• A pig-slaughtering/processing business.
• Transporting goods to local markets.
• Selling women’s and children’s under-garments.

I spoke with a woman named Anna who used her grant to purchase a sewing machine five years ago. She now runs a successful tailoring business that has enabled her to support her family. She no longer has to sell herself in order to put food on her table. She has been out of the brothels for over five years, all because of a $75 dollar grant that enabled her to buy a sewing machine. When recent flood waters inundated her little home, she told me that she and her sons moved the sewing machine to higher ground but lost everything else. They have no regrets about choosing the sewing machine over all other possessions. To many of us in America, $75 dollars is not a lot of money, but to the women who have been selling themselves in Nicaragua’s brothels for $1.50 per customer, this grant means the difference between a life of continuing despair or a life of hope. Because of the kindness of Kingsland members, our missions ministry is providing the funds to underwrite grants to an additional forty women — money well invested to bless women on the road to hope.

by Kelly Isenberger

Our church started a unique ministry two years ago. The ministry was named, Go Beyond Justice Initiatives, because we believe that in order to best serve God’s command in Isaiah 1:17 to “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, and to plead the case of the widow,” that we will have to travel outside of our comfort zones. Our Missions Pastor, Omar Garcia, often reminds us, “In each of our lives there is a line that marks the farthest we’ve ever been or the most we’ve ever done for God and His purposes. Everything on our side of that line is familiar, convenient, manageable, and comfortable. However, we must go beyond — stepping boldly across the line in order to advance the interests of God’s kingdom in our world."

Within the last two years, our Go Beyond Justice Ministry has traveled beyond to the busy city streets of Houston to share Christ’s love with those who most people only snub their noses at. We have also supported a home in South Asia for young girls who have been abused and sold for profit. Girls who like ours here at home love to play and dance and watch television. They now live a life of safety, go to school, and can begin to restore their lives. We have sold products, partnered with local organizations, investigated new ways to help and began new ministries in other parts of the world.

The Go Beyond Justice Ministry will have its 2nd Annual Just Run for a Just Cause 10K, 5K & 1 Mile Walk on September 17th. The proceeds of the run will go to support the aftercare home in South Asia. In order to prepare for the run, many church members joined a 10-week training group to take them from being a non-runner, to being able to run in either the 10K or 5K distance. These dedicated members were not elite runners. In fact, most of them had never run past a mile in their lives. However, they had heard of the suffering of the oppressed, and they knew that this was one thing that they could do. They all wanted to make a difference and “be a voice for the oppressed,” as God has commanded. So, despite record breaking heat for most of their training, these compassionate people trudged through their training, most of them sopping wet when they were finished, just so they could run this race and support a cause they cared so deeply about.

Most of these runners did have a secondary goal, to go beyond what their physical limits had been. Just as our mission’s pastor, Omar Garcia, reminds us to, “leave behind what is convenient and comfortable and go beyond,” these runners have gone beyond. Last night, as part of their training, they ran the full distance of their race. They ran either the full 5K or 10K distance, and most of them had never ran that far before. They pushed themselves beyond, not just for the sake of running because that would not have been enough. Running alone would not have motivated them to train in 100 degree heat. Running alone would not have kept them on track with their training or gotten them out of bed in the morning. It was the passion in their hearts burning for those who are oppressed that kept them running. In the words of one Just Trainer, “When I get tired and it gets hard, I just think of those girls and how much they are suffering, and I know I have to keep going.

When passions move us to action, the church can be unstoppable. Join us on September 17th for the Just Run for a Just Cause and join our Just Trainers as they give it all they’ve got for the sake of God and for justice.