"People do not want to be projects. The poor need a welcome to replace their marginalisation; they need inclusion to replace their exclusion; they need a place where they matter to replace their powerlessness. They need Christian community. The Christian community is more than a community in which the rich help the poor. It is a community in which broken people saved by grace struggle together to demonstrate to a lost world the liberating reality of Christ's loving rule. The proud have no place in this community because they do not recognise themselves as broken people."
p. 34-35 Micah's Challenge, Hoek & Thacker
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Human Taffiking
This weekend we had the pleasure of having the leadership team of Justice and Care International with us as a church. This is an Indian based organisation that works to free people who are trapped in slavery - the most obvious kind of slavery is the sex trade, but also includes activities such as forced begging and sweat shops. The organisation was started and is led by Ashley, an Indian human rights lawyer who has been a member of our church for around a year now. Along with his wife Gia, he is in Edinburgh to do a PhD in human traffiking. At the same time he is forming many valuable links with the British government and other anti-traffiking organisations.
The Stop the Traffik website defines traffiking as:
"TRAFFICKING IS…to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude.
TRAFFICKING IS… growing. 2–4 MILLION men, women and children are trafficked across borders and within their own country every year. More than one person is trafficked across borders EVERY MINUTE, which is equivalent to five jumbo jets every day. a trade that earns twice as much worldwide revenue as Coca Cola."
I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the team this weekend. I would like to relay to you what I learnt about the organisation, and the little I now know about human traffiking. As I am relaying this from my memory, I can't guarantee that every fact is entirely reliable...
The story of the organisation, right from it's birth, is testament to the work of God. Ashley was moved after seeing young girls who had been sold and trapped into the sex trade, and was led to do something about it. God then brought several other Indian Christian professionals across his path, who together began to work to free those who had been traffiked. The organisation has grown and changed over time, and what is now Justice and Care International comprises of around 45 individuals who have committed themselves to this work. Human traffiking is an international crime, with many people traded across boarders, therefore JCI's vision is to grow to have 5 bases worldwide. From what I understood, these bases would aim to work to improve awareness of traffiking in their country, and work with the government to put preventative measures in place.
In their years of work in the area of human traffiking, this team has seen hundreds of people freed from slavery. Their policy is to work with the girls (and sometimes boys) from end to end - from the moment they are freed, until they are re established into a community - often this can take years.
Their work often begins with finding out about a brothel that contains children who have been traffiked, and are begin forced to work in the sex trade. This can either be through a tip off or through their own surveillance work. The next step is to plan a raid to free the girls. Often this is with help from the police, although sometimes it works against them as police can tip the brothel off in advance. Sometimes it may take 4 or 5 attempts before a brothel is successfully raided. Once the girls have been freed they are taken into the care of social workers who take them to hospital, remain with them as they talk to the police, and get them placed in homes. The next step is to try and get a conviction and prosecution of the brothel owner, and those involved in the traffiking. The difficulty here is that many times it is the girls parents who have sold her into slavery, and she is often unwilling to either admit that to herself, or to give them up. In due course steps will be made to either get the girl back to her family, or if they were the ones who sold her then into a shared home or a flat of her own. Continued support is needed to help the girl to manage in what is now a very different world for her. Without structured support girls can often slip back into the sex trade.
Another strand to their work is community education and prevention. They are now working to try and prevent girls from being traffiked in the first place because, as they put it, for every one girl freed there may be 5 more being traffiked in. This is where working internationally comes into play, and working in partnership with governments. Another part of this is community education, challenging the ideas that many have about child prostitutes and the idea that in many cases it is the girls own fault. They have found that often the police hold these kinds of attitudes, which, aside from corruption, is often why they are unwilling to help them in their work.
This organisation is entirely made up of Christians, and prayer is central to everything it does, yet does not see itself as a 'Christian organisation' as such. They are aiming to be top class professionals in their field, whether it be police investigators, social workers or lawyers. Working with the government, with NGOs, other faith based organisations - basically anyone who is willing to work with them to combat this international crime. They have written guide books for the Indian government, the British government and the UN.
This is a huge area to try and work within. The need can seem so huge it is overwhelming and trying to do anything may at times feel pointless. Yet they are relying on God's resources and not their own, and God's resources are infinite.
Pray for them in their work. Pray for Ashley and his leadership team. The work they are doing is remarkable and immensely important, and yet there is still so much more to be done.
For more info on human traffiking:
The Stop the Traffik website defines traffiking as:
"TRAFFICKING IS…to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude.
TRAFFICKING IS… growing. 2–4 MILLION men, women and children are trafficked across borders and within their own country every year. More than one person is trafficked across borders EVERY MINUTE, which is equivalent to five jumbo jets every day. a trade that earns twice as much worldwide revenue as Coca Cola."
I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the team this weekend. I would like to relay to you what I learnt about the organisation, and the little I now know about human traffiking. As I am relaying this from my memory, I can't guarantee that every fact is entirely reliable...
The story of the organisation, right from it's birth, is testament to the work of God. Ashley was moved after seeing young girls who had been sold and trapped into the sex trade, and was led to do something about it. God then brought several other Indian Christian professionals across his path, who together began to work to free those who had been traffiked. The organisation has grown and changed over time, and what is now Justice and Care International comprises of around 45 individuals who have committed themselves to this work. Human traffiking is an international crime, with many people traded across boarders, therefore JCI's vision is to grow to have 5 bases worldwide. From what I understood, these bases would aim to work to improve awareness of traffiking in their country, and work with the government to put preventative measures in place.
In their years of work in the area of human traffiking, this team has seen hundreds of people freed from slavery. Their policy is to work with the girls (and sometimes boys) from end to end - from the moment they are freed, until they are re established into a community - often this can take years.
Their work often begins with finding out about a brothel that contains children who have been traffiked, and are begin forced to work in the sex trade. This can either be through a tip off or through their own surveillance work. The next step is to plan a raid to free the girls. Often this is with help from the police, although sometimes it works against them as police can tip the brothel off in advance. Sometimes it may take 4 or 5 attempts before a brothel is successfully raided. Once the girls have been freed they are taken into the care of social workers who take them to hospital, remain with them as they talk to the police, and get them placed in homes. The next step is to try and get a conviction and prosecution of the brothel owner, and those involved in the traffiking. The difficulty here is that many times it is the girls parents who have sold her into slavery, and she is often unwilling to either admit that to herself, or to give them up. In due course steps will be made to either get the girl back to her family, or if they were the ones who sold her then into a shared home or a flat of her own. Continued support is needed to help the girl to manage in what is now a very different world for her. Without structured support girls can often slip back into the sex trade.
Another strand to their work is community education and prevention. They are now working to try and prevent girls from being traffiked in the first place because, as they put it, for every one girl freed there may be 5 more being traffiked in. This is where working internationally comes into play, and working in partnership with governments. Another part of this is community education, challenging the ideas that many have about child prostitutes and the idea that in many cases it is the girls own fault. They have found that often the police hold these kinds of attitudes, which, aside from corruption, is often why they are unwilling to help them in their work.
This organisation is entirely made up of Christians, and prayer is central to everything it does, yet does not see itself as a 'Christian organisation' as such. They are aiming to be top class professionals in their field, whether it be police investigators, social workers or lawyers. Working with the government, with NGOs, other faith based organisations - basically anyone who is willing to work with them to combat this international crime. They have written guide books for the Indian government, the British government and the UN.
This is a huge area to try and work within. The need can seem so huge it is overwhelming and trying to do anything may at times feel pointless. Yet they are relying on God's resources and not their own, and God's resources are infinite.
Pray for them in their work. Pray for Ashley and his leadership team. The work they are doing is remarkable and immensely important, and yet there is still so much more to be done.
For more info on human traffiking:
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Issues
Through my research I have come across several issues that are important to consider when getting involved in community work. I wanted to share some of those with you:
- Area definition: One issues that needs to be considered is that of area. We are a church that attracts people from all over the city. Last week I pinpointed the congregation onto a map in order to work out where we we have a presence in the city and apart from key students areas we are very spread out. Working out which area constitutes our church community is then rather difficult. Whatever we decide to do must be within an area where we have some sort of a presence as a church, whether in terms of church buildings or where the congregation live.
- Area resistance: The issue of area definition is important not just in understaning 'our community' but also because of area resistance. There can be a great deal of resistance of a group of seemingly fairly well off Christians going into a "poor deprived" area where they have no connections and trying to "do good works". This is also tied in with working out the approach and attitude that we have as a church when going into the type of work. Are we serving our community out of Christian love, or are we going to try and "help them" because they are "poor and disadvantaged"?
- Targeted groups: One of the key areas of need that has come up again and again is that of social exclusion and isolation. The question then arises - how do we reach those that are socially excluded? How do we know where they are, what they need and what they want? There are so many isolated people out there, and one of the biggest problems can be knowing how to make that initial step of reaching out to/contacting them in the first place.
- Working alone/in partnership: Do we do a project alone, do we put our resources into supporting another organisation or do we run a project in partnership with another church? This is a big one that I'm not sure I have the ability or time to try and answer right now, but it is one that is being considered. It's a big issue, with sound arguments on either side. Surely if we want to effectively impact Edinburgh and reach many people then we should work in partnership...? But then do problems of leadership and ownership not come up? Do we really need to support another organisation when there is a chance to impact an area where no one is working, to feed a very real need that is currently not being fed? Is there a way of working alongside other organisations but still running something ourselves? All BIG questions, and all being considered, not just by myself but by church leadership. No answers as yet, but they're coming...
Friday, 7 November 2008
My week
Friday already. I'm really not sure how that happened - another week has flown by and I'm not even sure what I have done with my week. Let me recap, as much for myself as for you.
Tuesday:
All in all, another good week, another week led by God, and another week of productivity!
Tuesday:
- Tuesday morning was our weekly staff meeting. Dan, Matt, Dave, Ann and myself constitute the office staff. We chat about various issues that need to be talked out/organised/worked out (most of which don't directly concern me but it's good to get an insight into the day to day workings of the church and also get some input) and we also spend some time in prayer. Occassionally other arguably less important issues make their way into the meeting - this week it was radiators, and Matt, Dan and Dave spent some time discussing the ins and outs of heating and radiators before going off to B&Q to buy some more heaters for the office...
- I spent Tuesday afternoon at my desk in the office. I like Tuesdays because it's generally the only day you will get all 5 of us in at once. The office banter makes for good fun, and we do manage to get some work done inbetween.
- Actually now that I think about it, Tuesday afternoon was quite productive. I had a phone chat with Simon Allen, who heads up social action for Newfrontiers in the UK. We chatted about what I am doing and he suggested which churches might be relevant for me to visit.
- I also made contact with a few churches in Edinburgh and made appointments to go and meet various individuals to chat about their social outreach.
- Finally I spent some time looking for Bible verses to use as visual aids for the social action proayer meeting on Sunday, before I headed home excited about the election....
- On Wednesday morning I went to visit Fairbridge, an organisation that works with troubled inner city youth. I met with a guy who chatted me through their programme, before showing me around the centre. They really do a great work, and have seen lives transformed and teenagers getting back into Education or into work.
- I headed back to the office where I spent some more time getting resources together for the prayer meeting (I now have a whole stack of laminated pictures and Bible verses).
- I also spent some time looking at the various Befriending organisations that exist in Edinburgh. One of the big needs I have found is lonliness and social exclusion. There are a lot of befriending organisations in Edinburgh, but they are all short on volunteers and their client waiting lists are huge.
- My day ended with Matthew piling a whole load of magazines from charities and organisations onto my desk (he was having a clear out) which should make for some interesting reading in the future.
- Today I had another meeting, this time with Freshstart - an organisation that deal with people who have just gotten into accomodation having previously been homeless. They provide starter packs, such as bedding or kitchen items. They also run a 'hit squad' whereby a team of people will go and redecorate their flat in 2 days, as well as providing a befriending service. It's a really great organisation, who interestingly are supported entirely by churches but is not a christian organisation in itself. They really do a great and valuable job in Edinburgh but are threatened with extinction if the council cut their funding in March (which looks reasonably likely).
- I left there and headed back to the office where I had the fun of plotting out (using pins) all of our church members onto a map. It's really interesting to see where everyone lives and work out where we have a presence in the city. As a church that draws people from all over the city, working out where we have a presence is very important in deciding where exactly our local community is.
- Then finally, to wind up my week Ann Graham came for a cup of tea and a chat. She is a long standing church member and we had a good chat about what I am doing, how it is going, and also the theology of whether it is acceptable for christians to be rich...
All in all, another good week, another week led by God, and another week of productivity!
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Apostolic Burden to the Poor
I want to recommend some talks to you. I have recently listened to a series of three seminar talks from the Newfrontiers Together on a Mission conference 2008 entitled 'Apostolic Burden to the Poor'. They are really excellent - informative, inspiring and challenging. I really recommend you listen to them. Stick them on your mp3 player and listen to them on the way to work, I did.
You can find them here: here (they are down towards the bottom of the page)
Go listen!
You can find them here: here (they are down towards the bottom of the page)
Go listen!
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