Held

Yesterday, 25th March, marked 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade, and it was also Freedom Day- a day marked out to highlight the bondage of people trapped in modern-day slavery, human trafficking.

I first heard about Stop the Traffik at Word Alive last year, (really wish I could join the rest in the caravans this year too! but oh well), and was struck by the story of a young girl sold into “slavery” because her parents needed the money and shipped miles away from home to work as a child prostitute. But hers isn’t the only story, human trafficking is about  people being taken from their homes by deception or violence and exploited, trafficked into prostitution, begging, domestic service, child labour, forced marriage and so on. Another site with more information on this issue is set all free.

I know I’ve been posting too many videos recently, but this one is really worth watching and thinking about. You might then want to visit the photography exhibition at St Paul’s Cathedral, or sign the declaration, or read more about the global projects to stop people trafficking, or become a volunteer who knows?

I want to do something more, people really shouldn’t be bought and sold… but for now, I can pray.

for those caught and suffering in the evil of trafficking, kept captive by unseen chains; for protection for those who might be vulnerable to this; for those who carry out the trafficking to be convicted of its wrong; for more to see Your heart of justice and truth; for us to remember always that we are made in Your image, and so are all other peoples.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….” – Genesis 1:26

“I forgot he was created in the image of my God.” – “Wide-Eyed”, Nichole Nordeman