Recently I’ve been reading ‘A Crime So Monstrous‘ by E. Benjamin Skinner. It’s a captivating look into the nature of the modern slave trade (AKA Human Trafficking) around the world.

Skinner’s research is very practical. He travels to places under cover, arranges to meet with a trafficker, and organizes to buy a person. During the book he also meets with various politicians and NGO staff, as well as parents whose children have been abducted.

Some of the things that Skinner discovers as he travels are shocking, especially where concerned with organizations who are perceived to be doing good. He notes that in southern Sudan, where research has shown there are around 11,000 people missing due to slavery, there is a Christian organization called Christian Solidarity International (CSI) who claim to have freed more than 80,000 slaves. It seems that the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (who are fighting for freedom from the North) have been using CSI’s ‘redemption’ process as a means to fund their troops through the use of fake slaves.

While in Haiti he comments:

Locals say that the main contribution of the peacekeepers to Haiti’s economy comes via the brothels

In other words those we expect to fulfill roles of integrity: keeping peace, dealing with injustice, tackling poverty; are actually propagating the problem.

Reading this convinces me that we have to do something to fight this injustice. There is nothing noble about celebrating the life of abolitionists like William Wilberforce without addressing the fact that today there are more people in slavery than at any other moment in history.

It’s been almost a week since we baptised Joseph in the Indian Ocean. I thought I’d let you in on how we arrived at this point…

Our journey with Joseph began just two months ago. We were walking and praying that Jesus would lead us to people who would like to follow him, and, as we rounded the first corner, there he stood.

That particular day he was out looking for someone who would lend him 100 Rand (£7) so that he could pay a visit to his doctor. He had a worsening back condition from a road accident that happened when he was cycling to work ten years ago. The doctor had told him that he would need a wheel chair.

When we met Joseph he told us about his back pain, how he had metal rods in his back, plates in his head and had been in a coma for 15 days when it first happened.

So we offered to pray for him.

When we were done, he showed us where he lived and we agreed to come and visit him the next day.

On our return he was smiling as he told us, “I feel fine”.

The next time we went we had Walter with us, and he was able to determine (through conversing in Xhosa) that Joseph was feeling considerably better, and was walking around comfortably. For the first time in years he was sleeping all through the night. He asked that we would come back every day and tell him something about Jesus.

Since then we’ve returned two or three times each week to encourage, pray and read scripture with Joseph and his wife Lulama. They are excited that they can gather their family and friends in their home and learn together about the life of Jesus.

Last night we watched God Grew Tired of Us, a documentary telling the story of the Lost Boys of Sudan.  The film focusses on the lives of three individuals who were given the opportunity to escape the huge UN refugee camp at Kakuma, Kenya to pursue life in America.  The story was told with compassion, and I was particularly struck by the difference between the boys life in the refugee camp, which was filled with friendship, community and hunger and their lonely, but comfort-filled existence in the US.

We baptized Joseph and Walter yesterday on a glorious early-summer morning.

Baptising Joseph

Walter post-baptism

It’s been so exciting to journey with them over the past 2 months, and to see the new life that has been blossoming before our eyes.