One year ago yesterday I sat at Prison Fellowship headquarters, listening as IJM Southeast Asia Regional Director Blair Burns spoke about commercial sexual exploitation in India.
I've written previously about that day, about my running after Blair when he left the room to ask if I could work with IJM India instead of progressing straight to law school. I have not written about what Blair had said before the crowd that turned me on my heels.
He relayed the story of a young Indian girl enslaved in a brothel, and man who nearly lost his life working undercover to free her. The girl's pimps told her that if anyone ever came and took her away, her life would be far worse than it was in the brothel. Because the girl believed those words she was scared of anyone suspicious in the brothel. When the IJM investigator came one night, she could tell that something was different about him. When he paid to spend time with her but did not want to have sex, she began to yell at him, hitting him and reaching into his pockets. He had an undercover camera (we call them sting units) on his shirt and captured the interrogation on tape. I've seen the footage. It's terrifying.
The brothel owner heard the commotion and entered the room. Together with the girl, he searched the investigator and emptied his pockets, yelling and threatening him. The sting unit was discovered. By God's grace, the girl and her master believed the investigator when he passed the unit off as an MP3 player. Still, the girl threatened to kill the investigator if he did not have sex with her immediately. To her, this was the best way to discern whether he had come under false pretenses. He refused to rape her and was held pleading for his life for more than an hour. Miraculously, he was allowed to leave.
Some time later, children of God convicted of their father's heart for justice went back to that brothel to rescue their sister, too numb from abuse to care to cry for help. She and other slaves were freed by IJM and state police. The brothel owners were arrested and charged with commercial sexual exploitation of juveniles. They now face trial.
Blair spoke about how having met that girl in India just a few weeks prior. He told the crowd that she was thriving in her aftercare home and in school; that the investigator whose life she had threatened was back out in the field almost nightly, looking for more girls in need of rescue.
I, too, have now met that girl. I have braided her hair, and I have played with her son. She is healing. She is free.
I have worked alongside the investigator who pleaded with that girl for his life. In reviewing his field reports, in discussing his findings, in listening to him lead office devotions, and in watching him interact with his family, I have come to know that he is a man of great faith and selfless compassion. Jesus Christ is his lord.
Today I work with the IJM attorneys who are aiding public prosecutors in trying the brothel owners who built a business on rape and slavery, and threatened the life of an IJM investigator. Justice comes slowly here, but it will be served.
Yesterday, one year after learning of the girl and the investigator, I found myself standing alongside Blair Burns in India. He was in town to check on our office. I thanked him for listening to me in that Prison Fellowship hallway 365 days prior, and for allowing me to work for IJM India. No price could be set on the value of a front-row seat to our father's movement here.
When I fly home seven days from now, I will be thankful to know that I'll return to India soon. I will be thankful for people like you who want to know how our brothers and sisters are acting in the name of the God of justice. I will be thankful to serve a Lord who saves us from ourselves when we think we are saving others; a Lord who is far closer than we would ever dare imagine.
I've written previously about that day, about my running after Blair when he left the room to ask if I could work with IJM India instead of progressing straight to law school. I have not written about what Blair had said before the crowd that turned me on my heels.
He relayed the story of a young Indian girl enslaved in a brothel, and man who nearly lost his life working undercover to free her. The girl's pimps told her that if anyone ever came and took her away, her life would be far worse than it was in the brothel. Because the girl believed those words she was scared of anyone suspicious in the brothel. When the IJM investigator came one night, she could tell that something was different about him. When he paid to spend time with her but did not want to have sex, she began to yell at him, hitting him and reaching into his pockets. He had an undercover camera (we call them sting units) on his shirt and captured the interrogation on tape. I've seen the footage. It's terrifying.
The brothel owner heard the commotion and entered the room. Together with the girl, he searched the investigator and emptied his pockets, yelling and threatening him. The sting unit was discovered. By God's grace, the girl and her master believed the investigator when he passed the unit off as an MP3 player. Still, the girl threatened to kill the investigator if he did not have sex with her immediately. To her, this was the best way to discern whether he had come under false pretenses. He refused to rape her and was held pleading for his life for more than an hour. Miraculously, he was allowed to leave.
Some time later, children of God convicted of their father's heart for justice went back to that brothel to rescue their sister, too numb from abuse to care to cry for help. She and other slaves were freed by IJM and state police. The brothel owners were arrested and charged with commercial sexual exploitation of juveniles. They now face trial.
Blair spoke about how having met that girl in India just a few weeks prior. He told the crowd that she was thriving in her aftercare home and in school; that the investigator whose life she had threatened was back out in the field almost nightly, looking for more girls in need of rescue.
I, too, have now met that girl. I have braided her hair, and I have played with her son. She is healing. She is free.
I have worked alongside the investigator who pleaded with that girl for his life. In reviewing his field reports, in discussing his findings, in listening to him lead office devotions, and in watching him interact with his family, I have come to know that he is a man of great faith and selfless compassion. Jesus Christ is his lord.
Today I work with the IJM attorneys who are aiding public prosecutors in trying the brothel owners who built a business on rape and slavery, and threatened the life of an IJM investigator. Justice comes slowly here, but it will be served.
Yesterday, one year after learning of the girl and the investigator, I found myself standing alongside Blair Burns in India. He was in town to check on our office. I thanked him for listening to me in that Prison Fellowship hallway 365 days prior, and for allowing me to work for IJM India. No price could be set on the value of a front-row seat to our father's movement here.
When I fly home seven days from now, I will be thankful to know that I'll return to India soon. I will be thankful for people like you who want to know how our brothers and sisters are acting in the name of the God of justice. I will be thankful to serve a Lord who saves us from ourselves when we think we are saving others; a Lord who is far closer than we would ever dare imagine.
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