The RevGals weekly Friday Five meme this week is all about Halloween. It's a fun meme, and I encourage you to check it out and play along if you like. I was going to join in, but after attending the International Justice Mission fund-raising dinner last night in Houston, I'm still pondering the problem of real, intractable evil in this world. This IJM video I found on You Tube, above, is the same video that introduced the program last night.
Last August I heard IJM's president and founder Gary Haugen speak at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship meeting in Houston and wrote about it here. Last night, El Jefe and my niece and nephew joined me and a crowd of other Houstonians to hear his message that the problem of aggressive human violence against the poor and powerless of the world is pervasive and can be combated with legal means.
As a former prosecutor of child abuse cases, I am inspired and moved by their work. As a Presbyterian and Calvinist, I see concrete evidence of Total Depravity (as in T.U.L.I.P.) in the stories told about IJM's work freeing people from slavery and children from the child prostitution trade in the Far East. Interestingly, most of the tips IJM receives to investigate come from missionaries of all denominations.
Back in the day when I was a trick-or-treater, we used to collect donations for UNICEF as well as candy as we worked our way around the neighborhood. This Halloween why not join El Jefe and I in making a donation to IJM to help children who suffer unspeakable evil not from imaginary ghosts, witches, and ghouls, but at the hands of their fellow man?
Last August I heard IJM's president and founder Gary Haugen speak at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship meeting in Houston and wrote about it here. Last night, El Jefe and my niece and nephew joined me and a crowd of other Houstonians to hear his message that the problem of aggressive human violence against the poor and powerless of the world is pervasive and can be combated with legal means.
As a former prosecutor of child abuse cases, I am inspired and moved by their work. As a Presbyterian and Calvinist, I see concrete evidence of Total Depravity (as in T.U.L.I.P.) in the stories told about IJM's work freeing people from slavery and children from the child prostitution trade in the Far East. Interestingly, most of the tips IJM receives to investigate come from missionaries of all denominations.
Back in the day when I was a trick-or-treater, we used to collect donations for UNICEF as well as candy as we worked our way around the neighborhood. This Halloween why not join El Jefe and I in making a donation to IJM to help children who suffer unspeakable evil not from imaginary ghosts, witches, and ghouls, but at the hands of their fellow man?
That breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the challenge - it's good to be reminded that kids can do more on this night than get sick from too much candy and that we as adults can also still be working towards God's justice.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this. We're doing UNICEF for trick or treating, but have been looking for a place to donate for Wonderboy's birthday party. (Asking that instead of gifts, donations be made.) We will definitely sponsor this organization.
ReplyDeleteIJM does amazing work on no funds to speak of... same with ICC (International Christian Concern) who also works on behalf of our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church.
ReplyDeleteWe put part of our giving dollars towards them for that reason alone.
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