Join us in Costa Mesa on Sunday- One Voice to End Slavery

March 21, 2007

Of the estimated 800,000 to 2 Million new victims trafficked annually around the globe, at least 17,500 are brought as slaves to the U.S. Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco are hotbeds of human slavery and the U.S. is one of the top three countries in the world for receiving (importing) human trafficking victims. 

You know as an Adventist I just love the Sabbath.  And Jesus. In fact when Jesus came out to his hometown synagogue the scroll opened to a Sabbath text

He went to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,
Luke 4:16-20, Isaiah 61:1,2

It is our culture of ignorance and tolerance for commercial sex that permits the injustice of human trafficking and sexual exploitation to persist.  As long as we believe it is not our problem, it will continue to be our problem and the U.S. will remain one of the three top destination countries of human trafficking in the world and one of the foremost abusers of children in child sex tourism.

Sabbath rest after a weary week is an appreciated respite.  Imagine how
it must be for a slave to welcome Sabbath rest on the year of Jubilee! A year of Jubilee when we’re all Gods chosen people.
As a follower of Christ I am struck by the text providence had him read
in his home town.  We can ask ourselves, what is our voice in our home
town?   Freedom Day March 25, 2007 is the 200th anniversary of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Modern-day abolitionists will be using Freedom Day to bring awareness to the fact that slavery does still exist.

A coalition of university and college communities, NGOs, Human Trafficking Task forces, churches and citizens are planning a Freedom Day event in Southern California tentatively to be held on the campus of Vanguard University in Costa Mesa to raise awareness within our community that leads towards practical action steps to stop human trafficking and slavery.

The event will be a collaborative work with other campaigns and organizations including “Stop the Traffik” campaign, “Amazing Change” campaign, Sojourners magazine, the International Justice Mission, Hagar International, Free the Slaves, JustOne, Protest4, and other abolitionists and artists. The event will be a day of speakers, music, learning, networking, film viewing, resourcing, and one that leads participants to action and commitment to an abolitionist movement.

Many have called human trafficking the human rights issue of our time; it is an issue that will “explode” in the next few years as the world realizes the magnitude of the injustice.

It’s our problem, what will you do about it?  What will Adventists do about it?  Have we supported and joined with persons like our own Siroj Sorajjakool and his amazing work preventing child prostitution in Thailand?  Let’s join together the Sunday after Sabbath and lets see if we can’t make this a Sabbath year and together bring the Sabbath to those in bondage in our home town and around the world!

Visit: OneVoiceToEndSlavery.com.

Carpooling information will be provided at church on Sabbath.

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