One Last Post...

Before I begin my final post, I would like to take a moment and apologize for my complete lack of updates over the last 5 months.

As most of you know, my best friend passed away unexpectedly at the end of September. I have not posted anything since this happened but felt it would still be a good thing to write a final blog and update you all.

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Since September, we have had SEVERAL events! Countless speaking engagements, youth events, conferences and fundraisers. Alright… maybe not countless seeing as we keep great records of everything, but you know what I mean. It’s been a very busy journey.  To tell you about each event would take a lot of time, so let me share some of my favorite highlights.

CFC Belfast: Back in November/December, we hosted a 4-week series with the youth group at CFC. Each week focused on a different aspect of IJM’s work. We discussed injustice as a whole and God’s call for His people to be involved in bringing justice to the nations. We also talked more specifically about slavery, police abuse of power and illegal land seizure. It was a great opportunity to share stories of victims that IJM has rescued and to encourage them to be part of the solution to injustice.

Freedom Parties: We have also had our first few Freedom Parties in Northern Ireland! At its core, a Freedom Party offers the opportunity to purchase unique and ethical products.  Each product has been made by a survivor of sex trafficking and is an example of what aftercare programs - and ultimately the rescues themselves - help to achieve for such victims. These events have been organized by volunteers to raise funds for the work of IJM. I loved all of the items and wanted to buy them all! These parties are a really fun way to support IJM and tell others about the work. To learn more about hosting a Freedom Party and to see some of the items that are sold at these events, click here.

Benefit Dinner: On Valentine’s Day we hosted a Benefit Dinner in Belfast! Working towards this event was both stressful and exciting. Over 130 people attended our dinner and we raised over £10,000 for our work in India! Saju Mathew, IJM’s Director of Operations, South Asia, shared stories from his personal experiences in the field. If you missed this or want a recap, visit this link to hear from Saju.

These are just a few of the events that I have been a part of this year. Throughout my internship, each week has been different. So many skills have been further developed and I have been challenged, stretched and inspired. I am so thankful for my experience with IJM this year!

So, next week will be my last week in the office as an intern! I am really looking forward to next week, as it will be ending with another team Quarterly Prayer Day over in England. I always really enjoy these and come back feeling encouraged by the people who work for IJM UK. I am proud to have been part of this amazing team of people that God has put together. What a beautiful way to end my year with IJM.

What’s next, you might ask? Good question. I am still not too sure myself. I know I will continue volunteering with IJM any chance I get. Job hunting has already begun. And Paul and I are praying about our future. Please pray with us as we seek God’s wisdom about jobs, where to live, etc. Exciting!

Please don’t let your journey with IJM end here. Visit ijmuk.org for more information. Donate. Pray. Volunteer. Intern. Be part of the story!

 “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

—	Edmund Burke as quoted in Good News about Injustice by Gary Haugen

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A Change of Seasons...

Conference season has ended and autumn brings a whole new feel to this IJM internship. 

This summer flew by and I still can’t believe we are nearly half-way through September! Summer Madness, New Horizon and Bangor Worldwide were all really wonderful in different ways. 

New Horizon was very different from Summer Madness and honestly much different than any conference I have ever been to. My experience of Christian conferences has been limited to those specifically for youth or for women. New Horizon is a whole new ball game. Everyone welcome and there are tons of things for each group to be doing at all times. From games to seminars, it felt like there was never a dull moment. Which was a bit overwhelming for me at first. However, as the week went on, I could really see the value in gathering such a large number of people to recharge a bit together and be encouraged by what other Christians are doing in Northern Ireland and around the world.

Our IJM stand was in the main exhibition area, which led into the main tent for the morning and evening services. We had great conversations with people as they passed by and over 80 people signed Advocacy Cards for our Government Relations Campaign against Police Abuse of Power in Kenya! You can learn more about this and sign a card here. (You can also feel free to admire this Post Box, above, that I made for everyone to put their cards into.) New Horizon was a completely new experience for me, and I was really glad to be part of the week as an IJM representative.

We were also at Bangor Worldwide a couple of weeks ago. This is a conference entirely based around mission! IJM was one of over 80 missions represented in the exhibition area, so as you can imagine, I was once again a bit overwhelmed! Just being in the room with so many stands and people who represented these missions that God has called them to felt really powerful. It was a real reminder that although I am so passionate about IJM and issues of injustice and truly feel that God is calling me to a mission of justice, God has designed each of us so uniquely and has a different call for everyone. We made a few great connections during the week of Worldwide and I am excited to see these strengthen over time. 

Now conference season is over and we are in the midst of beginning the months of Autumn. Autumn brings great things for us at IJM UK. So many speaking engagements, meetings and events to organize. It is a really exciting time and one that requires great patience and prayer. Please be praying for our team as we will be extremely busy over the next few months. 

One specific thing you can be praying for is the Sara Groves UK tour! This is a great opportunity for IJM UK, as Sara has supported IJM for several years through her music. As part of this, she writes an IJM song for every album - one that will keep the message of the organisation in front of people. For an example of the beautiful music Sara makes, watch IJM's 15 year anniversary video with the soundtrack of the song, 'Add to the Beauty'. We are so looking forward to this time with Sara, so please be praying for these events!

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Summer Madness and Aaron Weiss

Well friends, if you live in Northern Ireland, chances are you will have heard about Summer Madness. Each summer thousands of young people gather for this Christian festival to hear different speakers, camp out together, attend seminars, worship together, and just have a lot of fun. At least this is what I gathered from my first experience of Summer Madness a few weeks ago!

Ruth and I had a stand at SM and held a seminar called “Life After No More Traffik.” Our stand was in the Urban Saints tent (thanks for sharing, guys!), which was also a café and a concert venue. A lot going on in our tent! YWAM was also with us in the tent and it was really lovely to meet some fellow Americans that are serving with YWAM in Rostrevor. Anywho…

We were really proud of our stand, which you can see here. Ruth did a great job while I was in the States getting everything ready for this. Loved the cardboard idea! So simple but it looked awesome. We wanted to tell people Mien’s story and take them along her journey through the board. (To read Mien’s story for yourself, click here.) Since it began, IJM has rescued thousands of victims, so we have loads of stories of hope to share with everyone. We printed several stories on the back of photo cards and asked people to take a card, pray for that specific person and pray for others like them who are still waiting to be rescued. Our goal was to have 200 people take these cards and we met that goal!

Ruth and I had some really incredible conversations with young people and youth leaders over the weekend at SM, both at the stand and as a result of our seminar on the Monday. About 50 people attended “Life After No More Traffik” and we held four discussion groups which were led by Ruth, Evangelical Alliance, Belfast Abolition Collective, and Craigavon Stop the Traffik Act Group. The aim of our seminar was to push beyond simple facts and awareness and into action. Each discussion group led by the various representatives focused on different ways to act against the injustice of human trafficking such as: Fairtrade chocolate, lobbying your government, utilizing the resources from various NGOs and challenging the demand for trafficked victims in your own community. How exciting!

I must tell you, though… as wonderful as being at SM for IJM was… I was also BEYOND EXCITED about meeting Aaron Weiss! For those who are confused about who this is, he is the lead singer of my favorite band, mewithoutYou. Aaron is friends with Shane Claiborne (If you are confused about this name as well... shame on you! Go read the Irresistible Revolution.), who was one of the main speakers for the weekend. As Shane travels very often and likes to live in community, he invites a traveling companion, and this time it was Aaron Weiss.

YWAM asked Aaron to hold a workshop, which consisted of him allowing us to request songs (I, of course, asked for Timothy Hay first!) and ask him questions about anything. This time with him was very encouraging for me. He answered questions about his relationship with God and his answers caused me to think about God in a much bigger way than I ever have before. I may blog about this a bit more, actually, so I won’t go into detail here. Remind me if it isn’t up soon!

We also spent some time with Aaron after the workshop, learning a Sacred Harp song, which was good for the soul! Paul and I are going to look into Sacred Harp meetings in Belfast. Let me know if you want to join us! All together, meeting Aaron and spending a bit of time talking to him and singing with him was one of my favorite experiences… ever. I am so thankful for this random meeting at a castle in Northern Ireland.

Although I was completely exhausted and had a cold by the end of Summer Madness, I am so thankful that I got to experience it as part of my internship with IJM. I loved sharing about our work and telling loads of stories of freedom and justice. We met so many wonderful young people, each of them so capable of doing great things in God’s mission for justice. I am excited to go to other festivals this summer and continue to spread the hope that God is doing great things for the oppressed and encourage fellow believers that we GET to be a part of it!

Who knows… maybe I’ll get to meet more of my musical heroes along the way!

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Part of the Story

Dear Friends,

Thank you for following my blog as I am the Church and Development Assistant for International Justice Mission in Ireland. As you may know, this position is a year-long voluntary internship and I am raising awareness and support for the work of IJM and the issues of injustice that we are fighting against.

Please take the time to look through a few posts here and consider supporting me with prayer and finance. My goal is to raise £80 (About $125) a month to support my mission. This money will meet a very practical need of mine, making my student loan payment in America. This is an increasingly difficult task and I would love the support from my friends and family as I continue to volunteer for this work of justice.

I am part of the story of freeing thousands of victims from violent oppression and injustice. Please support me and be part of the story, too!

www.ijm.org, www.ijmuk.org

Much love,
Brittany

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Speaking in Detroit

In June, I had the privilege of speaking about the work of IJM at my home church in Plymouth, MI. On a Wednesday night I spoke for the youth and college groups at Solid Rock Bible Church. This was a really wonderful experience and I am still so encouraged by the response from both groups!

Speaking and hosting stands at different churches and events is one of my favorite parts of the internship. The more I speak about issues of injustice around the world, the more I am convinced that what IJM is doing is such an important part of God’s redeeming work for his creation.

Josh, the youth pastor at Solid Rock, opened the night with a game called “Agree/Disagree.” The whole group stands in the middle of the room and Josh will pose a statement and everyone chooses a side of the room to stand on, “agree” or “disagree.” He then goes to both sides of the room and each student has to give a reason for their answer. I LOVE this game! I think it is such a clever way to allow each student to think for themselves and express their thought behind it.

For this “Agree/Disagree” game, one of the statements Josh used was:

“There are more slaves today than there has been at any given time throughout the history of mankind.”

Each group had so many interesting responses to this question, but I was truly blown away by how many people didn’t know about the number of slaves in our world today! This was really encouraging for me, which may sound strange, but it helped me to remember that we are spreading the word about the reality of injustices like slavery for a reason: people don’t know about them and they need to. Some people get tired of raising awareness, but until everyone is aware of slavery, this will remain a crucial dimension in the fight against human trafficking. I was reminded of this as some of the young people there learned about modern-day slavery for the first time.

I was also encouraged by the amount of response from the people at Solid Rock. So many were excited to take action and be part of the stories of freedom and rescue and justice. As they should be! Each person truly can make a difference. I think about the beginnings of IJM, which was essentially one man seeing a need and asking God to help him meet it. Thousands of victims of violent injustice have been rescued because one person saw a massive need and didn’t think it was too big a problem to solve. Each rescue tells us that the end of slavery is not too audacious a prayer to bring before our Lord.

God loves the oppressed and longs to rescue them. We get to be a part of this redeeming story. The young people at Solid Rock know that and I am so excited to see how God uses them in his mission of justice.

Let’s keep raising awareness. Let’s take action and be part of the story. Because justice for the poor is possible. God loves them. God hears them. And in the end? God wins.

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Washington DC// Training Week Part Two

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the video. Exciting stuff, huh?

(This is a photo of me with the other new Partner Office staff and Joe Jordano! We hung out a lot throughout the week and Joe was really lovely, making sure we were always being taken care of. As you can see, we were probably the funnest group there. Just saying. Ha!)

So Tuesday through Thursday really consisted of several seminars and meetings and we learned so much more about how IJM operates. I was very impressed by how well thought out each part of the organization is. It is evident that professionals have considered each and every detail carefully, over prayer.

Prayer is one thing I am really excited about after training week.  IJM spends half an hour each day praying together as a team. We do this in every office, including our wee office in Belfast, but it was a blessing to be a part of the cooperate prayer in HQ. Each day prayer was filled with updates from the Field Offices and from staff members about what was happening in HQ and Partner Offices. As we prayed for everything that was happening around the world, there was a real sense of peace and God’s presence in the room. It is clear to me that IJM is close to God. God cares deeply about justice and about the victims that IJM is rescuing. God hears our prayers when we ask for justice and training week allowed me to feel this in a new way as we prayed together as a team.

Friday was the last day of training. I felt both sad and relieved when the week was over. Sad because I knew it meant leaving HQ, which my heart grew very fond of. Relieved because it was a really exhausting week. Each day my brain was fully engaged learning so many new things and then in the evenings it felt like I never stopped walking! So many things to see in DC and so little time made me a very busy girl!

The very last part of training week was our commissioning service, led by Jim Martin and Sean Litton. Jim Martin, Vice President of Church Mobilization, led us in prayer and communion. Sean Litton, Vice President of Field Operations, led the service and his words were so encouraging. As he finished the service with a commissioning statement I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. I remember thinking, “This is it. I am officially part of IJM. I am part of God’s mission of justice. God is rescuing people and I get to be a part of it.” These moments have become more frequent for me.

These moments started when I was writing my dissertation on human trafficking. These moments remind me that our bodies and souls are so connected. My whole being is excited by God’s call for my life. My hands start to shake and my heart beats so fast and I feel incredible joy. Justice. I have noticed that I feel the closest to God and most alive when I am talking to people about His mission of justice.

The words we find in Isaiah 1:17 are so compelling,“Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

These are commands. We are all called to seek justice. We get to be a part of God’s rescuing and redeeming plan for His creation. For now, I am responding to this call as a part of IJM. What an honor.

A very special thank you to Johanna for letting me stay with her while I was in DC. Your heart for God is so evident and I continue to be encouraged by my time with you.

Also a big thanks to all of the IJM staff who worked so hard to make training week special for us. You truly made us feel welcome as part of the team, thank you!

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Washington DC// Training Week Part One

Well friends, I can’t believe it, but training week in Washington D.C. has come and gone! From the 3^rd-9^th of June, I was at International Justice Mission Headquarters with 73 other new (although a few of us had already started) trainees. There was a mix of new HQ, Field Office, and Partner Office staff/interns/fellows.  This was IJM’s biggest group of trainees yet. How exciting to be a part of it!

I arrived on Sunday, the night before training week started and my host, Johanna, met me at Reagan airport. That night we went to Malcolm X park and enjoyed the weekly African drum circle! This was an incredible experience, so many people from several cultures playing drums and dancing together. There was such joy and unity among the people in this park, I was so glad we started the week together this way! We then had the best sushi ever and headed back to her flat so we could rest up before the busy week began!

Monday was one of my favorite days of the week. Gary Haugen, the founder and CEO of IJM, spoke to us about IJM and God’s justice. This was a really inspiring day for me. I have followed IJM for several years now and have always admired Gary so to hear him speak and lead us as we began our official training for this organization was a pretty big deal for me. I made sure I said hello to him before the day was over and was struck by how humble and kind he was. I am thankful to be part of an organization led by such a godly man. He even thanked me for making the commitment to come to training week.

Our first day ended with a party with staff. We played this game in groups where you had to create your own super hero, using just a few items from a bag. Each group got the same items and it was hilarious to see what everyone came up with. Our team created “The Haugenator.” We even put paper clips on top of the bag we put on our hero’s head to create his hair. If you are not smiling right now, it is because you have not seen Mr. Haugen’s hair. I highly recommend watching IJM’s 15-Year Anniversary video, not only because it is amazing, but you will get to see the hair. You should probably go watch it and then come back to the blog. It is worth your 5 minutes. Go ahead. I will wait…

Seriously… go watch it.  You know what? I am going to finish this blog in another entry, just to encourage you to watch it! (: 

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