International Justice Mission x Video Transcription
OUR WORK
When I started at IJM, we were around 135 to 150 globally. I can remember conversations and thoughts I had like, “How is this work going to be possible? How are we going to grow? Where are these people?”
I am so encouraged and inspired by the diversity of leadership that’s emerging all across the organization. It gives me amazing hope to see this whole generation of national leaders rising up to meet the movements in their own countries, to protect their own people from violence and exploitation.
There is a God of justice that is at work in His world. And not only that, but now we’ve seen after 20 years, He can change whole justice systems and transform whole countries in terms of what it is they tolerate.
You can see the change not just in the system, but also in the people who are in the system, making tangible changes. You can see that there’s a God of power who is calling us into His work, that for Him the outcome is not unsure; the outcome of justice is His, and it’s certain. How wonderful that He would give us work to do!
It’s important to also be clear that His work for us in this next era is about being a catalyst of empowering others. How are we going to protect half a billion people who are poor from violence? We can achieve that by empowering others in that work of protection. It’s not just what I can do, because if you know what a catalyst does, it unleashes the energy of others. And this is what IJM is going to be doing. ————————————————————————————————
20 YEARS
In the early days, 95% of the people I explained the IJM idea to either didn’t understand it, or they didn’t think it would work. I’d seen violence in these various manifestations, and then I’m sent to Rwanda as the Director of the UN’s genocide investigation. And what was so manifest to me was these families were not crying out for a sermon or food or a doctor, but they were crying out for someone to restrain the hand of that machete. For me there was this vision of, “Well, where’s the Christian ministry that does that?”
What we were seeing in those early days was so devastating, such mass exploitation and decimated protective systems in nations. I think the early calls that IJM received from missionaries and from local churches around the world were of complete desperation. They were trying to show the love of God to the people most in need, but they were witnessing horrific, unchecked violence against these same people.
There was such an air of hopelessness — from the government officials we met, to the people in the community, to the churches and missionaries — because they couldn’t actually stop any of this violence. But they could offer clothes, and housing, and love, and food, and water, and all those necessary things (but no one thought they could actually stop the violence).
The vast majority of time in the first half a decade, we failed ten times more than we succeeded. We grabbed on to the little successes, the one rescue, the one conviction. Everything was celebrated with a precious sense of the miraculous.
What I love most about those early days is the crazy hope of the people who were joining IJM. And I think the thing that surprised most people is the level of joy we all had doing something we know matters so much to God. We stepped into the gap for children who’d never seen people trying to stop their oppressor. I saw things I’d only read about, like the kids being rounded up on the streets, and being taken out to the countryside, and being robbed and left miles outside the city. It created a deeper, passionate commitment in the staff in those early days, like, this is the right place to be.
All of us are part of a big story of love, with God being the author. And in that grand story, we’re just part of something so much bigger than us.
I’ve seen God perform the miracle of rescue tens of thousands of times. And not only that, but now we’ve seen after 20 years, He can change whole justice systems and transform whole countries in terms of what it is they tolerate.
Our vision right now is to rescue millions and protect half a billion. Now, that’s just crazy; it feels utterly impossible. But if you can sense that impossibility right now, that’s exactly the way we felt in 2007 when we wanted to rescue thousands and protect millions. And that’s exactly the way we felt in 1997 when we hadn’t rescued anybody, and we didn’t even have a plan to protect anyone. And yet the impossible happened, because God was passionate about it.
Our God is immensely resourceful, He has resources we cannot even imagine. So my encouragement is to continue tapping into that limitless supply of resources, that limitless supply of ideas, that limitless supply of joy, that limitless supply of understanding and love, so we can continue to feel the justice systems in which we’re walking.
I want you to always believe and know that what you do, the smallest and the biggest of things matter. Your faithfulness does make a difference. You may not be able to see it now, you may not be able to understand it, but it will have an impact because your God is on your side. He is going to multiply what you do in ways way beyond your understanding. ————————————————————————————————
GOD’S WEIGHT
What you see of IJM now is not the product of smart people figuring out a plan and then executing on it from A to B. This is a larger thing that God just wanted to do, and He has invited us into it, and He has done it by His power and by His grace.
The job is not ours; the work is God’s, it’s always been His. And He doesn’t call us to pour ourselves into exhaustion. He calls us to come and give what we have to give, and to let Him do the rest.
The nature of our work calls us to greater faith. And even if we say that we are taking part in rescuing children and in protecting the poor, at the end of the day we ourselves have been rescued. We recognize that it’s Him doing the job, not us.
This work of protecting the poor from violence, it’s His calling to us, it’s what He’s going to do. It’s not meant to be our burden to carry. And what we’re going to have to do for the next 12 years is continually remind ourselves He is carrying this and He is carrying us. This work of protecting the poor from violence, this is God’s weight.
————————————————————————————————
JESUS’S WAY
God does His miracles of transformation in the world through miraculously transformed people. So if what we’re asking God to do in this world is something that is not possible by human effort, then what we’re asking for is actually a miracle.
I couldn’t imagine us being able to take part in something great like this without us being founded in prayer and being founded in a God who owns the work.
We will do this work Jesus’s way as we continually walk with Him. And doing it Jesus’s way also means loving each other. There’s always another colleague that will ask you to stop and just take care of yourself, someone who is willing to take the things you have to do in order for you to take a break. People stand with each other, be it a personal crisis, be it a health crisis, or be it challenges at work. But at the end of the day, you can trust that an IJM member will stand with you.