Reflections on Freeing Slaves – Physically and Spiritually

From our friend returning home…

Greetings from the United States – I made it back to American soil just in time for Christmas!  I wanted to share a few of the highlightsfrom my last 6 weeks in South Asia and to thank you all for your interest in,support, and prayers for my time there.  I still can’t quite believe that my time there is already finished.

After I wrote you at the beginning of November, I had the opportunity to go to another major city for a week to work with our office there to help them prepare some police training sessions that occurred at the beginning of December.  The goal of the training was to educate law enforcement officials within the city and state about sex trafficking, the legal procedures required for successful arrests and evidence seizure, and how to treat the rescued victims.  Because we were training the trainers, we are hopeful that most of the thousands of law enforcement officers throughout the state will eventually have the requisite knowledge to do their jobs well.

As you know, I spent most of my Saturday afternoons with a group of boys in the slums.  They had a farewell party for me a few days before I left, and it was a truly wonderful experience.  In August I had given each boy a bracelet as part of the Raksha Bandha celebration in which sisters tie strings on their brothers’ wrists signifying that now the boy will protect his sister.  These boys don’t have any family and no one to tie a string on their wrist, so we did a ceremony for them in which we tied special strings on their wrists.  Fast forward to December, and each boy gave me a bracelet that he had made so that I would remember my “brothers” in South Asia.  I was completely surprised and deeply touched by their actions; I know that God will continue to work in their lives and provide for their needs through other fellows and interns who are continuing to serve there every Saturday.

Many of you are probably curious about what my future plans are.  As you might imagine, it’s not easy to decide what the next step is after helping to free sex slaves for a year.  I’m taking the next six weeks to prayerfully consider my options and see which direction God leads.  I’m not sure where I’ll go, and I’m not sure whether I’ll continue to practice law, so unfortuately, at this point I can’t give you any definitive answers.

All in all, my time in South Asia was a truly wonderful, if occasionally difficult, experience.  I had the rare opportunity to be part of an organization in which I saw God do miraculous things on a regular basis through people just like you and me.  The fight to end sex trafficking is far from over, but since the things God calls us to are rarely quick and easy, that’s not surprising.

As amazing as it was to see women brought to physical freedom this past year, I also see how important spiritual freedom is because it is only when people are spiritually free that they can fully enjoy their physical freedom.  And what is spiritual freedom?  Well, it is the freedom that is offered to everyone who acknowledges their need for a savior from their sin and accepts the free gift of grace offered through the cross of Christ.  You see, on our own each one of us (American, European, Asian, African – everyone) is spiritually dead – we are all sinners who don’t measure up to God’s standards (Romans 3:23).  The punishment we deserve for our sins is death, but God offers us eternal life through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23).  God offers us this gift because he loves us – NOT because we earned it through our good deeds (Romans 5:8).  The crazy part is that anyone who confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and believes that God raised him from the dead as payment for our sins will be saved from death and receives eternal life (Romans 10:9).  Not only does God offer us eternal life, he offers us peace with him right now in this life (Romans 5:1) – again, not because we earned it but simply because God is good.  Each one of us will eventually be responsible for how we choose to respond to this offer of grace.  If you have any questions about your response or any of the rest of this, please let me know.  I spent the last year working to bring physical freedom to some very needy people; I can’t waste this last opportunity to share the possibility of spiritual freedom with you all.  If I did, I couldn’t call myself your friend.

- Leah Boyd
leahmboyd.blogspot.com