Tearfund launches a stunning resource pack this month full of information and practical, innovative ideas that focus on slavery - and trafficking, its modern day equivalent. It marks 200 years since Christians led a movement to end the transport of slaves into Britain and is ideal for churches, small groups and leaders.
The Freedom pack contains a CD with the new song How Long, by Al Gordon and features additional tracks recorded by Tim Hughes and others. They have both contributed extensively to an inspirational guide enclosed for worship leaders. Tim refers passionately to making justice a central aspect of worship. “We have a responsibility as worship leaders”, says Tim. “In many ways it’s the songs we sing that mould and shape people’s theology. So let’s engage with these issues. Let’s be a people who remember poor communities, who sing about God’s heart for the widow and orphan – who look to God to fill us up and send us out to be good news to marginalised people.”
Peter Caton/Tearfund
He hopes the pack will be both challenging and envisioning. “And dare I say it - uncomfortable,” adds Tim. “It’s not easy to look at the reality of life for many people on this planet and compare it to the relative luxury we live in. More than anything, we hope that it might propel you into action.”
The pack also contains a DVD. A short film captures an imaginative journey from an everyday world to the darker life haunted by modern day slavery. This innovative film is based on Tearfund’s work with trafficked girls in India. In addition there are useful sermon notes and youth activities, with further information for children’s workers.
There are powerful stories that resonate through the resources. They include Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who was central to the campaign, his work turning the hearts and minds of the British people against the slave trade. And the young Yorkshire MP, William Wilberforce, a well connected and eloquent Evangelical who campaigned relentlessly against slavery. A dozen times he tried to get the Abolition Bill passed and each time it was rejected. Until 1807 when parliament finally passed the Bill - to a spontaneous eruption of three cheers! This achievement affected the slave trade banned in Britain, but it was another thirty years, three days before Wilberforce died, before slaves were set free throughout the British Empire.
But slavery hasn’t remained a relic of the past. In 1807 there were four million slaves. Today the UN puts the figure at over 12 million people worldwide, and that doesn’t include the millions further enslaved by acute poverty and injustice. Human trafficking is the third largest source of income within organised crime, second only to arms and drug trafficking. An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year.
The Freedom pack has information on campaigning and includes a postcard to send to the Prime Minister - to ensure the Government doesn’t fail to keep its focus on reducing poverty. Like the generation of Christians who ended the trans-Atlantic slave trade, churches and individuals are encouraged to speak out and stand up for people in poverty. This year there is a key opportunity. World leaders made a promise in the year 2000 to halve poverty by 2015, signing up to the Millennium Development Goals, and June 2007 marks the halfway point. Christians can join Micah Challenge to blow the halftime whistle and remind those in power to keep that promise.
Tearfund is working with local churches and development organisations in parts of Africa, India, and Nepal and on the Thai borders with Cambodia and Myanmar to protect and rescue vulnerable people. In Cambodia, Tearfund partner Cambodian Hope Organisation provides vocational training, emotional support and a chance to go to church for children who have been trafficked – or for those who are at risk from traffickers. In India, the Aruna project provides healthcare, life skills training and testing and counselling for HIV for women and girls who want to leave the sex trade.
The Freedom resource pack can help play a part in setting people free from poverty - helping churches, small groups and individuals get informed and engaged. A combined response that together can help end today’s slavery.