Death/Redemption (November Update)

A couple of weeks ago, a few of us at Media Village got to go film a project for a group called Victory Outreach.
The part of the ministry we worked with was a program designed to help people who wanted to get off the streets, out of drugs, and gangs. It is a twelve month program with a seventy percent success rate. People who finish the program either go out and get jobs and get back into society, or they stay on and staff and help disciple those still in the program.
The building we went to was being renovated, it will be able to hold two hundred people, right now it houses around fifty. The waiting list for this program is over two thousand people long.
Our main task for the day was to do interviews with some people who had been through the program as well as some interviews with students going through a three month program to help them grow as leaders, also with a focus on urban ministry.
To say it was impact-full hearing some of these stories would be an understatement. One of the girls who was now helping lead the women’s house used to be heavily into drugs. She said that there was a point that she would go out with drug dealers just because they would give her drugs.
One time she threw something at him and he began to beat her. And she didn’t care, she thought that was all she was worth.
It hit me then that this is how satan has these people. What a grip he must have on you if you believe yourself to be worth so little. In the end that is how people see each other, satan makes us believe that we have no value.
The story ended well for this girl. She found God, got out of the life she was leading and now helps lead other young women to new life in Christ.
We filmed several stories just as powerful. It is both sad and amazing to hear stories of such pain and redemption. But I don’t think I could have prepared myself for what we did next.
We had gotten permission from a gang leader in the nearby ghetto to go and interview him.
So we got there, no script, no plan so to speak. We just set up the camera, help the microphone over their heads and followed the conversation for the next hour and a half.
We got the life on the street, directly from someone who was running them. Every couple minutes someone would hand the leader money from a drug deal that was happening at the door of the house. Crystal meth is their main drug.
What caught me the most was the kid. They had a thirteen year old child who was with them. He was their main drug mule, their main gun runner, and the person who they sent out to rob people. He had those jobs because he needed to prove himself.
He had a gang tattoo on his arm, and had already proven himself by stabbing an enemy of the gang. He started working with them when he was nine. Of the hundred and fifty or so members of this gang, the leader said that fifteen to twenty-five of them were kids.
There are many more things I can write about that hour and a half. I think if we just aired the conversation, things in the world might change a bit.
It is one thing to hear stories about how God has redeemed someone from out of a lifestyle. It is a different thing entirely to see people who still have no hope. Never before had I seen so much death and redemption in one day.

During the past week or so the video interns have started working on Public Service Announcements for child sex trafficking. This has been a topic on my heart for quite a while. And it has been really great to be able to work on something that will make an impact toward this.
I have spent a lot of time wandering around the Love 146 website. They are a group working to end child sex slavery & exploitation. If you have some time please check them out.

www.love146.org

Here are some rough stats:
-It is estimated that at least 27 million people are currently enslaved around the
world; many have been enslaved through being trafficked.
-United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) now believes that the number of children
trafficked each year is around 1.2 million. (2006)
-Approximately 800,000 people annually are trafficked across national
borders. Around 80 percent of these victims are women and girls and up to 50 per-
cent are minors. The majority of females are trafficked into commercial sexual
exploitation. (2007 Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. State Department)
--About $28 billion of this is generated from commercial sexual exploitation.
(International Labor Organization)

We are working on a series of eight PSA’s and are hoping to air them on TV here in SA. Because it is a growing tragedy here, and with the 2010 World Cup approaching the number of trafficking is expected to increase.
Again, thank you so much for your prayer and support. This has been a trying month but I would not have traded it for anything.
God Bless,
~J