The hidden epidemic facing those trapped by poverty around the world is violence. In the wake of people struggling to find clean water, proper nutrition, work that will provide for their family, education, shelter, and basic health care violence functions like a swarm of locusts consuming everything that it encounters.
Today my friends at International Justice Mission released a new book called The Locust Effect that reveals the incredible force violence has on the lives of close to one billion people surviving day to day around the world. The book is not a book packed with simple answers for complex problem. This is a work that will awaken you to the real plight of the poor around the world and in many parts of our own nation. Every day millions of girls, boys, men, and women face issues like…
Rape
Police brutality
Forced slave labor
Property grabbing
Sex trafficking
Torture
Imagine if you went to bed, to work, to school, or to church wondering if you would face unimaginable violence with no hope of protection from the government. Imagine if your daughters faced the threat of rape on a daily basis from the people that lived around them. Imagine if you were trapped in slave labor in a factory and the police were the one that would come in a beat anyone that tried to resist. It’s hard to imagine because we live in the safe protection of a government that stands against injustice. Most of the world does not live with the same sense of safety.
As I read this book I was not shocked because I saw this kind of injustice alive and well in India just a few months ago. My friends who have done mission work in Thailand, Panama, Ethiopia, and Uganda have all confirmed the plague of violence in the lives of the poor. World wide violence and the lack of justice is an epidemic that is real and must be addressed by the church and by our governments. I pray you will read this book and join the fight. Stand for those that have no voice and have the courage to do speak up for them, serve them, protect them, and pray for them.
Here are 3 things we need you to do TODAY:
1. Watch the 3-min film, “Everyday”.
2. Buy the book this week (Feb 2-8) and a generous donor will give IJM $20 to help fund the fight.*
(*up to $40,000)
3. Share these sample tweets and facebook posts!
The “Everyday” film
Sample Tweet: Can watching a video change the lives of the world’s 4bil poorest? Maybe not, but it’s a start. Watch: http://bit.ly/TLEveryday #LocustEffect
The launch week offer
Sample Tweet: It’s time! Buy @garyhaugen’s #LocustEffect this week & $20 will go to @IJM to fight violence against the poor. A win-win: http://bit.ly/BuyTLE
Together we can help make the poor safe enough to thrive! Check out this video and share it this week and help us spread the word about this book!