The Why
Liberty611 exists to join in the fight to end slavery now!
We begin with God’s direction. Specifically in Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
Our goal is to be the conduit to take people like yourself from awareness to action and on to commitment. We want to connect you to the frontline warriors who we trust and who are in the trenches rescuing and rebuilding lives. We are here to support them with funds, prayer, and action, where ever needed, whenever it is needed.
Our early efforts took us overseas and we will continue to partner in those areas. But we also know the fight against human trafficking is right here on our doorstep and are already looking for ways to join with warriors in our own communities – so look for those projects and organizations to come soon.
We ask you to take the time to read OUR STORY, learn about our current PROJECTS, and educate yourself about the WARRIORS we partner with in the fight to end slavery in our time!
And then we became committed to helping these girls for the long-term. We were all in and still are.
Through these efforts and in partnership with our friends at One Life and their supporters, we were able to provide the rescued girls with food, a safe home, an education and most importantly the opportunity to introduce them to Jesus and His Word! And now, several years later, many of the girls have graduated high school and have gone on to job training.
Of course there is so much more to this story and it is certainly not over. We’ve gone on to help a group of rescued street children in Myanmar and other special projects along the way. In the meantime, my husband and I retired from university life. But I have not retired from this fight! The efforts have moved from a campus group to what is now Liberty611.
The Liberty611 story begins with another wonderful partnership in this ministry effort. As we reestablished our work off campus, the amazing people at Venture, who we have partnered with for years, quickly came alongside to provide us with the ability to continue. So here we are and ready for what’s next!
OUR STORY
This begins with my own story…which then developed into this becoming OUR Story, that is the journey of God bringing together His people over and over again to serve the least of these. But it started here:
There are typically several stages of getting involved in a cause or unjust situation. It starts with awareness, that is – you may have not known at all that something bad was happening or may have known the problem existed, but not much beyond that. Then there is that point when somehow you become truly aware. For me, that happened in 2007, when Gary Haugen was awarded the Wilberforce Award by Chuck Colson and the Colson Center. I had no real understanding that slavery still existed, and certainly not to the extent that Haagen made clear on that evening. I knew immediately that the Lord had brought me there to hear that message and that I needed to “do something”.
Do Something…that often stops us doesn’t it? Especially with something as massive as the problem of modern slavery. Even so, I did decide then and there that I would take a step, even a little one, even if it seemed like a drop in the bucket, and just see where the Lord would take it. So it began with supporting organizations like Haugen’s International Justice Mission which started because one man saw the problem and decided to take one step to do something.
My husband and I were working at a private Christian university at that time and so when I went back to campus I decided to start talking with a few staff and students about the issue. So then my awareness was moved to action - doing something. Action began with having conversations that then eventually led to a handful of students joining with me to start a group to further raise awareness on campus. That led to several years of small group meetings, chapel talks, fundraising events supporting anti-trafficking efforts, annual week long awareness activities, prayer, lots of prayer and more.
Then the Lord took our action to commitment! That’s really just another level of action, but goes beyond maybe a one time check written in support, or that awareness event you helped make happen, or a chapel talk you gave (all good things btw)…this is the rubber meets the road kind of action. It’s the long-term you are “in it to win it”! It started with a note from a friend of the university. She had been serving in orphan care ministry for years in which they partnered with pastors overseas. She was contacted by one of the pastors in S.E. Asia who had just watched some young girls being trafficked and along with another pastor, stepped out in faith to rescue these girls and then dozens more. These girls ranged from 9-17 years old. They needed some help immediately.
Our friend asked if we could help, and the ask was relatively small. Fortunately, because of our earlier, seemingly little actions, we were at the point where we had a small pool of funds we could use to help.