Want to Screen a New Film With Us!?!!?

International Justice Mission was nice enough to send us a copy of their new film, At the End of Slavery: The Battle for Justice in our Time. If you will be in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina on December 6, we would love for you to join us for the screening.  It will be at Rich Fork Baptist Church in Thomasville at 7:00 PM in the youth room.  Bring a friend, admission is free.  Click here for all the details.  Be sure to contact us if you have any questions.  Directions to Rich Fork can be found on their website or click here for a map.

Team R4R Kenyan Style!

Here are some words from co-founder Lindy Thompson about the Nairobi Marathon that she and some other Team R4R members ran in.  We are so proud of you guys!!

My alarm went off at 4:45am. As I rolled over I could already feel my heart begin to pound. I staggered into the bathroom where my gear was neatly placed on the countertop the night before. As I looked down I saw a tender note from my sweet husband. I smiled. As I began to put on my R4R “armor” I looked in the mirror and began to recite that all too familiar verse:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes [like human trafficking]. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:10-12)

As we arrived and parked, Rich said a quick prayer and we all got out of the car ready to run for an in incredible revolution. I soon found myself standing there, elbow to elbow, an obvious minority in a mass of people i didn’t know. The race was about the begin, but my heart had started long before my body. Next thing I knew i was jumping up and down. Finally- the sound of a gun! We were … Continue Reading

52 children recovered, 60 alleged child pimps arrested in crackdown…IN AMERICA!

We just read this story on CNN.com….it is reporting on a massive string of arrests here in the States.  We tend to imagine that these atrocities only happen on the other side of the world.  Heaven help a nation that stands by while these things happen.  We are proud of our federal, state, and local authorities for the work they did in this operation.  Unfortunately, one representative mentioned that they could conduct one of these operations every week if they had more man-power and resources.  The victims in this series of raids were as young as 10 years old.

(CNN) — Law enforcement authorities have recovered 52 children and arrested 60 pimps allegedly involved in child prostitution, the FBI announced Monday.

More than 690 people in all were arrested on state and local charges, the FBI stated.

The arrests were made over the past three days as part of a nationwide law enforcement initiative conducted on the federal, state and local levels, the bureau said.

“Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces,” Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, said in a written statement.

“There is no work more important than protecting America’s children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization.”

The three-day operation, tagged Operation Cross Country IV, included enforcement actions in 36 cities across 30 FBI divisions nationwide. It is part of the FBI’s ongoing Innocence Lost National Initiative, which was created in 2003 with the goal of ending sex trafficking of children in the United States.

The initiative, conducted with assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has so far resulted in the recovery of almost 900 children, according to the FBI. It has also led to more than 500 convictions.

Thanks to our Detroit Team R4R Runners!

We want to take a minute and acknowledge our Michigan team members who ran in the Detroit Marathon last week.  Here is a great email that they sent to us about the event and their experiences leading up to it.

“Fifteen of us made up three relay teams in the Detroit Marathon last weekend. We had already been running to train for it, but the training took on a new and deeper dimension when we started to focus our efforts towards Running 4 Revolution. Our longest training run was 6 miles, and we spent most of that time praying against injustice and oppression. It changes your perspective when you start out a run and thank God that you’re not trapped inside a brothel. It moves your heart when you run across the top of a dam and pray for rain in Kenya so that their dams start providing enough power for the country again and so that people there can simply eat. It leaves you with a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that you spent that hour on your run praying for the precious orphaned child your friends are adopting, for the HIV+ widows you met in an African slum, for the refugee women who made the purse you bought, for the end of slavery, oppression, corruption, injustice, and more. It humbles you to know that you don’t deserve to have the energy to run any more than the field workers around the world who must simply rest in all their free time because they don’t take in enough calories to spare any in sport. It changes you when you run for all of them.

I think all of us in R4R wish we could have talked to even more people at the race about the Revolution we’re running for, about the injustices in the world that we want to fight. We were a bit hindered by some glitches over the course of the day: spinning out on the freeway on the way there, getting stuck in traffic so bad that we had to hike up the side of the freeway and run to be on time for the relay shuttle, change drivers in the middle of the street so the first one could get to the starting line, and losing two of our team members in the crowd for almost an hour after they crossed the finish line. But hey, no revolution goes unopposed, right? It was an adventure, but we all finished the race and we ran it for the “least of these” that our God is so passionate about. Here’s to many more races for Revolution!”

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We couldn’t have said it better!  Here are some photos from the event.

Ardmore 5k

Team Run 4 Revolution was represented this morning by the pregnant team of Lindsey Broere and Carmen Black!  Lindsey and Carmen are both late in their pregnancies, which added even more attention to them.  They put up a great time of 25:10.  This was a great “test-event” for how we are hoping to structure our upcoming sponsorships.  Lindsey and Carmen both had generous sponsors that they were running for today.  We can’t thank them enough for their contributions to Team R4R and International Justice Mission.

The running bet was if Lindsey and Carmen would run a leisurely paced race and be satisfied to spread the word about Team R4R or if their competitive side would take over.  Safe to say, quite a few folks got passed by two pregnant chicks this morning in Winston Salem!

Here are some photos and videos of the event:

Run 4 Revolution at the Ardmore 5k from Black Daffodil Films on Vimeo.

Little Layla representing Team R4R!