This Independence Day, as we celebrated a happy little 4th of July, we also welcomed David Badstone, director of the Not For Sale Campaign to our ministry centre.

As we sat around the dinner table with him hearing stories about how he became impassioned to raise up modern-day abolitionists, we knew that he was talking about freedom on a whole different level than we usually think about.

David spoke to us about “backyard abolitionists” working to fight slavery in their own communities as well as across the globe.

Did you know there are 27 million people bound in slavery today? That’s far more than all the years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade combined.

• Many of the victims are trafficked into the sex trade.
• Many of the victims are forced to work in sweat shops, making the “bargains” you and I wear and consume every day.
• Many of the victims are children as young as five years old.

Human trafficking is growing at a rate that it could soon overcome drug and weapons trafficking… Unless we do something about it.

Not For Sale exists to train up regular people like you and I to no longer think about change… talk about change… but shift gears and start “marrying movement with intelligent action.”

Badstone calls this “smart activism”. NFS says:

Our collective challenge is simple: Stand with those who are enslaved, work together to free them, and empower them in their freedom to break the cycle of vulnerability.

So, as we sat around the dinner table on Independence Day, God was reminding us—challenging us—to look beyond ourselves, take a look at the needs of the world, and decide what we’re going to do about it.

As a family, our first move was to put our money where our mouth is and become backyard abolitionist by regularly supporting NSF. ($27 a month for the 27 million people slavery – check out the NFS website if you’re interested in getting involved as a backyard abolitionist too.)

But we’re also now dreaming—along with the rest of our ministry center—about how to further get involved in NFS. One of the things that is already in motion is that we’ll be running the first-ever Not For Sale DTS in January, which will combine the traditional aspects of a DTS with further training about modern-day abolitionism and how to use our skills and talents to make an impact. Outreaches will also target areas heavily affected by human trafficking, and partner with existing ministries on the ground who are already working to end slavery.

We are so excited about this new partnership with Not For Sale! Stay tuned as we continue to explore how this will all pan out… as we work together to abolish slavery in our lifetime.