This coming year International Justice Mission will be working to gain support for the "Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act". They will also advocate to protect the funds distributed by the State Departments "Trafficking in Persons" Office. In order to support this effort I have signed up to do the 100 postcard challenge with IJM.
This campaign will do two things, it will show our representatives that the people in our state care about the abolition of modern day slavery, and it will help grow the anti-slavery movement here in Iowa. I have already received the postcards from IJM and am planning out my steps to get them filled out and sent to congress.
This will truly take me out of my comfort zone as I am a genuine introvert. I am most comfortable tucked away from people and lost inside a book. Over the past several years, I have filled my head with knowledge and facts about the injustice of slavery. It is time for me to stop merely learning about it and go out armed with the understanding I have gained and join the fight. I have felt a tug at my soul compelling me to place myself in a more active role in advocating for the oppressed for quite some time now.
The idea of seeking out people beyond my family and friends and then taking the initiative to persuade them to sign on to support this cause is equal parts terrifying and exciting to me. I have found myself brooding over how to get started, stuck in introspection. Yesterday, I stumbled across a quote on Pinterest, of all places, that truly spoke to me as I prepare to go forward:
“You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.” Tom Hiddleston
I was inspired by this, because I had found myself just staring at the "mountain". This massive, menacing mountain of evil called human trafficking. As I contemplated the "mountain", I found myself paralyzed by the dark and foreboding nature of it. That quote redirected my thoughts, and made me realize, that even as "a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step", climbing this mountain starts with putting one foot in front of the other. Focus on one step at a time. So how do I get started, I already have. Signing up for the campaign was the first step. My second step is publishing this blog post announcing that I am going to do it. And from here, I will just go forward. We'll see where the rest of the steps take me.
Hope is wishing something would happen. Faith is believing something will happen. Courage is making something happen. - Unknown
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