Article: IJM Netherlands is Launched With Help from Crossroads The Hague

Feature Article from Christian Associates "Inside CA":

Did you know it is estimated that there are more than 27 million people currently living in slavery worldwide? Did you know that Crossroads, The Hague has helped launch the International Justice Mission (IJM) Netherlands to help abolish slavery in our lifetime? Not long ago, Kevin Johnson and Anne Nicole Hofman from Crossroads, The Hague were struck the compelling thought that the International Justice Mission (IJM) needed a presence in Europe and that The Hague was the perfect city. So with the help of others at Crossroads, they put together a team of lawyers, investigators and others, they did a little prep work and contacted IJM in Washington DC to pitch the idea.

One of the most compelling social justice issues of the day is slavery. To hear that there are more men, women and children in forced labor today than at the height of the colonial slave trade evokes disbelief, anger and sadness. For a group of people from a CA church plant, Crossroads, The Hague it also evoked holy discontent and resolve. So they did something about it.

IJM combats injustice on more fronts than slavery. They work around the world to help widows who have had their property wrongfully seized, represent those abused by corrupt police and in Jesus name bring justice to those who are oppressed. The Hague is known as the City of International Peace and Justice and plays a crucial role in global human rights policy. It is home to the Peace Palace and International Criminal Court and offers a unique environment from which the global objectives and goals of IJM can be supported. So a handful of Crossroaders with a heart for the oppressed got together and said, "This is the best city in Europe to create a working office for IJM. We are going to make it happen."

The Netherlands team began conversations with leaders of the Washington, DC based organization. IJM's fourfold work to rescue people in bondage, provide aftercare, present prosecutable cases against perpetrators and work for structural transformation was compelling to the team. But while IJM was intrigued by the NL team's idea, they were also a little suspicious of their ability to make it happen. The NL team just kept praying and meeting and dreaming about a working office in The Hague that could represent IJM in Europe, engage in rigorous research to serve the field teams and raise the banner of justice for the oppressed to major players like the EU and UN.

It was amazing to see the team that God put together in The Hague: lawyers and law professors, investigators and magistrates, journalists and web experts, people with concrete field experience in Africa and other locales. And when IJM sent a few key people over to meet the NL team, they bit! In April of 2009, International Justice Mission, The Netherlands was formed.

"Before I learned about IJM, I thought of human trafficking and modern day slavery as an elusive issue at some sort of global level, which I didn't understand. It wasn't until someone from IJM told me about a girl named Elizabeth that I truly started to understand the personal stories behind what was happening around me", says Anne-Nicole Hofman, co-founder of IJM The Netherlands.

Click here to read the rest of the report on the IJM Netherlands launch by Kevin Johnson and Anne-Nicole Hofman.