The Leadership Summit - Day 1
Today was the first day of a two day conference I am attending called the Leadership Summit. It is hosted by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago but broadcast via Satellite to 140 locations in multiple languages around the world. One of those locations is my home church at Kensington. I have been unable to attend for the last few years due to work commitments but am fortunate to be able to go this year.
The purpose of the summit is to empower and encourage leaders from around the world to refine their gifts and talents to improve leadership skills and learn how to use those skills to serve God and others in an effective manner. Leaders from all around the world of different disciplines will be sharing their thoughts and stories. Some are church leaders, founders of organizations, leaders in corporate America, etc. etc
The speaker from today that left the biggest impression was Gary Haugen who left the corporate world to use his experience as a lawyer to save children in third world countries who face significant amounts of abuse, slavery, and forced prostitution. One of the stories he told was of a young boy who was extorted by police officers for money for alcohol and then they didn’t want to get in trouble so they shot him. He was left for dead but picked himself up and dragged himself to a hospital where they had to amputate his arm but he survived. When the police found out that he didn’t die, they arrested him and put him in jail to rot. He was just one of the many stories that we heard about of kids being rescued by the International Justice Mission (IJM). They showed photos and videos of young kids being brought out of slave mills and prostitution rings and… … … it just breaks your heart. One of the young girls they saved was living in a very poor part of India. Her family couldn’t pay their bills and one day she was offered a job in the city that where she could make some money and send it back. While traveling to the city, she was drugged and woke up in a brothel where she was beaten and tortured for days. She was never let out to see the light of day and was forced to service 20-30 men per day. Eventually the IJM was able to rescue her along with many other girls. One of Gary’s biggest challenges is that how do you tell someone that’s living in those situations that God is good and just. However, with the kids that they’ve rescued, they are now living in good homes and many of them are now working to help fight against similar injustices in their home countries. It’s amazing to hear how Gary’s gifts of leadership and courage have helped hundreds of kids. To learn more about IJM and how you can help, go to their website at www.ijm.org
All day we heard inspiring stories of how people are using their gifts and talents of leadership to make a difference in the world.
To learn more about the leadership summit, click here.