A World We Dare To Imagine Final: Roots

The mission of my organizations Roots is to bring people together in planting a new movement towards ending human trafficking. My organization will collaborate with Real Life Church’s Undergrounds, a successful coffee shop that gives their sales proceeds towards organizations that are for such a cause. We will expand on the business and create a chain of coffeehouses to generate more revenue for the organizations. This allows the organizations to help those individuals out in rescuing them, giving them medical or psychological aid, and helping them start new lives. Real Life is a mega church and has significant power to spread the word about this initiative. From the roots of Real Life Church's network with other churches across the world, our organization will build a chain of coffee houses in their locations.

When you walk into any of our coffee houses, you will see Underground’s and our core statement, “using coffee to change lives.” Human trafficking is a major issue today with the International Labor Organization estimating 20.9 million people being enslaved today. Traffickers use threats, debt bondage, lies, and other horrendous types of coercion to enslave individuals for their own use. This issue is very close to my heart as I had learned about it and was deeply impacted from my church’s annual human-trafficking awareness event, Freedom Sunday. It broke my heart to hear the story of a girl who had been sold in to the child porn industry by her mother. It especially moved me because she was the same age as my cousin who I think of as a sister. I would do anything to protect her from something so corrupt. I believe that all of us have the power to stand up for those who do not have a voice. With just one cup of coffee, we can all join together to fight for those without voices.

The coffee shops will be a place for anyone, either church member or non-church member, to get a hot cup of coffee while supporting a good cause. Along with every purchase, each individual will receive a small brochure that is simple yet informational about the issue. Our coffee shops will be designed after our original one as it will be both comfy yet stylish. There will be artwork within each shop that conveys the power of love and outreach. Each coffee mug, portable cup, and coaster will have inscribed verses about freedom and compassion along with a link to one of the organizations we collaborate with.

Our coffee shops will also offer opportunities for anyone to take an active role in fighting and raising awareness about human trafficking. We will host coffee shop events partnered with International Justice Mission, the organization Real Life has partnered with for the Freedom Sunday. These events will be hosted by organizations we have collaborated with or by our own, who will speak on the serious issue. They will offer opportunities for individuals to fundraise, advocate to pass anti-slavery legislation, or apply to be a part of one of our organizations. We will be giving people the chance to take an active role in fighting and raising awareness about human trafficking.

Roots is a grounded organization focused on freeing people all over the world and saving them. We strive to follow the model that Jesus Christ set before us of love as we seek to save those who are enslaved and have no where to go. Whether it’s through our connected churches or just getting a coffee with a friend, anyone can learn about the issue of human trafficking and make a difference. At the roots of our vision is Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners”.