This Friday, a film opens in select theaters called “NOT TODAY.” The story follows the surprising journey of a college student who decides to DO SOMETHING about the problem of human trafficking. I met the film makers a few years ago as their journey was just beginning. This Friday, a song that I co-wrote with Aaron Blanton will appear during the closing credits of their film.
When I met the film makers, I had just returned from a trip to Northern India to work with a people group referred to as Dalits, broken people that represent the “untouchable” caste in the Hindu religion. Higher-caste Hindus will even avoid the shadow of a Dalit person as they pass by. Over the centuries, they have been victims of a thousand atrocities. The film “NOT TODAY” tells one of those stories.
On my first trip to Delhi, Lucknow, and Agra, I was asked to teach at a conference for Dalit church leaders and to assist a medical team providing mobile clinics in Dalit schools. The Dalits I met were beautiful children and hard-working adults. They were passionate church leaders. They were earnest and full of hope. The work was organized by DALIT FREEDOM NETWORK, and I met the film makers when I was leading worship at DFN’s annual conference a few weeks after my return from India.
The film wasn’t made because it’s a great story that would sell tickets. It was not made because the film makers knew they could make money from the idea. “NOT TODAY” came to life with the hope that your ticket in might someone’s ticket out. For the film makers, learning about the growing problem of human trafficking among Dalits meant they HAD TO FIND A WAY to use their skills to shine a light on this dark problem. When your heart begins to break for the broken-hearted, you have to use the skills and talents YOU have in the fight for hope and healing.
My way of responding has been to write songs like “We Are the Hands” and “What Love Can Do” which Kari Jobe recorded for the film. What can you do to break the deadly cycle of human trafficking that keeps growing around the world? Perhaps the folks at the END IT MOVEMENT can help you find a way into the story. Or maybe my friends at ONELIFE can be your front-door into world-change.
As long as one of us is enslaved, none of us are free.