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President and Founder, International Justice Mission,
which investigates injustices around the world
Author
Former Senior Trial Attorney with Police Misconduct
Task Force, Civil Rights Division, Dept. of Justice
Former Officer in Charge of the United Nation’s
genocide investigation in Rwanda in 1994
B.A., magna cum laude, Harvard; J.D., cum laude, Univ.
of Chicago - Ford Foundation Scholar
CBN.com – God Uses Regular Guys
"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and You listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more" (Psalm 10:17-18).
Gary Haugen believes strongly that God uses regular people to do the most extraordinary things. To prove his point, he describes himself as the “spoiled youngest child in a family of six.” The son of a doctor and a stay-at-home mom, Gary knew safety and relative prosperity growing up and couldn’t have been farther from the types of circumstances he now works to change. He has a wife and four kids. He coaches girls’ basketball and his sons' football teams – he’s just a really regular guy offering himself to God. He admits that he can get easily overwhelmed by the darkness and ugliness of the world, but he says his is a story of an average, white, suburban, evangelical kid being used by God to change at least a part of a world of great suffering.
The International Sex Trade Crisis
According to the United Nations, thousands of women and children throughout the world disappear each day to be sold into sexual slavery. Sadly, there are other pathological individuals seeking out children for sexual experiences. Though these people are not the largest part of the sex trade market, they unfortunately do represent a very moneyed part of the problem. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that pedophiles from around the world come to developing nations to take advantage of children unprotected by corrupt local governments. These individuals also bring a disproportionate amount of money to the table, creating a larger market for child sex trade.
A sick myth surrounding AIDS increases the interest in children as sex partners. The myth is two-fold – that one cannot contract AIDS by having sex with a child, and, two, that sex with children may even have a curative effect.
The sex tourist is another very significant part of the sexual exploitation problem worldwide. But in most areas, the customers are usually domestic. Sex tourism does cater to international clients because they are often ready to pay more. The common denominator in the sex trade business is money.
Life Mission: Setting Captives Free
Gary’s ministry is to follow Christ into a world full of hurting people. He believes real life is found in giving your life away. He says a simple response to loving Christ is loving your neighbor. He says he is “not a doctor, not an evangelist, not a carpenter, but a lawyer and prosecutor,” so he uses his gifts of jurisprudence to help stop human rights abuses of many kinds, including freeing young girls and children from sexual slavery.
He first became involved in these ministry efforts when missionary friends around the world would tell him of abuses they had witnessed but could find no help for. Gary founded International Justice Mission to take on human rights case referrals and begin to “set the captives free.”
Tears for Suffering People
By looking away, we can’t get away from the injustices of the world. We see it in the news and the dire circumstances can stir a sense of dissatisfaction or a sense of fear. We can choose to look away, but we can't move away from the awful facts that people are being abused. This is the truth, and we are called and equipped to live in the truth. Recognizing this, Gary says, "Let’s turn and look at these things and turn to God to talk to Him about it, weep to Him about it, and listen for what might He calls us to do in response."
Gary admits to a few sleepless nights and days of melancholy that he can’t shake, and tears that have come that wouldn’t have come without being involved. But this is part of living in the truth and changing the circumstances. He remembers coming home from Rwanda, having seen churches full of dead bodies where the Tutsees ran for protection. Sitting in his own church, he remembers thinking, How long would it take to hack all these people to death in attacks like those that wiped out the Tutsees? Nonetheless, Gary holds tightly to the joys God gives him in the beauty around him, the pleasures of family and friends, and all the evidences in his life of God’s goodness.
Terrify No More
Gary’s passion for people to journey with him is poured out in the book Terrify No More. This book is to aid people to travel into darkness and find surprising hope, to be amazed and inspired. The God of Justice is still active in the world, using very common instruments to do amazing work. The book is true in every detail but reads like the best-crafted espionage novel. Reviewers say it reads like a John Grisham novel. Gary says it is packed with the excitement of how God sovereignly and divinely and awesomely intervenes again and again to deliver people out of their dire circumstances. Divine miracles make for good reading and compel readers to want to do their part to stand against human rights abuses. The book clearly defines a promise that God is alive and wants to use us to change His world - passionate stories of rescue.
The Story of Jyoti
The story of Jyoti not only shows the transformation that deliverance can bring, but it underscores Gary’s own message of how God uses ordinary people to do amazing things. Jyoti was taken captive by four women as she waited to catch a train home. The women lied to her, drugged her, and bought her a train ticket to Mumbai where, as a 14-year-old virgin, she was forced into prostitution. In a three-year period, Jyoti was forced to endure 15,000 partners -- that’s right, fifteen THOUSAND! Brothel owners beat her, and kept her and the other girls drugged to control them. At the beginning of the ordeal, brothel owners tried to sell Jyoti to a customer because she was a virgin, a premium piece of property. Over the course of her captivity, Jyoti tried repeatedly to beg her customers to free her, but she found no advocate.
After a time, another sex slave told Jyoti about Jesus, telling her that this God could set her free from her affliction. Jyoti believed the other girl and began praying non-stop for her deliverance. In a matter of days, International Justice Mission (IJM) and local government officials arrived at the brothel and asked for Jyoti by name. The brothel owner (a woman), sensing how close she could be to prosecution, allowed Jyoti to be taken from the brothel. She was free.
Jyoti’s story is not unlike Gary’s -- a really regular person being used by God. Jyoti, now a wife and mother, has been a key player in the release of child labor victims in a brick kiln in her home village and a key player in a successful raid on the brutal brothel where she was so often abused and hidden underground.
A Final Note on IJM
Because IJM has limited resources, the organization determines where they will concentrate their efforts by looking at where there is the most compelling need and where there is the most opportunity to make a real difference. In 2005, they plan to open offices in Latin America and Guatemala and expand their existing efforts in Africa.
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