Alan Smyth

It was somewhere in the early 2000s when I got a package in the mail from a friend, who had just taken a job with an organization that purported to rescue people from slavery. And I've got to admit, and especially at the time, it was something of an embarrassing admission that I had no idea that that was a need. It blew my mind.There are people in slavery, there are still people in slavery. And it still does actually kind of blew my mind, but in a different way. Since that time, I've had the opportunity, the privilege to be a partner with a few different organizations that do exactly that work. They rescue people living in slavery, they imprison and prosecute the men, predominantly men who run black market, slave organizations.And two things continue to pop up for me.The first being what I just mentioned, that it's awful, it's tragic, it's actually mind-numbing, that human beings would sell and buy other human beings, specifically that human beings would sell, or buy children.Secondly, I'm saddened at not just the cultural pattern, but even the pattern in my own life, by which I recognize or in which I recognize that I don't maintain a regular concern, I lose focus about or towards this particular dark corner of the world. There are seasons when I do or we do focus on human trafficking on human slavery, the fact that we're still buying and selling human lives, and then there are seasons, that it's just not urgent. It doesn't pop up. It isn't in my regular everyday conscience.And so I champion, the lives the voices, the energies of the people, who do fight this battle, who do dig in they after day after day. And really specifically over the next couple episodes, I want to highlight to folks who come from backgrounds really similar to mine, and have not just again, but have maintained that pace,beginning with Alan Smith, who's a dear friend of mine that I got to speak to a few weeks ago about this organization that he has started working with, that allows him to place a year's worth of work among adolescents in a different sphere of life into this really dark corner and bring a bit of light. I enjoyed the conversation. I think you will too check it out. Links For Justin:Read Justin's SubstackOrder In The Low - NEW Book with Scott EricksonCoaching with JustinOrder In Rest - New Book of PoemsOrder Sacred StridesJustinMcRoberts.comSupport this podcastNEW Single - Let GoNEW Music - Sliver of HopeNEW Music - The Dood and The BirdThe Book - It Is What You Make itHearts and Minds Amazon Barnes and Noble