Creating and Acting in Dramas and Drimes for Social Justice

This past Sunday I helped through a drime (essentially a wordless drama set to music that uses dance and action to tell a story) to help a youth group understand human trafficking as part of a presentation by Generation 4 Justice. I wanted to run through my thoughts and the experience of what that looks like for me and what it looked like creating it to hopefully inspire readers to go and create their own and tell the story of human trafficking in your schools, churches, and communities because awareness on a heart level is the first step to changing anything and a drime is a very effective, inexpensive way to have an audience connect on an emotional level with what speakers are talking about.

The process of creating the G4J drime was really quite simple. Nicole, who has helped me get a vision for how to plug in in the future as I talked about in the previous post, really was responsible for creating this drime. She came up with the concept of telling the stories of two girls, a first world girl with the standard set of problems and a trafficked girl. In the beginning Jesus creates each girl and gives her a heart that is free and good. Each girl had a demon working against her and controlling an evil man against her, destroying their hearts and bodies. Eventually Jesus breaks through and a Christian comes and helps set them free. Jesus gives each of them new hearts and restores them.

The whole idea behind this concept is to show the duality of the situations of both girls, the physical and spiritual forces at work in the world. It also shows the need for physical as well as emotional and spiritual healing for victims of trafficking and other struggles.

The actual movements and order were created as we started working with the concepts and the music track that Nicole cut together, in our case music from The Prince of Egypt animated film. The main thing with the music is to make sure it fits with the action, or visa versa in a way that really tells your story. The Lifehouse drama that has circulated the internet and been done many, many times is an example of taking a piece of already existing music and using it to tell a story, but I personally enjoyed having a more soundtrack based music without words this time. Just think about what you intend for the audience to experience and feel and create or pick a soundtrack that fits with the timing and emotion.

In our rehearsals (we only had 2 of them before the first time we performed the drime) we really organically and on the spot figured out what worked and what didn't. What looked good as well as was possible for us to do given our skill level and time crunch. We pulled from experts we knew, namely a dance expert to help make the movement more powerful and fluid.

Drimes can have props or go without. For this one we used chains, money, fruit, paper hearts, and some costumes for the demons. It was fairly inexpensive, with the most expensive thing being the chains and almost everything else just being props and costumes we had already. It doesn't require a big budget or production company to create a drime, just a dedicated team with a vision.

So as far as actually performing it and my experience, I played the part of a trafficker, which was interesting because I was playing the part of the type of person I loathe. I was being the very antithesis of what I believed and I had to create in myself a legitimate feeling of power and hate and cruelty in order to sell the part. I couldn't just go through the motions, I had to feel it when I took the food from the trafficked girl and hurled it to the ground, feel it when I beat her and shoved her to the ground...and honestly what I drew from was my hate of trafficking. I thought about how much I hated it and let those feelings or anger come in. Now, obviously I had control still, I wasn't going to really beat the girl or hurt anyone, but the emotion was very real and from people's comments it really came through. I know at the end of each performance after I've been cast down by Jesus and am lying unconscious or dead (up to interpretation) my heart is hammering so hard and I'm almost out of breath because I experienced the intensity on such a real level.

And I think that's really the heart behind the drime, creating something real that impacts you and so it impacts the audience. It isn't about manipulating them into feeling, it's about telling them the truth through the drime and experiencing that for yourself while showing them.

In the near future when I move to Illinois it's my vision to take this drime and the materials and things that I have learned through it to influence a whole new set of people to rise up and take a stand in Chicago, in St. Louis, and whatever other cities and towns they live in, and learn to recognize trafficking, document it, and be a part of breaking the chains of women, girls, and boys in brothels or slave labor in the US and to the ends of the earth, and also to be a part of the emotional healing that will need to take place in their lives for months and years after they have been freed.

And I hope not to do it by the power of Brian Elliott (that's almost a guaranteed fail) but in the power of the Holy Spirit by the will of the Father. Because I am small and what I can do to change peoples hearts and minds is limited and its effect will be limited, but what the Spirit can do is absolutely limitness and if my heart, soul, body, will, and actions will surrender to Jesus Christ and the Father then the impact I can be a part of having will be amazing.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:10 "I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me [was at work]."

Practical Ways to Fight Trafficking

 I had a facebook conversation with a Generation 4 Justice friend and she had a lot of practical ways to do more than just fund raise. Here's me passing on the knowledge to everyone. I am almost verbatim posting what she wrote because I couldn't word it any clearer myself:

The "Not for Sale" campaign holds trainings semi-regularily in which you can learn how to research out hidden brothels. The police in the US only get minimal training in what to look for, and they don't have the manpower to follow up every lead. A huge help, that you could start being a part of now is go to a training and start finding places where it's happening. I'm pretty sure they teach you how to collect evidence properly or something, and how to keep in contact with the local police so you can work with them. Anyways, I don't know a ton about it yet, but it might be worth looking up. http://nfsacademy.org/ Also, Not for Sale, and IJM do missions trips and offer other ways to get involved that would be a little more "hands on" than educating and fund-raising. Also, a great way to make a difference, right now, no matter who or where you are is to start researching companies that are fair trade and only buying their products instead of buying from companies that use slave labor. Another thing you can do is start writing letters to your congressman telling them why you care about this issue and why they should too. If you take the time (again I don't know a ton about it yet myself) you can keep track of what bills are up for voting on and make calls to let them know that you are a constituent and want them to vote for things that favor the anti-trafficking cause. You could also organize all the people you know so that their office is flooded with calls. Anywho... just a few ideas that I have. The main thing is, find what your passionate about doing, what your skills and gifts are, and use those to creatively further the cause. I am skilled in creating dramas, so I can use that medium to make a difference, in many ways, I hope. Not only for awareness, but later on, possibly helping to heal. A picture is worth a thousand words and can access emotions that people won't allow you access to if you're just talking to them :0) hope this helps a little!

Honestly I got pretty excited reading that. It doesn't cost $50,000 to get a bachelor's degree before I can put my foot in the door and start doing something practical. And so can you. 

Who I Am

Before I get too far into justice I want to give a bit of my background. I personally have been fortunate enough not to be touched by injustice in a grand sense against me. I'm what you'd call an upper-middle class US citizen. But it's been a long time since that's defined me. I don't know why - personally I think it was all the Lord's doing - I've had a heart for missions and helping people since early middle school. I have one memory of a team of highschoolers leaving for Venezuela from the church I was a part of at the time and feeling this huge pang of "I want to go". At the time I couldn't have told you exactly why, but I knew that I wanted to serve God and make an impact.

Then I began to understand what it was that was so wrong in the world. At a 30 Hour Famine I learned about Human Trafficking by watching a video created by International Justice Mission. The images and impressions are burned into my head six years later and I've never been able to escape the call to do something. I have not known what to do and throughout my teenage years there was little I felt empowered to do about trafficking but now I have a better idea of how to begin to engage on a very real level.

I went on my first mission trip happened in 2005 and was to a migrant camp in northern Washington. I loved it even though I didn't really know how to deal with what I saw. Abject poverty an hour and a half from my house, hopelessness, a lack of Jesus. I brought all I had to that trip and I found that I was so much more alive than I'd ever been in my life and it was amazing. Not that the trip wasn't tough. I got hurt several times, was more tired than I'd ever been but I was doing something to reach out at last. We visited the camp once more later that summer, but didn't really have a strong followup. I remember that bothering me. If I'd been older and could have driven I would have gone back again and again until the migrants moved on.

The next year we went to Mexico. The trip was very different. I didn't build bonds with the children, rather I started, as an 8th grader, to build my leadership skills and begin to hone relationships within the group I was serving with. I was hit by the poverty there, and how similar to the migrant camps it was. I practiced endurance and dealing with less than ideal conditions. I remember beginning to hear about gifts of the spirit from people who had seen them. Another group going through the same organization we were working through saw a healing. I wanted to see God work like that.

Me in Mexico performing a drama about repenting and turning to Christ. It was very powerful to me personally and God used it to give me a picture into what it really cost Him to die on the cross.

The following year saw my youth leader step down from his role and another youth leader, who'd been acting as an assistant leader (Suzanne) despite having much more experience, step in and fill the role after a long battle with the leadership of our church. Because Suzanne was a woman and the wife of our pastor the elders felt she wouldn't be a good fit for the group. However, the youth group felt differently and ultimately we won out through prayer and the hard work of Cina, a parent who understood the heart of the youth and Suzanne.

With that battle won Suzanne planned another trip to the migrant camps. This time with a different vision - a plan to build long term relationships. The camp we went to was small and didn't have a lot of kids in it and I have to confess when I found this out I was disappointed and wondered if the months of training and prayer and preparation I'd poured out (along with everyone else) were going to be wasted. Could I ever have been more foolish? I remember praying the Sunday before we rolled down there "Lord, do more than we can ask or imagine" and oh my goodness he did. We got really close to most of the kids and began a relationship with one family that has lasted to the present - four and a half years to date. They came to Christ and as we've gone to other camps they've begun becoming missionaries alongside us to communities they understand. It's amazing to see a girl who was only twelve when we first reached her now in her teens and reaching out as one of us.

Me teaching a migrant boy how to use my video camera. I still know him today.

Through continuous visits to camps and constant involvement and research into justice I've only had my passion for it grow. This certainly isn't exhaustive, but hopefully my heart is captured.

Human Trafficking: Generation 4 Justice Retreat

On the11th and 12th of March I was down at a church in Black Diamond, WA helping the nonprofit Generation 4 Justice put on a retreat raising awareness about modern day slavery - i.e. human trafficking.
If you don't know about human trafficking...and I hope you do...it's when people, the majority being women and children, are tricked or forced into dangerous or backbreaking work for no pay in poor conditions (often they're beaten, raped etc), or even more horrifically forced prostitution (often they're beaten, repeatedly raped, and things I don't even want to describe). I really don't know how anyone can read an account of someone who's been through it and not feel angry or sad - much less go to a weekend primarily focused on it and not be messed up totally by what they hear - even if you've known about it for years. The first time I heard about trafficking was several years ago.  And I'm just as - actually more - bothered by it than I was then.

Honestly since the retreat I've felt really angry and frustrated. It seems like it's such a losing battle, even just in the United States, to end this thing. Even here in Washington there is trafficking, both people being taken from here and people being sold here. It's an industry that will surpass drug trafficking in profitability within a few years. While they're improving, laws often seem to be easy to loophole and getting enough evidence on traffickers to convict them is rare. Illinois just got its first conviction on the 14th of March this year, so only a few days ago, and Chicago is known for being a really big hub for sex slavery. And it's even more prevalent in countries with more corrupt governments. South America is becoming a bigger and bigger circuit. Traffickers take women and children from countries like Mexico and Guatemala and bring them further south to countries like Columbia and Brazil where sex tourism (exactly what it sounds like, a vacation for exploiting girls) is very popular. Asia and Africa have been huge trafficking zones (both for stealing and for selling girls) for a long time.

The week before the conference, as I was researching and getting ready, almost every evening eating dinner with the family I thought "there are girls being raped right now, children being beaten and starved right now...for no reason other than greed...and I'm enjoying a great meal..." And I don't know what to do with it. I thought that being a part of the Generation 4 Justice retreat would make me feel like "yes, I've helped make a difference for these people" but while at times when i was there it did...there were times I felt like I wasn't doing a thing and being a little over a week away from it I feel even more like there must be more I can do...like I'm useless and wasting my time. If I just knew where they were around here - what businesses are using forced labor...what establishments are offering girls to customers for sex behind closed doors I could do something that would directly result in the freedom of these people. Instead I am sitting here writing a blog while young children and women are being repeatedly abused and molested.

But I refuse to believe that I am powerless. And I know people like the G4J crew refuse to believe it too. You should refuse to believe that as well.

I have spent hours online looking for anything I can plug into in Illinois...or anywhere else...where I can actually be useful to putting a dent in this and all I find is "plan an awareness event" and "give money" which are great things (creating awareness is critical for helping people avoid getting tricked into being trafficked and is instrumental in the long term and can help people recognize trafficking that's hiding in plain sight and I'm hoping to instigate events like the G4J youth event or speaking at churches etc in Illinois) but I don't want to only talk about it and I'm already giving most of the money I could use as fun money to helping educate and improve the communities of 3 girls in Guatemala which significantly lowers their chances of being sold off into the sex trade so their parents can afford to eat. I can't get away from the feeling of "it isn't enough" "there's more you can do."

One practical thing that teens can do is reach out to their hurting friends. A lot of pimps and recruiters target lonely girls, pretend to be kind and in love with them and the next thing the girl knows she's in a living hell because she bought the whole thing and no one was close enough to her to be there and see the red flags. It's worth noting also that there wouldn't be a sex tourism industry if there weren't clients - known as "Johns" who pay to rape and molest women and children. I don't even know how to process that so many men can take part in sex tourism enough that 1 girl can make a pimp/trafficker $150,000-$200,000 a year with millions of victims. Not to mention slave labor trafficking...

Feel free to leave comments, start a discussion...(I may not be able to always jump on and join in, the next 4-5 weeks are going to be insane) there's so much that I barely touched on or didn't talk about at all. If nothing else my hope is that I'll expose you to or remind you of what's going on right around you and in almost every nation on this planet and that you'll think about it and start doing something about it.