Weekly CIS News for Immediate Release
Best used for Saturday Religion Pages, March 23, 2024
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International Justice Mission’s Gary Haugen Dares UVA Students to Take Bold Risks
By Bill Bray
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (03-23-2024) – Gary Haugen, President, and Founder of the Washington-based International Justice Mission dared UVA students here to take bold risks, putting themselves between persecutors and victims of violence around the world.
He privately shared his dangerous challenge in an intimate follow-up meeting over breakfast with student activists and local pastors at the Center for Christian Study (CCC).
Haugen directs a faith-based mission that works with local authorities to protect destitute people from violence in 31 IJM programs on the ground in over 16 counties around the world. His organization helps students act against terrorism, trafficking, slavery and violence against women, minorities, and children.
The meeting was sponsored by the CCC as a closed-door sequel to a much larger lecture-event held the night before at the University. The Center is located just off the grounds of the University of Virginia on Chancellor Street’s “sorority row”; an ideal setting to attract small groups of student activists.
Haugen challenged the students to act out of “stillness” and “contemplation” doing their social activism with joy rather than fear or violence.
He warned his hearers against what he called the American “idolatry of work and action” before being.
He urged student activists and leaders to act out of a daily 30 minutes of stillness. He said reflection and stillness before God should be an integral part of their daily work routine, urging them to begin their day with an “8:30 AM Time of Stillness” and prayer.
“Contemplate Christ and how he would respond to your situation,” he said, “shun prayerlessness and arrange your life to reflect God. Then your group will imitate the best in you. Whatever you are will be copied. (OVER)
“Speak rarely,” he urged, “and remember what you do and manifest in your person will overshadow whatever you say and communicate.”
He urged leaders to act out of proximity with the people they serve and not lose the authenticity of living closely with the people they serve.
“Find your place of still-ness and go to your spiritual closet there,” he advised, “before you go to your desk or your workstation.”
(ENDS)
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