Dear editor,

In South Korea and beyond, there are millions to whom freedom and honor are daily denied but as Jesus commands, a church in Seoul, the Onnuri English Ministry (OEM) desires to champion the cause of these disenfranchised ones, those whose voices cannot be heard: the unborn, the poor, the elderly, single mothers and orphans, refugees and prisoners and also the victims of trafficking and the modern global slave trade.

On Feb. 10 and 11, in conjunction with Hope Be Restored, a freedom and justice ministry (www.hopeberestored.org) and Not for Sale Korea (www.notforsalecampaign.org), OEM held its most recent Freedom and Honor Conference with guest speakers Tara Teng (former Miss Canada and a slavery abolitionist) and David Batstone (co-founder of the Not for Sale organization and author of the book of the same name)

Tara Teng raised awareness of the plight of the victims of the global slave trade and encouraged the audience to come to terms with its reality and join the fight for its destruction. Professor Batstone expanded on the issue and taught practical steps on how people might make a difference. Of these, the ``free2work’’ application was explained ― a powerful tool to force companies to behave ethically. For more about the application, see www.free2work.org. Professor Batstone believes that Korea and China can influence the world both for good and evil in the 21st century in a similar way to the U.K. in the 19th and the U.S. in the 20th century and that the church should lead in the fight against slavery: “If the world accepts slavery as normal, then we should want to be crazy” he declared. At the conference, Tara Teng recalled Jesus’ first words in public, when He opened the scroll of Isaiah and revealed His purpose ― the fulfillment of scripture in His person. On the need for freedom and honor, God is unambiguous:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19)
For details of the Onnuri English Ministry in Seoul, visit its website at http://www.onnurienglish.org/news.html.