27 Million

This past week I went to the Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.  The conference is hosted by Passion City Church which includes: Louie Giglio (the senior pastor), the worship band (Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill and others) and church members directing the crowds and holding doors.

The turnout was ridiculous.  There were more than 45,000 people that were in attendance and about 40,000 watching online at any given time.  That on it's own was just super overwhelming.

This is the Georgia Dome and it's not even full yet.

What was the most overwhelming thing was the 27 million.  I didn't really know what this conference was about going into it but quickly found out that it was about Human Trafficking.

There are still 27 MILLION people in slavery.

That's an overwhelming number.

So here is something encouraging... as a group we were supposed to raise 1 million dollars to give to several anti-human trafficking organizations.  My generation stood UP and raised 3.6 million dollars.  Not to mention it brought so much attention to the cause.

Check out this article that CNN wrote on our event.

So here are my thoughts on everything:

I knew that slavery still existed and that this is a huge problem but it was an awesome opportunity to learn more and contribute what I could to the prevention and to help stop human trafficking.  I am also super encouraged that so many other people my age are willing to be part of the fight.

One thing that stuck with me personally was something that a speakers said.  She said that as Christians, we aren't meant to be working in corporate America.  I graduated college a few weeks ago and have been on the job search, so of course that is something I've been fighting with.

With so much greed, corruption, pain, poverty and hate out there, we as Christians shouldn't be wasting our time working in corporate America.  I know, I understand that the wealthy can definitely glorify God.  The only reason my group went on this trip is because someone paid for all of us.  I think what I'm really getting at is that we can't get caught up in corporate America and that if we are part of it, we still need to represent Christ.  You can't just horde money and stuff, you have to be giving and loving and help others too.  I DO think that we as Christians should be out loving and caring for the poor and sick.

I know now that I need to be picky with where I work.  I can't get caught up in wealth and greed and forget about people who are suffering.

I can't stand by and let injustice continue.