The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Lauren L. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Reading - God's Politician: William Wilberforce's Struggle by Garth Lean
"So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition."
In the late 1700s, when William Wilberforce was a teenager, English traders raided the African coast on the Gulf of Guinea, captured between 35,000 and 50,000 Africans a year, shipped them across the Atlantic, and sold them into slavery. It was a profitable business that many powerful people had become dependent upon. One publicist for the West Indies trade wrote,
"The impossibility of doing without slaves in the West Indies will always prevent this traffic being dropped. The necessity, the absolute necessity, then, of carrying it on, must, since there is no other, be its excuse."
But by the late 1700s, the economics of slavery were so entrenched that only a handful of people thought anything could be done about it. That handful included William Wilberforce.
A faith that changed history: this is the story of William Wilberforce's struggle to abolish the Slave Trade and reform the morals of Great Britain. In God's Politician, Garth Lean provides an insightful and stirring account of how Wilberforce and his colleagues in the "Clapham Circle" put their faith into action and changed the course of history. Their legacy was one of far-reaching moral renewal as well as testimony to the power of the individual to effect change in his world.
I flip through the shows on television and all I see are whacked out reality shows where everyone just wants to "get ahead". They each admit to "cutting throats" and "annihilating the competition" in order to survive. But just what do they want to get ahead of? Your struggle of self-denial? Will power and money really bring you the satisfaction from work that you are looking for? It's really just refreshing to read about someone who devoted their lives to a higher purpose. William Wilberforce had to face oppression, fear, judgment and hate for the work that he did to eliminate the slave trade in the United Kingdom. Thanks to his dedication, he prevailed. But he didn't accomplish this on his own. No, it took the strength of God and His plans to make Wilberforce the man that he was. William Wilberforce surrendered himself to God's plans fully and, because of this, his legacy and God's still lives on today.
"And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you." - Psalm 9:10
God is there to provide for us, to support us, to build us up. We were each created with a different plan that works with who we are. We each are here for a higher purpose, but it's up to us as to whether or not we accept the challenge.
