“That’s not true.”
In the early days of Blackbox International, Executive Director Wade Landers spoke before a group of ministry leaders. He told them—not graphically, but honestly—about the crisis of boys being trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation around the world. For many in the room, it was the first time they’d heard such news.
Wade’s listeners were international, so as he spoke in English, a man named Doug Reed repeated his words into Spanish. When Wade told a particularly difficult story, Doug stopped translating. With tears in his eyes, he looked at Wade.
“That’s not true,” he whispered. “No. You made that up.”
He didn’t want to translate anymore. He didn’t want to speak the unspeakable.
But silence doesn’t make it stop, and it certainly won’t change the story. At Blackbox, we protect the privacy of each boy by not telling his name or details. His story is his, not ours, so we won’t even show his face without our blackbox.
We do, however, tell the truth. We speak for boys who were silenced, believing that God is empowering them to one day tell their own story of healing and restoration and purpose.
The unspeakable is true, and so we speak it. We speak because, “Behind every blackbox is a story, and the story must change.”