Oftentimes, their desperately impoverished parents had sold them to pay off debts. Girls were forced into prostitution and boys made to work in factories.
There was the seven-year-old boy who was taken off to toil in a carpet factory. He returned 10 years later, a 17-year-old with fingers so twisted they were almost useless.
Johnson, an associate professor of biblical and theological studies at North Park University, remembered his friends as he ran the 26.2 miles in the Chicago marathon on October 7. He raised more than $700 to benefit World Vision’s work around the world to care and provide job training to rescued slaves.
The United Nations estimates that as much as $10 billion exchanges hands in the slave trade each year. Approximately two million children are pushed into the sex trade, 250 million forced to work in exploitive labor conditions, and another 300,000 are forced to serve as child soldiers in conflicts around the world.
Twenty-five other North Park University students ran with Johnson to raise money for World Vision. They battled high humidity and temperatures reaching 86 degrees that forced organizers to stop the race for the first time in its history. Johnson and at least several of the students were able to finish before the race was halted, but he was unsure whether everyone completed the course.
Johnson, who just turned 50, has been running the Chicago Marathon for five years to raise money for different causes, including cancer research – his sister, Debra, died of ovarian cancer – and combating AIDS in Africa.
The professor teaches a class in the spring semester about global slavery. Last year, some of the students decided to run the marathon with him to raise money for World Vision’s work.
The Chicago event was the second marathon Johnson had run in less than a month. On September 14, he ran 26.2 miles as part of a 24-hour, 200-mile Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire.
Johnson prayed for victims of human trafficking while he trained. “I never listen to music.” He intends to continue running, “as long as God gives me the energy.”
People can still contribute to Johnson and World Vision’s work. For more information, call Johnson at 773-244-5202 or email him.
To read another account from a participant in the Chicago Marathon who was running for special reasons, please see Barbara Pement.
