Image from the film, Sound of Freedom (2023). Image shows actress Cristal Aparicio drumming and singing the music of freedom.
"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm
For love is stronger than death
It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame
Many waters cannot quench love
Rivers cannot wash it away"
-Song of Solomon 8:6 -NIV
**
THE SOUND OF FREEDOM
Oh cross that raises freedom's voice
Oh cross that makes my heart rejoice
Oh love stronger than death
The seal is set, I am possessed
Love burned in me a mighty flame
Called out to me
Called my name
**
On July 4, 2023, the movie The Sound of Freedom
was released
The people's movie of 2023
The movie is inspired by the true story of Tim Ballard
An American anti-human trafficking activist
Jim Caviezel takes on the role of Tim Ballard
the film is produced by Angel Studios
"a home for stories that amplify light"
Since its release, it's made over 180 million
Ranking in the top 10 in this year's domestic box office.
Making it the highest grossing Indie film since Parasite
The sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable children
generate an estimated global profits of $150 billion.
It is the second largest criminal industry in the world.
I have watched the film twice
The first time I watched it I had a sleepless night
as my own memories of childhood abuse surfaced
This excerpt is from my own story detailed in my book
Outside the Gate
It takes place at the infamous Grandview School for Girls
I was 14 years old.
**
Outside the Gate | The Grandview School for Girls
Where are we going?
That was the question I wanted to ask but there was no encouragement for conversation.
I simply followed silently behind the woman and did not attempt to speak.
We entered the darkness of the night and walked around the campus.
Once again I was struck by the silence which felt like a dark night of emptiness.
Instructions were made in sign language as the woman made beckoning motions.
I had been told I was to be isolated.
I had no idea what that meant.
A nightie and a change of clothing had been placed in a bag.
Whatever happened would be in secrecy.
I was filled with fear.
We stepped up the front steps of a dark building.
"Every new girl is examined before they join the rest of the girls."
Examined? I asked myself.
Are they going to look at my wounds? Finally?
No medical person had examined me since the beating which had left me bleeding and bruised.
Why now? Why in a dark room away from everyone?
My heart was pounding and trembling had started.
As we walked my legs started to turn to rubber.
We stepped through the front door, inside the semi-dark building.
Up a set of stairs and into a small room.
All of it felt wrong.
I was falling down another rabbit hole that was dark and fathomless.
Nothing to grasp to keep myself from falling.
I heard her voice like a dream in the distance.
"You will see the doctor in the morning."
She left me alone in that dark house.
I listened to her steps walking away and heard a door shut in the distance.
The cold malevolent house closed around me.
"You will see the doctor in the morning." seemed to echo in the room.
- Outside the Gate by June Smith
**
"No eye pitied you... but you were thrown out into the open field
When you yourself were loathed on the day you were born."
And when I saw you struggling in your own blood
I said to you..
LIVE!"
(Eziekiel 16:5)
Like the soft beating of the drums
Justice comes
Love stronger than pain
The sound of freedom
Is in His name
Oh cross that raises freedom's voice
Oh cross that makes my heart rejoice
Oh love that is stronger than death
The seal is set, I am possessed.
**
"God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."
-Ephesians2:4-6