---
title: Jesus in the shadow of the slave market
description: Jesus in the shadow of the slave market
image: https://https.youngleadersinternational.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/salaga-slave-market.jpg
---

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# Jesus in the shadow of the slave market

![Salaga Slave Market](https://https.youngleadersinternational.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/salaga-slave-market.jpg?width=696&height=403&name=salaga-slave-market.jpg)On my last Ghana trip, I visited a town called Salaga, and saw the sign announcing “Welcome to Salaga Slave Market”.  It seemed a far too cheerful way to mark the dirt on which, for hundreds of years, slaves were brought from all over West Africa to be sold.  Salaga was an important way station for the African slave trade, and disturbingly, the slave market operated into the 20th century!

Three of our Ghana Coaches, Zach, Jonah, and Constant, traveled to Salaga last weekend to train and initiate discipling friendships with young leaders.  They sent me some cell phone pictures of the training which I included below.

The story of this community's history of slave trade, encountering the story of Jesus, is significant.  Many of Salaga’s young people today are descendants of slaves or slave traders.  Our desire is to invest heavily in a few who are interested in discipleship.  I think we will all learn a lot.

Slavery is the most “depowering” evil that can be inflicted upon a fellow human being.  It got me thinking, what could YLI’s mission: *Empowering young leaders to reach their world’ *mean to Salaga's young men and women?  The reminder that only freedom in Christ can truly empower a person keeps coming to mind.

We appreciate your prayer and support as we continue to follow Jesus into our world!

In Christ,

Ash

\[gallery ids="1372,1374,1373,1371" type="rectangular"\]

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