SEX TRAFFICKING.
It's a subject most people in America don't really like to talk about. Actually, a subject most people everywhere don't like to talk about. But it's real. It's heartbreaking. I've hardly stopped crying after I started researching for this post. But stick with me and LISTEN UP. It needs to be told.
Facts:
1. After drugs and weapons, it is the world's third largest criminal enterprise. Can you believe it?
2. There approximately two million children in the commercial sex trade. Children.
3. Almost 80 percent of trafficking victims are women and girls. 50 percent are minors. Despicable.
4. Trafficking generates about $32 billion annually. Money coming from slaves.
5. Rape, unprotected sex, forced abortions, and manipulation can have many psychological and physical effects, including HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases or conditions. Children.
6. In commercial sexual exploitation, a child is treated as a sexual and commercial object. They are used in prostitution, pornography, trafficking and sex tourism. Unthinkable.
7. Over 100,000 U.S. children are forcefully engaged in prostitution or pornography each year.
8:
TWO CHILDREN ARE SOLD EVERY MINUTE.
I cannot read or type that fact without tears welling up. Every single minute. Two helpless children. We live in such a sinful, fallen, horrible world! I wish with all my heart that I could somehow raise all the money needed to help get these children out. That I could speak the word, and these women and children would no longer have to live in fear. But it doesn't work like that. We have to keep praying and speaking and fighting. There are missions that go undercover to root out brothels and free the slaves. Remember my mentioning that while there is slavery in every single nation on this planet, it is legal in none? International Justice Mission and Love146 are two missions that seek to end slavery all over the world. IJM works in all areas of modern day slavery, whereas Love146 works to end child slavery, especially in the sex industry. I encourage you to visit their sites, www.ijm.org and www.love146.org.
You may be wondering how "Love146" got it's name. Here is the story from Rob Morris, President and Co-founder of this organization. He and his partner were just starting the ministry and had gone undercover to South East Asia. Link: http://love146.org/love-story.
"We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children...raped each night... seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us, with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl...
"...All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her…"
“Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid, and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives."
I hope this story and others you may read on the sites might change your life. Awaken you to the atrocities out there. This one girl inspired these men to tell the story of the thousands of others like her. I wept as I read this, and I hope that you have listened and will continue to speak, telling others her story. She represents millions of girls in her position. Tell their story.
I don't want to leave you too depressed, so take heart! You can take heart that both IJM and Love146 are cracking down on the sex trafficking industry. Money and resources are needed to further their progress, of course, but slaves are being freed. There is hope. Also, it is easy to read these accounts and feel so helpless. Feel as if this is a hopeless cause. But remember, God is in control! It's hard to understand, but we are assured in the Scriptures that He is sovereign, and He cares for His people. So, instead let these stories set you on fire to end this evil! Let them fuel your desire to see God's love and mercy shown to these children. Have faith that He will help you as you care for the oppressed. Have faith that we can make a difference through Him. Remember, as well, that these people need the hope of the gospel more than they need freedom. Pray that God might use you. Radical listening, remember?
Every minute, two are sold.
And the clock keeps ticking.
CAN YOU HEAR THEM CRY?
STOP. LISTEN. SPEAK. PRAY. GIVE.
-With hope and faith,
Lauren
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