step by step. hand in hand: are we incurable fantics?

(info may be sensitive to some)

Most of us have at least heard of human trafficking. It can be easy to turn our heads the other way and think that something so atrocious couldn't possibly be happening, maybe even in our own towns. But it is. It is happening right here in Little Rock and most likely right where you live too. Girls are being sold for sex. against their will, day after day for years. They are trapped, threatened, beat, and brutally assaulted. When did this start to become okay in the world? When did hearts get so hard that this has become a living for people?

It makes my hands ache to even type this and it's hard to press the keys to even write what I need to say. But I need to say it.

About 3 years ago we were introduced to the subject. Much to my ignorance and naivety I did not even know this was happening before then. How could something so awful, so unimaginable be going on for years and I didn't even have a clue it existed? It is such a hidden and secret crime, but thankfully in the past few years many abolitionists are rising up to take a stand against this and to get the word out to people like us who maybe just didn't even know something so terrible was happening. Once you know, really know, you can't forget. You can't forget about the 27 million people that are enslaved around the world or the two million children involved in the commercial sex trade. And these people are more than a statistic, they are a precious human life.

To say that I have a tornado of emotions surrounding this subject would be an understatement. I've never wanted to do something so badly yet felt so helpless at the same time. My heart screams "it's unfair, unjust!" and I struggle to know what to do. I sometimes get this "i'm going save the world" thought process going and try to figure out how I can free them. I can't. I can do nothing on my own. Apart from God, my feeble attempts and hopes for these girls are nothing. I have to remind myself that God is their God too and He loves them with an everlasting love and wants to redeem their lives.
But yet they are still trapped in this prison day after day. I have a hard time understanding these things sometimes.

I recently bought a documentary called Nefarious, Merchant of Souls. It's a documentary on sex trafficking around the world and yes, here in the US. It. is. so. hard. to. watch. It will break you heart, it will enrage you with anger at times, it will leave you speechless. But we have to educate ourselves, we CANNOT ignore this "fastest growing criminal industry in the world". Did you know that parents sell their own children to a pimp so that through sex they will make their parents a healthy wage...and what's EVEN WORSE is many of the fathers don't work, and not because they can't find a job but because they depend on their daughter's income and they sit around all day doing nothing while their daughter is being unbelievably abused day after day. Did you know that the average age of entry into commercial sex slavery in the UNITED STATES is 13??? Did you know 80-90% of families are selling their daughters in certain countries?

I don't want to believe it. And sometimes I wish I didn't know because it's so painful. But I can't ignore what I know. I can't. After we watched the movie, I just wept for a while. I have heard alot of this information before, but when you hear their stories and see their faces, it's not just another fact. It's a human life. Yes you might be emotionally heightened after watching the movie, but beware those emotions will dissipate when you go to bed and wake up and go about normal life, after a few days or weeks it's easy to forget or to dismiss those thoughts. But don't let yourself. I'm not saying to drown yourself daily in a wave of despair, i'm asking that you don't forget this evil and to hope in a God who redeeming people to Himself!

There is hope. Because God is God. Because girls are being rescued and brothels are being discovered. But it's a hard and slow process at times. It's a very dangerous thing at times. What can you do? Ask God how He wants to use you in this. Pray pray pray. Educate yourself. But please don't ignore this injustice, this terrible, unfathomable evil. It's more than a wordly battle, it's a spiritual battle.

William Wilberforce, who fought slave trade and slavery in 1800's said this:

"If to be feeling alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic,

I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large"