We all know about the Holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day, and Veteran’s Day… the comfortable, happy holidays filled with family get-togethers and cook-outs… fireworks and children laughing and playing.
Today is NOT one of those holidays. Today stands for something entirely different…something that steals the lives of beautiful young women, the innocence of precious children, and the souls of men around the world. Something EVIL and DARK.
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
You can call it Human Trafficking or some other politically correct term, but please know what it really is…
it really is MODERN DAY SLAVERY. SEX slavery. RAPE.
It happens around the world to children as young as three years old. It happens EVERY DAY to little girls and young women in Thailand, Cambodia, and yes… even in America.
I know you don’t want to hear this. You probably want to stop reading right now (if you’ve made it this far)…but you NEED to hear this. We all do. We can’t stay in the comfort of our ignorance while Satan wages a war against the purity, innocence, and freedom of so many.
Today I got an email from my friend (I will call her Anna*) who is fighting human trafficking in Cambodia. She is passionate about seeing these girls RESCUED from their horrific lives. She shared this reflection from her time over the past year in Cambodia:
“…a part of me wants to hurry and rush away from the nightmares: falling in love with a ten-year-old little girl and finding out that she’s been sold for sex, for years, every night…seeing blood on another little girl’s dress and learning that the scars on her face come from her pedophile….telling a five year old who’s been sold for sex, that it’s ok if she stands up and does our craft activity since it’s obviously too painful for her to sit down and do it…. “
“Anna” also shares this story of a young girl named “Hope”*:
Hope’s mom and dad ran a brothel for years, and had sold her since she was little. Her mom and dad got into trouble with the police, (the handful that are NOT corrupt), and fled back to Vietnam where they came from. They left Hope to continue to be sold by her grandmother; this is very common, for the kids to be living with and being sold by Grandma.
Well, the elderly couple that lived across the street from Hope and her grandmother began to care for Hope, as she obviously was in trouble and didn’t have anyone who loved her to care for her. The elderly couple treated Hope like a daughter, and for the first time, she began to know what true family is. Then, one day a pedophile came to take Hope. This was 2 and a half months ago. The elderly couple did not want Hope to be sold, again, and did something that no one had done for her her entire life. They stood up for her. They told the pedophile, NO, you can’t take her. And then, just like the rape he came to commit against Hope’s young body, the pedophile tried to take the lives of this elderly couple. He ran them down with his car.
Both the old man and woman were left with broken bodies, and spent the past two and a half months in the hospital. The man has a broken shoulder and hip bone or pelvis, and can’t walk. The woman had surgery on one leg and now limps around…Hope stayed with them the entire time they were in the hospital…
They were run down in a car for trying to help one young girl. Can you imagine the thoughts against those of us who are trying to help ALL of the young girls? Upon meeting this old couple, my heart swelled up with pride for them. They took a stand. Physically. They did something about it. That day, even one day, Hope was not raped.
Here are “Anna’s” closing thoughts:
I go into 2010 knowing that you guys are with me; that you stand up for me, that you stand beside me, and that through this entire year, you have stayed with me. When I hear about the tears you shed for the broken children here, I know I am not alone. And I know the kids who are sold for sex aren’t either. Let’s not give up on them….let’s stand together-in front of moving cars, in the faces of pedophiles, and against all evil…for no weapon formed against us will prosper….
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Today, commit to making a difference and helping FIGHT this evil we call ‘Human Trafficking’. PRAY for “Anna”, her 2 adopted children, and those working with her. PRAY for the victims of sex slavery around the world. EDUCATE yourself about this epidemic by researching it (you can start by reading my friend Tina’s blog here or my friend Matt’s blogs here). And GET INVOLVED by checking out these ideas for action on Change.org , by being a part of IJM, by joining my friend Nedra’s awesome organization “She Dances“.
*names have been changed to protect those trafficked and those working to free them.
Thanks, Ericka 🙂
thank you for posting this. love what you wrote. love these precious young girls who are so courageous. love those who are fighting for them, like jer and nedra
Oh my goodness!! Goose bumps are covering my entire body right now, and tears running are down my face!! My heart breaks for all the precious children, beautiful children of God, that are sold into the sex trade!! You know i have heard about this b4 but today it really hit me just how evil and real it actually is!! Praying that God moves people to go and stand up for these innocent children who deserve to be protected and loved, and that He protects and strengthens those who have and are!! God Bless!!