Can you imagine what it would be like to be sold as a child, by your own parent into prostitution? I cannot imagine it. I have read stories of individuals that lived through this ordeal, and my heart breaks wide open for them. Read this story of “Not for Sale”, and see if your emotions flare up.
Did you want to scream at the injustice of it? Did you want to reach into the story and do anything that you could to change it?
Recently, Tad, a fellow team member of mine, shared information about Human Trafficking in Cambodia with me. Cambodia is at the epicenter of this epidemic as a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking.
Although it is difficult, if not impossible, for some of us to come to grip with this reality of evil, it is a very real issue. Children live a life of captivity. They live a daily routine of beatings, starvation and then ultimately forced into prostitution. Women are also trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor in factories or as domestic servants. Men are not immune, as they are trafficked for forced labor.1
In some cases, children are sold with the reasoning “that a life of emotional and mental pain is better than starvation and homelessness.2” In other cases, a single child is sacrificed for the betterment of the rest of the family; a way to secure funds to feed the family left behind.
There is an estimation of 1.2 million children are trafficked each year (world wide), 1/3 of sexually abused children in Cambodia are boys, and human trafficking is the second most profitable crime in the world.2
According to ECPAT International, "Cambodia is a country where social inequality, poor access to land, limited resources for families to meet the needs of their children, low-quality education, deficient social services and weakened institutions-problems exacerbated by 20 years of war – have contributed to the high vulnerability of Cambodian children to commercial sexual exploitation."3
This is not just a Cambodian issue, nor is it an issue that just affects “other” countries. We are not immune here in America. The United States was ranked for the first time in 2010, ... documenting human trafficking and modern slavery, by the Department of State. The report found that in America men, women, and children were subject to trafficking for “forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution."4
We serve an awesome and powerful God. We serve Him with the knowledge that He is the Alpha and the Omega. He has a plan, and it includes you and I. Although sin brings death and decay to this world, our God is more powerful. Pray for these children that are victims of trafficking, pray for those that help them, be BOLD and Shine the Light!
Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
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