You know that feeling
when your heart hurts so badly it sinks into your stomach and makes you feel
nauseous? It’s the feeling you getting after suffering from an intense break-up
or attending the funeral of a loved one. You feel like you have a knot in your
throat and it becomes a challenge simply to swallow. It’s the adrenaline that
rushes through your veins when your 2/3 of the way through a gut-wrenching film
and you’re just dying to know whether or not the protagonist will survive.
That’s how I feel every day.
That’s how I feel when I think about child sex
slavery.
That’s how I feel every time I picture a little
girl being sold into the brothel and her mother thinking she has a promising
future or job ahead of her.
That’s how I feel every time I see a little boy
selling flowers in the market, knowing that in the distant future he will be
transformed into a woman against his will and sold for sex.
That’s how I feel every time I imagine a child
abandoned, lost, and alone, just waiting to be rescued.
It
breaks my heart like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and sometimes I want to run
home and immediately tell you the truth and reality of the world we live in,
but sometimes it’s to heavy to even put into words.
This
morning we were given the opportunity to visit the Hill-tribe Villages to see
where the children come from that live at “Remember Nhu”. I didn’t really know
what to expect, but as we arrived, it looked like many other villages I had
seen before.
One
thing I noticed was that, as usual, many of the houses were made of natural
materials. However, a few of them were much fancier. It didn’t take long for
our contact to explain where the money had come from. Many of the families sell
their children out of desperation. They are poor. They are starving. If they
don’t send away one child, the others will die. Many times the families are
tricked into believing it is for a decent job, only to later discover that the
children end up in a brothel. So I ask you: what would you do if you had 5
children and your entire family was starving? Would you risk sending one of
them to spare the rest?
that’s what people do here. They take the risk. After a while, like any decent
business, the money comes back to the home. The industry must keep the families
of the workers happy if they want them to continue sending “employees”. Some
stay content with survival, and as you can see by the nicer homes, some get
more involved with the business and greed. Here’s an example of some of the
homes, as well of a few other sites that we saw today:
The
good news is that at the end of the day, my heart still aches, but it is not
without hope. I still writhe in pain at the thought of the many children crying
out in desperation, alone and in need of a Savior, but I rejoice in the fact
that they are never truly alone. Their Father has not abandoned them, not for
one second, and His heart aches for them more than I could ever begin to
imagine.
I
am surrounded by stories of hope. It was difficult seeing the families in the
village today, knowing that many of their children were missing, but it was beautiful
coming home to our children at Remember Nhu and knowing that they had been
saved. Their Father heard their cries, and He brought them home. And for that,
my aching heart finds a reason to dance with joy.
gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.”
Psalm 116:5
