Some Staggering Stats…

According to yesterday’s Swazi Observer: “Out of every 1,000 children born at the country’s hospitals, 587 of them
die. Chief Nursing Officer, Thembisile Khumalo disclosed the figures
yesterday, noting that the number of babies dying at birth was
worrying.”

So I sat down today to peruse through statistics of some major problems both foreign and domestic that somehow keep slipping through the cracks largely due to the magnitude of indifference from people like you and I. If you read this blog as I normally would, then you’ll see a bunch of numbers and take just enough time to shake your head and be sad that the world is the way it is sometimes before quickly looking through other emails in an attempt to quell the possibility that your heart may engage in more than the numbers if you sit long enough.

27,000,000 people are considered slaves for sex and work worldwide.

Half of those numbers are children due to their accessibility, gullibility and the “market demand.”

According to some statistics, 52% of abductors are men, 42% are women and 6% are both.

161 nations have been identified as having issues with human trafficking.

80% of transnational victims are women and girls.

$32,000,000,000 a year (as of 2005) is known to be made through human trafficking.

Over 750,000 known cases of women being sold into the United States from foreign countries within the past decade.

in 2008, there were 33,400,000 people reported to have AIDS worldwide.

This includes at least 430,000 that were born with AIDS.

Latest data indicate that fewer than 40% of young people have basic
information about HIV and less than 40% of people living with HIV know
their status.

There are well over 1,000,000 people in the United States right now that have AIDS.

These also aren’t overly precise since the ages of people in the US with AIDS is increasing and the fact that so many are living with it today without knowing about it. Likewise, the trends are increasing in general and specifically within young women. The statistics are sobering but many of the stories behind the trends is appalling.

ABORTION:

1922-2010: 863,000,000 reported abortions worldwide. (estimated at 950,000,000)

Estimated current global MONTHLY average: 1,237,000

*for both of the above, a majority of the known stats are accounted for only up through 2008.

In the United States:

over 50,000,000 reported abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Nearly half of the pregnancies in America are unintended and 4 out of these 10 are aborted.

22% of all unintended pregnancies in America (excluding miscarriages) result in abortion.

I’ve never been a father and won’t ever be a mother but if you stop to think about these numbers, I’d bet you come to the same conclusion that I have: there are a lot of people in the United States who are hurting. Everything within me says that there are a lot of broken people in America who out of their brokenness have aborted a child or out of their abortion have become broken.

There is much that I would like to say about all of these things but for the moment I will just let the numbers speak for themselves because I fear that if I write too much, you’ll read less…which has possibly already happened.

For those of you who are saying to yourself, “well what can I actually do about this?” I’d suggest that getting informed and letting the gravity of the situation sit on you for a bit might not be a bad start. On the other hand, I have a close friend of mine named Stephanie Tyrna who has and is devoting much of her life to free people in situations quite like the ones above. In particular, she’s about to buy a one way ticket to Cambodia to lead a small group of girls in coming alongside a ministry that works with these situations…

If you would like to read more about Steph Tyrna and become a prayer partner of hers (or even your money into someone who’s investing her life into those neglected), you can find her at:
http://www.stephanietyrna.theworldrace.org