The first thing that I saw that really broke my heart was the killing fields. I wrote that in my last blog, you can read it if you like. The second thing that I encountered was seeing 2 young Khmer girls with a white man.
I was not the first to see it. I saw people from our group off to one corner talking. I joined the circle. We were outside a mall and inside we could see a white man, in his late 60’s with two Khmer girls, one was about 11 and the other 15. They gave the appearance that they were happy, but we, and everyone around, knew something wasn’t right.
The oldest one came outside and sat down on a bench and one the girls from team went over and talked to her. What our team member found out was that she and this man had been friends for 6 or 7 years. They were from a different province and were just visiting the city. Her English was perfect, but our team member told us that she looked terrified. We didn’t get to talk long because the man and the other child were coming out of the ice cream shop. Then, we watched them walk away.
What do you do in that situation? It is so delicate… what we say and do could make the situation worse for the girls. My mind was racing and I went home and processed.
This was my first encounter with one of the biggest problems around the world, sex trafficking. I have to admit, I wasn’t entirely prepared for the encounter. I wasn’t expecting to see it in broad daylight at the local mall. So my team and I began to fast and pray for the girls and sex trafficking. During out time of prayer, the Lord reminded me, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In this moment, it was the hardest thing for me to do. How can I pray for this man? Not just this one man, but everyone sucked into this sick, twisted world of sex trafficking?
Prayer is powerful. It is our communication to the Lord. It has the power to bring His Kingdom to earth. It is a very humbling experience praying for those you do not like or those who are doing things that are harming others. But the Lord has been teaching me a lot through it. These men that I’ve been called to pray for. They are still His children. He loves them. They are just caught up in sin. So we need to pray that they will see the light.
