You often find unusual items at a church rummage sale. What is even more shocking is when people buy them. Items such as…
A pair of used dentures
An artificial leg
A Sweating to the Oldies Cassette Tape
A 7 year old bright-eyed girl (a lot of time the misconception about human trafficking is that its only 20 or 30 something women…NOT TRUE…children as young as 7ish are being sold into sexual slavery)
WHAT?
Clearly if you went to a church rummage sale or any rummage sale for that matter you would not expect to see a child for sale. Parents might joke about shipping their unruly child off to Timbuktu or leaving them at the circus…but a child should never ever be for sale…EVER. No financial situation, no hardship, or a so-called promise of a better future or education…there should be ZERO reason for a child to be FOR SALE…but this very minute they are.
Today at training we talked about safety and human trafficking…people being sold into domestic or sexual slavery.
CHURCH…you should be angry…even furious that this is happening…that we're letting this happen essentially…by looking the other way. If your church isn't doesn't have a budget to support ministries involved in eliminating trafficking…you might just want to call someone and find out WHEN that can be changed…not next week, or after the next commercial…RIGHT NOW!
Events like the Super Bowl or Olympics are HUGE for Human Trafficking.
Because human trafficking is not just happening overseas it IS happening in the United States. If your neighbor had their child for sale I would hope you would not shrug your shoulders and say…oh well…not my child…not my problem. God COMMANDS us (not just lightly suggests or says if its convenient for us) to look after the widows and the orphans…and that's exactly what we're NOT doing…I mean barely doing at all. So let's not form another committee…let's get off our behinds and do something about this today.
Here are 3 resources you can use to get better educated about this horrific problem. For some its as simple as buying a t-shirt in support of the organization to raise awareness. Maybe its adopting a child. Pray for these ministries…hey that's free and just takes a little bit of time…nothing too uncomfortable with that. Yes…this does sound like an angry blog…but its just so dear to my heart. When you meet the face of human trafficking like I did in Haiti…it has a completely different feel to it. Its not someone else's problem…because in Christ we're ONE BODY. Our "body" is being abused when it should be held, and hugged, and told its LOVED dearly….because otherwise Christ dying on the cross was a complete waste of time…and I sure don't think Jesus thought that when He was dying for ALL of us.
Resources:
Not for Sale http: www.notforsalecampaign.org
Orphan Justice Center: orphanjusticecenter.com
Show Hope: showhope.org
