WARNING: If you don't want to be held accountable for the poor and don't know about human trafficking in our country, then stay ignorant and don't read this post. I'm really not trying to be rude. I'm serious. About one month ago, I was completely clueless and so I couldn't do anything. Now that I know, I am held accountable by the One who deeply cares about the chains of injustice.
Okay. I don't know if any of this will make sense because I'm "full" and overwhelmed and it might be hard to communicate my thoughts, but I guess this is just the story of one thing God is currently doing - in my own heart and in our country in general. I get together on a regular basis with a couple of friends for coffee and we've been doing this for a couple of years. Our late night conversations have covered a VAST range of topics and have knit our hearts together and kept us sane! :) About a month ago, one of them told me I had to read this book called Renting Lacy but she told me not to read it when I was depressed - it had made her physically sick. So I borrowed it and read it. Prior to reading this book, here's what I thought about prostitution in our country (keep in mind that I see prostitutes on the streets of my own neighborhood). I believed that although they probably had less-than-ideal home situations growing up, they had made some bad choices and chosen this "profession" because they could make good money and support drug habits, etc. I believed they wanted to be there and that they should be "punished" through incarceration because what they're doing is horrible. I believed that while there were some "sicko" situations, in general, prostitution "incidents" were just men looking for sex (married or not) who got what they needed and moved on. All of those sterotypical thoughts have been shattered. I love it and hate it when the Lord moves in and changes our stereotypes and perspectives. I have heard of and read a little about sex trafficking of girls in other countries, esp India. We have contributed money through World Vision and other ways to help rescue those girls. I was disturbed when I heard about those girls, but I was shocked (which is an understatement) to learn about what is going on here in the US and specifically in the Metroplex, and even more specifically, my own neighborhood. Renting Lacy was written by an former Congresswoman who became an advocate for these girls when she discovered what was going on. I was ignorant (and still am on one level, praise God) of the depravity of man (rich and poor). Here's what's happening. Typical profile of a prostitute: Girl who has a bad homelife - maybe abused, one parent at home, maybe a runaway, wants a better situation. The pimps know how to spot them so they pretend to be a sweet boyfriend and "romance" them, sometimes for months. Then they do this weird brainwashing or just take them and they then "belong" to them. These guys are business men and they are running huge and profitable businesses. I went to a meeting the other night about this and it is the second-largest and fastest-growing criminal activity in the world. It is predicted that it will soon surpass drugs - they can only sell drugs one time; they can sell a child over and over again. The porn industry has made this business skyrocket, for obvious reasons. They have these girls doing online porn and then men who are looking for prostitutes want younger and younger girls (I am talking 12 and 13 year olds) because it's what they're watching. So porn addiction is not only about purity, it's about oppressing the poor. Heavy. So if you see an 18-19 year old prostitute, many of them have been doing it since they were as young as 12 and there really is no easy way out. They are threatened, etc. And not only that, these girls are the ones that are prosecuted while the johns are let go and the pimps are rarely caught. Yeah, it's REALLY messed up. So the meeting I attended Tuesday p.m. was done by this ministry called Traffick911. It was started by a woman from Dallas and they are currently in the planning stage for opening 3 shelters in this area. There are just a handful of shelters across the nation. We are sending lots of money and monitoring sex trafficking in other countries, but we have done very little for our own children! Anyway, Texas is the leader in the nation for this business and Dallas/Fort Worth are the leading cities in the nation. Traffick911 (traffick911.org) is in the process of organizing a huge awareness/rescue effort for the SuperBowl in 2011 because big sporting events mean high demand. And as long as there is demand, there will continue to be suppliers. The speaker said that people are already renting their houses out for thousands of dollars and some of those homes will be turned into brothels for the weekend. Another thing I learned was that Craigs List is making millions on these ads for child prostitutes - they know about it and will do nothing to stop it. You can read about that on this link: (and I've looked at them and some of those girls are definitely under 18)
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/craigslist_makes_36_million_from_illegal_sex_ads
So after this woman's presentation I went up to her and asked her about Como - she said it was "huge", meaning the problem is huge here. I think I knew that, but it was still so sobering. I think all of us who attented that meeting are still a bit "shaken up" just trying to sort through it all and pray and see where God wants us to go next with what we now know. One of my friends just keeps saying "He is stronger and He is bigger!" Just a few weeks ago, RB and I spoke at our church's training school and one of the things I talked about was something this Brazilian church planter said to us back when we were in training school. He said that there is a demonic spirit of Poverty and it will rise up, look you in the face, and say "Fix THIS!" It is just too overwhelming and too big...IF we take our eyes off Jesus. What I told the class that night was that if we let ourselves get "under" the darkness, we will no longer be effective and will stop bringing the light to the very places that need it the most. SO I've been trying to listen to the voice of God this week and take my own advice (ha, ha) because it's so easy to let the darkness of this situation creep into the very depths of your soul. But so thankful for the Body of Christ, and God is clearly moving to bring people to awareness and then to action. Really can't wait to see what He is about to do here in the Metroplex and although these last few weeks have been sobering, it is exciting to get to be a part of His mission.
So I write all of this to make maybe a few people aware. We're talking about 300,000 kids in our country and the Lord needs us to rise up and not ignore the cry of the poor, in this case, children. I know I'll never look at the kids who show up at my doorstep in the same way again. More later...I'm full of so much that God is revealing right now! But have terrible sore throat and have to go sleep while I can!
