Stop Sex Trafficking: You Can Help
I spent today at the Dallas Seminary women's leadership conference, All About Influence. One of the workshops I attended was about how to fight human trafficking. It was led by Kim Smith Jones, who just returned from a SE Asia trip with the organization "Love146." She showed this video that explained how the organization came about and what its name means (warning: not for kiddos):
Kim argued that justice issues are important to the heart of God. Jesus said "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). And that word "righteousness" involves more than having a personal morality or holiness. It involves setting things right, or restorative justice.
How can we help set things right in the world where two children are sold per minute? We can do three things: educate ourselves, pray, and roll up our sleeves and get in there.
The first, education, comes by being willing to expose ourselves to the brokenness, by having the courage to keep from walking away but actually to look at it. And once we know, we respond with hope in Christ, not despair, because we have a very big God.
Next, we cry out to God for the enslaved. The task is too big to do on our own. So we must pray for him to deliver the oppressed, including the people who dump money into the porn and prostitution industries to feed their addictions.
And finally, we can invest what we have to help. We can leverage what influence we have to push back against the darkness. This takes two forms. One is direct intervention or triage. This mostly takes the form of cash in supporting those who possess the training and expertise on the front lines. It might involve raising money for those working in the trenches. The second form is a holistic prevention. This approach involves reaching out to at-risk kids; partnering with public schools and mentoring; supporting ministries to the homeless; teaching the men in our churches and communities (it is usually men) that they cannot demand or victimize; and supporting microbusinesses that help women develop skills and get out of the prostitution industry, to name a few.
How has God gifted you? Justice is a huge deal to Him. How are you ordering your life, your time, your education, and your financial resources to help set things right?