"If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large."
~ William Wilberforce ~
Close your eyes and imagine for a minute the following
scenario …
A dusty and hot wind roughly assails the senses of young Ambika.
She looks up and shades her eyes from the beating sun. In the distance she can
see her parents standing outside of their small home. She runs towards them
with a smile brightening her wistful face. As she approaches, the smile fades quickly
at the sight of a stranger next to her father staring at her. She slows her
steps and moves towards her mother as if to protect herself from his piercing,
dark gaze. Her father and the stranger exchange a few more words until the man
nods in agreement with her father. The stranger looks to her again and invites
her to come with him. Ambika looks up at her mother confused and frightened, but
her mother looks straight into her deep brown eyes and says, “You
must go with him and work. You must work to help feed our family … We need to
work together”
For many young girls around the world, this is how it
begins. A family working hard to survive against the odds needs every member of
the family to do their part. A family is very fortunate to have boys if they
are in this situation. Boys can work nearly any trade outside the home and
their aid can help the family survive another day. Unfortunately if you are a
girl you don’t have many options of employment. It is especially unfortunate if
you are in a family with many girls.
So what can a family do?
This is where sex-trafficking predators come into the
picture. They offer a way of income to the family through the process of sexual
exploitation. They pay highly for the chance to objectify the innocent.
Families who feel they have no other alternative often agree to this for the
sake of their child surviving another day. Devastatingly enough, this is
happening around the world daily. In fact, an estimated 1.2 million children
are trafficked each year for the price of $12 billion.
Understand that this is not the only way young children are
trafficked into the sex trade. Many children are trafficked directly from the
streets with no parental consent and others are coerced into this scheme
because they have no parents to speak for them. Many children become orphans
due to their parent’s involvement in sex trafficking and prostitution. This is
a sickening cycle.
With all this in mind, how does this apply to what I can do?
What does God command me to do with this knowledge?
Many people have asked me why this trip to India is so
focused on orphans. Many of those same people have asked the following
question:
What makes the orphan crisis
more pertinent than all other world problems?
One of the reasons Journey117 focuses on orphans to such an
extent is because they believe many of the problems we face in our world today
can be prevented if the Church steps in and breaks the orphan cycle. They
believe that God commands the Church in His Word to serve orphans and fatherless
in this way. And so do I.
It is amazing what God can do when the Church steps in and
comes alongside those who have nothing. There are literally millions that are
broken and need Jesus just as much as they need their next meal. We are
commanded as the Church to protect and serve the innocent, poor, and
fatherless. Imagine what would have happened to little Ambika if only the
Church would have stepped into her family’s life. Imagine how different the
outcome of her circumstances would be.
That
is the kind of miracle God can and will work in the lives of those the Church
loves and serves.
I’m beyond excited to love on each child and family I meet
during my time in India. I pray that God gives me His heart for the fatherless
and reveals to me how I can defend them.
It’s time to break the
cycle and be Christ’s heart and hands to a world that desperately needs Him.
“O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”
~ Psalm 10:17,18 ~
Praise Him.
