Disturbed

I recently read "Sold" by Patricia McCormick.  This was one of those books where it sickens you to read it but you can't sit by and pretend it doesn't happen.

The fall issue of "Compassion Magazine" published by Compassion International highligted this topic as well.  Wess Stafford writes, "...for a girl to be enslaved in a Bangkok brothel, an awful lot of things had to have been wrong upstream in her young life, and we at Compassion believe there is an equally compelling, powerfully strategic approach called prevention.  It may have less 'marketing' sizzle, but it is our goals to make sure children and families don't fall into that trap in the first place."

I love this thought, because the first thing you think of when you finish Sold is what you can do to help to end this awful thing that is happening, not only around the globe, but right here in our neighborhoods as well.  And the next thing you feel is defeat because you can't possibly save these children.  But God did not give us a spirit of timidty but a spirit of love, of power, and of self-control.

We can't help all of these girls (and boys), but we can help one at a time.

"There are 27 million people living as slaves in our world today. That is far more than were enslaved when William Wilberforce fought for the abolition of slavery in the early 1800s." 

"In the United States, one in every three little girls is sexually abused before her 18th birthday, and one in every six little boys."

Compassion partners with local leaders in these poverty-striken cities where "children are kidnapped or recruited for prostitution".  When children enter the child development program, they are surrounded by staff and volunteers who are trained in and committed to child protection.  Compassion is equipping its center directors and staff, with training and resources, to be able to help and protect children from sexual abuse.

Please consider sponsoring a child through Compassion today.  You can participate in the Child Survival Program, which provides prenatal care, immunizations and education to expectant mothers.  You can participate in the Leadership Development program by helping a young Compassion-assisted man or woman attain their Undergraduate degree, then return to their community to influence their family, church, community, and nation.

2 children are sold into the human sex slave trade every minute.  You can prevent this by helping a child from "extreme poverty to enough".