Into The Unknown

This is an old post that I never published. It was from when I first came to college, just for a time reference.

There is a beautiful scene in Prince Caspian where Lucy is talking with Aslan after having just found him after returning to Narnia. Unfortunately I can't quote it from memory, but I can tell the basics of it. Aslan tells Lucy to wake her sleeping brothers and sister and follow him. None of the others are able to see him yet, but she is supposed to just tell them to follow her. She has no assurance that her siblings will listen to her, the youngest of four. All she is told is to follow Aslan.

God doesn't always give me the answers to the questions I ask Him. ie: who should I date? what should I be involved in? I thought if I came to Harding and got into college, God would show me the person I am supposed to date and stuff. I thought if I tried out for Theatron (a skit group here at Harding), God would put me in that ministry. Instead He says, "I am not going to tell you where you are going or who you will meet. All I will say is follow me." So that's what I am going to do, as best as I can.

Sometimes, I wish God would tell me about my future. Just show me where I am going and what my goal is here on earth. Not the churchy, idealistic, "Go and make disciples all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." I mean I want to know things like, "This is the girl you are going to marry, or this is what she is like." or "This is what you should do while you are in such and such place." But I don't know if God micromanages my life like that. I wonder if He leaves certain things up to me that could still be a part of His plan. Maybe it is just a matter of following where He leads, and keeping my eyes focused on Him, and then everything else will just fall into place.

Thank goodness that God gives us examples to follow after. The author of Hebrews talks about all kinds of situations in which people followed God's leading, even though the destinaiton was not known.

11:32(ff) And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

People in the book of Hebrews who followed God and never saw their goal. God said go and do this, and they responded. I find that it's easy to follow God when you like where He is leading you, but what if it seems like He is leading you by hand into the dark, into caves and holes in the ground, and He just says trust me and hold tight? What does that look like? It's Indiana Jones stepping off a ledge to save his father. It's Eustace and Jill cutting the cords off a stark raving madman, who is their prince. It's the Nait Saint, Jim Elliot and the other missionaries who took the Gospel to savages in Ecuador; it's their wives returning to the savages after they speared and hacked their husbands. It's Naomi saying wherever you go I will follow. It's Abraham going up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac.

I find that it is not so important that I know where I am going, or what I need to be doing in life. What is truly important is that I am following God as he leads me through. I have to trust that if I keep my eyes on him, all these other things will fall into place. As frightening as it might be, sometimes seeking after God is following him into the dark, into the unknown where you have only your faith in him. God doesn't always tell what will happen in life if we do what he wants. He just asks us to follow him.

Me: "Where are we going God?"
God: "Just wait a while, you will see in time."
Me: "But I need to know."
God: "Why? You don't have to know the destination if you just follow the road."

"O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you."

Third Day - "Mountain of God"
Thought that I was all alone
Broken and afraid
But You were there with me
Yes, You were there with me

And I didn't even know
That I had lost my way
But You were there with me
Yes, You were there with me

'Til You opened up my eyes
I never knew
That I couldn't ever make it
Without You

Even though the journey's long
And I know the road is hard
Well, the One who's gone before me
He will help me carry on
After all that I've been through
Now I realize the truth
That I must go through the valley
To stand upon the mountain of God

As I travel on the road
That You have lead me down
You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me
I have need for nothing more
Oh, now that I have found
That You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me

I confess from time to time
I lose my way
But You are always there
To bring me back again

Sometimes I think of where it is I've come from
And the things I've left behind
But of all I've had, what I possessed
Nothing can quite compare
With what's in front of me
With what's in front of me

(After final Chorus)
I thought that I was all alone
Broken and afraid
But, You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me.

Sex Trafficking

One of my strongest beliefs, and you might call it a strength, is my concern for those who are being mistreated and abused and who are powerless to stop it. It has been something that has influenced my life, and played a large part in my decisions about the future. I recently had to do a speech in one of my classes for a major grade, and it had to be about something in the news. I decided at the time, that it would be a good idea to talk about sex trafficking, because it is something that few people know enough about and I am very passionately against it.

As I thought about it over the following weeks, I desired to give this speech less and less. It would have to be a very grave speech, and I really did not look forward to exposing such dark secrets to my class because it would make me feel uncomfortable. Several times I thought about switching topics to something a little less weighty and serious, something that would be easier to write a speech about, where I could slack off and not feel so bad. But then, I stopped to think about it. The stories I would tell and the hidden crimes I would reveal to my classmates are already terrible enough. In each story, someone was helpless against the atrocities committed against them, and in many cases it was because no one spoke out. And I wondered why it was that sex trafficking isn't in the news so much and why I barely knew anything about it before I researched it and why I felt a strong desire to cop out and not talk about it. And in all honesty, I think that it is because there are spiritual forces in this world, powers that influence what evil things go on and what lies hidden behind closed doors. For some of you, this may be too weird and a little cheesy, that I would attribute my desire to wimp out of a speech to Satan and not to laziness. But I think that these feelings and others are part of a spiritual and physical war against Adam's race, God's children.

It was the hardest speech for me to research and write, because I knew the stories of so many victims of sex trafficking and could not help but feel sorrowful pain for them. If you are brave enough to feel the grief of reading these women's and childrens' stories, please feel free to do your own research. I am no expert on this topic, and so you wouldprobably gain a better knowledge of it by teaching yourself. Here are some links you can follow:

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1596778&page=1
http://www.captivedaughters.org/
http://www3.baylor.edu/~Charles_Kemp/sex_trafficking_details.htm
http://www.ijm.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=178&srcid=-2

Sex Trafficking. An unsightly blight that thrives in our society. It is something that we would rather not talk about, and a shameful sin that we do not know enough about, especially here in America. Now I am not just talking about prostitution or pornography, I am talking about human slavery, the selling of young men and women, even girls and boys, to brothels and their subsequent abuse, mistreatment and in many cases murder.

As I first began to hear about this and learn more, I was shocked to discover the Western worlds influence in the perpetuation of this global problem. Particularly America’s part in it. As one US Embassy official states, “Mexican officials see sex trafficking as a U.S. problem. If there wasn't such a large demand, then people -- trafficking victims and migrants alike -- wouldn't be going up there.”

According to the FBI, there are over 100,000 children and young women being trafficked in America today. The ages range anywhere from 9-19, with the average age being 11. The CIA estimates that there are 18,000 – 20,000 people trafficked into the US each year. MY thesis is: the sex trade in America is a terrible cancer that is taking the lives and hopes of many young men and women

Many of the stories of these forced sex slaves are similar: women from all over the world are either persuaded with lies or outright kidnapped and forced to leave their home. Others are sold by poor parents to pimps who are willing to pay lots of money for children. At home, these children are not worth a cent to their family. In the sex trade, they become worth thousands. After this, pimps will smuggle them into a foreign country, like America, where these children are considered illegal immigrants. Most often, pimps sneak them in through Mexico, where authorities usually just check the ID’s of those who look Hispanic trying to get into the country.

In one situation a girl we’ll call Debbie was abducted from her driveway in a middle class neighborhood here in America, when an acquaintance pushed her in a car and drove off. Not all stories are like Debbie’s; other victims are lured by offers of jobs from a charismatic and friendly person. Once they meet up with this person, things go downhill quickly. They are often held against their will in squalid conditions during their “breaking in” period. During this time, they are raped repeatedly and beaten by the pimps who captured them, before being exposed to other men. This “breaking in” serves as training grounds for what will become a way of life for these women and children.

When she wasn’t being raped, Debbie was forced into a small dog cage until her entire body was numb. Her captors fed her dog biscuits and degraded her until she had almost no hope left. She was one of the rare fortunate ones to break out of this gruesome nightmare of abuse and degradation. Police received a tip one day to an apartment, where they found her stuffed in a drawer under a bed. After 40 days of sexual abuse she was finally set free. She was 15, the age most children are freshmen in high school.

This would not be possible if there weren’t such a demand for this kind of trade among Americans. Many of the men who raped Debbie had wives and children. Another girl we’ll call Annie would have Bible Scriptures read to her before and after she was raped. She was 7 at the time. The scary thing about this crime is that the perpetrators who demand these acts often look like your next door neighbor.

For others not so fortunate as Debbie, pimps will put ads for sex and take these girls on tours across the US, where they will be raped again and again, sometimes being forced to have sex with 15 men a day, seven days a week. Rarely do these men wear a condom and sometimes will pay extra to beat their victims. They do this to maximize profits – $10,000-30,000 a week. All the while, their captors use psychological tactics to keep them from running away. They are controlled mainly through fear and thus kept from feeling to the authorities. Those who were brought into the country can’t speak English and wouldn’t know where to turn even if they could escape. Debbie was told that if she ran, her family would be killed and her baby niece, 19 months old, would have battery acid thrown on her. So she stayed out of love to keep her family alive.

Part of the solution to this problem lies in the very nature of sex trafficking. In order for pimps to carry out business, they have to advertise, either by putting girls in visible places or posting on the internet. Gary Haugen, the president of International Justice Mission says, “It's the easiest kind of crime in the world to spot. Men look for it all day, every day.'' It is one of the few human rights violations that require public exposure to continue. Many of the times when victims are freed, it is due to a tip from a third party, such in Debbie’s case. These girls are out in public, and so it is up to all people to be aware of the people they interact with on a daily basis. In one story, a cab driver giving a ride to a victim found out what was going on and was able to help her escape. One way that pimps exchange sex slaves who are children is color coded shirts in "Disneyland"(here I confess I don't know if the author of the article literally meant Disneyland). The main thing is that if the pimps are advertising their victims, someone has to be able to see them. Every single person can make a difference by being involved with the people in their lives. By talking to those who seem like they might be the victims of abuse or telling someone when things don’t seem right you could be making a huge difference in these people’s lives. Keep in mind that many victims are held captive in middle class neighborhoods. Annie, the 7-year-old, actually stayed in a middle class home with a family for a while. Instead of telling authorities, the family just sat around her watching TV, either because they didn’t care or because they were being paid too well by her captors to not help the 7-year-old child prostitute.

Another part of the solution would be to monitor the Internet, specifically escort services that are used as ads for sex. Pimps will often take pictures of their victims to post online, and within hours men come knocking at their doors demanding sex. If the perpetrators can find them so easily, then can’t government agencies find them as well?

In addition to these, a change is required in law enforcement, particularly when deporting immigrants. Whenever police find these victims, they lump them into a group with all the other prostitutes and illegal immigrants they pick up. They assume that these women are selling their bodies out of choice, and that undocumented foreign prostitutes are committing an additional crime by sneaking into the country. Therefore it is imperative that officers are trained to look for prostitutes who are subject to abuse and get help for victims of sex trafficking. Programs should be established to aid those who are forced to prostitute their bodies. Foreigners should be allowed to live here if they want rather than be deported. Additional border security and special attention paid to children would also help to decrease the flow of sex trafficking into America.

What we simply cannot do is that which is easiest to do: nothing. To go on with our lives and not give these helpless victims aid. Their world is one of darkness, where abuse and rape are the order of every day, and their only value is how much pleasure perverts derive from them. Although voiceless, their scarred bodies and broken hearts cry out for help. They need someone to step in and be an advocate for them. And we must answer this call.

Landesman, Peter. “The Girls Next Door”. New York Times. Jan. 25, 2004. Dec. 2, 2006. <http://www3.baylor.edu/~Charles_Kemp/sex_trafficking_details.htm>

“Teen Girls’ Stories of Sex Trafficking in U.S.” ABC News. Feb. 9, 2006. Dec. 4, 2006.

“What is Human Trafficking.” Sex Trafficking. Salvation Army. 2006. Dec. 4, 2006.

<http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn.nsf/ce952dea4507ee7780256cf4005d2254/8203847f6ba996e585256f25005d5274?OpenDocument#Sample%20Cases>