I want to present a hypothetical situation. This will be hard to read. In fact I want to advise that you don’t force yourself to read this if it becomes too much. But do remember, this is reality for MILLIONS of children worldwide.
– – –
Kent and Debbie, a young married couple, have two young children: a teenage boy named Chris, and an eleven-year-old daughter, Janet. The family lives on the edge of Denver, a big city in the United States, in a not so great neighborhood/slum. For the most part they get by, but life is very difficult for their family.
Kent comes home one evening, downcast. He breaks the news that he has been fired, and instantly the only income the struggling family had is gone. He and Debbie don’t know what to do. They stay up all night and talk and argue, and the next day they continue, into the next evening. In the morning, Kent tells Janet and the family that he has made up his mind, and although Debbie is devastated, she has to agree. He has decided to sell his eleven-year-old daughter as a child prostitute.
Child prostitution is illegal in the U.S. as in essentially every country, but that does not stop anyone from exploiting little girls (or even boys), it does not stop families from selling girls so they have a little extra money to live one – not to mention fewer hungry stomachs to feed – and it does not stop people from their own country or even from foreign countries coming to have sex with little girls being used as sex slaves.
Janet has no power to stop what her family has condemned her to, and soon a man – who will tell her what to do, who will sell her to be rapped again and again every day – comes and takes her away from her family. Her mothers promises they will see each other again and she will come home as soon as they have money and can afford to redeem her.
The thing is, in so many countries – The U.S. among them – girls are simply used until they are infected with HIV/AIDS, scores of other STDs, and are sick and thinning. When they are about to die, they are literally thrown out on the street.
Janet waits for years. No one comes for her, except grown men who want to force themselves on her. Foreigners, from countries where many claim to love God, come and do nothing to rescue her; instead they help keep her enslaved.
And the worst part? No one ever comes to tell her about a God who hears her cries, who is broken over her brokenness, who wants to redeem her, who wants her to be a free child. No one ever tells her about Jesus, who died to take away her wrongdoing and make her righteous before God as part of His family. No Christian ever comes to say, There is hope, and I will help set you free.
– – –
This illustration is based off of the true story of an Indian (as in from India…) girl named Prema, told in “30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless” (ISBN 1-4276-0425-8). This is a global pandemic that is the only reality that millions of little girls know. In fact, in 2006, around the world an estimated 10 million children were in some aspect of the sex industry. Over a million children annually are brought into prostitution. In South Africa alone, 40,000 children work as prostitutes. In Thailand, girls between age 10 to 12 are forced to have sex with men 10–30 times every day.
Do you see what I’m trying to drive home? I wanted to bring the reality of child prostitution closer to home, so I tried to use my family, my little sister, to drive home the point. I would feel like killing someone if this happened to Janet. I cannot imagine my baby sister being forced into prostitution, in such intense pain – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually – dozens of times every day. Until she can’t feel anymore or chooses not to feel. Until her body gives up, shuts down, and dies.
Would you allow this to happen to your child? I know you are saying “No.” So how can we allow anyone’s child to bear this?
This isn’t only a problem in countries like India or Thailand. Child prostitution is alive and thriving in the U.S. too. USA Today ran a story about child prostitution over a year ago (USA Today - Child Prostitution). So many in the world are choosing to ignore this, to pretend this is not a problem, or simply refuse to become informed on global issues of injustice. People choose out instead of in. Out of personal pain, out of responsibility, out of life.
What would happen if we chose in, to choose in to life, to choose in to the pain of others, choose in to taking action? Could one of the most lucrative industries in the world be shut down?
Jesus was condemned often for his interaction with prostitutes and other people no one else wanted to interact with. If God doesn’t love the messed up, dirty people as much as the ones who look clean and as though they have everything together, what kind of God would that make Him? It is never people God hates, but the things people do that are against His nature (i.e. sin). The church seems embarrassed to do anything involving prostitutes, pornography, drug users, anyone involved with something the church is supposed to be against. This doesn’t mesh with what Jesus did.
I am worried my writing here has given a sense of condemnation, and I promise that is the last thing I want. There is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ, and I do not want to be a voice of condemnation; but I do want to be a voice crying out “Who will save these children?” I want to be a voice asking why the church is not doing what Jesus did. I want to be a Voice for the Voiceless.
I would leave to hear your comments.
Grace and Peace,
Christopher
– – –
Kent and Debbie, a young married couple, have two young children: a teenage boy named Chris, and an eleven-year-old daughter, Janet. The family lives on the edge of Denver, a big city in the United States, in a not so great neighborhood/slum. For the most part they get by, but life is very difficult for their family.
Kent comes home one evening, downcast. He breaks the news that he has been fired, and instantly the only income the struggling family had is gone. He and Debbie don’t know what to do. They stay up all night and talk and argue, and the next day they continue, into the next evening. In the morning, Kent tells Janet and the family that he has made up his mind, and although Debbie is devastated, she has to agree. He has decided to sell his eleven-year-old daughter as a child prostitute.
Child prostitution is illegal in the U.S. as in essentially every country, but that does not stop anyone from exploiting little girls (or even boys), it does not stop families from selling girls so they have a little extra money to live one – not to mention fewer hungry stomachs to feed – and it does not stop people from their own country or even from foreign countries coming to have sex with little girls being used as sex slaves.
Janet has no power to stop what her family has condemned her to, and soon a man – who will tell her what to do, who will sell her to be rapped again and again every day – comes and takes her away from her family. Her mothers promises they will see each other again and she will come home as soon as they have money and can afford to redeem her.
The thing is, in so many countries – The U.S. among them – girls are simply used until they are infected with HIV/AIDS, scores of other STDs, and are sick and thinning. When they are about to die, they are literally thrown out on the street.
Janet waits for years. No one comes for her, except grown men who want to force themselves on her. Foreigners, from countries where many claim to love God, come and do nothing to rescue her; instead they help keep her enslaved.
And the worst part? No one ever comes to tell her about a God who hears her cries, who is broken over her brokenness, who wants to redeem her, who wants her to be a free child. No one ever tells her about Jesus, who died to take away her wrongdoing and make her righteous before God as part of His family. No Christian ever comes to say, There is hope, and I will help set you free.
– – –
This illustration is based off of the true story of an Indian (as in from India…) girl named Prema, told in “30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless” (ISBN 1-4276-0425-8). This is a global pandemic that is the only reality that millions of little girls know. In fact, in 2006, around the world an estimated 10 million children were in some aspect of the sex industry. Over a million children annually are brought into prostitution. In South Africa alone, 40,000 children work as prostitutes. In Thailand, girls between age 10 to 12 are forced to have sex with men 10–30 times every day.
Do you see what I’m trying to drive home? I wanted to bring the reality of child prostitution closer to home, so I tried to use my family, my little sister, to drive home the point. I would feel like killing someone if this happened to Janet. I cannot imagine my baby sister being forced into prostitution, in such intense pain – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually – dozens of times every day. Until she can’t feel anymore or chooses not to feel. Until her body gives up, shuts down, and dies.
Would you allow this to happen to your child? I know you are saying “No.” So how can we allow anyone’s child to bear this?
This isn’t only a problem in countries like India or Thailand. Child prostitution is alive and thriving in the U.S. too. USA Today ran a story about child prostitution over a year ago (USA Today - Child Prostitution). So many in the world are choosing to ignore this, to pretend this is not a problem, or simply refuse to become informed on global issues of injustice. People choose out instead of in. Out of personal pain, out of responsibility, out of life.
What would happen if we chose in, to choose in to life, to choose in to the pain of others, choose in to taking action? Could one of the most lucrative industries in the world be shut down?
Jesus was condemned often for his interaction with prostitutes and other people no one else wanted to interact with. If God doesn’t love the messed up, dirty people as much as the ones who look clean and as though they have everything together, what kind of God would that make Him? It is never people God hates, but the things people do that are against His nature (i.e. sin). The church seems embarrassed to do anything involving prostitutes, pornography, drug users, anyone involved with something the church is supposed to be against. This doesn’t mesh with what Jesus did.
I am worried my writing here has given a sense of condemnation, and I promise that is the last thing I want. There is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ, and I do not want to be a voice of condemnation; but I do want to be a voice crying out “Who will save these children?” I want to be a voice asking why the church is not doing what Jesus did. I want to be a Voice for the Voiceless.
I would leave to hear your comments.
Grace and Peace,
Christopher
You're right--it is hard to read, hard to think about. But it makes me think of a line in Hotel Rwanda.
ReplyDeleteA cameraman left the hotel and shot footage of the slaughter, brought it back and showed it to the journalist he was with. The manager/main character was in the room and saw it, and he thanked the cameraman for shooting it and showing it to the world, that maybe it would convince the international community to intervene and save them. But the guy apologized profusely, saying: "Paul, I don't think this is going to change anything. I'm afraid that people will see it, say 'oh, that's horrible', and go right on eating their dinners. I'm sorry, Paul."
The question now is 'how'? How do we get our friends, family and neighbors to get out of their safe little bubbles and see all of the tragedy and pain that surrounds them?
And after that, the question becomes 'well, what do we DO?'
Great post, Chris Wolf. =]