Who Are The Victims?

Sorry about the lack of posts lately - somehow around the holidays time always seems to slip away from me! Katelyn & I have both been out of town spending time with family, so that has alot to do with it as well!

As I've been home with my family this holiday season, I've been reminded over & over how fortunate I am to have grown up in such a loving home. I was raised by two wonderful Christian parents (who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year!), & the older I get the more thankful I am for them. Alot of us can probably relate - we really have been blessed.

It got me thinking of how there are so many girls out there who haven't been as lucky as I have - girls who run away from home at a young age because their parents are drug addicts, or they've been abused, or neglected. You see, when kids run away, they are running FROM something, rather than TO something. These are the girls who wind up becoming victims of sex trafficking. Mother Teresa once said, "There is more hunger for love & appreciation in this world than for bread." Before I even heard the words "human trafficking," I used to assume that every prostitute on the street corner was doing it because she chose to, & I used to wonder what could EVER make a woman resort to selling herself like a piece of meat. I came across this awareness video that GEMS Girls organization produced, & it really opened my eyes to WHO these girls are & the sorts of things they go through.

I believe Mother Teresa was right. She saw the need that people all around her had to just be LOVED. One of the most tragic things about this problem is that alot of these young girls are just looking to be loved, they're looking for some sort of father or brother - someone safe. They are deceived by pimps & traffickers to think that these criminals really do care about them & really do have their best interest in mind...& then they wind up trapped. It's a sick, psychological mind game, but when you don't know what real love is, how do you know what it isn't?

Girls need their dads. And being ignored can be one of the worst forms of abuse. I bet you'd be surprised at the number of girls around you fit the profile of a victim of human trafficking. Maybe they've been the lucky ones who have been able to separate themselves from their past or overcome things that have happened to them...but don't forget the ones that are still out there, still searching for someone - ANYONE - to just love them no matter what.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

John 15:12