HUMAN TRAFFICKING

“I noticed that many of the older girls, twelve and thirteen years old, had lost all life in their eyes. They appeared to be in a trance or under some kind of dark magician’s spell. They moved with a slow resignation; no amount of smiling, warmth or kindness on my part could draw them out. The systematic and prolonged sexual abuse of children and young people is perhaps the worst crime against humanity because, as I saw day after day, it strips them of their heart and soul. It murders the person but leaves their bodies alive.” (Walker, Daniel. God in a Brothel.)

The above quote captured my heart and saddened my soul. It made me stop, put down the book, and pray. I was spiritually sickened. God in a Brothel is the story of a Christian police officer who works for an organization in the United States that infiltrates groups and brothels all over the world–from the United States, to South America, Central America and South Asia–to rescue young victims of the sex trade. Without getting explicit he describes the stories. Some of them are so perverse and some of the men in the account are so vicious, that at times I feel I do not want to finish the book. I feel I have read enough, I am sickened enough, but my eyes are being opened to the abuses against innocent children and women around the world. He calls Las Vegas, with all of its lights and beautiful buildings nothing more than a brothel and he speaks of Atlanta, the home of the Civil Rights Movement, as a place of slave trade.

How inhumane can this world be? How abusive and heartless can human beings become that they take advantage of the poor, underprivileged, immigrant, lonely and needy to the point of exploiting their bodies for self-gratification and for money?

In this book Daniel Walker, tells of his victories–of rescues–and you want to cheer out loud when a child looks at him and says, “Thank you.” You also want to cry when a rescue does not go well and the child disappears because the police or other investigators tipped the criminals and culprits who run the brothels, in advance of the raid.

We, Christians and people of prayer, must be aware of what is going on all around us. My questions as I read the book is how can I help? How do I support these organizations that rescue these young victims?

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