Sunday Words of Encouragement July 28, 2013

We had a beautiful service of praise and joy. Our guest minister today spoke on Awareness and Prevention of Sex Trafficking. These comments are from her message.

A government report has stated that ‘Prevention is less costly than rescue and restoration...’ There are 27 million people in our country, America, who are involved in sex trafficking. It is a $32 Billion dollar industry and America ranks third largest of the countries involved.

The children who are pulled in, some as runaways and some kidnaped, are 12 to 14 years of age. Their average life in ‘the business’ is seven years and then they are thrown out or allowed to die.  The victims are conditioned by: starvation, gang rape, confinement, threats to family, beatings, and forced drug addiction.

Traffickers are going to smaller communities, college towns and hiding at churches. College Towns. The trafficking mafia are now using young girls as plants in schools and even church youth groups. They are befriended other young girls and lure them to an overnight when they are drugged and disappear. Parents need to be extra vigilant. The FBI has stated that if a missing child is not found within 72 hours then it is likely they are gone to in another country.

This information is not to create fear, as fear is not of God. But we must make sure our children are aware that this is not a safe world. Parents must watch internet use and always be aware of where your children are going and with whom – get phone numbers and addresses. Visit the homes before allowing sleep-overs. You wouldn’t give your wedding ring to someone to keep overnight. Are not your children even more precious?

Awareness calls for response. What can we do? We can volunteer to become mentors for young girls. We can participate in marches for Awareness or floats in any parade. We can push for stiffer sentencing. Fortunately Florida has strong laws. The most important thing we can do is to is to pray a hedge of protection around our families and churches -- continually. And be willing to help rescued victims to know there is a way back for them.

All countries have fallen from moral depravity. Our speaker likens the victims to this description in Isaiah 42:22 (NLT): But his own people have been robbed and plundered, enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped. They are fair game for anyone and have no one to protect them, no one to take them back home.
Christians are known to say 'God Bless America' but now we need to say “God Save America!”

I failed to pick up the information after the service but here are a few sites with some information.
http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201201/201201_088_sextraffic.cfm
http://usmissions.ag.org/resources/human_trafficking.cfm
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/faqs.html

We sang this very uplifting song this morning!
I've Got a Song to Sing.

A Verse for Today:
John 17:15
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

I pray for protection of my grandchildren and my church family. I pray for deliverance for all those innocents who have been enslaved by evil traffickers.