I read the following article yesterday on the "True Woman Blog" and I wanted to repost it here. May we all join in prayer for the girls and women who will be in desperate need of help and rescue tomorrow (and every day) and for wisdom for the investigators and cops who will be out making "touchdowns" that will last well beyond tomorrow.
How are you getting ready for the “big game?” Planning a party? Or maybe looking for a good book to read while the guys are engrossed in the festivities? Unfortunately, the Super Bowl has a very ugly side. The city hosting the Super Bowl can count on millions of dollars in revenue from all of the people who flood the city with extra time and money. Super Bowl fans are not just looking for good food and entertainment. Many are looking for sex, making the Super Bowl the largest annual event for sex trafficking in the United States. Tens of thousands of women and children were brought into Miami for last year’s game to meet the demand for prostitution. This year promises to be even worse as trafficking is already a huge problem in Texas. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the state may account for 25% of all human trafficking victims, with thousands of women and children trafficked in and through the state each year.
Until about a year ago, I thought that the sex trade was a tragedy that occurred primarily in distant lands like Africa and India. I was shocked to discover that over 300,000 girls between 11 and 17 are lured into the sex trade industry in the United States each year! Most of them are runaways who have been taken far away from home, drugged, and threatened that if they say anything, they will go to jail. In essence, they become sex slaves without a means to escape, dependent on pimps for food and shelter. This is a real problem within our own borders!
So what can you do?
First of all, get on your knees. Scripture reminds us that there is a spiritual battle going on all around us. While the Steelers and the Packers are playing football, spiritual forces are doing a different kind of battle. We cannot hope to make a difference unless we engage in this battle with prayer.
Secondly, begin researching the scope of the problem by looking up websites like Stop Child Trafficking Now. Organizations like this one have practical ways you can help by raising awareness, participating in events, providing healing to victims and even tips on how to spot and report suspicious behavior that may involve trafficking.
Thirdly, have zero tolerance for sexual immorality. The sex trade would be out of business if no one engaged in prostitution or pornography. Many of these sexual acts involve victims. Just because something like porn use is commonplace doesn’t mean it isn’t a vile abomination of human dignity.
The issue of sex trafficking just seems too ugly and overwhelming to embrace. You can’t stop it and neither can I. However, we can ask the Lord how we can begin to engage in the battle.
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