restored to grace

Fellow blogger Todd Ruth indirectly led me to Inspired to Action, a blog that exists “to equip and inspire people to take action on behalf of those in need.” Inspired to Action is hosting an event called The 40 Day Fast in which 40 bloggers fast for one day each and blog about an organization that is striving to meet a need somewhere.

This is Day 2 of the 40 Day Fast, and the blogger Amy is telling of her organization: ProLiteracy Worldwide.

While I’m not one of the registered bloggers for this event, I do want to share my own burden.

During the final sermon of the “Reasons to Believe” series at Liquid Church, Pastor Tim told the story of a night he was watching TV and stumbled on a documentary about children in the Far East being sold into slavery and exploited for sex. How tourists and pedophiles would pay $10 an hour to do whatever they want with these little girls. When I heard that story, I felt all kinds of emotions burning inside me.

So I started looking into this whole thing. And I discovered this organization: Love146.

Love146 exists to help abolish child sex trafficking. The organization has set up multiple safehomes to help children who have suffered due to sex trafficking.

Take a look at these statistics:

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) now believes that the number of children trafficked annually is around 1.2 million. (2006)

It is estimated that two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Annually, according to U.S. Government-sponsored research completed in 2006, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80 percent of transnational victims are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. (2007 Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. State Department)

It is estimated that at least 27 million people are currently enslaved around the world, many who have been enslaved through being trafficked. This is more than double the number of Africans enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The U.N. and other experts estimate the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion – about $10 billion is derived from the initial “sale” of individuals, with the remainder representing the estimated profits from the activities or goods produced by the victims of this barbaric crime. (UNODC)

These numbers make trafficking in persons the second most lucrative crime in the world. The first is drug trafficking. (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006).

About $28 billion of this is generated from commercial sexual exploitation. (International Labor Organization)

The organization to End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes believe that 45,000-50,000 persons are trafficked into the U.S. each year, 15,000 of them are children. (ECPAT-USA)

Pray with me that God would use Love146 and other similar organizations to help bring about the abolition of this kind of evil.

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