What Can I do?
Last night I watched Frontline’s in depth report on the sex slave trade. There were two young women that stood out: Katia and Tania.
Katia is from Moldova. She went to Turkey with an acquaintance and he in turn sold her to a pimp where she was beaten and raped over and over again. She was four months pregnant when she was sold. Back in the Ukraine, Katia’s five-year-old boy thought his mother went abroad to work. Her husband searched for Katia endlessly. His persistence eventually paid off. Katia returned home. However, she lost her baby.
Tania left her home in Chernobyl believing she was going to work as a nanny. Her family was in desperate need of money to pay for the mounting medical bills that plagued them. You might recall that Chernobyl is not the safest environment to live in. With hopes of making the badly needed money, Katia traveled to Istanbul only to be sold to an extremely violent pimp.
As I watched these women recall their tragedies, I couldn’t help but to think, what are we doing about this? Not the United States, not the UN, not the governments of any of these countries, but followers of Jesus Christ.
Sex trade is not limited to young women. Children - little girls AND boys - are sold into this hell on earth. My children were sleeping just a few feet away from me in their cozy beds as I watched, and I thought to myself how do these children, these young women sleep? How do they go on? How do they live? Dreams are crushed. Lives are ruined all in the name of sex, and if you really think about it isn’t about sex at all, it’s about power.
For the past couple of years, Heath and I have been pondering adopting a child from either Ethiopia or Vietnam. I have to be honest. I couldn’t go to a third world country and pick just one. It would kill me to leave all the others behind. This leads me to one conclusion; I must be involved in a ministry that reaches out to all. I know that I am supposed to think globally and act locally, but I have to wonder who is acting locally on their behalves?
February 9th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Sue, totally resonate with you. one of the key aspects of the cyber VOX cafe will be a section called “build a village.” we’re going to use this section to mobilize people across the west to pariticpate in the lives of the kinds of people you describe. whether through adoption of villages, orphanages or people, we’ll take steps to make the world a better place.
February 9th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Alex, I’m there! Count me in! You may not know yet, but any help - finacial, prayer, my hands, whatever - please let me know.
February 10th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
That’s the question, or even, what can we do? Our college gang was asking this question recently about the homeless in Sac, but more the one’s with severe mental problems…in some ways not even the church has an answer or even response…
We’re there with ya…
February 17th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Have you seen the documentary, “Born in to Brothels”? Deeply moving movie about the desperate poor in India who are … well, as the title says. The documentary tells the story of a photographer who moves to India for a time and lives among the poor, befriending approx. 12 kids… she teaches them about photography and gives them a glimpse of what life outside the brothels could look like. I won’t spoil the whole movie for you… but definately check it out if you get a chance.