“The Lord is close to the
brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18, NIV
1984).
Upset and angry after countless arguments and violence at home, she ran
away late that night, slipping out quietly with her high school backpack and
some spare change. No set destination, just getting out of the house, away from
home. Within 48 hours on the streets, she was picked up by a passing motorist.
At that point, lost, hungry, tired and scared, she welcomed the lift from the
stranger who seemed sympathetic to her plight and condition. Little did she
know that within weeks, she would be forced to work for him in his bar, first
as a waitress serving drinks and later as a sex trafficked teen servicing
clients in a back room, paying off her “debts” to the guy who had offered her a
ride on a lonely inner city street. She was caught in the web of human
trafficking; she was a victim of deception, coercion, physical and psychological
abuse.
In the same city, a small group of women with a deep passion and
commitment to see the oppressed set free, to see righteousness and justice
triumph over the oppressors, were praying before heading out that night to do
street outreach. They had gone to K Street many times before, hoping to
identify minors who were soliciting on the Washington, D.C. streets. Hoping to
be a light in their darkness, they spotted this teen girl and invited her into
dialog. They told her who they were and then inquired about her. They offered
to pray with her, for her, there on the street. They affirmed her self-worth,
assured her of God’s passion to see her rescued from the fowler’s snare and
restored to fullness. They told her that God ached for her, He saw her pain and
suffering, He was angry at the evil done to her and He came to set the captive
free. They told her about a safe house and shelters, free social services and
places to find help. This would be the first of several encounters before the
teen would try to break free of her oppressor. It would require from her much
courage. From the group of women who met with her, it would require a hunger
and thirst after righteousness; it would require being salt persistently rubbed
into the meat of human depravity to keep the spoiler from taking the victory over
this teen girl. It would require being light in a very dark place.
Where are you in the battle
against human trafficking? Do you know that it likely happens in your own city
and not just in some faraway place on the other side of the globe? Are you
mourning and grieving over this evil of human trafficking? Are you doing
something besides just condemning this evil? Jesus wept over the city of
Jerusalem, over its sins and lost-ness. Are you weeping for those who have
fallen into the trap of the wicked person who lurks in secret in order to seize
his prey (Psalm 10)? What are you doing to prevent human trafficking, to protect
and restore its victims? Your God is the God who rises, redeems, remakes and
rejoices over one sinner who is found. Most often, when God “saves
those who are crushed in spirit,” He does it through you.
Pray: O, Lord, forgive me for
complacency or judgment about those caught in human trafficking. Create in me a
hunger, a deep passion and a persistent commitment to prevent, protect and
restore those who are trafficked.
Dr. Clydette Powell
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