Something Worth Fighting For

I watched the movie Human Trafficking tonight. It was very impacting. This injustice is much bigger than I thought. It’s not just overseas in some distant land happening only once in a while. It really hit me that this is actually happening – now, this minute, in America, right now. 50,000 people are trafficked into or transited through the U.S.A. annually. Some trafficking victims, responding to fraudulent offers of employment in the United States, migrate willingly—legally and illegally—and are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude or debt bondage at work sites or in commercial sex. The sexual exploitation of children has become the nation's fastest growing form of organized crime. Why don’t we hear more about this issue? It’s huge, yet we are so blind to it. It’s happening right now on our doorstep. Why are we ignoring the cries of these precious children of Christ being trafficked? What am I doing with my time and energy? Why am I so concerned and caught up with ridiculous things in my life – with self esteem issues, with my appearance, with my life. When am I going to wake up and live for something greater than myself and turn my focus off the self-indulgent American life and look to something greater? When is the church going to turn its attention away from itself and look at issues close to God's heart? This issue needs more attention, and lots of intercession. The Photogenx group here at Kona is currently working on a documentary film soon to be released called Sex and Money (www.sexandmoneyfilm.com) to bring awareness. The girl who started this documentation is 23 years old and spoke here at Ohana court last Thursday. It was amazing to hear her story and see her boldness in stepping out and taking a stand on this issue.

The speaker this week is strongly encouraging us to not go home after DTS unless we absolutely feel called to go back. Statistically over half of DTS students who return home go back to their old life of sin and fall back into old patterns. If we don’t feel strongly called to go home, we should be going into missions and reaching people who don’t have access to the Gospel. People in America have so many opportunities to hear about Jesus. There are so many people overseas who never heard the name of Jesus. So if we don’t feel called to go home or are unsure, we should go into missions. Just before coming to DTS I was sure I’d be coming back to YWAM to do Photogenx. Now however, I strongly feel called to go back to college and get a degree in psychology and art and go to graduate school for art therapy. I can’t even explain all my reasons, but God has been speaking to me the past few weeks and I know this is His will for me. I won’t go back to old patterns. I know this because last year at college I grew more in my faith than any other time of my life, and I can just see that continuing. UNI is sort of my spiritual home. I have so many supportive friends there and know I can make an impact on that campus just by the way I live. I’m still open to the possibility of doing missions overseas. I just know for now I’m to go back and get a degree. I may be called to go later in life. I know there are art therapists in Cambodia who work with girls who are in rehab centers for sex trafficking. I hope to meet some of them when I’m there. I’ll be open to the idea of going overseas in the future, or staying in America. Wherever God wants me I’ll go. This time when I go back to college, I’ll be able to press through the struggles knowing that I’m where God wants me to be and I’m not there out of selfishness to get a degree and well-paid job. I’ll be there for the lost and broken who need counseling – people like girls who were trafficked. I surrendered my education and left because I was scared that I was there out of selfish ambition, but now God is giving it back to me and setting me free from any self focused agendas. I’m sick of living selfishly – of living a cushy, comfortable life of self-gratitude when there is stuff like human trafficking going on all around me. I’m to be made strong so that I can be outward focused and become a blessing to the nations and live a poured out sacrificial life for the glory of Jesus Christ.

We'd rather stay
So comfortable
Stuck in our world under control.
We may not pull, the trigger but we, stand by and watch and pretend not to see.
Silence is worse, then evil done what in the world have we become?
Can't you see that...
This is war,
So pick your side.
It's time to move, not time to hide.
Don't let lies, make up your mind.
Cause you will see,
We're Running Out of Time.