What Would Jesus do for the Children at Risk?

by Dave Geisler

Children lose their lives to hunger, malnutrition, and preventable disease at a rate of 35,000 per day. But there are now computer websites that can save the lives of children with just the click of a mouse. Children die of diseases that can be prevented easily with immunization shots. Now the world’s richest man, computer software architect Bill Gates, has started a foundation to provide immunizations for every child in developing countries that needs them. There are 150 million street children, and there are networks of ministries designed to help them. Though these problems are not eradicated, there is progress.

SLAVERY AND PROSTITUTION
There is however, another problem that threatens children in a deeper way. This problem will not go away because of the sinful hearts of mankind. Evil men seek to profit by enslaving children and young women to work as slaves or prostitutes. Trafficking in children and young women forces over two million people into lives of sexual degradation. It is a $ 3.5 billion industry worldwide. Much of this trafficking takes place in southern and Southeast Asia where Hinduism and Buddhism are the spiritual strongholds. These Eastern religions have no concept that people are made in the image of God. In Thailand alone it is estimated that at least 800,000 children as young as age six are working as prostitutes. There are at least 200,000 Nepalese girls being trafficked into India. Government officials in many countries will often look the other way as this trade in the lives of children provides infusions of foreign cash into the economy.

In India, even though laws have been enacted to abolish slavery, the International Justice Mission (IJM) estimates that there are still ten million forced laborers. Many of them are children who start work at the age of five rolling cigarettes called beadies for India’s popular tobacco export industry. These cigarettes are popular with young people in America who can buy them at specialty shops and convenience stores. These cigarettes have four times the nicotine level of normal cigarettes. They are dipped in chocolate so that smoking them is a more pleasurable addicting experience than standard cigarettes. Children are also forced to work in sweatshop environments working long hours making clothes. This is another situation IJM is fighting.

As the West falls further away from Judeo–Christian values, the problem is spreading. In one case in Atlanta, in the United States, a trafficking ring brought 500 to 1,000 girls from China, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam to work in secret brothels. And the brothel customers in places like the Philippines, Thailand, and India are often Westerners.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country where many of the 123 million people live in dire poverty, girls dream of immigrating to the West. It is common for 14-year-old girls to be offered jobs as maids in countries like Italy only to find out too late that they are being forced into lives of prostitution to pay off huge immigration fees. These girls are beaten and in some cases crippled by being thrown out of windows.

GOVERNMENTS AND THE U.N. OFFER LITTLE HELP
One of the problems in fighting these evils is that some governments have wanted to make a distinction between forced and unforced prostitution. Some people believe that non-coercive prostitution should be considered a legitimate form of labor. However, women’s rights groups are arguing that even if individuals are making a choice, it is exploitation and the girls are still suffering human rights violations.

Amazingly, a United Nations committee has interpreted the right to sell one’s body as being part of an “individual’s reproductive rights.” According to an article in the Washington Times from June 1, 2000: “The United Nations and the World Bank consistently strong-arm poor countries to adopt social policies contrary to their own traditions as the price of receiving global monetary aid,” said Anita K. Blair of the Independent Women’s Forum. Blair went on to say that if they are going to get roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals, they are going to need capital from the developed world.

Thus, developing countries are forced as a practical matter to accept conditions stemming from U.N. documents in order to obtain international loans. To require two-thirds-world countries to adopt failed social policies of the developed world in order to finance needed economic development is a form of cultural imperialism and blackmail.

CHRISTIAN HELP FOR CHILDREN AT RISK
Historically Bible–believing Christians have stood against slavery from the days of William Wilberforce and John Wesley in England to the present day Christians who are fighting against slavery in Sudan. Compassion for the survivors of the horror of trafficking in children should compel us to do all we can to end such activity.

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is leading the battle to continue standing against the slavery of children and young women around the world. NAE Director Bishop Kevin Mannoia, believes that as the movement of evangelical Christians engages culture, “We are going to be encountering resistance and creating waves.” Mannoia wants to call people to loving activism to transform culture.

To combat the increasing flesh trade, the NAE co-founded the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking. (IAST) This is a diverse partnership of faith-based human rights organizations. IAST considers sexual trafficking an intolerable evil because it completely strips its victims of their human dignity. IAST has adopted a key as its symbol of freedom and is collecting one million keys to symbolically represent millions of lives enslaved by trafficking. This campaign will continue through March 8th of this year.

Sometimes a short–term mission can lead to a long–term effort to combat abuse. Robin Haines Merrill was on a summer mission trip in Metro Manila and began to use her skills as a photographer to document the lives of the people in Ermita, the red light district. Her spirit was touched by the spiritual and social problems she saw. She went back to the Philippines as a long–term missionary and began talking to the bargirls about Jesus. Some of the girls became Christians and witnessed to other girls. Robin eventually established the Christian Cultural Development Foundation which is teaching Filipino children how to use their artistic skills to create gift projects, make health food muffins, beauty supplies, and sew as alternatives to street life. These are the kinds of activities that children could be taught to do around the world to help their families escape from poverty.

Prostitution and slavery are only a few of the issues that we will pray for this month. There are diseases, droughts, abortion, suicide, and wars that destroy the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people, the children at risk. Fortunately, Praying Through the Window V will focus on children at risk in the 10/40 Window, so you will have a chance to pray for many of these issues again in October.

This month, pray for the Holy Spirit to work through all Christian ministries to the children at risk. Pray that the powers of darkness will be driven back and that Christ will be glorified and worshipped by the children at risk.