Day 19: Praying for the exploited

By Gia Hughes
LIA Director of Human Trafficking Outreach

Pray that Godly families will consider fostering or adopting at-risk children and teens.

"But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless." - Psalm 10:14

"If one family in every three churches in the U.S. adopted a child, we would adopt every orphan in the U.S." - Adoptionjourney.org

That is a pretty staggering statistic, but only because it is very doable. Unfortunately, just because something is doable, doesn’t mean it gets done. There are currently 1.4 million children in the foster care system in the United States today, waiting, waiting for someone to care for them, someone to meet their needs, someone to love them like Jesus does.

Instead of finding acceptance and love and a place to call home, some children who find themselves placed in foster families are seen as a commodity; they are only valued by the check that is paid for them. The following excerpt is from a young woman identified as “T.” It tells her story in the foster care system as shared by Malika Saada Saar, the executive director of Rights4Girls.

“T” was born into the foster care system and trafficked at the age of 10, sold to men all over California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada. She recently shared her own observation at a Congressional briefing on how foster care rendered her vulnerable to being exploited. “In most of my 14 different placements in foster care homes, I was raped, and attached to a check. I understood very early that I could be raped, cared for, and connected to money. It was therefore easy to go from that to a pimp, and at least the pimp told me that he loved me.”

In “most” of her placements, she was raped. Outrageous! Now I know every system has its flaws, everything has its good and bad. But when more than 50 percent of young women are ending up into forced prostitution because of these flaws, with many inflicted by sexual and physical abuse, we need to strive harder for achieving a better solution.

But a solution has been offered in the above statistic. So then why is it that we, as Christ’s body, are not willing to accept this responsibility? When we say we want to be like Jesus, then why aren’t we being like Him? Just one family in every three churches. Will you be that one?

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." - John 14:18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C-povr7b6k