Injustice Towards Children Has Broken My Heart!

While my plan was to go to the Enter Conference at New Life Church in Colorado Springs for training, challenge, and refreshing for my service as Worship Pastor, God had other plans in mind. One organization represented at the conference was iEmpathize. This group has a very powerful and shocking gallery of images and artifacts that speak very clearly the horrors of sex and slave trafficking world wide. As I made my way through the exhibit, God worked me over pretty hard. I was struck by the lack of respect for human life and the decency that should be afforded every child. I was sickened by the realization that our world has largely turned its back on the most innocent and helpless of victims.

The statistics are, of course, sobering.

• It is believed that over 27 million poeple are enslaved aroound the world today.
• UNICEF estimates that over 1.2 million children enter into the sex trade every year
• Approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood to sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.
• Up to 300,000 prostituted children live on the streets of the U.S.!

One display of the iEmpathize exhibit rocked me to the core. There was a small pair of shoes (pictured) that was found at a Brothel overseas. I was so broken by the small size of the shoes that I cannot get it out of my head. These shoes were smaller than Abigail's shoes (my 5 year old daughter). This experience has changed me - when I went to learn more about worship, God taught me more about the need of innocent victims in our world and He is calling me to be a voice; to do something about it. I don't know what yet, but God is all over me about this. My life must count for orphaned and exploited children in the world - it just must.