Sick on Sunday

So I woke up today feeling really sick and just in no way capable of doing my kiddies church shift, so I messaged Martha to say I just wouldn't be going and that I felt too unwell to find a replacement. Thank goodness she said she had me covered. I am hoping she roped her daughter into doing it so that way I would not have to return the favor. Yeah I know, I am just over this intense schedule!

The thing that has bee grieving my heart the last few days is this issue with human trafficking that keeps getting brought up in prayer and conversations at IHOP. I did some research after participating in the intercession set last Thursday and getting intensely emotional and broken over the issue. What happens is these really poor women from countries such as Argentina (we prayed for Buenos Aires last Thursday) see adverts to change their situation. Deceptive corrupt American companies offer to pay then $10 US/hr to do things like cleaning. So then the woman will sell everything they own to pay for the working visa to America. They get their visa, everything seems fine and they arrive in America at their place of employment, only to then find they have made a fatal decision into sex slavery.

These women become trapped by these sick perverted criminals and they cannot escape because:

1. firstly, they are often locked up;
2. secondly, a lot of them cannot speak fluent english, if any english;
3. thirdly, being forced to have sex with 25 men in one night every night destroys their self esteem and ability to speak up for themselves;
4. fourthly, the immigration laws they entered the country through, actually bind them to their employer so they cannot work for anyone else; and
5. finally, they have no money as their employer doesn't pay them, but exploits them to earn thousands of dollars every night for their own crooked purposes.

I watched a documentary of one woman who was forced to "work" for these criminals for two years until she fell pregnant. Then they dumped her upon hearing the news. She was lucky. She managed to alert the authorities and they have helped her. Others are not so fortunate.

My heart has been in torment over these women. Being an international student, and having travelled into Mexico and Cambodia, I understand the visa issues and the language barriers. My heart is just aching to see these women set free. They lose everything and become prisoners. Oh Lord, please bring justice to them.