It is important, I believe, to consider who or what we are actually fighting against as we fight for justice. As equally essential as it is that the girls we fight FOR have a face, have a name… I believe it is equally important to recognize who/what is actually responsible….
to ensure that we don’t raise our swords against the mere messenger of injustice (however hideous his account).
Working with victims of the trafficking industry it is easy (natural even) to point a finger immediately at the paedophile, the pimp, the business man that frequents a brothel…but what good are these accusations now? What do they accomplish in our favour? Does the pointing finger accomplish justice?…or does it just add to the complexity of this web of blame, anger, mistrust, hatred and fear.
It seems only natural that working in aftercare we ‘take sides’ with the rescued girls and begin to adopt (subtly at first) the victim vs. perpetrator… prey vs. predator… perspective. Their emotions and memories are still raw from the trauma they have experienced and their stories are still told in fresh fear, grief, hatred, and bitterness. In response, my heart grieves and churns for justice and for revenge. I find myself coming to similar conclusions as them rather than directing this hatred toward the actual perpetrator in disguise.
(something God started putting on my heart back in perth…cut out of an old email..)
“”We only love God as much as we love the one that we love the LEAST”..
.I’ve been so challenged lately with that: do I love the pimp as much as the prostitute?, the paedophile as much as the abducted child, the abuser as much as the abused….HOW CAN I SAY I LOVE GOD IF I DO NOT LOVE THE ONE HE LOVES??? “”
His love is NOT exclusive, has NO boundaries, is not partial to a particular gender, race, personality type, or socio economic status. How can I claim to love these girls and then in the same breath turn around and despise the broken man ‘victimizes’ her.””
With all this, I’ve been thinking more about the demand that feeds the sex industry. Somewhere, at home, there is a love deficit in marriages and relationships that lures the lonely man to the exotic streets of SE Asia. In hopes of finding that love…or at least a moment of cure in the denial of self gratification. But these men that scavenge the streets…the fathers, husbands, businessmen, doctors, lawyers…as hideous and wretched their crime are somehow in the same boat as you…as me…and are equally loved by God. His love puzzles me and shames the inadequacies of my own love.
So who is responsible? Where lies the blame?? I realize most of us are aware of the roots of evil and that our battle is ultimately against the prince of deception and the distorter of truth…the mastermind of bondage and brokenness. He never has played by the rules…and today is no exception.
We have a sword you guys, we have the truth, AND our generation is an army stirring from a deep sleep all around us. We need to RISE up and OPEN our mouths! God is leading us into battle. We’ve been dormant, complacent, and passive far long enough.
Often after writing many words, as I have done today, I stop and wonder…what was it, actually, that I was trying to say??
I am trying to say…that my heart is stirred more and more…to spend less time trying to analyse the trafficking situation… the symptoms of injustice… and to spend more time
Praying.
(not to lessen in any way the validity and importance of research and awareness…this is a HUGE part of advocacy AND even of effective prayer. It just loses its effectiveness if that’s ALL i do)…
What kind of a doctor would spend his life exploring the etiology of a disease only to die without knowing the cure…Every doctor knows that you will only recognize disease or understand its specific most effective cure if you first know what ‘healthy’ looks like.
That’s why, after weeks immersed in this injustice, my hearts cry is to seek God’s face. And to
advocate on my knees
on behalf of the girls whose stories I have heard. In know way is that where it all ends.
I’m suggesting that that is where it needs to begin.
A thought::: intercession IS advocacy.
second hand thoughts 
