Deliverance

A 10-year-old human trafficking victim is freed from a brothel in Southeast Asia where she had been abused and sexually exploited. Another child, age 9, is released from indentured slavery in India. Meanwhile, across the ocean in East Africa, a 13-year-old orphaned boy is ushered into a residential home for youth after 5 years of struggling to survive alone on the streets.

While removing these children from their respective residences of horror required valiant efforts on the part of their rescuers, one might argue that the greatest work on behalf of the boys and girls has just begun. For, as both biblical and modern-day cases reveal, it’s in the aftermath of oppression that some of the most complex obstacles to healing and restoration come to light.

Among the hindrances to a victim’s restitution is the ongoing threat of enemies. The Amalekites ruthlessly attacked the Israelites when they were “exhausted and weary” after fleeing slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 25:17-18). Today, equally relentless perpetrators seek to recapture children who are weak and vulnerable following their extraction from an abusive situation.

Guilt, stigma, and chronic poverty are additional barriers to a child’s lasting deliverance. What can you do to bring forth positive change on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of girls and boys who are trafficked each year?

• Pray that child traffickers will be arrested and brought to justice.

• Pray that rescued children will receive the ongoing love, care and protection they need.

• Support organizations that are providing holistic aftercare for boys and girls. They’re used by God to provide true deliverance (Isaiah 63:9).

PRAISE GOD
BLESSED BE THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD