February Prayer calendar
Each month we will learn more about the GROW mission and pray for the ministry in Thailand. Don’t forget to set a reminder to return at the beginning each month for the learning and prayer opportunity.
Read “The World’s too small to forget about the big issues” here.
The World’s Too Small to Forget about the Big Issues
According to Liberatechildren.org, there are over 40 million victims of human trafficking. With 25% of them being children, 10 million of the world’s precious children are trafficked. It is estimated between 500,000 and 800,000 of those children are in Thailand. This is the fastest-growing and second-largest criminal enterprise in the world generating over $150.2 billion in illegal profits. Human trafficking has surpassed the illegal sale of arms and is expected to surpass the sale of illegal drugs in the next few years.
Human trafficking doesn’t always start with abduction. Sometimes it comes in the form of hopes and promises of a better life for their children. Poor parents are often offered money, as in Faa’s case (read her story here), and persuaded that their child will have an education or job.
But human trafficking begins often even before the stranger comes into the village with tempting cash. Children often suffer abuse, violence, exploitation, forced marriages as early as 6th grade, forced labor, and illegal activity such as selling drugs in the street right in their own villages. Children who are already suffering often are introduced to social media sites designed to lure children. Social media is used to identify, recruit, and advertise potential children for trafficking.
The primary effect of child trafficking on a child, especially when it is sex trafficking, is mental health challenges. Chief among them are PTSD and depression. Child labor makes it all but impossible for children to succeed in education. Some never attend while others end up quitting early. This lack of schooling leads to a diminished ability for children to grow up and support themselves. It traps them in poverty which perpetuates this terrible cycle for their own children (https://liberatechildren.org/child-trafficking-statistics).
What can I do about child trafficking?
YOU CAN HELP DEFEAT CHILD TRAFFICKING! Raise awareness of this serious issue and donate to GROW, an organization that fights it. GROW works hard to rescue children who are at high risk to live out a life trafficked simply because of where they live and because the abuse and neglect already experienced. GROW seeks daily to restore these precious little ones physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and with an education that will help them grow up and be able to provide for themselves. GROW equips them to impact their families and communities. GROW works with families and communities to stop the cycle of abuse. By partnering with GROW, YOU can be a part of rewriting the future for a child and ending the abuse!
Instead of children being bought with a price for their exploitation, it is our desire that they know they have been bought with a price through the blood of Jesus Christ. He has paid the full price for their freedom. These precious little ones are not too small, and this issue is too BIG to ignore.
Join us!
ACTION: Pray that God will bring an end to the human trafficking industry and the cycles of child abuse.
Coming in March
