I was privileged to take in many sessions at BCTC (Biblical Counseling Training Conference) in Lafayette, Indiana, and Faith Church. The two most sobering sessions were on human trafficking and family abuse. I am still working through all the implications of what I heard in these sessions. I know this kind of activity takes place in the darkness around me. I am asking God to help me to respond to it. But how?
Physical abuse in families is a terrible reality. I know it goes on everywhere. Perhaps I was more aware of it in northern Wisconsin because of the rural life and ministry to the kids and teens of our school every week. I am just at a loss as to where to begin. But in a sense, we had already been addressing the problem by helping to give the kids hope in their hearts from God. But I don’t want to stop there. That, unfortunately, is all the church at large has often done. We cannot just “shout at the darkness.” We must be a part of the solution. Kids must know that we care enough to seek justice and change. PRAY with me as to some specific steps we can take in this regard.
Human trafficking is an entirely different blight on our planet and is harsh darkness for people to have to live in. I am so moved by the information and testimonies that I heard in Lafayette. I believe that God can give hope and help to people who have gone through such horrors. And we have to be His hands and feet to them. But I will say that getting involved in fighting human trafficking or ministering to the victims is a very dangerous activity. I do not encourage anyone to do so until you have spent a good amount of time reading and studying this tragedy of human sin against those who are weak and defenseless.
The weak and defenseless. These words link the two crimes and awful sins that the darkness of depravity has brought on our world and into our communities. Think of people taking advantage of other people and using their weakness to entrap them. The children, the teens, the women, and the men that find themselves trapped in a dark world hope that we care. PRAY that God helps the right people to intervene. And if God gives us the means to do so, then we must step up and let HIM be our SHIELD.
