FREEDOM 21 DAY 13

DAY 13 – The Need for Resources

 

Today we will focus our prayer and repentance on the need for resources for fighting human trafficking.

Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My Name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but The One who sent Me. –Mark 9:37

One of the most unfortunate elements in domestic minor sex trafficking is the lack of resources for our children. They are shuffled around the system, often labeled as a criminal or a bad kid making bad choices, without services that provide holistic healing. Here’s why:

1. The federal government has been largely relying on Child Protective Services to provide services for American children victimized by this crime. The child welfare field, like many other government structures, has been unprepared to handle cases regarding human trafficking mainly because of the complex misunderstandings.(1) In addition, CPS will often disengage if the child becomes involved with the juvenile justice system.(2)
    
2. Private funding for safe homes and other resources has flowed to third-world countries, leaving American children without safe homes, licensed trauma counseling, protection, and other needed services for healing. In the entire United States, it has been estimated that there are only 358 beds for American children who have been sold into sexual slavery. Only about 50 of these are faith-based.
    
3. In Mexico, there is an all-around lack of funding and attention to the needs of human trafficking victims. There are currently only three facilities in the entire country specifically focused on providing after-care for sex trafficked minors, in spite of research by the Mexican Human Rights Department indicating between 20,000 and 50,000 women and children are trafficked each year (specifically Mexican nationals).(3) The Mexican government seems to be counting on international humanitarian organizations to step in with solutions and resources.

With a lack of holistic healing programs and funding, judges, probation officers, CPS and other agencies, desperate for a place for these children, turn to inadequate services.

To read the full USRPN article on this issue, please click here.

PERSONAL REPENTANCE

Father, forgive me if I, in any way, have not paid attention to the brokenness of those who have been victimized by these horrendous crimes. I repent if I have not helped to meet and provide the restorative needs so crucial in seeing victims recover and reintegrated into society.

CORPORATE REPENTANCE

Today we acknowledge that in our two nations, our vulnerable children are caught in the middle of a broken legal system. We ask Your forgiveness that as the Church and as a nation, we have done virtually nothing to change this situation. Forgive us and our nation for ways in which we have devalued women and children and left them to fend for themselves. We acknowledge Your Word: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute (Proverbs 31:8).” Lord, we repent that we who are free have not spoken up for those who are not free to speak for themselves.

INTERCESSION

• We call out to You, El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough, asking You to release abundant provision for the rescuing and restoring of victims of sex trafficking.
   
• Bring to light the ineffectiveness of the system, and make the public, government and law enforcement aware of the inadequacies.
   
• We pray that Your Church would lead the way in finding creative, godly, and effective strategies to fix the legal and governmental system that our vulnerable women and children are trapped in.
   
• Lord, raise up houses of restoration within Your Church to provide safe havens for sex trafficking victims.
   
• Lord, we recognize that the problems of sex trafficking are so complex that we can never fix the problem in the wisdom of man. We ask for Your supernatural wisdom to know how to put an end to this evil.
   
• Even as You used Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery during the Civil War, we ask You to raise up and anoint modern day reformers to overturn the evil of human trafficking.

TAKE ACTION

1. Give. Plain and simple. At the end of this prayer guide is a list of vetted, respected organizations on the front lines of the fight against human trafficking, and they need to be resourced. All of them need finances. Additionally many of them need supplies, furnishings for safe houses, equipment, security, etc.

REFERENCES

1. “Building Child Welfare Response to Child Trafficking.” Center for the Human Rights for Children, Loyola University Chicago. http://www.luc.edu/chrc/pdfs/Building_Child_Welfare_Response_to_Child_Trafficking.pdf

2. “Rapid Field Assessment of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.” Shared Hope International. http://sharedhope.org/wpcontent/ uploads/2012/09/Domestic-Minor-Sex-Trafficking-Field-Assessment-Harris-and-Galveston-Cty.pdf

3. Yu, Benny. President & Co-Founder, 27Million. www.27million.com