Making a difference one rescue at a time...The Exodus Road

It happened smack dab in the middle of our Job season.

You know, Job in the Bible.

God let him be tested.

The enemy stripped him of everything, and while he did question God,

 he never cursed God or renounced his faith.

During our Job years we were betrayed, 

sued, 

suffered financially, 

our marriage was tested, 

our children suffered agonizing loss.

During that dark time, one Sunday, while meeting with the remnant left of our little church,

 in our little hole in the wall rented space,

a young teen with a baby girl barely two months old and already pregnant again,

came into our lives.

That baby girl and the little boy, yet to be born, eventually became our legally adopted grandchildren.

In our darkest season,  when we felt the most helpless and hopeless,

God used our family and church to make a difference for one little girl, one little boy and their birth mother.

When we read statistics like these:

There are more modern day slaves right now than at any other point in human history.

Currently, an estimated 27 million people worldwide are forced to work in slave labor camps with little or no pay or are trapped in brothels in sexual slavery (This figure is highly debated and estimates range from 10 million to 30 million).

Human trafficking is the 3rd most lucrative illegal crime globally, behind the sale of guns and drugs.

It is estimated that every sixty seconds, two children are sold for sex worldwide.

The average cost of a slave is $90.

Human trafficking involves exploitation which can take many forms including: Misleading victims into debt bondage, subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude, fear and intimidation, physical and sexual abuse, forcing victims to participate in sex acts for the sake of pornography, withholding victim’s passports/papers as a means of control.

A victim of modern day slavery can be in any of the following categories, according to the US State Department:  Forced labor, sex trafficking, bonded labor, debt bondage for migrant workers, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labor, child soldiers, and child sex trafficking.

Modern day slavery occurs in 161 countries (of the 195 total countries), including the United States.

Human trafficking, according to the U.N. Trafficking Protocol is “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of adbuction, or fraud or deception for the purpse of exploitation.”

Around 70% are female and and an estimated half are under the age of 18.

An excellent overview of common questions can be found here at Free the Slaves.

we can begin to feel hopeless and helpless.

Yet, there are people at work behind the scenes, making a difference, one person at a time.

I am proud to be a part of the blogging team for The Exodus Road.

This week the founder, marketing director and two bloggers are making their first ever blogging for rescue trip.

Won't you follow along, pray and consider giving?

Use this link to donate and mark your donation The Exodus Road.

Together, we can make a difference, one rescue at a time.

Still following,