An effective deterrent to child trafficking

They say that bank tellers are trained to recognize false currency by becoming super familiar with every characteristic of true currency. The same principle applies to fighting child trafficking. Every Child Ministries was recently able to track and rescue a young girl who had been trafficked from a notorious trafficking area. We were able to do this because our worker, who regularly visits and befriends people in the area, noticed right away that she was gone. The same worker a few years ago rescued an abandoned toddler because she knew the area well and recognized right away that a new child had appeared on the street.

This month Every Child Ministries is stretching itself again on behalf of children in danger of trafficking. Realizing the efficacy of having a worker who knows an area well, we are assigning a work to "pound the streets" in one of the most notorious trafficking areas we know of. Jeremiah (an assumed name) will spend time--lots of time--getting to know folks in an area that is hot, dirty, and smelly. We are believing God for his protection, for his support, and for an effective ministry that will encourage children and families in that area and will keep many children from being sold into slavery. Please pray with us.

The Making of a Girl

"The Making of a Girl" is one of my favorite You Tube Videos other than those produced by Every Child Ministries team members.

It follows the story of a young girl getting into prostitution for the first time--what goes through her mind, why she crosses that terrible line, what has prepared her. Then it tells what lies ahead for her.

This is an awesome video that really rings true. I have watched it many times and heartily recommend it to you. It could happen to someone you know and love more easily than you think.

When you think of the young girl getting into the Cadillac with the good looking young man, don't think date. Think recruitment. Think trafficking. Then you will understand better why girls become prostitutes.

Too close to home !

When I was in Ghana, I learned how God helped us to escape the devious plans of a child trafficker to steal one of the children from Haven of Hope under false pretenses. I learned that a woman came to the home with an adoption form she had been sent by a man, an application to adopt one of our children. Those of our children who are eligible for adoption are adopted only through Social Welfare in Ghana, so out people knew right away that something was wrong. When she learned she had been taken in by someone's deceptive scheme, the woman left the form with us. It looked like our literature and carried our logo, undoubtedly copied from the internet, but there was a different phone number on it. She even had a little girl picked out, but the girl was at the home temporarily due to family issues and was not eligible for adoption.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how narrowly we had escaped a huge tragedy. Someone was evidently using our website to try to sell the children under our care. Had they planned to try to steal the children from the home, or to pose as some legitimate agent? The woman herself was simply an honest person who nearly got sucked into the deception. How thankful I am that the security fence is now completed. It's now much harder for anyone to ferret away a child, and we are now alert to the scheme. We hate child trafficking anywhere, but this one came way too close to home. May God follow the despicable people involved and give them their due, and may His hand of protection always be over the beloved children in our care.

One of our street children trafficked & returned!

One of the orphan street girls to whom Every Child Ministries ministers was trafficked last month. A sweet-talking woman at the market began to sympathize with her about her hard life and offer her a way out, a good job...the same sorry lies that have snared so many other children. Like most children who are trafficked, she didn't have to be forced or abducted. Seduced by sugary lies, she went willingly with the woman. Deceit is one of the main recruiting methods of traffickers.

The really great thing is that our street workers are on the job regularly and really know the people of the street. They heard about the girl's disappearance, asked questions, followed leads, kept searching. They knew her health and safety and maybe her life were at stake. After two weeks, they found her and were able to rescue her from the "madame" who was using her as a slave. She was hidden and has now been taken to safety.

Great work, ECM street workers! Because of your diligence, one more girl is safe and free.

Lord, we've been praying about adding more "eyes and ears" in key trafficking areas. Would You provide soon so that we can increase our street staff?

Prime time for selling children into slavery

A week or so before my recent ministry trip to Ghana ended, I visited the Central Region to gather information to enable our organization, Every Child Ministries, to begin combatting child trafficking at one of its major sources. We are hoping to raise the $18,000 needed to open a center and begin work in the Central Region this year. I left Ghana on July 29 and arrived home on July 30. When I got here, I read that on those days, police intercepted three large groups of children being trafficked. One of them was a group of 118 children being sent out of the Central Region where they lived, to serve as slaves in the fishing industry to the west. I thank God for the diligence of the Ghana Police to intercept children being trafficked in the country. I pray that PLEASE Lord, ECM may begin to work in the Central Region this year. Right now, while schools are out on vacation, is prime time for selling children into slavery. My prayer is that before the next vacation season comes, ECM will be there, actively acting as a deterrent to the trade and helping to rescue and restore children who do get caught in the traffickers' nets.

Children's Pastors' Conference

Children's Pastors' Conference

The thunder god falls before the cross!

Check out my article in the May 2010 online newsletter from the International Network of Children's Ministry.

Ugandan government recognizes Karomoja problem

I just got a news article from ECM's Uganda Director. The Minister of Gender in Uganda has asked the authorities to set up check points along the Karamoja-Kampala route to curb child trafficking. The government is aware of the problem of children being sold into slavery (some in the cattle markets!) and ending up begging on the streets of Kampala for someone else's benefit.

I encountered that myself a few years back. I was in a Christian bookstore that has a place to sit and read in front of big windows. Looking out on the street, I observed a young child sitting all by herself on the sidewalk for a long time. It was obvious she was meant to be begging, but she was too young and too uncomfortable to be actively doing so. Basically she just sat there and looked pitiful. No sunshade, no water, nothing. People were just ignoring her and walking around her. I don't usually give to beggars. I've seen too much abuse resulting from well-intentioned giving. But I also felt her pain. I had some bananas, so I went out and gave her a banana, and asked my co-worker to go down the street and buy her a bottle of juice. I figured I'd stay there while she ate and drank to make sure it went into her tummy. There was no one obviously watching her that I could see, but as soon as she got the banana in her hand, a lady appeared. She said she was not the child's mother. I stayed there until the child finished the banana and the drink. I later found out that this was a child from Karamoja who was trafficked to the city to beg on the streets for a master.

I read that the government rounded up 400 of them, women and children, in the past year, and is trying to resettle them. But unless we find a way to stop the trafficking, there will be more. Lord, please allow us to start the Karamoja child sponsorship project soon!

A Secret I've been Hiding

Yea! It's finally done. I can finally talk on my blog about the big secret I've been hiding for so long. For several years now, I've been involved with our African staff in working towards the liberation of other girls and women held in ritual servitude. Too much media attention too soon nearly destroyed our last liberation back in 2005, so this time we were very wary. It was hard--needing the prayer of the saints but not being able to advertise that need widely, writing an abolitionist blog yet unable to talk about the things I had been spending much of my time on.

This week, that liberation finally became a reality. Servants of the thunder god yeve were freed--55 of them. I won't repeat here the details you can read on ECM's website at http://www.ecmafrica.org/504365.ihtml . I'll just talk a little about my own involvement. It's really neat to realize that this could never have been achieved without the commitment, prayers, gifts, and effort of many people on both sides of the ocean. Yet it's also satisfying to realize that I had an important part in it, too. After our first four liberations, I felt an increasing desire to share the Gospel in a much deeper way with everyone involved in the shrines. I began to know the priests and priestesses and shrine devotees of different kinds as individuals, as people just like me. I began to realize that the Gospel had been presented rather superficially if at all to them, and I knew the Gospel was the power that could really free them at the most profound level. Every time I was in Ghana, I tried to make time to visit them, pushing our staff to do the same. During those visits, we were able to see the areas where we already had agreement and the areas where we needed to make the Gospel clearer. God enabled me to develop teaching guides emphasizing certain key areas.

Late last year we learned that one of the priests had accepted the Gospel so thoroughly that he WANTED to free his shrine servants. I went to Ghana recently in hopes of helping our staff through arranging all the details of a liberation. Three weeks was hard to take out of my regular duties, but I thought that with that amount of time we would be sure to be able to get the job done. I was wrong. We ran into technical difficulties with one of the area officials, and were not able to resolve the problem. At least, not in time. It was an intense time. Besides the gigantic job of interviewing 55 women in depth, we were running back and forth with reports and letters. When I left Ghana, the necessary information had been gathered to begin helping the women after the liberation, the details of the liberation were decided upon and paid for, and an overall strategy was agreed upon. It was bitterly disappointing not to be able to see it and to rejoice with the women. This was the first liberation I did not personally attend. However, the really important thing is not whether I got to see it, but that it happened.

This was Every Child Ministries' first time freeing servants of the thunder god called yeve (the shrine servants called yevesi). As far as I know, it may be the first time any were ever liberated, although FESLIM (Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement) has advertised "The thunder god next!" for many years.

Well, now I am ungagged. I can talk, and will write more about the liberation in future posts.

Handicapped Boy Brings Blessing

Yesterday I was sorting donations of goods that have come in for our various projects in Africa when one of our missionaries called me from Africa. Social welfare workers in one of the countries where we work were looking for help with a young hydrocephalic boy. He was 8 but looked 4, could only speak a few words, could not stand or care for his own toilet needs. His mother wanted to throw him out to die, but oh yes! only after calling a witch doctor to perform some ritual to absolve her of guilt. The father refused, so the mother left. It was evident that the father really loved his son and was seeking what was best for him, but how could he work and also care for his handicapped son? In discussing the boy's situation, and searching for an answer together, the social welfare worker learned of ECM's intense interest in helping free trafficked children. He knew of children he strongly believed were trafficked into a certain heavy duty type work in his area. What stopped him from investigating and intervening? Only a few dollars of transport money! Our worker wanted to know if ECM could facilitate the investigation. Yes! Lord, please provide the very best answer for this handicapped young boy. You love him just as You do all Your children. And thank you for using him to bring us the opportunity to help in the investigation of other children who are trafficked and abused for selfish ends. Please multiply our ministry and our effectiveness in that area. I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus who welcomed the children and who gave His life that I might be free.

Doctor trafficks girls for private baby factory

Children are a precious treasure from God. I helped choose that as one of the "tags" of our mission organization, Every Child Ministries. So my heart broke with what I read today in my daily updates of child trafficking in Africa. A Beninois doctor, instead of using his healing gifts to bring children safely into loving families, has been arrested for running a baby factory. Trafficking teenage girls to Enugu, Nigeria, from his own home country of Benin, he was deliberately impregnating them, then tearing their newborn children from their arms to sell them for his own benefit. Five girls were found kept by the doctor in various stages of pregnancy. All pointed to the doctor as the one who impregnated them, and he confessed to defilement and selling their children.

How far will our self-centeredness go? Are we really at the point of "anything goes for personal profit"? What more hideous expressions of "Me"ism will our Me-centered world come up with?
Me-centeredness is no longer just a philosophy we talk about. It sees expression every day in human trafficking.

The doctor does damage to the girls, to their families, to the children born into his factory, and to his own soul. He also does damage to every family who wants to adopt a legitimately-born infant and be assured that their act of love is helping solve the problems of the world's children, not adding to them. None of that matters to Dr. Chike Uzomo. His universe revolves around himself.

Thanks to the Nigerian police for their astuteness in pursuing this case. Let's pray that it will not come before officials who are also me-centered. Integrity in law enforcement is a must if child trafficking is ever to be arrested.

There's a solution to this problem. When our lives are centered around Jesus Christ our Creator, Me-ism goes out the window and we are able to relate to others in love and compassion. As for me, I'm praying that more and more will find the ultimate solution.