This post was originally posted as an article more than a year ago. It seemed like a timely moment to repost.
Forgiveness
by Clayton Butler
February 2, 2009
After completing my schooling for Business Ethics and Biblical Theology I decided to pursue my dream of working on the mission field. I accepted an offer to work in Cambodia as the Anti-trafficking Program Coordinator for Agape International Missions. This organization has an After-Care center for girls rescued out of sexual slavery, an outreach center in the seedy red light district of Svay Pak, and a network of over 500 churches working to implement long-term strategies to crush the systemic injustice of Human Trafficking. I was excited about launching into this new endeavor, but my life thus far had not prepared me for the harsh realities I would face in Cambodia.
Every day in Cambodia I drive by brothels and condom vendors, and I see the young girls side by side with the men that profit from their destruction. I hear the investigative reports of new brothels that are discovered, some that contain over one hundred girls as young as seven years old. I have seen drawings from rescued girls in counseling sessions, where they illustrate their experiences in the brothels. They draw themselves getting beaten for refusing to satisfy more than ten men in one night, they draw themselves begging pedophiles to use a condom, they draw themselves tied to a bed with a rag in their mouth, and they draw other unspeakable evils. Read the rest of this entry »
Elisabeta (see, The Girl Who Lost Control) was sold for sex when she was just 13 years old. Repeatedly. She would still be taking “clients” today if it were not for a series of unlikely events. First, she managed to press back against the indomitable fear smothering her soul to find the courage to escape from the woman (yes, a woman) who was trafficking her. Next, she managed to find her way to a police station and explained her bondage. Then, she managed to circumvent the typical part of the story of a girl in her position—the part where the police don’t believe her story and return her to her trafficker. Finally, her trafficker was convicted and sentenced to years in prison, a verdict rarely celebrated by trafficking victims who usually must live with the dread that their trafficker is still loose and maybe even lurking in every dark corner to enslave them again. Read the rest of this entry »
Exodus Cry Director of Philanthropy Blaire Pilkington interviews Hanalee Linda on location in South Africa. With a spike in unsupervised children traveling around the country on school break, there is a need for programs like Linda’s which reach out to thousands of at risk children.
Exodus Cry Director of Philanthropy Blaire Pilkington delivers an update from Cape Town, South Africa. She is leading a team in various cities in South Africa that is praying for the ending of human trafficking, and raising awareness “on the battlefront.”
Monday night, the Exodus Cry team prayed for Jesus to move in South Africa. Specifically, Benji Nolot prayed that Jesus would walk through the streets of the cities and rescue women, one by one by one (see video at 00:30:00). It didn’t take long to see an answer to prayer: the next morning, Blaire Pilkington (Exodus Cry Director of Philanthropy) sent an email update of from Durban, South Africa. Using nearly the exact language she reported what God was doing with the Exodus Cry team as they ministered in the streets. Read her remarkable story of rescue and redeption below.
For the first time in its history, the Trafficking in Persons report (issued annually by the US State Department) included the United States in it’s analysis. The report demonstrated that victims of human trafficking in the United States are most often victims trafficked for forced prostitution rather than for labor.
Pat Robertson makes an important observation at the end of the above clip: the term “trafficking” sounds tame compared to the word “sex slavery.” The term human trafficking has been likened to the nineteenth century euphemism “peculiar institution.” In the linguistic battle to parse out the actual definition of crimes, there is more than semantics at stake. If human trafficking is nothing more than political-speak for modern-day slavery, then putting the United States in the TIP report is an admission that, more than 150 years after the Civil War, and fifty years after the Civil Rights Movement, slavery still exists in America today.
On one of the last legs of the trip to get interviews for the documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, Benji asks a starlet Aiden Ashley, who is currently working in the porn industry, what she has to say about working in the industry. She gives a shocking answer.
For other updates from the journey visit Exodus Cry on Vimeo.
Today in the prayer room, during a weekly prayer meeting for human trafficking, a prophetic singer delivered a spoken-word song about the zeal of Jesus and the ending of human trafficking. The rap begins at 1:12:50 continues for about 15 minutes.
This is just another example of how God is calling forth Intercessory-Abolitionists from every area of life– the arts, media, government, the chruch, etc. Before long an army of men and women, marked for the cause of God’s justice being realized on the earth, will lay down their lives for the poor. They will live lifestyles abandoned to serve the poor through their vocation, whether public office, or law, or medicine, or accounting, or journalism just to name a few fields.
Of particular interest are musicians and singers. Music has always steered culture. Not only is God putting HIs message in the hearts and mouths of artists who will speak out in new ways against modern-day slavery, but these new expressions of the message will reach ears that are out of range for politicians and preachers alike. When a few voices sing the songs of deliverance, a generation will rise up and follow, and when that happens, a culture of worship and intercession will emerge where a generation begins to actually sing their prayers. They’ll sing lyrics while they’re in their cars, while they’re at the office, even as they exercise. And whether they know it or not, they will be crying out to heaven on behalf of the weak. And heaven will answer their cries.
Ylenia does not exist. At least, that is the position of government. She was born in 1991, but her mother, lacking a basic education, didn’t see the need to go to the officials and to register Ylenia’s birth after she delivered her at home. Ylenia was just one of four children born into an impoverished family, with a single mother, in a nearly-desolate Romanian town. Ylenia doesn’t have any documents to this day.
Ylenia’s sister first became addicted to drugs when they moved to Chisinau. Her Mother was terrified of the drug dealers, and so she moved her family again, this time to a village 30 miles from the capital. But Ylenia’s worst danger became her own family: Ylenia’s older brothers forced her to work on the fields of their neighbors for no pay. Once her sister tried to sell Ylenia for drug money, but Her neighbor saved her. Many times Ylenia was abused by her sister and brothers, forcing her to beg and frequently beating her.
Despite hardships, Ylenia worked very hard. But poverty overwhelmed her at every turn. At school, her classmates made fun of her because of her poor clothing, and so she dropped out at just 13 years old. At home, her family didn’t pay their bills, and as a result they lived in a house without sewage system and electricity for 10 years.
Finally, a local church learned of their atrocious living conditions, and from time to time people from that church donated food, clothing, and other necessities. When they heard about the Exodus Cry Lighthouse, the church sent her to the shelter. Today Ylenia has a lot of health problems that make her look older than she really is. She struggles in writing and reading, but she dreams of one day becoming a chef.
Ruth is used to being kicked out of her home. She is a young woman who was born in Chisinau, Moldova, and whose life of abuse began when she was raped by her brother at just 13 years old. When her older sister found out, she sent Ruth away to an orphanage.
At 16 Ruth began a sexual relationship with a man who was 10 years older. When she became pregnant with his second child her lover started to beat her. One night he burned all of her documents and turned her out on the street. With nowhere else to turn, Ruth went to an orphanage and left her children there. It was only meant to be a temporary solution, but social services threatened to deprive of her parental rights if she could not find place to live and a paying job in a very short amount of time. At that time the only living arrangements Ruth could find was to sleep in the basements of different buildings in the capital. She was absolutely out of options.
Around that time, one of Ruth’s friend offered to help her to find a good job in Soroca, a town northeast of Moldova. Ruth trusted her and moved to that town to start her new job. But instead of a well-paying job she was forced to stay in a gypsy house where she was locked up for a month and sold for sex. She was forced to take drugs that kept her incoherent and docile.
One of the girls from that house helped her to escape. Ruth went to her mother, but mother was afraid that gypsies would come looking for her, so she forced Ruth to leave. Ruth went to the state social services, but they refused her help, but gave her an advice to come to the Exodus Cry Lighthouse. She came to the Lighthouse May 7, 2010, and has finally found a place where she will not be discarded, but where she will be embraced and loved.
Ylenia does not exist. At least, that is the position of government. She was born in 1991, but her mother, lacking a basic education, didn’t see the need to go to the officials and to register Ylenia’s birth after she delivered her at home. Ylenia was just one of four children born into an impoverished family, with a single mother, in a nearly-desolate Romanian town. Ylenia doesn’t have any documents to this day.
Ruth is used to being kicked out of her home. She is a young woman who was born in Chisinau, Moldova, and whose life of abuse began when she was raped by her brother at just 13 years old. When her older sister found out, she sent Ruth away to an orphanage.