It is widely understood that Craig’s list, the popular online bartering and trading website, is notorious also for child sex trafficking. Users post pictures of young girls in their underwear and describe them with code words that send signals to sex buyers, all under the guise of the “personal” adds. It is a flagrant display of children for sale, and in many ways exhibits the nefarious quality of sex trafficking: victims are sold right under our noses.
Saturday, September 4th, Benjamin Nolot lead a time of prayer and repentance for the victims of human trafficking at The Call. With thousands in attendance, a cry in unison was lifted before God in heaven, a plea for the blood of Jesus to cover the blatant oppression of women and children in this country.
Just 15 minutes after the time of prayer, Craig’s List officially closed it’s explicit personal ads section. The timing of the event—an answer from heaven just minutes after the cry—was a sure indicator that God was orchestrating the downfall of human trafficking in response to the intercession of those on the earth.
On the lips of intercessory-abolitionists across the nations are the songs that will bring deliverance. From the ends of the earth let a song arise that brings freedom in the spirit and freedom in the natural for the victims of sex trafficking in Hong Kong. (00:40:48-00:44:07)
“For the sake of the little ones/For the sake of the little ones/Stretch forth Your hand/Move in Hong Kong.”
Benjamin Nolot will be speaking Saturday, September 4th at the Call Sacramento. He will be shedding light on the issue of human trafficking and calling the thousands who have gathered to cry out to God in repentance.
Recently, the 700 Club did a report on three Kansas City based organizations, that includes Exodus Cry, that are fighting human trafficking. While, understandably, most people think that trafficking is a crime that takes place “a world away,” most are shocked to discover that human trafficking takes place in many American cities as in Kansas City.
Matt Gilman and his team led a powerful time of intercession last night. At one point, the Spirit breathed on a simple chorus and a packed prayer room together sang “Freedom!” over Tokyo and the victims of human trafficking trapped therein.
Culture is what happens when people live and work in the same vicinity. It’s automatic, and unavoidable. Where two or more are gathered, there you will find culture. It forms the sometimes unspoken rules of engagement and relationship of any people, and all too often, it can turn rancid right in front of us. When examining the sex trade, time and time again, you will find that the city or region in question has specific nuances that have become overgrown which produce sanctioned abuses and vulgarities.
Here are three cultural elements of the Tokyo sex-trade that you need to understand: Sex-Strata (Shinto), Enjo-Kosai (dating younger girls), and cartoon fantasy.
Sex Strata— At the core of Japan’s Shinto (“Way of the gods”) is a religion/philosophy that was first codified in the seventh century. In Shinto, impurity is something that can ruin your peace of mind, but is not necessarily something bad. Under this belief system, there is no way to conceptualize sexually immorality.
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.
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.
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.”
