Trafficking After Care

***I am not going to post a picture for security reasons, and please do not re-publish this with any names you may hear me mention once I am home***

Today I visited the Trafficking after care ministry, it is a home where girls (12-18 yrs.) are rescued from the sex industry.  Many have been sold into slavery as children. One of the ways that they help the girls in their two year residency treatment program, is to teach them skills that they can use to gain a job and a future. The gut level American reaction is to almost condemn that a people would allow their women to be treated this way, but it is so much more complicated than that, and I would love to talk about it with you when I am home if you are interested.  When people are desperate they only think of survival.

    I really want to share my experience of what it was like to be there, but I am having a hard time putting it into words, as is the case with a lot of what I am seeing in Cambodia.  The people here are so desperate, I cannot help but see that this type of environment would have been my son’s life without adoption. 

    One of the things the house does is bring in short term missionary teams of women who are nail technicians and hair stylists, to teach the girls a trade.  The girls in the latter part of the program then use their skills in businesses that have a relationship with the NGO, or in the mini-spa run by the missionaries to benefit the girls.  It’s a wonderfully missional way to use the creativity of God’s people for healing and hope.  

    As part of today we women each received a spa service from one of the girls.  I got a pedicure from a 13 year old girl.  She likely left the industry at age 11, which means she was under 11 when she was sold or tricked into human trafficking. I have no idea how long she was involved. We learned today that 40% of trafficked girls are under 12 and 8% are under 5.

           She washed my feet, and I cannot describe what that felt like for me.  As you can imagine we have been walking through filth, and grime in 100 degree weather, and this little middle school age girl was washing it off.  I have no category for this.   Despite her past, she was such a little girl, I could see it in her eyes, and when she grew teeny bopper excited that I let her pick the polish color.  She grew even more excited when I told her that she picked my daughter’s favorite color, a very bright version of pink.  This girl looked at me with adoration, and was thrilled that I and my friend Kim were telling her about our kids.  (Kim has a very motherly instinct about her, twice this week I have seen the same woman try to give Kim her baby, which is a common way for women to try and give their kids a better life).  

             I wanted to take her home and give her a family, she has a family in the group life of the ministry, but I wanted to give her a mom and a Dad who can show her how God has called men to be.  Please pray for these girls, they are beautiful and made in the image of God, they need healing and people to walk through it with them.  I have had a lot of difficulty processing so much of what I am experiencing emotionally, which is weird because I am a social worker and deal with very, very similar issues on a regular basis.  Just because something horrid happens here, does not undo the horror or lessen the horror of kids abused at home.  It’s like two of us having a broken legs, with one of us with two fractures and one of us with only one.  It’s ridiculous to argue that one has a greater or lesser degree of pain, we will both have pain, but will need to take different paths of healing.  

            One last really neat thing…the “theme” song of the agency is the praise song “I will change your name,” which they have translated into Khmer.  If you know the song, you know how significant that is. 

We also visited a medical clinic which we’ll tell you about later, it’s exciting work. Please pray for us as we close out our trip, and we miss our kids and the weight of what we’re immersed in is weighing on our team.  Praise God also for the couple from the team who will be returning to Cambodia full-time in the near future.  It’s neat to watch how the group is a part of helping them plan and catch a vision with the Cambodian people. Thanks.

Tags: Biblical seminary, Cambodia, trafficking