A question from Rich Dixon:

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Sometimes we’re overwhelmed and tempted to give up.

Thirty-six million humans endure the violence and injustice of modern-day slavery. More than 100,000 U.S children are trafficked into prostitution every year.

It’s easy to feel staggered and defeated by big numbers, to believe our puny efforts are futile in the face of such overwhelming evil.

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In 2013 the FREEDOM TOUR team was invited by a host church to a neighborhood block party. Burgers, bouncy houses, happy kids running everywhere. I remember watching all those kids, thinking about the rescued children at the HOME OF HOPE and this parable.

I wondered what would happen if a mom frantically announced that her child was missing. What would we do?

Wouldn’t we interrupt the party and do whatever we could to find that child? Wouldn’t everyone carecfully search every nook and cranny?

And when she was finally discovered, playing with blocks in the basement, oblivious to all the excitement, when someone shouted, “I FOUND HER! I FOUND HER!” – wouldn’t the collective cheer sound something like “rejoicing in heaven?”

Why? It’s just one kid out of dozens. With so many kids, why spoil everyone’s fun? Why spend time and energy looking for one lost child from a family we’ve never even met?

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The FREEDOM TOUR partners with a HOME OF HOPE. Our 22 children were born in a brothel. Their mothers were victims. The kids were destined to be victims.

Our kids aren’t throwaways just because they happened to be born with brown skin in a brothel halfway around the world. They’re children of God.

When we interrupt the party, when we sweat and sacrifice to keep them safe, I believe there’s rejoicing in heaven.

You and I won’t solve the human trafficking problem.

One sheep, one child, one step at a time.