ok, so these things have been on my mind lately... the victims and their stories... I feel very inspired to write tonight, which doesn't happen so often...
I often fall asleep or wake up at night trying to wrap my mind around these things.... like here I am, living a missionary life, full of abundance and blessing while the majority of the world suffers. Yet, back home people ask me how I can give up my blessed life to go elsewhere and give up my luxuries... yet, I live better than a large majority of the population that surrounds me ... and certainly have not suffered even 90 % of what others suffer daily worldwide....
These two stories....that have been on my mind lately, are what keeps me on my knees praying and asking what am I doing, what can I do, what can others.... you do....
The fact that this is sooo close to home, hits even harder... every week I cross one of the busiest border crossings in the U.S. One of our staff member's witnessed a guy trying to sell a 12 year old girl to another car while waiting in the traffic, leaving Mexico into the U.S. For more details...
http://www.stepsofjustice.org/2010/09/30/selling-sex-at-the-border
We are always aware that these things happen and watch for this kind of thing, but when we actually see it up close, its too much of a reality to take in. Just last week we witnessed a drug or trafficking bust just cars from us.... I am glad there are officials doing something, yet there is so much more getting through and in the border, not just hundreds, but thousands of similar cases. How does this happen.... why and what is our hand/responsibility in these horrendous acts of injustice?
Of course at first reading this story, my initial reaction is yeah, the trafficker got busted/arrested. Its a victory, a true Hollywood ending.. the bad guy gets locked up. However, we all know that does not end the story. My mind keeps going back to what happens to this little 12 year old girl, precious and made in the image of God to live a life of blessing and full knowledge of her value and worth in God and growing to be a beautiful and whole woman who radiates the image of God in all that she does. So, this time, the little girl gets saved from being sold to this particular man. I can't help to question.... how did she get taken and how did her innocent childhood go so wrong? Has she been sold before? Some get put into the sex trade as young as 6 years of age. Will she be destined to run back to the streets? Can she find her way home? Does she have a home to go to and if she does, are those family/home members the ones selling her? Does anyone care about her? Does anyone see her? Does anyone want to protect her? I know her heavenly father does and He will move on her behalf. Perhaps he allowed our friend/staff to see this in order for many to pray for her to be released from her situation. To me, she is lost forever in the system and why didn't the authorities take her and try to help her? Are we so concentrated on getting the bad guys that we are not paying attention to the victims? This little girl breaks my heart, that amongst so many other similar stories that go on everyday right under our noses... really in my neighborhood, but not just here in Mexico, in our neighborhoods in the suburbs and cities in the U.S.
Another story I feel compelled to share about is about a family of 3 kids we have been working with here in a poor colonia or neighborhood of Tijuana. They are approximately 5, 4, and 3 in ages. They are sooo cute. I have read the major signs of children at risk as I have interacted with them during our tutoring sessions as well as events we host with the kids. The middle one in particular I have had to work with regarding boundaries, i.e. with other kids, he is very violent and aggressive i.e. for a 4 year old. There was a time he wasn't fond of me as I sat with him, held him and discussed with him the wrong in hitting other kids; now he always gives me a hug and runs to see me each time I go there. This week he came up to me and asked me with a sad, long face when we were coming back and I responded to him... Raymundo, we always come on Thursdays, and to explain in terms a little child can understand "in a few days" we will come back. His little sad face as he turned to drag himself home broke my heart. It makes me ponder what goes on at home for those 3, often unkept children. I asked my friend, who teaches the kinder what she knew about them and she told me it seems that their mother works the streets and the father has never really wanted to take responsibility, in addition my friend thinks the mother is pregnant again and the grandparents are raising the three. This made me want to take them out of their situation and take them in as my own... of course that is/was my initial reaction. As much as I would love to protect them from their world; with my training and the wisdom God gives me, I know that is not always the best option for them. So, then what is my role? It breaks my heart that they have to continue in this life the way it is. What can we do to improve their situation? I know I can't do anything on my own. I don't necessarily have all the solutions, but wouldn't it be amazing and the most ideal situation if someone actually intervened and counseled/mentored the mother to know her value and worth and that she has options in this life and CAN become the mother that God created her to be, who she longs to be? Wouldn't it be amazing if the father would be counseled/discipled to become the man, provider, leader and protector for his family that God created him to be, and lastly that the grandparents get to simply enjoy being grandparents and not have to raise another generation of their children? More importantly than all this.... wouldn't it be ideal if these 3 beautiful children could grow up knowing a complete/whole and loving family who serve and know their creator and reflect the love He gives.... these are the things I ponder, sometimes in the early hours of the a.m. when I can't sleep... my thoughts
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