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The cost of bringing freedom

Some people are in places of great pain. They are chained to this pain in ways that are hard to fathom. Take the sex trade in Cambodia. Mothers raise daughters to become prostitutes and then pimp them out at age 12 or 13 so they can send money home.  This is normal.   If you’re that…
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes
Some people are in places of great pain. They are chained to this pain in ways that are hard to fathom. Take the sex trade in Cambodia. Mothers raise daughters to become prostitutes and then pimp them out at age 12 or 13 so they can send money home.  This is normal.
 
If you’re that mother’s daughter, what are you to think? After the horror of your situation wears off (does it ever really wear off? – most numb their pain with alcohol), after the devastation of being transplanted from the familiarity of your home and village have receded, what do you think about your mom? Does she have any idea of the horror you face every day? Do you hate her? Do you hate yourself?
 
And with no safe place to return to, with nowhere to call home, you’re abandoned to predators. You enter an emotional cage and are chained to your pain. And maybe you do such horrible things that you begin to believe that you deserve it.
 
If some brave soul ever were to believe that you were worth freeing from those chains, even though you didn’t believe it yourself, how would they do it? They set you free to what? You’ve got nowhere to go, no skills, no hope.
 
I think they’d do what Steph Tyrna does every day in Cambodia as she seeks to rescue sex workers. Steph enters the horror. She climbs into the emotional cage with them and puts on their chains and she feels it. And that’s just the start. If the girls are ever to get free, they must first trust Steph and dare to hope. 
 
Here’s what that felt like for Steph this week as she described it in a letter:

“I sat through one of the hardest stories thus far, and as I sat there, I used every ounce of strength to fight back tears of grief and furious screams. Basically, it is a story of ongoing abuse – at the expense of a little girl. I honestly cannot sit back and do nothing about it. I wanted to leave the room screaming. I came home and bawled my eyes out wondering how so much evil can go on.
 
I am currently trying to go through all the proper channels to figure out how to save this little girl from a life of hell here on earth. I am sorry I will not be able to share any of the details right now, as I am not sure yet what is going to happen or how to go about rescuing this little girl. It all needs to be kept confidential at the moment while I am talking to several key people. Its awful, awful awful. And I know that God is grieved by these things 10 times more than I am. It’s just hard. Really hard.

So please keep me in your prayers, but more than me, keep a little innocent girl and her abuser in your prayers. Pray for breakthrough in this situation. Pray for freedom and hope for the little girl. Pray for compassion and pray for the abuser to come to know the Lord.”
Steph and her team are heroes. We need more like her. We can set the captives free, but it takes great courage. If you’re interested in praying for Steph and her team or in joining the fight against the sex trade, please contact me. I can help you get plugged in. It’s not an easy fight – freedom comes with a cost. But it is so worth it.

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