Sex in the City

I move gingerly down the front steps as the gray day is waning.

A glance at my watch shows 10 of 5.  
“Thank you, God,” I mutter, “there’s still enough daylight outside for a walk.”
Soon it will be dark.

It’s already dark on the other coast in New Jersey/New York, literally and figuratively.
This Sunday New Jersey is hosting the Super Bowl, but my home team–the Seahawks–aren’t the only ones going.

Besides the thousands of fans traveling via bus, car and train, besides the hundreds of team members arriving by plane, there are 10-15,000 young girls and women being brought into the city for the event….so they can be sold for sex.

They’re not there out of choice, they’re trapped.  Trapped by ‘johns’ who have sold their services over and over again to those who will pay. And there are plenty who will pay.

Why talk of such things here in this space, a place to ‘gather the light’?  Such darkness is repulsive, too close for comfort, maybe too dirty too think about?

I for one am astonished and quietly outraged that slavery–and that’s what it is–slavery–like this exists in the 21st Century.  So I’m using this little space to shed some light on the issue and maybe rally others alongside who will pray. 

Pray against this awfulness, in the mighty name of Jesus.

• Pray for the girls who have lost their freedom.
• Pray for the darkness to be exposed by the light.
• Pray for strength and protection for the pray-ers.

There’s a small army on the ground RIGHT NOW…..The Prayer Bowl Team of 2014.  They’ve decided to stand in the bitter cold and fight through the darkness. There are 40 people behind the scenes, meeting in churches, working in urban missions, reaching out and touching those who are lost. And there are hundreds more online, a virtual community joined in prayer during this Super Bowl week.

And when the Super Bowl is over, will you pray about what you might do?  

Tell your friends about the issue? (Get more facts here: Real Escape from the Sex Trade–REST Ministries).

Write something?  Maybe about the International Justice Mission–also working on this issue and many others involving human trafficking.

Send money? Maybe to Arts Aftercare, which provides healing and therapy through the arts.