And quite frankly, I think that we can easily be misled down the path of knowledge — the same temptation that Adam and Eve faced in the garden, falsely believing that knowledge was more important than life.

I see the value of intellectual proof for the existence of God, but at the same time, if we are not living as if we believe what we say we believe, then what’s the point of saying it at all?

Along those lines, I’d like to see us put our hands and feet where our mouths are. As you know, we talk a lot on this blog about justice issues. In my study of Scripture, I’ve been blown away by how many verses talk about God’s love for the fatherless and widow, how he cares deeply for the imprisoned and oppressed, and how expects us to do the same.

As an adopted son and father of two adopted children, I am, as you know, passionate about orphan care; with the writing of my new book Priceless, however, I’ve been compelled to advocate for the millions of victims of human trafficking around the world.

Friends, I’ll be blunt: I don’t think that it’s time for apologetics or theology or philosophical musings. I think it’s time to act.

I don’t want to try to guilt you with statistics or lofty figures that you can’t relate to. We’ve all heard those before. I want to share an opportunity for you to do more than merely advocate.

My friends at Adventures in Missions have put together a trip for young people to spend five months being exposed to the realities of human trafficking, while partnering with existing ministries around the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus to trafficking survivors. One of the months they’ll actually be spending here in the United States. Find out more here: http://www.theworldrace.org/?tab=routes&subtab=humantrafficking.

If you are 21-35 and a Jesus-follower, I want you to seriously consider going on this trip. It will give you an opportunity to be the Body of Christ and to put his red letters into action. I guarantee that it will turn your world upside down (in a good way).

And those of you who cannot go, please consider what you can do to be a part of this. Pray for the ministry, support someone who can go, mobilize a friend, help get the word out, etc. Advocacy is great, but God also calls us to act in response to the injustices and atrocities we witness.

I want to know how, if at all, this post touched you. Would you mind sharing in the comments section what you are led to do?

“Lord Jesus Christ we pray that You will grant to the people of this nation and all nations the will to do good, to flee from evil, and to practice all righteousness, making us respectful of life and sharers of Your blessings, caring for one another in mercy and truth.

Remove all evil from our hearts and wickedness from the laws of lands that allow human slavery and enable women and children to be trafficked. Give us the courage to be servants of Your holy will and performers of Your Love by what we do and not just what we say.”

Kindle in our hearts the will to care for the needy, to show kindness to the poor, to aid the homeless and help the helpless. As we have freely received your love and grace, help us to freely give to those in need.  Amen.”

Can you take that challenge?

My friend Brandi coined the term “Warrior Girls” to describe the passion of women and moms to not sit by while kids go without nutritious food and clean water. They will fight the violence that steals the childhoods of millions of children. They fight the battle on the enemy’s territory, and take back what he has stolen.

Yesterday Brandi coined another phrase I want to share with you: Treasure Hunting.

The concept of Treasure Hunting is inspired by the words of Psalm 112:9: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor.”

The Bible tells us the earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord, and reminds us that our master owns the cattle on a thousand hills and minds the storehouses of heaven.

When we seek God’s blessings and resources, we are hunting for treasure. Ironically, this is exactly how Jesus describes the Kingdom of God–as a treasure in a field that once found will cause you to give up everything in your life.

God has scattered the treasures of the kingdom for us to find. But we have to hunt for them–seek them out–and give everything we have to possess them.

Sometimes He hides those treasures in a beloved Coach purse that Lindsey decided to sell for a $20 raffle ticket (Coach purse lovers you gotta check that out)

As we pray for the success of our rescue operation in India, you can join Brandi and the Warrior Girls in their challenge to raise even more. We’ve already identified additional girls where hard evidence of their abuse is in the hands of our partners.

What treasures has God hidden in your life that you could offer? Whatever you give will help rescue girls in India from brothels, pimps, and rape. Give here.

*UPDATE* Children’s HopeChest has raised the full amount needed for this project. If you are still motivated to give, we will use your donation for similar projects within our ministry.*

Yesterday, readers from across the country contributed over $1,400 toward the rescue of virgin girls being sold for rape in India. That almost funds the whole rescue. If we receive $6,300 more, the girls will have professional, biblical, Christian counseling for one year after their rescue. We still need your help, and you can give by clicking the donate button to the right.

Yesterday I was contacted by Tami, a reader who is holding a garage sale this weekend to sell her stuff and donate a portion of the sale to this rescue operation. If you live near the Wichita, look her up on Facebook to get directions to her sale.

Tami is selling her stuff to stop children from being raped in this brothel in India. So I thought I’d pose that question to a larger audience…what would you sell?

Maybe you’d sell nothing. Give nothing. And do nothing. If you are in the do nothing camp, why so?

But you might think of things you no longer use–or have never used–like that gift from your mother-in-law you got six Christmases ago.

You might also think about stuff you want to upgrade to new things like your TV, iPhone, computer, or furniture. Maybe your clothes or mattresses or books or kids’ toys.

For a moment you might entertain something larger like a car, or maybe even your house. But you would likely dismiss these as crazy or “radical.”

We’re usually willing to sell the useless stuff and the things we want to trade up for new stuff.

The big stuff is off-limits. We “need” those things. Without them life would be impractical. Now watch this video for David Platt’s book, Radical.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now watch it again.

Platt nails an important truth about God’s kingdom by exposing how the earthly stuff of our lives is in direct opposition to the radical obedience expected by Jesus. We cannot stretch out our hands and arms to serve the poor when they are clutching tightly to our things.

10 girls in India need your help today. You can rescue them from a life of rape and abuse by donating some of your stuff today…

*UPDATE* Children’s HopeChest has raised the full amount needed for this project. If you are still motivated to give, we will use your donation for similar projects within our ministry.*

Selling our possessions is not only a metaphor for being wholly devoted to God. It is a tangible way to demonstrate that those possessions do not own us.

I’m interested in your thoughts on this, and what you are doing to practically live this out. Leave your comments below…

It’s apparently very simple.

First, you establish yourself as a respected community leader who heads up a women’s rights group in India. This will solidify your reputation as someone who protects and defends young girls.

Next, you need to really specialize in something to keep the customers coming back for more. You need, as the marketers call it, a “unique value proposition.” You decide to focus on virgin girls. Highly prized and more expensive than girls with experience.

For clientele, you cater to corrupt police officials, local authorities, and the occasional visiting VIP or dignitary. That way, you’ll always remain safe from raids and prosecutions.

Last, and most importantly, you need a good supply of virgins. For that you have an arrangement with the local boarding school for girls. Potential customers browse through your photo book of potential child sex victims. Once they make their choice, you bring the girls to your brothel to be raped for profit.

Sadly, this true story is unfolding right now in India.

A well-respected women’s leader and her husband run a trafficking and prostitution ring specializing in virgins and young girls. The description above is true in its details, documented by our partners in India.

A rescue operation is in the works, and I am raising funds through this blog to free as many girls as we can. Will you help us?

They have documented at least five minors–all girls–being held as slaves. The rescue plan involves using the local television station to expose the operation, and thereby force the police to conduct the raid.

Will you join me in supporting this rescue operation? Here are the details:

*UPDATE* Children’s HopeChest has raised the full amount needed for this project. If you are still motivated to give, we will use your donation for similar projects within our ministry.*

Rescue Operation: $1,250 – ($125 per girl we plan to rescue)

If we successfully rescue 10 girls, that’s just $125 per child saved. This involves setting up the rescue operation, getting the investigative team in place, coordinating with the media and police, and conducting the raid itself. Even if $1,250 rescued only one girl, it would be far worth the investment.

Rescue Kits for Each Girl: $450 – ($45 per girl up to 10 girls)

These kits are the first step in restoring a girl’s dignity. They contain clothing and personal hygiene supplies. The girls are taken immediately to a government after-care facility, and these kits provide each girl with needed supplies for the long journey ahead.

Professional Social Worker: $6,000 – Salary for 12 months

Once in the government after-care home, our partners will send a Christian social worker to meet with each of the girls and begin to counsel them toward long-term recovery. Until the girls are allowed to leave that facility, our partners will provide consistent biblical counseling from a licensed and educated social worker. Providing this victims’ advocate is critical because in many cases girls are returned to the parents or relatives who sold them to the brothel in the first place.

Our goal is to rescue up to ten girls. Although in a similar attempt a few weeks ago, only one girl was freed from her captors. I will keep you posted, and encourage you to continue to pray, to spread the word, and to give as you are able.

Here are ways you can be involved:

Make a Gift to the India Rescue Operation

Click the donate button at the top of this post to make a gift toward this rescue operation. A gift of any size will make a difference. Give even $5 to stop this horror. A $45 gift buys one girl a rescue kit. A $125 donation helps rescue one girl (if we are successful in freeing 10 children). A $500 gift pays for after-care social work for the girls. Make a gift today. All donations are processed by PayPal and received by Children’s HopeChest, a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. We are members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability also. For more information about our ministry, please visit www.hopechest.org.

Re-Post this Entire Article on Your Blog

Feel free to copy and paste the whole article on to your blog for your reading audience.

Get the Blog Badge / Donate Button

Use this button anywhere you can post HTML. It will direct the visitor to our PayPal donation page.

<form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”><input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_s-xclick” /><input type=”hidden” name=”hosted_button_id” value=”JZRSE5RR2GS94″ /><input type=”image” border=”0″ src=”http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9206218/IRO.png” name=”submit” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online!” /><img width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”" src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” /></form>

While there, he met with women trapped in brothels who graciously offered to buy soda for their guests while they chatted about life.

He walked down constricted corridors–barely shoulder width apart–where heat permeated every space. Rape for profit took place behind every door in that hallway.

The “work rooms” were small and spartan. A door, four walls, and a platform. Sex as simple brutality. Sex divorced from the Love that created it.

During their conversations, some of the women would get up to leave, service a client, and then return to talk with Vince and the team.

Many of these girls were sold into the brothels as child sex slaves–and some are free to leave now–but they stay because they feel they have nowhere to go.

Vince and others walked these unfamiliar and uncomfortable places. As a ministry, HopeChest is active in bringing “Christ with skin” to the hard places of the world. For many of the people who come with us, it is their first time out of the country.

God works in the unfamiliar. How many times have we seen great heroes of the faith called out of the familiar patterns of their lives, and thrust into the unfamiliar unknown of God’s design?

“Stuck in a rut,” is a phrase we use to describe the familiar things of our lives. Someone defined a rut as a grave with the ends kicked out of it.

To understand God’s design and God’s kingdom, you must go to the unfamiliar places. What unfamiliar places is God calling you to walk in? Are you going? Leave your comment and share…

“Russian supermodels are at a record high — but some hopeful young models in the former Soviet Union were being pushed into underage sex and escort work, Sky News reported Tuesday.

Young women from struggling families were inspired by the likes of successful Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova but often found a very different reality.

Blonde, blue-eyed Masha Arsen left her small town to embark on a life as a model in Moscow when she was 15 but quickly returned when she was pushed to work as an escort.

“One of the girls I lived with was 13, and on the eve of her 14th birthday she earned a lot of money by having sex with an oligarch,” she told Sky News. “She bought loads of new expensive things. In this agency, girls of this age are of a higher value.”

Model scout Alexey Vasiliev, who was credited with discovering supermodels Vodianova and “Quantum of Solace” Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, allowed Sky News to join him as he looked for potential new models.

Beauties in their early 20s were passed off as too old by Vasiliev, who only stopped very young, very thin girls.

“I’m looking for something new, when I see it I know straight away — I understand beauty — I have very good eyesight to spot someone in the street,” he said.”

As the World Cup heats up in South Africa, new sporting controversies and legends are sure to grab our attention, as they have in years past. Devotees are sure to remember, for example, the exploits of Argentinean attacker Diego Maradona in the 1986 games. In addition to scoring what is remembered as “the goal of the century” in the quarter-finals match, Maradona had snapped what appeared to be a miraculous header past the outstretched goalkeeper. Dubbed the “Hand of God” goal after the match, Maradona later revealed that it had been a flick of his own hand–concealed by a quick head fake to evade detection–that illegally propelled the goal into the net.

But as we turn to this year’s Cup (starting tomorrow), there is a far more serious form of illegal movement than a footballer’s (or soccer player’s) cunning play that demands our attention: human trafficking, a global phenomenon powered by coercion and deception, which may increase around major sporting events and other times of increased transnational movement.

Whether for forced labour or coerced sex, the global business of human trafficking is booming. In 2005, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that human trafficking had annual profits of $31.6 billion, making it the third-largest grossing sector of organized crime, after drugs and weapons. A crime against humanity, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime defines the act of human trafficking as one of “… recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them.”

South Africa, home of the 2010 World Cup, has been documented as a source, transit and destination country for trafficking in men, women and children, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report. That means people are trafficked from, through and into South Africa, some for labor, while others are forced  into South Africa’s many brothels. While South Africa has taken steps to pass a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, that legislation is caught up in a Parliamentary committee, where many believe it will languish for months–long after the World Cup leaves town.

For a victim of human trafficking, that delay leaves a gaping wound, a jagged legal loophole through which they can be exploited with impunity. Without robust legal tools to fight the lucrative business of human trafficking, prosecutors and police are hampered in their efforts, while traffickers continue to profit and innocent victims suffer.

Shockingly, according the U.S. State Department, there were only 5,808 prosecutions and 3,160 convictions for human trafficking throughout the world in 2006. Putting that figure in context with global estimates of the crime suggests that for every 800 people trafficked, only one perpetrator is convicted. Without credible deterrence, traffickers see only opportunity for obscene profits, not punishment that would make them think twice about their crimes. International Justice Mission has seen, time and time again, that human trafficking grows stronger where laws against it and enforcement are weakest–but that excellent laws and enforcement can make a significant difference in combating this crime.

With the huge flow of international visitors pouring in through South Africa’s borders for the World Cup, it is possible–some say probable–that a new stream of human trafficking victims could slip past the notice of officials. Of course, when an activity is hidden and illicit, reliable statistics are very hard to come by. Still, reports are emerging of new foreign nationals–including Mozambican, Zambian, Zimbabwean, Chinese and Southeast Asian nationals–working in brothels in residential Cape Town neighborhoods. City Councillor J.P. Smith, an official responsible for safety and security during the World Cup, recently claimed in an ESPN “Outside the Lines” investigative report that “they were not here a year ago. These girls didn’t come here by themselves. … They’re being brought here through syndicates, who have the means to manipulate immigration processes, to bribe border patrol, border guards, to bribe immigration officials.”

Though it may be difficult to say definitively if human trafficking increases during large sporting events like the World Cup, we do know human trafficking already exists at an unconscionable level, and the toll that human trafficking takes on its victims–whatever their number–is staggering.  These global events turn our eyes toward an illegal phenomenon that often escapes our notice. Rather than being preoccupied with whether human trafficking might rise in association with a given major sporting event, we’d be better off to ask the question of whether we can use the occasion to help end its existence. How many victims of human trafficking does it take for it to become “too many”? We should be asking: How might we decrease the supply and drive down demand? How can we protect the vulnerable? Deter the predators? Stop those who traffick in human beings?

Stronger law enforcement has been proven to help. International Justice Mission views it as indispensable. In Cebu, Philippines, after two years of collaborative casework led by IJM, we saw a 70 percent reduction in the victimization of children in the commercial sex trade. This required vigilance by competent local authorities. In IJM’s experience, such partners can be identified and equipped all around the world.

There is a second reason football fans remember the Argentinean team’s performance in the 1986 World Cup: the team employed a risky strategy to position defenders, so that Maradona had greater freedom to go on the offense without fear–to range within striking distance of the goal. I’ll defer to the experts on soccer strategy here, but it stands to reason that if we can position our governments, our communities, our churches and ourselves to defend against human trafficking through world-class awareness, educational, legislative and enforcement efforts, we just might have a shot at winning a game where lives hang in the balance.

Great article from Relevant Magazine. Jaime McIntosh is the executive director for International Justice Mission, Canada.

This week, Kari Gibson is running a contest to give away 10 copies of my new book Priceless and 10 pounds of Saints Coffee.

If you like winning free stuff, hit her blog today.

Kari is an amazing advocate for orphans around the world. Check out her incredible orphan-themed t-shirts.

What is Priceless About?

Photojournalist Stuart Daniels has found purpose in life. After suffering the fallout of a tragic assignment, Daniels rediscovered his faith while helping a young African orphan. Now his photo work carries a greater mission: To educate people about social injustice happening around the world.

Daniels next assignment carries him back overseas and into the heart of Russia. Once there, Daniels is persuaded by an old friend to help save two girls from a desperate situation. Soon he becomes a key player in a dangerous campaign to rescue helpless women trapped in the sex-slave trade. What Daniels encounters during his journey will shake his faith, test his courage, and even threaten his life. Yet as Daniels gets deeper and the stakes get higher, he will discover that hope can be found in the darkest of places.