Love recklessly.

We're back from California! After stopping at 6 churches and 3 colleges in 5 days, we arrived back to Las Vegas Friday evening. Each student spoke at least once or twice on their personal testimony, DTS experience, or on human trafficking. I spoke on the latter two.  On Thursday, the last day of our tour, I had been awake since 5am, was sick with a cold, energy levels were low, and I had to speak that night on human trafficking to a church college group. As much as I love public speaking, right before our presentation began I would have just rather crawled in a corner and slept than have to get up in front of a crowd and speak. However, my talk went just fine and I didn't have a sneezing fit. I think my message is one that everyone should hear so I'm including it below. By no means am I boasting. I definitely believe it was God that gave me this message. I know it's rather long, but I encourage you to read it in its entirety.

I spoke off an outline so I don't have the exact transcript, but this is quite similar to my presentation:

"Just what is human trafficking? It is modern-day slavery. When you hear of human trafficking, you only need to remember one word: slavery. There are two types: sex and labor. Sex trafficking is rather obvious: exploiting a person for their use as a sex object and is the type I will focus on tonight. Labor trafficking can occur in a private home or could be the use of someone for agricultural labor. Human trafficking is the fastest growing form of organized crime, and it is not an issue that just occurs in an obscure African nation or in a popular sex tourism country such as Thailand. It happens in your own town, whether you see it or not. 

To give an image of the depth of this problem, here are some statistics: 400 minors were rescued from prostitution in Las Vegas last year, and though that sounds like a high number, there are so many more children that are still trafficked. The average age into prostitution is 13-14 years old, and if that sounds young, which it is, there have been documented cases of  kids young as 3 year old trafficked in the US.

So who are the most vulnerable to the traffickers and pimps? Runaways, those from broken an abusive homes, backgrounds of poverty, and kids with extremely low self-esteem are most at risk. The pimp controls the girls he prostitutes psychologically and physically through beatings, rape, starvation and sleep deprivation. He controls everything in her life. A pimp will often lure a young girl through the "boyfriend" set up: he lavishes her with attention and affection that she is not receiving at home, luring her farther into the relationship through emotional control and then prostituting her out, first to his friends and then to anyone who will pay.

Why is sexual exploitation still such a problem? If I were to ask any of you, or if we were to go on the street and ask anyone we passed if they thought human trafficking is a good thing, I can almost guarantee you that they will all respond that it is horrific and is indeed a problem. So why is there still a demand for prostitutes; why is sex tourism so profitable? The United States, out of almost 200 countries, drives 25%, one-fourth, of the entire world's sex tourism. We could give the nice Sunday-school answer and say sin is the reason for this issue. Though that is completely true, let's break it down and look closer at specific reasons.  Let's look at our culture and see what is our image of women: are women not often portrayed as mere sex objects? Women are degraded through media: music, TV and pornography. So much popular music cheapens sex and relationships, glamorizes the pimp culture, and encourages sex before marriage, which is clearly wrong. Porn is almost always the beginning of this issue: a man does not randomly decide to purchase sexual services from a prostitute. No, it begins in his thought life. All of us, both men and women, have to examine our thoughts and strive for pure hearts. God commands us to be holy because He is holy. We should strive towards this not because of fear, but out of love for Him. Thoughts lead to actions. The London School of Economics estimates that 9 out of 10 kids aged 8-16 have viewed porn at least once online, intentionally or not. Just how many of these kids are going to become addicted and continue to view porn for years to come? How is this going to affect their spouses, kids, and society as a whole? Porn cannot be a separate issue from sex trafficking. Many of the girls and women in porn are themselves trafficked. To address human trafficking, Christians have to quit being part of the demand.

Besides our society's views of women, there is another root cause of human trafficking, and that is a love deficit. Everyone involved, the prostitute, pimp, and john are searching for love and this is how they are dealing with their hurts. They all hold broken images of relationships. The ultimate source of love is, of course, Jesus. He is the only one that can fill that love deficit and change hearts. We cannot come down with a case of the "Messiah complex" and think that we can change the world and stop trafficking on our own. It's an easy mentality to fall into because we're young and I know that every one of you has an issue you're passionate about, and you just want to finish school and get out in the world to just do something about it. We have to love not just the prostituted woman, but also her pimp and the man who buys her for a half-hour of pleasure. If these men do not receive love, they will continue seeking it through sex and so sex trafficking will continue to thrive. Why should we love these men? They don't deserve God, His love, or eternal life. But, we have to remember that God deserves him. The man who travels to Thailand to have sex with a five year old may not be worthy of God, but God is worthy of him. Jesus died for every single pimp and every single john. Jesus said that He came for the sick and the lost, the desperate. If we don't love these men with God's love, we aren't stopping the demand for sex trafficking.

The only way to love like this is from an overflow of God's love. You need to know that you are unconditionally loved by God. He is pursuing your heart. Each of you were made for an intimate relationship with God. If you don't believe me, go pick up a Bible and read Isaiah, the Gospels, or Hosea: His love is evident in every book of the Bible.  No amount of money can buy any of you. Each of you are priceless, and each of you are loved. Every one of you are beautiful because you were created by God and in His image. If anyone--guy or girl--tells you otherwise, they lie. God wants all of you and He is not going to relent until He has your whole heart.

One last thought before I end: though intimacy with God is the answer and Jesus' love is the only love that fills the void, we are also called to act on behalf of the fatherless, the needy, and the oppressed. We tend to be content in our Christian subculture of church, Bible study, small groups and Christian friends. All of these are good and are necessary, but we cannot always remain within this bubble. True worship means getting our hands dirty. If Jesus hung out with prostitutes, we certainly can, too. Love those who are inconvenient to love. Intentionally find ways to love those who are hurting, need a friend, or are lonely. Love recklessly! Don't underestimate the power of God's love: it will change the world.

Pursue God. Love Him, love others, and keep it in that order."