Tears rolled down my face as I stared at a picture of a small child, who bore the scars given to him by a hot grill, used to torture him, permanently engraved into the tissue of his bare chest. His big beautiful eyes and radiant smile conceal years of unfathomable abuse: abuse that began before he was 2 years old.
Barely a toddler, yet he had already been trafficked, enslaved, raped, and tortured.
Can you pause and picture this for a moment?
SCARS FROM BEING TORTURED.
A child.
Made in the very image of God.
How is this humanly possible?
Can we really read this, see this, and just go on with life, just keep scrolling?
His eyes plead with me, with the world:
DO YOU SEE ME?
Do I matter to you?
And if so, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PROVE IT?
I often ponder the same question. I used to run a store (One Heart Global) that helped children just like this one. That store brought rescue, redemption, and restoration to lives worldwide, yet, I marvel that there were days when no one showed up to shop, to buy, or to support the prevention of more children from being trafficked in the first place. As I prepare to open a new One Heart store yet again, my prayer is this time it will be different.
As I listen to his story, I am crying…hard. I wonder how many more children we will allow to be treated so horrifically before we take radical action.
How many more kids will needlessly suffer, all because we continue to treat with indifference the reality that human trafficking exists, and there are ways we can fight it, if only we would try.
One way is through shopping. We must realize that behind every product is a person.
A life.
And our purchases can either fund their freedom or exploitation and oppression.
Our purchases have the ability to do good or evil. We can create jobs and empower individuals and families OR fund large corporations who not only hate our nation, but build their businesses (often) off of the exploitation and slavery of others.
Our purchases support ethical sourcing and transparency or exploitation and corruption.
Our purchases fund biblical justice or injustice. Ministry or big corporations.
It makes me wonder…when will people show up, not because they need to or want to, but because, as consumers, they HAVE to!
So in the next week or two, One Heart will swing open the doors yet again and pray for people to CARE by showing up, joining the fight, and by choosing to shop where their money funds freedom not exploitation.
We will pray for people to donate, and to help us not only to sustain, but grow.
Expand even?!
We’ve barely scratched the surface of all that is possible by transforming the marketplace but it can’t be done without every one of us!
Can you fathom the purchasing power of redirecting the hundreds of billions of dollars we so easily spend on apparel, coffee, food, accessories, home decor, etc. to ministries where those funds are literally rescuing, redeeming, and restoring lives all over the world?
It’s not cliche to say it could literally change the world!
It actually could.
It’s not about another cute pair of earrings, or a new shirt to shove in our already filled closets, it’s about the life of a person, a child, who begs the world to see them by not only being aware of their horrific abuse, but by choosing to take action and truly do something about it.
The question is, WILL THEY?
WILL YOU?
