An Ordinary Morning

Finished with my morning routine and clutching my phone, coffee, and keys, I ran out the door, rounding the corner of my apartment and carefully stepping through the grass to get to the parking lot. I pulled my badge for work out of my armrest console and put the car in reverse. With a swig of caffeine and a heavy sigh, “right on time!” I began the drive through the gates of my apartment complex.

The morning AM talk radio kicked on and I was off to the races for an ordinary day. Little did I know I was about to hear a story that would impact me in the days and weeks to come.

The music for the Glenn Beck program played and the familiarity of the road before me gave me a moment to clear my mind. The segment began and my ears perked as Glenn and his colleagues began discussing Operation Underground Railroad. Their website, OurRescue.org, states that they exist to rescue children from sex trafficking.

Glenn and his head writer/researcher Jason Buttrill had recently taken a trip to Bangkok, Thailand to witness undercover operations with O.U.R.

As they began to lay out the horrors of human trafficking they witnessed there, I was moved to tears.

I couldn’t have imagined the scenes they were describing, and my heart was shattered for these children half a world away. Here I was, on an ordinary day, feeling sideswiped by Evil and broken I haven’t done anything to stop it.

Something that was said during the program resonated with me. Many people have asked them why, with so much going on at home and happening here in America, why we should dedicate our time, money and energy to something going on so far away? I don’t fault those who ask that question. We don’t want to think about this happening, but this is a real Evil and Americans leave that place and bring it back here, and even in some cases far worse.

Slavery is in America, and Americans are purchasing children and their innocence at a price too.

I couldn’t shake the stories all day. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next.

I thought about the little girl laid out before men on drugs so she will withstand what is coming next. I thought about the little girl, with too much makeup and too little clothes clutching a teddy bear. I thought about the little boys being stripped of their dignity and too often overlooked in the human trafficking discussion. I thought about the aftercare these children must desperately need and the lack of awareness in my own community.

For a week I sat in my thoughts, doing research, desperately searching for an organization close to home I could get involved in. The more I learned, the more I felt the weight of how much bigger than me this war is to fight.

One evening as I was contemplating all I had heard and all I had read, I felt the Holy Sprit move me to pray. Before I do anything else, pray. Ask God what He wants to do with this. Ask Him to guide and help those fighting against human trafficking. And pray for those little ones to be rescued. Pray for a miracle for these boys and girls. Pray for those precious children to know Jesus.

As I wrestle with all of this and find where I can best fight this war, I hope you will be moved as I have, to join Red Tent Living and A-21 as a Prayer Warrior. Prayer is the most simple and most powerful, effective weapon we have in this world.

Jesus made it possible for us to have unrestricted access to our Father, to the presence of the Living God. May we all join together in His name to fight Evil wherever innocence and dignity are threatened.

Remember, one ordinary evening, the veil was torn between God and man.

One ordinary morning, a tomb was found empty.

One ordinary day, Jesus walked among his friends once more and reminded us that those that believe will perform miracles.

We can all be a part of the miracle a child in your city, your state, or halfway around the world is waiting for.

To Join the Red Tent Prayer Warriors, please find us here.

To read more about O.U.R. and the undercover operation in Bangkok, you may find the story here.