Taken

I just come back from the most amazing and touching time of storytelling and volunteering!
Our hall went to the World Missions Prayer Center in St. Paul for a time of jelwery packaging and learning about trafficking. It is just horrible what people do to these girls from Nepal. . . read on to find out more.


Peace Rehab Center
The Peace Rehabilitation Center rescuses girls that were trafficked into the sex trade, gives them counseling and mentoring, ministers to them and tells them about Jesus, and helps them learn a trade so that they can make a new life for themselves. Some of the workers came back to the states with a TON of jewelry that the girls made, all ready to be packaged up and sold. We punched and sorted tags, stuck tags on necklaces, bracelets, bangles, etc. all of the most beautiful colors and styles of beads!

PRC teaches girls how to knit, crochet, sew, raise pigs, goats, and other various trades besides jewelry making. You may think that jewelry making is a lame way to make a living. But it is not! I have experience with making jewelry, and it is quite tedious work. Stringing beads on thread is harder than you think, and can be quite frustrating. It is easier to do it with wire or stretch cord, though they use silk thread because it is more durable. With this type of material you have to find needles small enough to allow the tiny glass seed beads to slide across. The beads are often hand-made as well, so the holes are various sizes and not all fit on the string. It can be annoying work. The long long strands they craft into beautiful necklace designs sometimes takes them all day to make! WOW. That is cool.


Carmen
The woman who is organizing the selling of the jewlery has the most amazing stories to tell, as she has personally worked with several of the girls. Her name is Carmen, and she asks for prayer as she travels around MN to speak to high schools and churches about the problem of human trafficking, and how we can help through the "Wear Their Future" jewelry program. PRAYER is the best way we can help though! For it is the best way to fight the spiritual battle going on against the evil in the world.


Sasha
She told us a story tonight about a girl named Sasha. The basic outline of the story was that she was sold from her family at a very young age (wish I could remember the specifics, the story broke my heart) to a man who had a wife. This man sexually abused the girl in horrible ways. The wife was jealous of the girl, and decided one day to get rid of her. The husband was at work, and the wife poured gasoline all over the house and her dog. She lit the dog on fire, and the poor creature ran around the house and it all burned to the ground. Amazingly Sasha got out safely, but then was arrested for doing the awful deed. She had been set up by the wife. She was put into prison, and who knows what other awful things could have been done to her if she had not been rescued by PRC.
They worked with the government to allow her to be freed from prison if she committed to rehab at the center. For two years Sasha was SO suicidal that she had to be watched day and night to make sure she would not harm herself, for she tried to kill herself out of her deep and utter depression. One day, a woman finally broke through to her in ministering and she gave her life over to the Lord!! It took time for healing to occur, but now she is going to school in the morning (which in Nepal is like U.S. adult night school) and wants to become a cosmetologist! In Nepal marriages are arranged by their mothers. Since Sasha had been taken from her family, the acting mother that was assigned to her from PRC asked a godly man from the church if he would be open to marrying her. Amazingly, he accepted! So now they are happily married and have two beautiful daughters of their own.

Stories like this one happen EVERY DAY, though not always with such a happy ending. Hundreds of girls die from the abuse, and PRC is working to stop this. They prevent sex trafficking as well as rescue those who are victims. A leader from the village picks out 10 of the poorest girls (so that PRC won't be accused of being biased in choosing) and they teach them a trade so that they can make jobs and prevent their families from selling them for money.

Help
I was truly taken with the above story...if I was abused in such a manner, I know that I would probably hate men for the rest of my life. It is breathtaking to imagine a God so powerful to bring healing to such girls from these horrible experiences, and cause them to be transformed enough to have a blessed marriage with sex the way God truly meant it to be! Blessed in marriage between one man and woman. WOW. I am glad I can serve a God who is big enough to save us from the smallest and biggest problems imaginable...breathtaking.

I wanted to cry afterward as Carmen told more stories and statistics on the prostitute trade. She is the most amazingly generous lady, and gave each of us girls some free jewelry to wear and spread the word for the program. Did you know MN is the 13th highest state in the U.S. to traffic people? And the Mall of America is a top hot spot for picking up young girls, age 8 - 13 are the biggest target. Nepal is not the only area that needs a lot of help. We fall victim to it here in our "free" country. It breaks my heart and makes me cry out for ways I can help! PRAYER is the best way for us who want to help, spread the word and pray against this evil in the world. The heavenly realm is in uproar as angels battle to save souls! It pains me so much...I want to cry.
:'(
If you have ever seen the movie taken, or the Human Trafficking documentary from Lifetime, Carmen suggests these as two of several very realistic and heartbreaking shows that resemble what goes on unknown everyday. . . Please pray.

Ezra 9: 8-9...God has not forsaken us, even when in slavery.

Visit: 
www.peacerehab.org