He carved her face with a potato peeler to mark her as his.
Her mom sold her to more than 100 men, so she could buy drugs. Her dad didn’t know until police called to tell him they had arrested his baby.
Her captor kept her chained under a bed in a basement. She was too weak to make a sound when law enforcement searched the basement the first time they got a tip about a line of men parading in and out of the house. Thankfully, the second time, one of them heard just enough of a whisper to find her.
These are only a few of the horror stories I’ve heard since learning that U.S. children are being trafficked right under our noses.
Surely these stories can’t be true. Not in America. Not in a Christian country. But, the statistics make it impossible to deny the hideous truth:
- An estimated 100,000-300,000 U.S. children are at risk each year.
- 1 out of 3 children are forced into this vicious crime within 48 hours of becoming homeless.
- The average age they’re forced into it is 12-13.
And the one that grabs my heart the most? Their average life expectancy after being forced into this traumatic life is 7 years.
7 years.
Each hour that ticks by, their chances of survival decreases as they are beaten, raped repeatedly, forced to act out gonzo pornography, starved, put under the knife for a botched abortion, given sexually transmitted diseases….
In fact, as you read this, there are children, possibly in a short mile radius of you, living what you’re reading.
Their silent cries are grieving God’s heart. Are they grieving ours?
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.
Isaiah 61:1b
Deena Graves
Traffick911, Dallas TX