Not for Sale

November 23, 2010

I remember when I was younger and my siblings and I used to playfully put on stickers with prices on them from yard sales and joke about how much we were worth. It’s a fun game to play when you’re a child, but it’s actually a cruel reality that I discovered. I went to a “Not for Sale” conference with my DTS last weekend.  Not for Sale is an organization that makes people aware of human trafficking and slavery in the world. One of the horrific numbers that I learned about slavery in the world is 27 million people to be exact. That 27 million includes child slave labor and forced prostitution with women and children.

            The third and last day of the conference we had a speaker who was giving an overview of everything we learned. To prove a point, he asked for an 18-year-old girl to stand up. As I looked curiously around the room to see if anyone would stand up, I felt a pang in my heart. All of a sudden I somehow was on my feet with hundreds of people staring at me. The speaker asked the crowd a question, “How much is she worth?”

 I pondered the question in my head. My worth? Can someone truly stamp a price on my forehead? He answered the question, 3:25$. How can that be true? How can it possibly be determined? My heart broke; this was the standard price the world has bestowed on a woman’s body.

Jeremiah 1:5 “ I knew you before I knit you in your mothers womb. Before you were born, I set you apart.”

            If we were not made with worth, why would God take time to form us? To set us apart? We were made for a plan, a purpose, and a future. We were not just tossed into the world broken and without a purpose. God strategically designed us to be beautiful, captivating, and exquisite. God saw our full potential, our special part in the world. Life in the States is so easy to ignore this kind of stuff because it feels like another countries problem, but it’s actually in your back yard.  Just look up “Slaverymap.org”. Check out your state, even your city. I’m sure you will be shocked. For me, it seems like a never-ending shock in my DTS.

            I know with all of my heart that God frowns over injustice, His heart is constantly breaking over it. It seems as if God is breaking my heart every day here, but I don’t want it to just break. I want it to break for a purpose, I want it to break for a change.

Here are some pictures from Hamburg...