Broken

My heart is just broken...broken for this city, for these people, for the pain that is being experienced by so many.  We have been learning so much while in training this week and my heart is overwhelmed.  We just watched some short clips and talked about human trafficking in the United States.  It breaks my heart to hear the stories of the young girls and boys that are caught in sex trafficking.  Many are apart of the foster care programs and then are bought and are now controlled by a pimp that receives large sums of money as these kids are sexually taken advantage of my men and women that pay to sexually abuse these children.  Others are kidnapped in rural truck stops...others are brought to America from foreign countries...all the for sex trafficking industry.  Only trumped by drugs and weapons, human trafficking is the 3rd largest industry in the United States today.  There is more sex trafficking of children going on in the United States than in any other country.

Then I think about the vast number of homeless people that i have seen laying on the street.... laying on cardboard boxes and tattered blankets..... pushing their cart of belonging or carrying a small backpack....the conversations with men that know they are on the streets because they are alcoholics but can find no relief from their addiction even though they have tried to get help.  

I think about the countless number of women who are caught in the sweatshops of the garment industry forced to work long hours for almost no money.

People trapped..and there seems to be no escape from all the pain.  I look around and i think about the number of people.... the faces i have seen that are in pain and i want to help..i desire to help...but the trap runs so deep...these people are stuck...there are no quick fixes here and it breaks my heart!

Families are hurting, parents cannot provide for their children like they wish they could so children are hurting.  Kids are not receiving the education that they need and because of that have a even less chance of succeeding in their future...trapped.

And i have been so blinded to it all.  I am grateful that God has brought me to this place to learn to be educated so that i can share with others the terrible pain that others go through every day in our country and hopefully i can do whatever i can to promote change...whatever that may mean..but right now all i feel is brokenness...

May God through his community of believers bring justice to our world.