Police Smash Global Pedophile Ring

My prayers have been expanding... Why should I pray for one lost child when hundreds disappear every day? So I have been praying for children all over the world to be found and for their abusers to be stopped cold.

This answer to prayer, of course, has *nothing* to do with my little prayers, but I was gratified to see this story in the Washington Post today: Police Smash Global Pedophile Ring, Nab 700.

At least 31 children were rescued and this operation continues all over the world and is ongoing within the United States.

Some of my friends at work, a few weeks ago, asked me where is God, why does He permit children to suffer? They were speaking of devastating illnesses but we can include child exploitation and abuse in it.

My answer is the same. God is wondering why WE permit it. I asked my friends... How much of your time in the last year did you dedicate to a child's welfare cause? (Zero) Did you volunteer in a hospital or with a church youth group? (No) How about your money, did you make a donation that could make a difference? (Hmmm)

Something I've learned about God. He gave us this world, told us to take care of it. He doesn't very often intervene if WE don't care enough to intervene.

Look at child sexual exploitation. Are we willing to take a stand against pornography of any kind, of all kinds? Naw. Too many of our society want to have the "right" to view pornography and to engage in all kinds of selfish sexual behaviors. Well, you can't promote and build and sustain one type of bad thing without promoting and sustaining its bedfellows.

The very first time a child was abused, millenia ago, I wonder how people reacted when they found out. And the next time, and the next. You see, it didn't just begin in our generation or in our country.

Somewhere, we turned a blind eye to it, got used to it, tolerated it. We got sold a pack of lies about things that weren't quite so bad as child abuse, or that come along with it quite innocently, and we got to embracing some of THOSE things.

Take Thailand, for example. Gorgeous country, beautiful culture and people. Horrific exploitation of children by a few. Law enforcement and government officials reportedly taking bribes to look the other way.

I have friends who visit Thailand on vacation. Why? Because it's so beautiful. But they say that business travelers are a huge reason why child prostitution continues. You go to a public bathroom and people try to sell you a few minutes with a child. So... as travelers, as a world community, can't we make our influence felt and insist that child prostitution and child sex slavery stop in Thailand, or we will never purchase there again, never visit there again?

Here's a simple one. Would we be willing to pray every day for the Lord to expose evil, expose the pedophiles, take down the porn sites, and help us find and rescue these poor children? Whether or not you believed in God, on the CHANCE that it might save one child, would you be willing to pray every day for a month for God to shake His mighty arm at these abusers and stop them dead in their tracks?

Do you see? We apparently don't REALLY care that children are suffering like this. We put the whole burden on God and wonder why HE doesn't do something.

I think He is wondering where OUR priorities are.