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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's not O.K.

I have been a horrible blogger. I was prideful in the fact that I started out my summer by consistently blogging. Well thats not happening anymore. The Lord blessed me with 2 jobs that keep me on my toes.
Im gunna go ahead and cut to the chase for the purpose of this late night post.

Last week at work I witnessed something that I believe has changed my life in a sense. My job at the mall requires me to be in the back "authorized personal only" access walls that weave throughout the mall. I was back there with a co-worker when we saw what looked like average mall shoppers. First thing that went through my head was, what are these ladies doing back here? It appeared to be a mother and a daughter, the daughter looking about 10 or 11 years old. My co-worker and I started down the hall back to our store. On our way back I noticed that this "mother" had hand-cuffed her "daughter." I thought to myself why on earth would she need to do this. I proceeded to ask them if I could help them find anything. She answered without looking at me that they were taking a short cut to get to the mall because she had a bad ankle. Yet, this girl was hand-cuffed with metal hand-cuffs. At the point I was determined to find a mall security officer and inform him. Due to business at the store I wasnt able to speak to one until about 2 hours later. I informed him of everything I saw and walked him through the scenario. After thinking about this alot it came to my knowledge that Toledo is one of the largest homes of the sex trade business. This is primarily because we have 2 main intersecting highways and several outlets to the Ohio turnpike. Suddenly it hit me.. it is very possible this young girl was passed off into the sex trade. Since then I have been praying for this girl. I wish I would have done more, or followed them or something. Today I spoke to another mall officer and asked him to follow up on the situation. Now all I can do is pray and keep my eyes out for suspicious behavior at the mall. It is a perfect, busy place where these innocent girls can be discretely passed off in the illegal sex trade.

I would ask that those of you reading this would pray for this girl that I saw. My heart aches for her. Also if you think of it to pray for the city of Toledo. There is currently a ministry that is actively trying to get this problem under control. However, I believe it is still being built up so it is not that known yet.

I am completely shocked and amazed that the town I call my home is one of the largest cities known for sex trade. I feel that the Lord is planting a seed in my heart for my future to possible come back here and devote my degree to teaching these women who are being rescued from the sex trade. However, my life is His and I will do whatever he has for me. I will close this post with some sex trade statistics from the website of the ministry here in town:
Trafficking for labor & sexual exploitation is probably the second most profitable activity in the world for organized crime
  • Toledo, Ohio has been cited by the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as a top U.S. recruitment city for trafficking children into commercial sexual exploitation.
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that there are only 4 recovery homes in the entire country and combined, they are able to provide services for only 45 victims.


1 comments:

AmyMae88

This post broke my heart. I want to help rescue girls out of the sex trade industry some day. I will be praying for this little girl.