It has been a busy season. And I have felt the time stretch from my last post. Knowing that I needed to write, but unsure of the words to share what has been going on here.
We have had several groups travel through, and even now, our YGAP friends are with us. We look forward, each year, to the visit with YGAP, the new ideas that are offered, the encouragement of seeing familiar faces, the re-visioning that inevitably happens.
This year, our dear friend Tom (check him out here) came out for what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. We were hoping to see the release of children we have been negotiating for close to three years.
But, instead, what we found was a messy story with no easy answers. In the end, the children remained as we found them, living with parents (whom we had been told were deceased).
It was frustrating and confusing and there are so many questions that have been left unanswered, or at least without a really good answer.
Why wasn't the truth given to us from the beginning?
Why are some NGO's paying for the release of children when it just intensifies the cycle of trafficking in communities?
How do we get to the bottom of each story without so much time and waiting in between?
But, I have realized that with the issue of trafficking...there are no black and white, clear-cut answers. It is a trade based on deceit and greed. It is messy. It is confusing. Sometimes, it feels rather hopeless.
But, here is what I know. In the midst of the unknown, there is hope.
Our Robert went with the team this time, his first time back since he moved to CORM in 2009. And there is hope for the future in the life of that boy. He loved on the kids, poured into the lives of those who he saw there, and was a blessing to his family.
Our kids, they are the hope for the future. So, even if we aren't able to reach them all, I know that the ones that will be chosen to come, they hold in their grasp such beauty and the hope for the restoration of God's people to Himself.
And so, in that, I cling to hope knowing that God has called us to be a voice for the voiceless...and it will continue to be so for so many more children in the future.
We have had several groups travel through, and even now, our YGAP friends are with us. We look forward, each year, to the visit with YGAP, the new ideas that are offered, the encouragement of seeing familiar faces, the re-visioning that inevitably happens.
This year, our dear friend Tom (check him out here) came out for what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. We were hoping to see the release of children we have been negotiating for close to three years.
But, instead, what we found was a messy story with no easy answers. In the end, the children remained as we found them, living with parents (whom we had been told were deceased).
It was frustrating and confusing and there are so many questions that have been left unanswered, or at least without a really good answer.
Why wasn't the truth given to us from the beginning?
Why are some NGO's paying for the release of children when it just intensifies the cycle of trafficking in communities?
How do we get to the bottom of each story without so much time and waiting in between?
But, I have realized that with the issue of trafficking...there are no black and white, clear-cut answers. It is a trade based on deceit and greed. It is messy. It is confusing. Sometimes, it feels rather hopeless.
But, here is what I know. In the midst of the unknown, there is hope.
Our Robert went with the team this time, his first time back since he moved to CORM in 2009. And there is hope for the future in the life of that boy. He loved on the kids, poured into the lives of those who he saw there, and was a blessing to his family.
Our kids, they are the hope for the future. So, even if we aren't able to reach them all, I know that the ones that will be chosen to come, they hold in their grasp such beauty and the hope for the restoration of God's people to Himself.
And so, in that, I cling to hope knowing that God has called us to be a voice for the voiceless...and it will continue to be so for so many more children in the future.
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