This week we've been talking a lot about what it means to love people. People like prisoners, people involved in the sex trade, widows, orphans... people that Jesus calls us to love as Christians (Matt. 25). We watched a video on Monday about human trafficking. The whole issue just made me feel really angry and helpless. It's sick how girls in that trade are treated, and even worse how people see it happening and turn away. If you don't know girls being taken, or have emotional connections with them, it's so easy to distance yourself from the whole issue. And that's exactly what's happening. People don't see faces of girls being raped and sold into slavery. They don't hear names of girls involved in these horror stories. So people just ignore this issue even if it happens all around them. And what really ticks me off is how the government knows this is happening, and even knows locations and people that are selling children. yet they don't do much. The government doesn't have enough people to go in and take down the traffickers. so they just let this continue to happen. It's more important for them to work on the issue as a whole, then save individual girls. i understand that, but what about the girls that are being taken right now and being raped and sold? Shouldn't we risk everything to help even just one girl? Jesus talks about a shepherd leaving his flock to look for just one sheep.. so why aren't we as christians going after these people? As angry as it makes me, i realized this week that i'm one of those people who distances myself. i don't know people involved in the sex trade, i don't see faces or know names of girls that are stolen or sold, so it's easy for me to be angry at the issue, but not really get involved. it doesn't seem that close to home for me. But that's not how it should be. i shouldn't just ignore what's going on in the world. another thing that struck me this week is how it's easy to love the victims in the sex trade... but very hard to love the people involved in selling, kidnapping and raping them. But really, i'm called to love them as well. Even if their sin seems a lot worse... i'm no better. Thinking about eveything we've seen and talked about this week has really pushed me to think about where i can get involved. There's hurt even in the communities around me here. maybe girls aren't being taken and sold, but there's prostitution, people in prison, homeless people, widows... what am i doing to reach out to these people? why don't i take the time to build relationships with them and just love them?