Lessons and Thoughts from Chiang Rai

The past week has been a whirlwind of new places and new ideas. My team and I (Kirsten) are now in Phnom Penh, staying at a beautiful hostel and taking the day to recuperate a little. With a little extra time, I am going to try to condense some of our recent thoughts so that hopefully you all can benefit from what we've been learning and discussing as well.


We've had the chance to talk to several different organizations about their strategies in abolishing sex trafficking. Here are some factors that we questioned and hammered out as a team:
- All the organizations do some level of poverty alleviation because poverty plays a big role in perpetuating slavery. Why? One explanation is that it puts people into "survival mode" where simply living one moment to the next motivates almost every action. Love becomes a luxury, selling your children becomes a necessity. This explanation, although logical, seems very harsh, considering the people we met in the villages in Chiang Rai. The people there are so capable of love- we were blown away by the hospitality and warmness of everyone we encountered. We did not visit the poorest of the poor, but we feel that it would take some extremely desperate circumstances to bring parents to this point. Either that or a deep spiritual depravity... an idea I will come back to later.
Perhaps a more satisfying explanation is ignorance. Many parents do not even know what their children will be going through: often they sell them with the belief that they are going to be given a good job and better life in the city. It is done in love, though hopeful to the point of extreme naivety. We have heard both of these explanations while on the trip, and we find that this one is easier to accept (although we acknowledge it does not necessarily make it more true!). To counteract this factor, many organizations focus on taking education and awareness to the poor villages. We were told that children in the sex trade used to be predominantly from Chiang Rai, but that number has been significantly decreased through education programs (many of which, if I remember correctly, were governmental-- which is significant considering the Thai government does not even acknowledge the existence of sex trafficking in their country).

-The significance of the spiritual factors in sex trafficking have blown us away.
We found out that before Christianity came to the Akha people quite recently (the hilltribe Art ministers to), their language did not have words for "love", "compassion", "mercy", etc. 
There are many stray dogs in Thailand, and Jenny and I asked why the Akha people don't treat their pets well. The missionary told us that they just don't have the energy to pour into taking care of their pets. We think this is very significant in understanding the desperate nature of life for this particular people group (and surely others are similar). While this attitude is not too shocking towards animals, it provides a lens through which we can understand the hardships and spiritual dryness that lead to selling children into the sex trade. The Akha people are traditionally animistic, and it seems that Satan had such a stronghold in their lives that he had completely wiped out the hope and love of God.
 Despite the emphasis on poverty when explaining the cultural acceptance of the sex trade, we can't help but say, "But there are a LOT of very very poor people who do not sell their children!" There is a cultural mindset that makes it permissable here. The cultural attitude towards the trade seems to view it as merely a business transaction. We think this points to a death in morality... what else could diminish something so heartbreaking to something so matter-of-fact and even LOGICAL. Satan has been pouring lies into men, telling them not only are their sexual impulses ok, but that it is completely acceptable for them to follow through on those impulses. This is where we realized how significant Art's ministry really is: he is shepherding 9 boys, and teaching them while they are young how to listen to God's truth and overcome Satan's lies. He is setting a standard and example for them in godliness and integrity. Those are the kinds of changes that SE Asia needs to see for sex trafficking to be completely eradicated.

-We asked how the international community can be the most helpful in fighting this battle. Several ideas came up, the biggest two areas being AWARENESS and FINANCES:
Pedophilia needs to be an international crime. As awareness grows, the international community can put pressure on governments (like the Thai government) to acknowledge and take action against the perpetrators in their countries.
People need to be asking each other the hard questions. When someone goes to Thailand or Cambodia or other trafficking hotspots, their friends and family don't need to ask how the beaches were... they need to be asking if they were above reproach in everything they did.
Organizations that rescue girls from prostitution need to be able to offer them a lifestyle that pays MORE than they would earn in prostitution. This requires a lot of outside funding. We have yet to meet a ministry that is fully sustained on a local level. As a team, we have a lot of questions about this... how can it become self-sustained, what will be the long-term consequences of this Western dependency. However, we acknowledge that although the situation is not ideal, it is by no means an excuse to discontinue our fight against trafficking! The Lord has given us tools and ideas to use and if we are faithful with what He has given us, He will be faithful to bridging the gap between what we are capable of and what we are (as of yet) incapable of.