Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:6
Prayer breaks chains and gives favor that is supernatural. It enables rescue and puts people in the right place at the right time.
Around this time each year I like to focus on awareness of sex trafficking based around sporting events. And this weekend, on Sunday, February 4, 2018 at the U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, we’ll get to see the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots face off at Super Bowl 52. This is a great time to focus on the upcoming game and how that impacts sex trafficking – not just in Minneapolis, but in your own neighborhood.
I would like to tell you that the team I'm rooting for will win in a fantastic 4th quarter showdown, like last year. I’d like to tell you that the commercials will be fabulous. (Come on, Geico!) But what’s much, much more important than a U.S. sporting event is the rise in sex trafficking events, cases and prosecutions during the Super Bowl.
This is not new information for us, as we pray about this event each year. BUT the attention, publicity and awareness that arises around the Super Bowl is something to be grateful for and an opportunity to share information in our own communities. The fact is: more people are becoming mindful that teenage girls are being sold for sex, more people are reporting suspicious activity, and more girls are being rescued from sex trafficking as a result.
So What Can We Do?
- Save this number: 1-888-373-7888, The U.S. National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline number. Save it in your phone and don’t hesitate to discreetly write it on a slip of paper or a napkin, if you feel someone could be a trafficked victim.
Not in the U.S.? See if your country has an international trafficking hotline here. - Talk about it: Many people see the origin of sex trafficking as young girls getting kidnapped and forced into a sex dungeon underground. The horror stories of that happening prove that it’s not a tale. But what about the more common story of young girls deceived by pimps or madams, who left home, and found themselves tricked and forced into solicitation and prostitution?
Around a plate of Super Bowl nachos, or during a slow commercial, what if you simply talked to a friend, family member, or grandchild and just asked the following questions:
- Is prostitution a choice? What do you think?
- How do you feel when the media talks about prostitution and arrests at the Super Bowl?
- Is prostitution a problem in our state?
Asking questions and listening to their responses is a great start to an ongoing and powerful conversation.
- Pray: As parties and celebrations go on around you, remember that you have been placed in your city, in your community, intentionally, and that you have a purpose there. (Matt. 5:14) Pray for the Super Bowl this year. But also cover your neighborhood and your community in prayer.
- Pray for the plans of the enemy to be thwarted.
- Pray protection over vulnerable girls and boys who could be trafficked.
- Pray for rescue and restoration for trafficked victims, as security and awareness are especially heightened at this time.
- Pray for your local law enforcement: Proclaim integrity and wisdom in your local police department. That God would help them to find and rescue trafficked victims. That He would strengthen them and protect them and their families from threat and corruption.
- Pray for salvation and repentance for pimps and traffickers.
- Continue to pray for Rescue Freedom International as they continue to rescue, restore, and empower those caught in slavery. Recently, one safe house hosted a graduation ceremony for the 53 kids who successfully completed the after school program. Pray that these young ones would grow up to be change-makers, trusting their faithful Father for life abundant!
Need more prayer points? Download the Anti-Trafficking Prayer Guide.
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16b
Standing in the gap with you,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Anti-Trafficking Specialist
Aglow International
