God shows up in crazy places at times. Last week I participated on a panel for a summit on the problem of Human Trafficking. It was a fantastic gathering of experts from all different disciplines. Great Event. I didn’t have one really surprising thing happen. The most impacting, memorable takeaway for me was something I wouldn’t have predicted going into the event.
The very first panel of the day was a group of prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement officials. Their goal was to provide us with examples of the issue. They laid out examples of the crimes they work against. They detailed the cases they made against human traffickers in the state of Georgia. As they presented each case they would show on screen slides of evidence they presented during the trial. It was very informative and interesting. Yet, the most impacting slide I saw was not really acknowledged. It was shown on the screen but the contents of the slide were never read. The audience was just left to read it, as it was simply stated as being an entry from the diary of one of the victims. The diary was put into evidence to connect the victim to the trafficker. I’ve posted the page below:
This was from the diary of a young victim of human trafficking. God meets us in our darkest hour.
It was like reading a Psalm of lament in modern day. It hit me hard. God is with us during everything. The girl who wrote this was in her teens at the time. She felt God’s presence in her life in as dark a time as one can have. She was being forced to have sex with 10-15 men a day according to the prosecutors. God is present. God is in this issue. God brought her out of her torture via hardworking officials who feel a daily burden to bring justice. I’m glad NAPC is a part of fighting this issue. And I’m glad God is with us.
I couldn’t read the diary entry, Phil. Could you send it to me directly when time permits, please?
Tom McLeod