Taking It With Us.

Less than a week until we leave and come back home.

For Julie and I, this fact brings up so many conflicted emotions…excitement, fear, sadness, anxiety, stress, shock, joy, confusion, and many others that we can’t even name for ourselves.

This past week, I’ve had the opportunity to engage in something that made me realize simultaneously how much I’ve learned over the past 6 months and how much I still have yet to learn.

On Tuesday, we hosted a group of people over to our house to watch the documentary Nefarious. It was such an amazing experience to watch a sex trafficking film with a group of people who are working in that field. It was a whole new perspective. We sat and dialogued afterwards about the negatives and positives of the film, and I was blown away by the knowledge and wisdom surrounding me. As we discussed all of the things that were wrong with the image it portrayed and then the things that were done well, it was clear to me that we were all still learning. Clearly, Julie and I are at a lower level of involvement and knowledge about sex trafficking, but even those with us, some who are known as key contributors to fighting the issue in Cambodia, were searching to learn more. As we all asked questions and processed out loud, I was struck with how my idea of sex trafficking has changed since I came here and how much I still have to learn about the issue, here in Cambodia and globally as well. It’s a severely complex problem in our world, and it’s even more complex to combat it functionally and realistically.

The image in my head of working in trafficking has been continually changing over the past 6 months. It’s not simply rescuing girls or women, providing shelter and counseling for a few years, and then helping them go out to live on their own safely. It doesn’t always look the same. It doesn’t always target the same people – boys are trafficked and abused too. It’s complex…and the factors that feed into it – poverty, abuse, family dysfunction, cultural expectations, etc. – cannot be easily fixed or smoothed over. Working with trafficking isn’t always a counselor having a therapy session with a teenage girl. Because one thing that I’ve learned is that trafficking is more than sex trafficking. Migrant and domestic workers, orphaned children, those who have been abused, and so many more also make up this elaborate issue across the world.

I’m not writing a paper or preaching a sermon. I simply want to share what wasn’t apparent to me before I came to live here for this short time.

I don’t know if any of you have seen Nefarious or if you plan to. I would encourage you to either watch it or some other film on trafficking. Because of the environment in which I watched this particular movie, I have some questions and criticisms about its content…however, I would encourage you to learn about human trafficking in one way or another, whether it be this movie or some other form of media. Educate yourself in some way about this form of abuse that is happening all over the world – and just maybe in your own neighborhood. Learn something about it…even if it stops there and never builds to the next level. That’s okay. Not everyone is passionate about it or wants to work towards ending it, but it’s important to just be aware of it so that you can see the signs around you and also share what you know with the people around you. Networking and talking about it as a global community is the only thing that will ever make an impact.

Human trafficking is a network. It’s a collaboration of people working together across borders, cultures, religions, languages, and economies. If I didn’t know anything else about it, that would impress and intrigue me. There’s a reason the trafficking industry is the most successful in the world. If you ask me, there’s a lot to be learned from their system. That kind of community and partnering is the same kind of collaboration that I recognize from the church in Acts. Close relationships and shared visions for a great cause instead of an evil one would do much in the way of healing.

I’ve learned more than I realized about this issue since living here, but I have so much more to learn. Every day I take one more step in learning about this issue, the more ignorant and helpless I feel about what I can do to help. It is complex, and I am nowhere near understanding it.

But I’m talking about it. And I want you to talk about it too.