Not On Our Watch

(This story appears in the January-March issue of World Mission People magazine. Click here to read the entire issue.)

By Linda Adams, ICCM Director

Childhood. I associate the word with innocence, happiness and security. I think of loving parents doting on healthy, energetic little ones; older kids testing their limits on the playground, going to the front of the class for a spelling bee, or wheedling Mom and Dad for a trip to the ice cream parlor.

Yet, the reality for the vast majority of children in the world today is completely different. Sobering statistics proclaim that truth; powerful stories embody it.

I am haunted by the story — in Uwem Apkan’s “Say You’re One of Them” — of Jigana, an 8-year-old boy, whose 12-year-old sister, Maisha, has learned that she can sell her body to tourists. In a tin shanty with a tarpaulin roof in Nairobi, Kenya, Mom and Dad drink themselves into a stupor most nights. Jigana sniffs glue to dull his hunger pangs. Family members take turns displaying their baby to tourists and begging.

Jigana’s green-and-white checkered school shirt lies folded away, waiting to be worn; there is no money for school fees. The family longs for him to resume school to prepare for a better life. Eager, he tries on the uniform eight times in two days. Finally, the money shows up — Maisha has scored with tourists. When Jigana realizes how his sister has earned the money, he runs away in shame. He never sees his family again.

Children like Maisha and Jigana have been robbed of their childhood. Even worse, all over the world today, unimaginable numbers of children are trafficked — stolen from their homes to be used for slave labor or prostitution. The North American church is gradually awakening to these evils. Some groups like International Justice Mission and Not for Sale work to rescue children and bring perpetrators to justice. Most sponsors don’t realize International Child Care Ministries is also involved with these issues — but we are!

In central India, ICCM is opening a new hostel for tribal girls. In the words of an ICCM field coordinator in India: “With little or no education, most of these girls will be dragged into child labor or sold into prostitution because of the family’s poverty. Today, there are 30 million child laborers in India and 500,000 girls from the poorest homes are in prostitution.” … “The children sponsored by ICCM will be taught the love of God, attend school, be given healthy food, clothes and medical attention. The hostel staff will serve them affectionately and teach them the Christian way of life. This will also prevent them from going into child labor or into the flesh trade. We want to affect a total transformation in their lives before they return to the mainstream society as young adults.”           

In Thailand, ICCM is opening a hostel for children of the Lahu tribe. Lahu parents begged their pastor to provide a place where their kids could live and go to school rather than spending their entire lives dancing for tourists. During these children’s lifetime, tourism in that area has grown seedier — adult men travel without their wives, intending to prey on young girls and boys. Our hostel is one among many created by numerous groups to intervene in this situation.

ICCM’s presence is also bringing light and life, safety and justice, provision and protection in four other countries in Southeast Asia. Our work in Cambodia involves three after-school centers to help at-risk kids with their nutritional, educational, social and spiritual needs. A graduate of our program is now working full-time alongside FM missionaries to impact kids’ lives.

In the Philippines, our partners lead a range of fruitful projects. While ICCM sponsorship is preventative by its very nature, our ministry in Davao City is on the cutting edge of rescuing kids from street life. Scavenging, stealing, drug running, prostitution — nothing is beyond the experience of some of the kids who are being reached by the Hope Street School. Veteran youth workers Pastor Johnny and Tata Campos have immersed themselves in these kids’ world for nearly a decade, bringing dozens off the streets and into their home. The longer this ministry continues, the greater our need to support it with infrastructure.

On a grand scale in Haiti and a smaller scale in the rest of Latin America, ICCM invests in the futures of thousands of traumatized and at-risk children. In the slums and villages of Africa, the modern cities and remote interior of India, and the urban and rural centers of Southeast Asia, the Free Methodist Church has stepped into the fray to save the children. We consider it a high honor to connect open-hearted, praying sponsors with impoverished kids in 30 countries to do our part in changing the world. Every sponsor makes a difference.

We’ve only just begun! Thousands of children await intervention. Please spread the word by recruiting sponsors in this war for the hearts and minds, souls and bodies of children. God bless you!