I have been thinking about the intense "pain" which surrounds the issues of enslavement and child prostitution. I cannot imagine the pain and fear which wracks those who are victims of these things. I simply cannot imagine it. Not knowing what was going to happen to you next. Being at the complete and utter mercy of others who believe that they own you much like a person might own a car or a washing machine. In fact, even worse, because the value of these human lives often seems be regarded as far far less than the value of material possessions.

In fact, there is even a correlation between the two. Human lives are abused and thrown away so that more material goods or other pleasures of this world can be obtained.

But I also think about the pain of those who drive this industry and the pain of those who support it. Pains of addiction, horrible pasts of their own, utter hopelessness to the point of where they find their joy at the expense of others. It's a harder pain to be sympathetic with than the pain of the victims but it is pain nonetheless.

I asked someone here last night about campaigns I have read about which used billboards to shame and put fear into the clients of the sex trade. Sadly, they told me that they do not work. Tijuana has a huge AIDS epidemic, they explained to me. If that is not going to scare the johns away, then certainly a billboard won't.

As we approached this trip, we asked God to bring us to our own points of pain and brokenness so that our hearts might be shaped in ways that will allow us to understand the coomplexity and despair of things here. We're getting there I believe.

Pain abounds.