I went to Laura Parker’s session at Allume last October. Then I rushed down to her table in the vendor alley to grab a media kit. So I got two copies of The Exodus Road and a snazzy braided leather bracelet. It’s a conversation piece.
I really, really didn’t want to read this book. I much prefer to think that this doesn’t happen. I like my comfortable suburban life and we are too blessed to not have to deal with anything unpleasant, well, ever.
During the session at Allume, I listened to Laura recount how her husband was called to go undercover in third world countries to save girls from sex slavery.
How that would help make a marriage stronger, I thought sarcastically. That she accepted God’s call and submitted to this rescue mission is a testament to her faith in God and in her husband. I can’t say I would be able to do the same.
I love Laura’s honest account of how difficult it was for her and the kids to adjust to living in a third world country, far away from anything known or comfortable. I love how God used them to go outside their comfort zones and rescue girls from slavery. Laura is as witty and real in her book as she was in the session at Allume. I love it when Christians are real and admit to cussing and struggling with normal life.
Author Bio
With years of international living in three different countries, Laura is no stranger to a life of transition. A wife who sends her husband into brothels to look for children, she is well-acquainted with the mess that comes with trying to bravely love the less fortunate. Laura currently serves as the Vice President of Communications for an anti-trafficking organization, The Exodus Road, which her husband founded during their years of living in SE Asia. The Exodus Road is a coalition which works to fuel undercover investigation and rescue around the globe. She also co-founded and edits a collective blog for international humanitarian workers, A Life Overseas, and has been published with Compassion International, RELEVANT Magazine, MOMSense, Deeper Story, and {In}Courage. She blogs honestly at Laura Parker Writes. The Exodus Road is her first book and documents the gritty journey of their family into the undercover world of sex trafficking.
In this day and age with porn at anyone’s fingertips, this youth pastor, husband, father, put his life on the line for these girls on the other side of the world – that men pay to use and abuse.
I have three daughters and a son. I hold them closer and pray more fervently.
We’ve been studying Abraham Lincoln and the events leading up to the Civil War. My younger daughters are horrified to read and learn about the enslaved people in America. I don’t have the heart to tell them there are people enslaved all over the world, doing worse work than plantation fields.
Here is a definition of slavery: relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune.
“Slavery occurs when one person completely controls another person, using violence or the threat of violence to maintain that control, exploits them economically, pays them nothing and they cannot walk away.” – CNN Freedom Project Read more at The Exodus Road.
I love that I can teach them how God loves all people, no matter their skin color, eye color, ability, or education.
They were stunned that the slaves in America were not allowed to learn to read or write. I am blessed that they value so highly education.
I pray they also value their bodies as highly.
I pray they are never violated and they grow up pure in mind and in body and go to their marriage beds virgins and have no hateful memories to repress.
And I especially pray for these lost children and for the evil men who capture, enslave, rape, abuse, and pay for the disgusting acts they commit.
Because it’s always about money.
If there were no demand, the supply would diminish.
Want some statistics?
Click here to view the whole 2013 Impact Report.
Visit The Exodus Road and learn more. Like The Exodus Road on Facebook. Follow @TheExodusRoad on Twitter and use #blog4rescue
Want to read this for yourself?
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This looks like a SUPER intense book!! Really love to read it.
Wow this sounds like a powerful book. I’d love to win a copy.
I have a little girl who lives a happy, carefree life. My heart breaks at all the little girls whose innocent and own happy lives were ripped from them.