Again, The Cambodian Sex Slaves

Many of you may be familiar with these two girls. They are Cambodian sex slaves whose freedom NYTimes op/ed columnist Nicholas Kristof purchased for $150 a year ago. He's chronicled the story of their lives since he redeemed them in a series of wonderful stories you can find here.

Think a minute. What was the last thing you bought for $150? Was it anywhere near as precious as the futures, the new joy, of these two girls?

This takes me back to the dialog I've been having with Maobi in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on this question. His recent comment very validly asked, "So what? What now?" It's easy and right, he points out, to say the sex trade is wrong, but given the grinding poverty, the corruption and the different cultural morality, just what do I think should be done about it?

I know the first step: Don't accept it. Just because it's an answer to poverty, just because some girls appear happy enough with their drug-and-prostitution lives, you can never accept something as inherently Satanic as child prostitution.

Second step: Realize its going to be tough, and start doing something.

That's it. There is no third step. Changes like this are glacial. Cambodia has to be recreated out of the filth that Pol Pot left behind. Hope has to be replanted so an economy can grow. A legal system has to be nurtured so corruption can be punished.

And Christianity needs to take root so the spiritual transformation that is so needed can occur. This at least is happening. The faith is spreading like wildfire in Cambodia because people are so hungry for truth, for values, for answers and for hope.

I was raised in a Buddhist country (Japan) so I don't say Cambodia needs Christ this out of ignorance of the culture or the religion. Buddhism doesn't encourage good works to glorify God, as Christianity does, and more important, it doesn't inspire the hope that faith in Christ does.

Kristof, thank God, was these girls' worldly redeemer. There is only one Redeemer powerful enough to lift up a country.