Just when the world has begun to settle at the allowance of external aid into Burma, we find out that a small group of the UN peace keepers are abusing children in Northwest Africa’s Ivory Coast. Reports from BBC explain that aid workers “have been sexually abusing boys and girls.” Nick Birnback, a UN spokesman, tried to explain that the organization would try to hold a “zero incidents” policy, but would be too hard to regulate with almost 200,000 workers serving worldwide. Save the Children, an organization devoted to creating opportunities “for the world’s children to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives,” has spoken out on the issue identifying that children “are suffering sexual exploitation and abuse in silence.” Heather Kerr, a Save the Children director in Ivory Coast, explains that sexual exploitation is doubly frustrating because the child victims are often too young to articulate their suffering.
I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t read this report without everything in me wanting to lash out irrationally. Every emotion crossed my mind at one point or another, largely summing in pure indignation. And at the same time, it all just makes sense.
The fact that it makes sense does not validate its legitimacy—it’s just that situations like these explicate the unmistakable depravity of man. Do not mistake my assessment; I am not a seven-point Calvinist coming to play his fiddle. I simply observe the words of Paul’s examination in Romans 3: “None is righteous, no, not one…no one does good, not even one.” And so I simply comply, the situation does not surprise me.
But the fact that it does not surprise me does not mean I can’t be apart of the solution! On the contrary, God has called men and women from the four corners of the Earth to let their light shine “before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Not so that they would see your good works and think you’re cool. Not so that they would see your good works and think you’re virtuous or morally upright. And not even that they would see your good works and say thank you. The purpose of shedding light into a dark, fallen world is so they might see Jesus and glorify God.
So you’re stuck in the U.S. or U.K. What can you do? Well, I would first ask for a supernatural ability to love the child abusers. In one of his most difficult passages of Scripture, Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 6:46). If you feel pain in the process, know that He feels it too. However, allow your groaning to be turned to prayer and thanksgiving. Thank the Lord for the restorative work he is doing through the majority of the volunteers. Thank Him for organizations like Save the Children who have stood up for injustice and caught a vision for what the Lord’s heart beats for. Now, pray that the corrupted volunteers would come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ, who has single-handedly absorbed all sin on our behalf, not because of anything we have done, but simply because of who He is. Lastly, pray for the comfort of the Holy Spirit for the children who have been abused and their families.
Praise God that He alone “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Eph. 3:21).
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