Imagine losing everything, never knowing if you will eat again. For many Pakistani families this is an all too familiar reality. The historic floods devastating Pakistan a year ago left hundreds of thousands of Christian families with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Entire families were displaced and decimated - farms washed away, livestock drowned, homes destroyed, memories swept away. Tens of thousands of children lost their parents and have had to learn to survive alone in this world. Learning to live in a world without parents has left them shattered, alone, and vulnerable. One year later most are still trying to rebuild their lives.

Criminal activity emerging from the devastation includes the human trafficking of children. Children orphaned by these floods fall victim to adult predators and are sold into a life of slave labor working under inhumane conditions at the numerous brick factories of Pakistan. Some trafficked children are kidnapped from already traumatized families, others sold into slavery by desperate parents living at the edge of extreme poverty. Driven by despair many parents are forced into making heart wrenching life and death decision - choosing to sell one or two children in order to save the others from starvation. Most trafficked children are never heard from again. The heartbreak of the situation is out paced only by the evil of it. Unfortunately, in poverty strained countries around our globe children often are not seen as a blessing from the Lord, but a burden.

Over the last two years, Crossroads ministry partners in Pakistan have successfully negotiated and bought out of slavery over 600 children. Funding has come from Christians around the world as well as a growing number of Pakistani believers. Once rescued many of the children are "adopted" by Pakistani Christian families who take the child in as their own, incorporating them into their existing families. These children are enrolled into a Christian School where they receive an education costing about $100 per year.

Through efforts like these Crossroads is shining a light in the darkness, breaking the bonds of silence and bondage.

As a Christian you too play a pivotal role in ending this injustice. How? Each gift of $200 buys a child out of slavery by placing into the hands of our ministry partners the money needed to negotiate the child's freedom. An additional $100 provides that child an education at one of three Christian Schools for an entire year. 100% of the funds donated go directly to rescuing and educating these children. While we recognize that this is not the answer for Child Trafficking as a whole, it is the answer for the 107 children we are working to rescue. For them it means freedom, healing, hope, and a loving family now.

Each Monday, over the next several weeks, you will receive an email called "The Freedom Project". Each week will highlight a few of these 107 children sold into slavery. Those joining in the fight to end this injustice receive a photo of the child they helped rescue together with their name and some information that will help you pray for the child as they begin a path of emotional, spiritual, and physical healing.

As you begin to look for that special gift this Christmas, please consider how you can shine a light in the darkness of a child sold into slavery. Join The Freedom Project as we "proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness the prisoners ... bestowing on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair" (Isaiah 61:1-3)