She stood on the streets, cold and alone. Homeless and afraid, she knocked on a church door, hoping someone would answer and let her sleep on the floor for the night. She had just escaped from the human trafficking business.

She was only eighteen.

The church doors opened and closed. One word rang through her mind: rejection. Like the other churches she knocked on before, they refused to let her in. So she remained homeless for three months, wandering from street to street before someone came to her rescue and reunited her with her mom (Debbie Hancock, Compassion to Act).

There are many stories like hers. While young women cried out for help on the thresholds of churches, the congregational members remained silent. Only a few churches volunteered to help the ones in need.

The question burning in my mind is "Why?" Women, ages 12-18, in cities all across America are taken advantage of each and every day. Yet human trafficking is a topic we don't discuss in our churches all that much and only hear about on occasion. Why is that?

We feel comfortable talking about the homeless. We feel comfortable talking about the poor and needy. Yet when it comes to human trafficking, we tend to shy away. We shrug our shoulders and proclaim it is awful, and then we go back to living our daily lives.

I know, because I have shrugged my shoulders too. It's only been recently that I have realized the importance of taking a fighting stance against human trafficking.

I've heard the stories of women found locked in dog cages, only let out to satisfy the urges of men. I've heard the stories of women who cannot even be in a crowd because they are so scared of what might happen. I've heard the stories of women scarred, mentally and physically.

Innocents beg for justice; they cry out for someone to see their plight and rescue them.

How can we stand by and do nothing? How can I stand by and do nothing?

They are the forgotten. They are the ones who have been lost among all the other programs churches offer for service opportunities. They need to be remembered.

I am sure the Lord's heart breaks for them. He created them for a higher purpose, and yet the depravity of man tarnishes their souls. As they satisfy the sex cravings of others, they weep for an escape. Who will go to save them and lead them toward the One who embodies hope and life?

Here I am Lord, send me.

Time and again throughout Scripture, the Lord calls on His people to intercede for those who have no voice.

These women have no voice.

We, as Christians, must do something. For if we don't, who will?

If a church member hadn't saved a young Chinese girl, sold unknowingly to a human trafficker, she never would have met my great-great-grandfather. If she hadn't met my great-great-grandfather, they never would have adopted my great-grandfather.

If a church member hadn't risked her own life to save that young Chinese girl, my dad would never have been born, and I would not be here today.

Saving one life can make a difference, with amazing consequences we may never be able to see. God called us to be a voice; that's all that matters. Will we walk forth in obedience, or will we continue to remain silent as the lost cry out with no one to hear them?

We have a choice. It's up to us now.

May we choose to intervene on behalf of these young women caught in a life they never chose. When we get to heaven, may we be able to look them in the eye and say, "I fought for you" and watch as they run into the waiting arms of the Father to finally be at peace.