I think this applies to making a difference in any way. Often times people want to help, they just don't know how to approach the situation. I personally try to find counsel with the experienced before I try anything.

I don't care much for worship style, minor rifts in theology, etc. I want to be a missionary. I just want to help people and share the love of Christ and the Gospel message to any and everyone who needs it.

I agree completely with the message of this entry. There are genuine cases of pure evil being commited, and there are churches that are one the verge of splitting due to a pastoral change, worship style, and other childish issues. We as a church need to grow up and realise that we are in a world full of evil- next door, half the world around, in our own church. We need to attack it, and deal with it accordingly.

If you really want to do something here is a link to an organization that I hooked up with last year when I was feeling the exact same way that you are.   It's called  The Emancipation Network  They are an international organization dedicated to fighting human trafficking
and modern day slavery.  They help survivors of slavery rebuild their
lives after rescue from slavery, with sustainable income, education and
help reintegrating into society.    You can host an event in your home, school, church, etc to bring awareness to this horrific reality and help raise money for those that are being rescued.  

Joyce Meyer is renowned for making money out of the people that she preaches to!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Meyer
http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac17.htm

According to wikipedia she owns her own private jet, if she is so interested in it why does she not sell!

I am totally against this practise here but, what is joyce meyer using this for!

The answer is what practical methods can you use.

1. Campaign
2. Prayer
3. Preach the Gospel

1. Campains

Governments can say that is alegal but that will not stop people doing it!

2. Prayer

God has the power to change things like this through prayer!

3. Preaching the Gospel
If you preach say against say sleeping around and preach the true gospel that we are all sinners and it is only by the blood of the Lamb we are saved and that we need to repent from our sin.
If you look in History, People like William Booth, John Wesley, Billy Sunday, George Whitfield, Duncan Camball when the Lord came down and convicted people of sin would stop such things as child prostitution!

How can you expect people to change not unless they read the Bible and know Jesus!

About what the Bible means by "speaking in tongues", or Calvinism vs.
Armenianism. Whether homosexual marriage will destroy the "sanctity" of
marriage; if infant baptisms are valid; whether pets go to Heaven;
which Christian denomination has it "right".

It was interesting how Joyce Meyer tried to use a supposedly big issue to make other supposedly smaller issues seem insignificant.
Lets take the Issue of Homosexuality, this doctrinal issue affects the issue of child prostitution. As these men or women are not doing this just for fun! It is rebellion against God whether it is homosexual or child prostitution

All sin is sin whether small or large, Lord deliver us from small sins as well as big sins!
 

This pastor I know goes in disguise with a bunch of volunteer KIDS as "tourists" ... He goes to Cambodia into those buildings full of prostitute children and rescues however many he can, by pretending he's a "customer"

You can do this, but it's risky.

Depends on how commited you are.

Proper doctrine and theology is incredibly important!  Without it we have no faith to teach.

And the faith we have teaches that our life must center around prayer, fasting and charity.

The "Let's do it for the children," crap really makes me angry!  Who can possibly resist children in dire need?  Whenever I see an advertisement or whatever on that topic I turn it off immediately lest I be shamelessly manipulated.

So I look for places to give rationally not because my heart strings are being played by a demogogic virtuoso.

@MasterShoe11@xanga - And you've made an excellent point.  Too often I've jumped into something without fully seeking out more experienced people or even God, and then it doesn't "fit" and I stop helping.

@princess1505angel@xanga - You're right....unfortunately.

 @god_stories@xanga - @SeitekiChibiNeko@xanga - @sunshinekl@xanga - Thank you all for the recommendations; I will definitely be checking them out.

@deltadom@xanga - I'd be intersted to know whether you listened to Meyer's message which I linked to in my post.  I can understand that some people have doctrinal issues with her, as I have myself in the past. 
But I keep an open mind when listening to her and other televangelists because, for one thing, the pastors I listen to on the internet are not on TV; and for the other, these televangelists do preach in the name of Jesus, and have been doing it for a long while.  I can't judge their hearts, of course, but I can assess my own.  Therefore if something they say convicts me, who am I to quench the Holy Spirit if that preacher is what was used?

Meyer's didn't bring up homosexuality in her message; I did, and I don't recant.  I understand sin is sin, but I feel that Believers can and should fight more for people being forced into a abominable behavior than to fight againt people who choose a lifestyle the Bible condemns.

You're certainly right about the government, and prayer.  Yet again, you've proven my point in that you say that this is God's responsibility.  He gave us the power of the Holy Spirit to fight; Jesus left to give us the Holy Spirit, because we as a body can do more all over the world than he could do as one man in the Middle East. 
Yes, we need conviction to fall and we "need the gospel preached" (but this confuses me, because there are churches all over preaching the Gospel in this country...yet many in the nation choose not to listen), but are you saying you're willing to do nothing about things like I've spoken about because you're waiting for God to do something?!  Maybe he's waiting for us to move before he can work. 
Think of the battles the Israelites fought in Exodus and Joshua: they wouldn't have won many of those battles had they never left their camps.

@LoBornlite@xanga - I agree; truthfully I would have been wary of giving to Meyer's organization because of the bad press she's received, but then again...if God told me to I would.  Yet...I don't have much money, but I do have time.  Therefore I'm very grateful for the links people have given.  We are the generation of the internet where all these groups can be researched in a second!

@SWpants666@xanga - You mentioned focusing our anger, if such a thing is appropriate.  I wanted to say that I definitely think anger is of God...as long as we focus it in the right place.
Jesus got angry and trashed the outer courts of the temple because the money changers were cheating the people, so right there is our biggest validation for Godly anger. 
I think we better be angry at injustices such as this; I cannot think that Jesus isn't infuriated every time something like this happens.

@LoBornlite@xanga - So it's not rational to protect children? 
Are you aware that people who are abused are statistically more likely to abuse others in the future?
How about that the sex trade is largely responsible for spreading STDs across the globe (since many international business men are customers)?
How is it rational to help a poor village get food/water/education but not rational to rescue children from slavery who are not provided with adequate food/water or any education?

Technically it's not really rational to help keep poor villages alive if they couldn't do so on their own because it means that they are using more resources but producing less results.
Whether something is rational is not always a good reason to help or not to help.

Theology isn't crap, and if Joyce Meyer knew that, she'd repent of being a woman pastor. 

@FOXHOUND_HQ@xanga - yeah, i agree. there needs to be a right focus. 

thanks for this post. i agree with you about the kinds of things we waste our energies on when there is so much around us that we could be doing instead.

@god_stories@xanga - thanks for that information. 

Hi,

I normally don't comment on posts, but....seeing as this pertains to me, I figured I ought to.

I'm a recovering child-prostitute of 12-14 years. I'm in my 20s right now. And the man who was abusing me was my father, who was also an elder in our church.

So that being said...it frustrates me and angers me when people care so much about the "international children" being abused (which is horrible and awful!), and then not caring when there are children in their own towns cities and country being abused...natives of this country. Not kids getting illegally brought here, but kids who grow up here. Everyone--especially Christians--talk about kids who are overseas or who are immigrants getting abused....and blatantly ignore the fact that there are kids in their own churches, families, and neighborhoods getting abused. I got disowned from my family because I was brave enough to escape and accuse my abuser. Most kids aren't so lucky and I know for a fact that there are others back there still getting abused. So how about we start caring for *our* kids too? They need our help and unfortunately get forgotten in the light of things like the "one campaign" or "invisible children".

Disclaimer: I'm not ignoring the fact that children overseas aren't getting horribly and horrifically abused as well...I'm just pointing out that we have just as horrific and horrible abuse going on in our own backyard. Seems foolish to think it only happens to people "over there".