It's not easy to change the way we think, or how we respond to the conditioning we've received since childhood. The photo above, taken at the entrance of one of the thousands of beer gardens and karaoke halls that operate throughout Southeast Asia, may spur several thoughts—but many of them might be wrong.

STREET KIDS FOR SALE. That's the daily heart-breaking reality I was told takes place in the Cambodia/Thai border town of Poipet. So last February I went to see it for myself, and to seek ways that God wants to use Heaven's Family to change that appalling truth.

Dealing every day with the ugly realities of human trafficking and slavery depresses us at times. We struggle with protecting our minds while at the same time maintaining soft hearts that weep with the multitudes who are bought, sold and abused. And we often find ourselves crying out to the Lord with such words as, Why do you allow this God? Our hearts felt especially heavy as we told you last time about the secret war that rages for the lives of a generation.

It sounds like something from a spy novel. Secret plans, getaway vehicles, corrupt bureaucracy, kidnapping and, of course, plenty of bad guys. But this is not fiction. This tragic story is being played out now, as I write this, in an undisclosed country. The enemies are depraved human beings eager to line greedy pockets, and "an entrenched, corrupt system—one that profits from the sale of its innocent, most vulnerable citizens to prop up an ailing economy" on one hand, and poverty, desperation, hunger and extremely broken, dysfunctional families on the other.