The Ride Against Traffick: Day 5: Yeoju to Seoul, final log

Yeoju pension house - early morning

Getting pumped for the last route into Seoul!

"To worship You I live, I live to worship You...

You are worthy of it all,

For from You are all things,

And to You are all things

You deserve the glory..."

The song filled the pension room as our entire team of 40 people came together for our last morning meeting. This day we would complete the ride from Busan to Seoul. It was the end of the Korean Chuseok holiday, and the end of our 5 day journey.

Pastor Peter spoke passionately after the worship, reminding us of the purpose of our ride. This trip was intended not just to raise awareness about sex trafficking, and not just to raise money for the rescue of at-risk orphans. Those were two aspects of the trip, but a third was to commission our members to restore the church for the cause of orphans and social justice. It would not be complete with a time of prayer for our own people. So for the last time we gathered to pray, lifting up to the Lord our gratitude for His protection all through the journey, and lifting up the members of our group who sought to be commissioned for the fight against sex trafficking. Among these people, praying with one heart for the will of God to be done and justice seen in this land, I could feel that all of the struggle and weariness of the past five days was worth it.

It was a fairly gentle ride compared to the last four days, although the weather was warm and the traffic grew denser as we approached the city. The outskirts of Seoul are vague, and without noticing the beginning of the transition, suddenly we had moved from countryside back into cityscape. The riders gathered again at Banpo park, the beginning and the end of their journey, in order to regroup for the careful route through the city blocks to end at Jubilee church. There they were warmly greeted by cheers from celebrating friends and family, and given food, drinks, t-shirts, and passes for the bathhouse nearby.

After getting cleaned up and sharing a much-needed meal, the riders, support team and friends and family of all, gathered in Jubilee church to worship, pray, and finally to watch a film about the sex trafficking industry. It was terribly moving to watch a dramatization of an adult man preying buying the opportunity to prey upon a girl, only seven years old. She had been stolen from her home and trafficked into sexual slavery, and it was so easily done, so quickly accomplished, that it was no wonder to us that even with the laws against it, human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world.

After the film we listened to a lecture given by Dr. Park Son Yeong, who conducts research about the participation of Korean nationals in human trafficking both domestically and internationally. She gave us a brief summary of the context for our Ride against Traffick. In Korea, there is now no domestic anti-human trafficking law, although it complies to international law. The country itself is both a source country and a destination country for trafficking throughout Southeast Asia. Korean men often engage in sex tourism abroad, but most Koreans remain unaware of the issue of sex trafficking at all. When it comes to trafficking, children are the most vulnerable group. Pimps want to maximize their profits, and children are not only often the most valuable, but they are also the most easy to manipulate, control and exploit. Due to widespread poverty in Southeast Asia it is often necessary for children to get jobs, although they cannot hold them legally due to their age. Therefore it is often simple for a pimp to buy a child from its parents for 100 dollars, and then traffick the child into sexual slavery. If she ever contracts a disease or has another problem, she is merely tied up in a bag and thrown out with the garbage. This is the inhumanity that is perpetuated by the country's ignorance of their own sex trafficking industry. Dr. Park urged us, above all, to keep praying and to support the NGOs that fight sex trafficking by various methods.

If you want more information about this year's ride, or are interested in participating in next year's ride, please go to www.rideagainsttraffick.org or join the facebook group Ride Against Traffick.