Help Find Missing Madeleine

Like so many people throughout the world, Esther and I have been agonising over the plight of Madeleine and her family. If any of my readers haven’t heard, Madeleine is a 4-year old British girl who was kidnapped on 3rd May while her family was on holiday in Portugal. A helpful summary of the relevant facts can be read HERE. Also have a look at the Bring Madeleine Home website.

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Normally when we read about tragic events in the news, we have to detach ourselves, knowing that, as helpless spectators, we cannot make it our problem. But this is different: each one of us has the opportunity to help in the search for Madeleine. Here’s what you can do:

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Print pictures of Madeleine off the internet and post them at any international airport you may be visiting. Or if you know someone travelling to an airport, give them pictures to put up. If you live in Europe, are visiting Europe or know anyone in Europe (particularly Eastern Europe), get as many copies of THIS poster distributed as possible (also see pictures HERE which can be printed). She has a distinguishing feature in her right eye which could assist with identification.

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Help to keep the media profile high. This is crucial if the search is to maintain its momentum. So write to newspapers and internet news services asking them to keep covering the story. Go on google news and sky news and other internet news services so their statistics show that many people are clicking on these stories daily.

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Above all pray. The McCann family are fellow Christians who are pleading to the Lord for the safe return of their daughter. As Christians, when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. Therefore, each of us ought to be baring this burden with the McCann family and constantly appealing to the Lord to: (A) engineer a safe return of Madeleine to her parents; (B) to be with Madeleine in whatever circumstances she is currently suffering under; (C) to sustain Mr. And Mrs. McCann during this unbelievably traumatic time. See the end of this article for a suggested prayer.

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In the next few days there will be a facility for members of the public to donate into a fund, where the money will be used in the search. Keep an eye on the Bring Madeleine Home website for information about that and consider giving whatever you can to the cause.

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The thing to remember is that Madeleine could have been any one of our children. If Madeleine is not found, none of our children will be safe because the abductors, paedophiles and child traffickers throughout the world will think they can get away with this sort of thing.

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MY OWN THOUGHTS

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The impression I’m getting is that this doesn’t fit the profile of a straight forward child-molester or individual paedophile, but is probably the result of the organised child-trafficking industry. If this is correct, then Madeleine is probably still alive, but it also means that finding her is more complicated than just a missing person’s search. If this suggestion is correct, then presumably the search would need to centre on penetrating the whole infrastructure of the child-trafficking industry.

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Last year when I researched Europe’s child-trafficking problem for Christian Voice, I was struck by how little media profile the problem receives even though child-trafficking and slavery is a huge problem within the UK itself (a whole division of our police force is specifically trained to identify and free these child slaves). However, the papers do occasionally have stories about it (for example, see HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE).

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The thing that keeps striking me is that the kidnappers were prepared to go through lot of trouble and risk to kidnap someone of Madeleine’s profile. Consider that there is some evidence that they might have been taking photographs of other blond girls prior to Madeleine’s disappearance, almost as if someone behind the scenes was being picky and wanted to settle on the right one before proceeding. And then, they must have known that kidnapping a British girl on holiday would just be inviting international trouble. But they had all their moves planned. As is noted HERE, evidence suggests that the McCanns' evening routine was being observed and her abduction planned in advance. The kidnapper knew which door the parents were watching and how to enter and exist without being seen. This all suggests something deliberate, well-planned and probably with a degree of financial underpinning. This brings us back to my suggestion that it is child-trafficking, but the particular kind of child-trafficking that has a specific rich client behind the scenes with an order that has to be matched. To me, that suggests that illegal adoption is a strong option.

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Whatever actually happened, the Lord knows, and we must pray that he imparts wisdom to the detectives and all the people that are working on this case. Regardless of whether this is a case of organised child-trafficking/slavery, it has brought the issue back to the public's attention, and it is important that the general issue of trafficking remains high profile even after Madeleine is found. To learn more about illegal child-trafficking, click HERE.

Above all, please consider getting involved yourself in some of the ways I suggested above.

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PRAYER FOR MADELEINE

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O Lord, our Heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, defend Madeleine with thy mighty power. O holy Jesus, Who for our sakes didst become a little child and didst show Thy love for children by taking them into Thine arms and blessing them: we ask thee to bless Madeleine. Thy love toward her is greater than ours can ever be; therefore, O Lord, we trust her to Thy care and keeping. We commend to Thy Fatherly goodness Madeleine and her parents and family. Comfort and relieve them out of their afflictions and distress. Give them patience and endurance in their sufferings and a happy issue out of all their afflictions.
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This we beg, for Jesus Christ's sake.
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Amen.

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