I Call Sex Ads to Offer a Message of Hope
When I first learned the truth about human trafficking, it was shocking. Human lives are literally being sold to those with enough money and desire to buy them. I learned that this type of trafficking is not only happening in other areas across the nation and world, but that it’s thriving in DFW, Texas, and all along I-35. The market of slavery not only exists, but is transacting on the streets I drive every day, operating just underneath the surface of our society, and in the community around me. I remember thinking, “Why aren’t more people talking about this? Doing something about this?” It is a reality that I cannot unknow.
I have been a Christian since I was a child, but it was only a few years before this experience that I started to figure out what that actually meant. What it meant to be truly saved, truly forgiven, truly repentant, truly free. This freedom was not something I had experienced in all my years of being a Christian, and now I couldn’t get enough of it. I am free from the guilt and shame I had held onto for so long. Free from all of the sin that was so entangling and turning my life into the opposite of what I really wanted it to be. Realizing this freedom and grace and then learning the realities of human trafficking was no coincidence. The God that I know said, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.”
The Jesus I know spoke with the woman at the well, dined with prostitutes, and offered living water and forgiveness.
On some level, the life that I had led was filled with pressure to do things I didn’t want to… but more than that, my sin was my own. I did have a choice. And the reality is that many of the women and children caught in sex trafficking had no choice, possibly felt they had no other choice, or they did not know that their choices would lead to such destruction and pain.
One evening, I was at a small women’s event for our church when I found out that a local anti-trafficking organization would be there to share with us. Unsurprisingly, God had also been moving in the hearts of other women in our church, and it was that evening that our group was first knit together. Shortly before we started our anti-trafficking outreach ministry in Arlington, one of the family members of a woman in our group was trafficked.
It was heartbreaking and soul-crushing to see the darkness of what we knew to be true happen to someone we loved.
While this family member was found and pulled out of that situation, it wasn’t easy. The resources in our area were not prepared nor set up to help in their specific situation. It was only because of the training that we had received that they were able to be found and brought back to safety after living through something so horrible.
This experience only ignited our passion even more. During our work, we have had the opportunity to speak with several women. One woman shared with us that she’d never done this before, but it was the only thing she could think to do to try to make enough money that weekend in order to feed her children. We spoke to a young girl whose advertised photos were obviously taken in her childhood bedroom. We’ve spoken with women who have poured their hearts out asking for prayer for their families, their children, and even for God to lead them out of darkness. In each of those conversations, we feel a mix of sorrow and hope. Our efforts are nothing without the power and work of the Holy Spirit.
We pray that every conversation is potentially one step out of a dark, painful circumstance for these women.
In the ten years that I have been involved with anti-trafficking efforts and ministries, I have learned many things. I have learned that sex trafficking is not what is often portrayed in the media. Many, if not most, of the victims of sex trafficking are at-risk teens and women who were targeted. Not to be kidnapped, but to be molded into a product. Online grooming is a real threat as well. These are girls who were groomed to say yes to their “boyfriend” who sold them into sexual slavery, and often their introduction into this world is complicated and multifaceted. I have seen that while no one publicly supports sex or labor slavery, there are influential people who participate in and greatly benefit from it, and that there is great interest in the survival of the human trafficking industry. You can’t talk about human trafficking without also acknowledging the many issues and systems in our world that are connected to and contribute to the demand. I have experienced that the work often feels like one step forward and two steps back. There is so much fear, ambivalence, and disregard surrounding this issue, even within the Christian community. We’ve had to fully rely on God in ways I could never comprehend before.
Working against human trafficking is so overwhelming. There are countless victims, infinite websites, and so few resources to fight it. Human trafficking is a multi-headed hydra. Sometimes, it feels like we are just hitting its armored scales with pebbles. But God. Our God is the God of redemption. The God of not only grace and mercy but of new life. If you are burdened and overwhelmed by the issues of human trafficking, and you’re wondering what you could possibly do, I want to encourage you.
Our team is comprised of regular, non-specialized, full-time working and/or parenting women who are united in our desire to minister to people experiencing hardship related to trafficking. If you share that desire, there is a place for you, and there is hope as we work together in this space. If you would like to learn more about joining an Outreach Hub, click here.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
