The Fight: How will you choose to join?
I had always thought of human and sex trafficking as a problem that was overseas, far from my front door. It was in 2007 when I first learned it was a problem right here in my city of Colorado Springs! This place? This state? This country? No!
Through a Tirzah International meeting in the home of my dear friend, I was first educated. I learned that the average age of sex trafficking victims in America is 12 and a half. That’s the average, which means that there are also children much younger than 12 being trafficked. I learned that children at bus stops and shopping malls are targeted and vulnerable. I learned that craigslist was a place for predators and "users" to find sex, not just a place to sell your used items to make some cash.
I walked away from that first educational meeting with a pit in my stomach and a fierce determination in my soul to be involved and do more!
I had one infant daughter at the time, but my "mama bear" and my empathetic heart were both fired up and ready to fight!
The first way to fight is to PRAY. We fight on our knees and we know that “We are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12 NLT.
The second way to fight is to EDUCATE. I wanted to help educate others as I was educated. I held meetings in my home and regularly talked to friends about the reality of the problem in our very own city.
When we moved to northern Virginia, I helped start a chapter for Tirzah in the DC area and continued to talk to my peers to make sure they knew what they could do. Now, every year around Super Bowl Sunday, when sex trafficking increases in the Super Bowl city and stadium, I am sure to email everyone I know and post on social media, reminding people to pray.
We need education for hotel and hospital workers, teachers, and even gas station employees. What do we look for? What can we do when we see something that looks like trafficking? Do you have the human trafficking hotline number on YOUR phone?
We need PREVENTION, which starts with education, as I mentioned, and it needs to start in the educational system. I was ecstatic when the group I was with, Central Virginia Justice Initiative (CVJI), was able to write a module to implement into the public school health curriculum! It went out to all the local schools, thanks to partnerships with local law enforcement and the educational board. It was written to help students know what being targeted or groomed looks like, what to be cautious about, and how to help friends who might experience the same thing.
We need INTERVENTION that looks like what so many organizations have risen up to do, such as F.R.E.E. International, which canvases the location where the Super Bowl is every year. They go to gas stations and hotels and help local workers know what to look for to see if someone is being trafficked for sex. They comb the websites where these women and children are listed and work to help get them out.
A third way to fight is to VOLUNTEER to work with a local organization. Perhaps become someone who partners with the police to parole the streets at night to interact with girls who might want to get out of the life, or to help comb sites that exploit missing children. I have yet to be able to take this step in the fight because of raising four young children, but I look forward to when they are more independent and I can do this.
Rescue America also has several volunteer opportunities that enable volunteers to be active in the fight against sex trafficking while still doing so from a virtual position.
Another way to fight is to GIVE financially so we can support the people who are called to be a part of the frontlines process of identifying, finding, rescuing, and helping survivors exit the life of sexual exploitation.
After learning of dozens of different organizations that fight human trafficking over the last 15 years, I realized there are so many to partner with! I believe the reason for this is that the problem of human trafficking is multi-faceted.
We learned about Rescue America through a support-raising event we went to in 2021. The presentation by Rescue America’s President, Allison Madrigal, was fantastic, moving, and exciting. We were thrilled to learn that this organization was so successful in using its Rescue hotline to help people to exit the life of sex trafficking. We also know they will occasionally partner with local law enforcement during counter-human trafficking operations in order to talk with victims face to face and offer a way out of the life they find themselves in.
We need Rescue America, and we love supporting them because of their efforts in running a Rescue hotline to help people get out of the life they are stuck in. This is a wonderful way to connect other organizations and law enforcement so that those who do rescuing and those who do recovery can be connected.
I do believe that as Christians, all money is God’s money. We ask the question, “How much of this money I am making should I KEEP to live on?” The rest is His. I am convinced we have been asked to give until it “hurts.” That can mean something different for each person. What would it mean for you to give until it hurts? Does it mean eating cheaper foods like beans and rice one day a week? Is it choosing to eat out less? Is it drinking more water and less expensive drinks? For me, I choose not to ever drink coffee except at home, and we eat out less than what would be convenient at times.
I urge you to be involved in this fight! PRAY! Ask God how He would have you be involved. If you have the burden to give time and can volunteer, I know that is very needed. I am thrilled that we can partner financially because it helps me know that I am a part of what they are doing!
We have an opportunity to be involved in what GOD is doing to recover and redeem! How will you choose to join Him today?
“Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” And this is in order “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-10). Every single one of us can resonate with this. We are ALL redeemed and recovered.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Katey S, Rescue America Financial Partner
Katey resides in Colorado Springs, CO with her husband and four young children: three daughters and one son. She works as a music teacher at a Christian school, and has been a wonderful Rescue America partner for the last year.
If you or someone you know have been sexually exploited and want out of the life, please call Rescue America’s 24/7 Rescue hotline number at 833.599.FREE.
To report a trafficking tip, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888.373.7888.
Save these numbers on your phone for later reference!
