S2S Sisters: “Service Versus Sensationalism: Our Response to Human Trafficking” by Rosa Nolt

Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Welcome again to Strength to Strength Sisters. I'm Jamila Kurtz, and I'm happy to be with you all today.

The vision of Strength to Strength Sisters is to encourage women to be catalysts in advancing the kingdom through biblical teaching, testimonies of faithful women, and thought-provoking discussions. We're excited to have Rosa Knoll join us today from her home in Redding, Pennsylvania, where the ground is white outside that I hear from snow. I believe God has uniquely gifted Rosa with a beautiful variety of experiences, a beautiful mix of life experiences that we'll hear about in her topic today.

She's going to be sharing with us on the topic of service versus sensationalism, our response to human trafficking. This topic is very, very close to my heart, and I believe it's a heart cry for so many of us, as Lynelle said in her prayer that we had, we shared together before starting, that we all want to care about people in the way that God does.

And what does it mean to be able to live out Micah 6:8, where it says to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God? After Rosa shares with us, we're going to have a time of question and answer. So be prepared.

We can have a good discussion with any questions or thoughts that you may have.

Just an encouragement in our Q&A, or just right now, as Rosa's speaking, don't be afraid to turn your cameras on. I know it's encouraging for any speaker to be able to talk to faces. So just an encouragement and an invitation for you all that you can turn your cameras on. We'd love to see you if it's possible. Rosa, I'd love to pray with you before you begin.

Lord Jesus, we just come before you now, and I thank you so much for being a God who cares for us. Thank you, God, that you have so wonderfully created us in your image.

And thank you, God, for the way that you have gifted us, Lord, with your compassion. Lord, show us how to love the way you do. Show us how to care like you do. Lord, in the midst of our busy lives, Lord, with so many things that you call us to, Lord, show us how to be at rest and to be at peace and to still be passionate, Lord.

So Lord, I pray a special blessing on Rosa today.

Lord, I know that the forces of darkness, Lord, would like to disrupt this call. I know that the forces of darkness, Lord, would like to confuse Rosa, Lord, and make her more focused on being nervous, Lord, than on the thoughts that she has to share.

So Lord, I just ask now that your peace would descend, that you would just bless Rosa with clarity as she shares with us. I pray, Lord, that our hearts can all be open. And Lord, that we could just receive, Lord, a blessing, Lord.

And Lord, I just pray, Lord, that we would not only have awareness today, but Lord, that you would show us how and show each of us, Lord, what our response needs to be. So thank you, Lord, and we're just waiting on you.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, who gave his life for us. Amen. Okay, go ahead, Rosa.

Thank you so much, Jamilia. It is an honor to be here with everyone today. As Jamilia mentioned, it's a snowy afternoon here in Redding, very cozy to be indoors and very beautiful outdoors, but very cold. So yes, my topic is on human trafficking and looking some at what our response to that should be. As I was studying for this topic, I realized that January is actually National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. So it seems very appropriate that we had this talk scheduled for this month. And it's a huge topic, only brushed the surface on it, but hopefully it'll be an inspiration to all of us just to allow God to use us in the communities wherever he has placed us.

So first of all, I'll just give a brief introduction on what trafficking is. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. It's the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain. Human trafficking is often broken into two categories: labor trafficking and sex trafficking. It is estimated that there are approximately 40.3 million people today in the world that are enslaved. Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to lure their victims into labor or commercial sex exploitation. And the word "lure" there is very key. There's a lot of deception.

And in our day and age, lots of this happens through online and social media platforms. Human trafficking generates billions of dollars every year, and it comes in second to drug trafficking as one of the most profitable transnational crimes.

So human trafficking is happening internationally. It's also happening here in the United States, and it's been reported in all 50 states. Trafficking happens in urban areas and rural areas. It happens in big cities and small towns. It's happening to children, youth, men, and women. It can be very hard to identify because each situation looks a little bit different. Some victims are trafficked or sold for money right out of their own homes while still living what looks like a normal life, while others are trafficked and imprisoned behind closed doors. One ministry reported that 50% of the survivors that they work with were trafficked by a family member. So it's all around us.

Yeah, victims are in many different places around us. What should our response be to the horrendous evil of human trafficking? What do we do with all these overwhelming statistics? Do we just push it away and choose to live our peaceful lives and not let it bother us? Or is there a different way to respond to it? I'll be honest, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers and the stories. And sometimes I wonder, can I even make a difference? As Jamila mentioned, I worked with a women's ministry in Thailand.

I was there for around eight years. We did a lot of prayer walking, English teaching, teaching vocational skills, and pretty much anything we could think of as a way to build relationships with the women. And as I worked with vulnerable women and girls, I became more and more aware of the trafficking that was happening there in Thailand and also in the surrounding Asian countries. And as we became more aware of it happening there in Asia, I also learned more about how it's happening worldwide and even in areas right around my home area in the United States.

And now living in a city in the US where crime rates are high, I know it's happening in the city right here where I live. In fact, there's a safe house for survivors of sex trafficking not that many blocks from my house.

And what can I do? I'm now a wife and have the privilege of supporting my husband, who has lots of different responsibilities on his plate. And I'm a mom to a busy little two-year-old. And I don't feel like I have lots of extra time to be involved in ministry outside of our home in this season of life. And for a while after I was married, I really struggled on the days when I was just at home doing housework, feeling like I should be out building relationships and getting to know people in the community.

But God reminded me that creating a safe, inviting place for my husband and daughter here in our home really is my first priority. However, along with that, there are still ways that I can be aware of my surroundings and aid in prevention even as I go about my everyday life here. They might not feel like important or big things, but they can make a difference. So before I talk about some of the things that we can do, I just want to share with you some common signs of human trafficking that you can look for, just so we have a better idea of what we're looking for as we relate to people in our neighborhoods. I'm going to try to share my screen here so that you can see the points written down, and it's not just a bunch of information that you're hearing, but you can also see it.

Okay, some common signs of human trafficking.

In the work and living conditions, the traffic people are not free to come and go as he or she wishes. The traffic person is unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips, works excessively long and/or unusual hours, is not allowed breaks or suffers under unusual restrictions at work, owes a large debt, and is unable to pay it off. High securities measures exist in the work and/or living locations. For example, boarded-up windows, bars on windows, security cameras, etc.

Those are just a few. Also, traffic victims tend to have poor mental health or abnormal behavior. They tend to be fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or nervous. They can exhibit unusually fearful or anxious behavior if there's any mention of law enforcement. They tend to be withdrawn, avoid social interactions, and refrain from eye contact.

They also tend to have poor physical health. They lack proper healthcare, can appear malnourished because of lack of food or the right kinds of food. They can show signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confinement, or torture. They often have lack of control because someone else is controlling their lives. They have few or no personal possessions. They're not in control of their own money, no financial records or bank account. They're not in control of their own identification documents, such as an ID or passport. They're not allowed or able to speak for themselves. Often a third party insists on being present.

Some other possible signs can include claims of just visiting or inability to clarify where he or she is staying, lack of knowledge of whereabouts and doesn't know what city he or she is in, loss of sense of time, has numerous inconsistencies in his or her story.

So those are just a few. There's many, many more things that we can talk about. So what can we do as we go about our everyday lives? What are some things that we can do? And first of all, pray.

I feel like this is the most important thing. It might not feel like we're doing anything, but we are making a difference when we pray. First of all, pray for your neighbors. Pray for protection over marriages and families.

Pray that parents would have strength to love their children well. It's when there's problems in the family that women and children become vulnerable. Pray for protection over the vulnerable people in your communities. And we'll talk more about who those vulnerable people are a little bit later here.

Pray about any strange situations that you might see and wonder what's going on. Spend some time prayer walking in your neighborhood or in the towns and cities close to you. Prayer walking is simply going on a walk and praying for the people that you see or anything else that God lays on your heart. We did a lot of prayer walking when I lived in Thailand.

Sometimes, yeah, usually about two nights a week, we would go out and pray in the red light districts. Did we see results? Very rarely. But now, years later, we're starting to see little glimpses of ways that God answered prayers that we prayed years ago.

And that's just very, very exciting to me to see that. We can't see what's happening in the spirit world when we pray, but I believe that with every prayer, the darkness gets pushed back a little bit more and Satan loses a little bit more ground. Back to the areas where we went prayer walking in Thailand, one of the streets that we prayed on quite a bit, there's now a women's ministry started there, and they also meet there for church on Sundays. And it's just very, very exciting to me to see how God answered many of those prayers that we prayed for that particular area. We must pray. Human trafficking is the devil's work, and we're not fighting against flesh and blood.

We're fighting against principalities and powers in the spiritual realm. We have power in the name of Jesus to fight against the powers of evil and to push back the darkness little by little. The next thing that we can do is just be aware of people and surroundings as we're out and about. If anything does look suspicious, you can report it. There's a human trafficking hotline here in the United States where you can make a unanimous report of anything suspicious.

They can keep it in their records or they can investigate it further at the time. So I did write that down. If you want to write that down for future reference, you can call. There's a phone number there, or you can text a phone number. I'll just say the phone number for those of you that may not be able to see the PowerPoint. The phone number is 1-888-373-7888.

And there's also a live chat on www.humantraffickinghotline.org. And I also went on to the website and saw that there's a form that you can fill out and just simply write down what you saw, where you saw it, and other details, and you can submit it, and they will take it from there. So that is something that is very helpful to have.

Yeah, there's times when I see things and I'm like, "Oh, I don't know if that's really something I should be suspicious about or not." But yeah, if it does really feel suspicious, here is a place that you can go to.

Another thing that you can do is be aware of the ministries and programs in your area. As I mentioned earlier, there's a Christian ministry just a few blocks from here that's working with survivors of human trafficking. I, along with my husband and another couple from church, went to an open house that they had there a couple of years ago.

They had started a new drop-in center and had an open house for the community. And it was just really good to connect with the staff there and hear their vision. Later on, I met a lady who was in an abusive relationship and was asking for help. So I was able to contact this ministry and ask them for advice on where to send her for counseling.

So it's a really good connection to have. This ministry has a home for ladies that have been freed from trafficking situations. Over Thanksgiving, one of my friends had the opportunity to donate some food for them for their Thanksgiving meal.

And there's other ways that we as a community have opportunities to give and be involved. And there's always the opportunity to give financially. Ministries like this need finances in order to be able to operate. There's also a Christian pregnancy center here in our city that helps support families and single mothers that are in difficult situations, and it enables mothers to keep their babies.

So it's another resource that I have to be able to refer women to that are in a difficult situation. And there's numerous other ministries here that I'm becoming aware of that are helping people in need. Another very important ministry is kids' clubs.

I don't know how many of you are involved in kids' clubs or know of something happening with your church or community. Our church operates a kids' club once a week, and it's a great way to invest in the lives of children that might be very vulnerable because of the family or financial situation that they're in. And with the kids' club, there's also a group of older girls and moms that come, and they bring their children to kids' club, and then they stay. So it's a great way to invest in the lives of the ladies and moms.

And I'm not involved in the kids' club directly, but I love hearing specific ways that I can pray for them or other small ways that I can support the ministry. Another thing that you can do, if you're a mother, protect your own children and help them to have a healthy view of their sexuality.

And yeah, just love your children well. Make them feel safe at home. If the love tank isn't filled at home, they will look other places for that love. Help them be aware of the dangers around them and find creative ways to talk about sexuality in a way that makes them feel like it's something sacred and beautiful.

And that's a whole topic all its own that I won't even attempt to go into. Another way that you can help is care well for the vulnerable around you. Find ways to reach out to vulnerable people and know where to refer them when they need help, as I was talking about earlier with the different ministries in our area.

Traffickers will look for vulnerable children and youth. Again, if you're a part of a kids' club, find ways to love the vulnerable children. You might be the only one filling their love tank. That goes for neighbor children, any children that you have interaction with in your community.

Provide a safe place for people and love them well because love really is the best prevention for this big problem of trafficking. People need love. So I'm going to look a little bit at who are the vulnerable people? Children and youth from troubled homes. Homes where parents are separated, the father is physically or emotionally absent, or there's lots of conflict in the home. Children and youth that have emotional needs that are not being met. They're looking for love and attention. They wish someone would tell them that they're loved. And that's what traffickers do. They'll tell them they're loved. Obviously, it's a selfish love.

Children and youth that have a low self-esteem, traffickers will prey on that, telling girls that they're beautiful. There's words that these girls are longing to hear. Children and youth that are naive and unaware of dangers are very vulnerable, and also prior abuse increases vulnerability to trafficking.

Children and youth in the foster care system are also very vulnerable. In 2017, an estimated one out of seven endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were likely child sex trafficking victims. Of those, 88% were in care of social services or foster care when they ran away. That's a quote from the Polaris Project, which I will mention them in my resources later.

So youth that run away and people living on the street are very vulnerable to traffickers as well. A quote from a homeless youth, "I was on the street in the winter, and there were no soles on my shoes. A pimp saw me and said that he would help me out. He said that he would buy me three pairs of shoes. I couldn't believe he was going to buy me shoes. I was freezing. I didn't know what else to do." So again, that lure, they're looking for vulnerable people and try to find ways that they can lure them in.

Do you have vulnerable people in your community? Are there ways that you can show love and care, whether you live out in the country, whether you live in the city and town, no matter where you live, are there vulnerable people around you? And having given all of that information, I also just want to warn against sensationalism.

And what is sensationalism? In my own words, it's when we get all excited and hyped up about something, and we want to make a difference. We get all emotionally involved, and our feelings drive us. But then as soon as things get hard and the excitement fades, we don't feel like trying to make a difference, and we don't see any results for our efforts.

The hype and excitement fades, and then we quit. And I want to talk a little bit about having a heart of service instead.

So yes, while sensationalism is driven a lot by emotions, service is driven by commitment. It's having that heart that is willing to do whatever God asks, no matter how mundane it seems. It's willing to stick at something for the long haul, whether we feel like it or not. There were many days in Thailand when I didn't feel like going out and prayer walking. I didn't feel like going to teach English that day because who knows, maybe no ladies were going to come anyway.

But yeah, I knew it's where God wanted me, and I wanted to be willing to do what he asked me to do that day. And again, here, yes, I've relocated. I'm involved in a different kind of ministry in my home here, and I want to be willing to do what God asks of me, even if it's taking care of a busy little two-year-old that's getting into a lot of things. It can be very trying for me some days, but it's what God has called me to, and I want to have that heart of service.

A heart of service takes time to listen to the Lord and lean into his strength. It's a commitment to do whatever it takes, even if it's only making a difference in one person's life. If we do, if all of us here on this call today would make a difference in just one person's life, that would be a lot of people being reached.

And I love the quote that says, "Do for one what you wish you could for everyone." Something I want to focus on in this whole realm where there's lots of people that need help. We can focus on doing one, do for one what we wish we could for everyone. And I clearly remember what my dad told me when I first talked to my parents about going to Thailand and helping with the women's ministry that was just beginning at the time. My dad told me, "Even if you make a difference in the life of only one girl, it's worth it."

It's not about the numbers. It's about being faithful wherever God calls us and to invest well in the people around us. It's taking one step at a time and allowing God to use us.

And it's also remembering that on our own strength, we can do nothing. We simply point people to Jesus because only Jesus can fully heal and restore the lives that have been ravaged through complex trauma that goes with trafficking.

Only Jesus can set the captives free. Only Jesus can bring freedom to the victims, traffickers, and buyers. And that's why Jesus places human trafficking on our hearts, on the hearts of his children. He places it on our hearts because it's his heart. He has a heart for the oppressed, the marginalized, the ones without a voice, the ones that have been forgotten. He is for them, and he wants to use us as his children to be his hands and feet and to show his heart to the people around us.

And working in the red light district in Thailand and building relationships with ladies there was far from glamorous. It was simply doing the next thing, taking the next step as God led. Some weeks, we would try one thing, and we saw that wasn't going to work. So then next week, we would try something else. Maybe this will be more beneficial in building relationships or meeting the needs of the women. So it was just doing the next thing.

And that's all that we're asked to do wherever we're located. Simply going to the people that God lays on our heart and finding ways to serve and show Jesus to them. Sometimes in our desire to make a difference, we wish that we could live somewhere else or reach more people, maybe have different circumstances.

And maybe it feels more exciting to work with women and children on the other side of the world than it does in our home community. Maybe we wish that we could be involved in something that our friend or acquaintance is involved in, but our current stage of life doesn't allow us to. And I'll share a quote by Craig Greenfield. One of the dangers of the way our minds work is that we have a tendency to romanticize the poor who are geographically distant and demonize the poor on our own doorsteps. It's a coping mechanism designed to keep the poor mostly at arm's length so that we can help them in small doses without too much cost to our everyday lives.

That was by Craig Greenfield from his blog, Short Term Missions.

So it's easy to romanticize the poor that are maybe across the waters or in a different location. And sometimes we tend to look down on the poor and marginalized right in our own communities. But instead, God wants us to see them through his eyes and wants us to ask him, "Are there ways that I can help? Is there something I can do?"

And my question is, are some avenues of serving more glamorous than others?

Sometimes, as I mentioned before, we wish we could serve in a different avenue, a different place. But I want to read some words by Jonathan Trotter from his blog post. It was on a blog called A Life Overseas, and his title was The Idolatry of Missions.

He says, "But here's the problem. Early on, I internalized the idea that being a mission in a foreign country was, in fact, the best. It's what the best Christians do. It's what the holiest Christians do. It's what people who don't have problems do. But you know what? That's crazy talk. I'm not setting out to discourage folks from cross-cultural missions. I'm trying to say, if you're going to follow God across cultures, do it because he called you. Do it because you love people. Do it because you think it's—I'm sorry. Don't do it because you think it's what good Christians do."

Before we moved overseas, I wrote a song that had these lyrics: "To the ends of the earth or down the street where you send, I will go, I will go." I sang it with gusto and enthusiasm. I now realize it's ridiculous. It's based on the false dichotomy that some are called to go to the cool places like the ends of the earth, and others are just called down the street. We are all called down the street. It's just that some of us have to travel a bit to find our street.

God didn't want to send me to the ends of the earth or down the street. He wanted to send me to Cambodia and down the street. Why? Because the call of God is local. It's right here with the people in front of me. He may call you to change streets, but once you get to your new street, you still have to love and serve the person in front of you. He may send you to a street that looks and smells nothing like the street that you're used to. Great. But you know what? Once you get there and learn their language, you still have to love and serve the person in front of you. It's not rocket science.

So whether your street is paved with luxury cars or it's a collection of muddy ruts and filled with wild beasts, the call of God is the same. Love well, serve well, and live your life in a way that when people look at your eyes, they see our Father's compassion.

When they see you create, they marvel at our King's genius. When they watch you sacrifice, they know our Savior's kindness. No matter what street you live on, may you truly experience life on the front lines of the kingdom, not because you live on a super or on a special or super holy street, but because on your street, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is being preached to the poor.

And I will share the link for that blog post in my references then.

So serving and reaching people comes down to just reaching the people in front of you today. And that might be the people in your home. It might be the person next door. It might be someone in town that you met when you went to the store last week.

It can be whoever that God brings into your life. God just wants us to reach out and love and serve. And in doing that, we might be helping someone that was headed the wrong direction, that was headed toward trafficking.

But if we can show them love and be that person that offers them that love that they're looking for, we can make a difference. We, as Christ followers, should have no limits or willingness to serve. I'm sorry. We, as Christ followers, should have no limits to our willingness to how we serve, whether that means going abroad or going into the not-so-nice part of town, giving to missions or giving up free time, changing a tire or changing a diaper.

There's many, many ways. And often, it's the small ways that can feel the small ways of serving that can feel like we're not really doing anything or we're not really making a difference in the big scheme of things. But when all of those small things add up, they become a big thing and make a big difference.

I just want to bless you as you love and serve the people in front of you today, as you look to God every day and ask him to give you the heart of a servant so that you can reach those that God places in your life day by day.

And I just want to—I feel like I'm ending a little bit early, but that'll give us lots of time for questions and answers. I want to end with the song lyrics. "Give me the heart of a servant, tender and faithful and true. Fill me with love and then use me, O Lord, so that the world can see you.

Give me the hands of a servant. Ready your work to do. Strengthen with hope and mercy and grace so that the world can see you. Give me the eyes of a servant. Help me to see your view. People have needs that love intercedes so that the world can see you.

Give me the life of a servant, humble and grateful, renewed, yielding my life in self-sacrifice so that the world can see you."

I will also share my list of references here. You can take some time to jot those down. The first one is the blog post that I read about each of us having our own street and being called to our own street.

It's from A Life Overseas. It's a blog about missionary life. The second one there is the Polaris Project. They have lots of information about trafficking. Like I said earlier, I feel like I just brushed the surface and skimmed over a lot of things quickly. There's lots more information on that website.

The third one there is North Star Initiative. It's a ministry in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They also have lots of good information on their website. The next one there, Free from HT, Free from Human Trafficking. This is the website for the ministry here in our area that's reaching women and girls that have been trafficked. And they also have lots of good information.

And then I just want to put in a good word for restore training. I don't know how many of you have heard about restore training, but restore training is an online self-paced training program for Anabaptist women interested in engaging anti-trafficking and restoration efforts. They've developed a curriculum with lots of good resources listed on their website there. So that's all I have. I'll be glad to hear from you all.

Okay. Thank you so much, Rosa, for the way you shared with us what I believe is God's heart, like you said. He cares about people. So that's why it becomes our heart.

Yeah. You just really, really touched a lot of good things. And I love the thought, like you said, we have time now for a discussion. And so I'm going to open it up here. If anyone has any thoughts or any questions, Rosa, I'm thinking maybe you could stop sharing your screen just in a few minutes. I think people probably have had time to write it down. You don't have to in a few minutes.

But what are your thoughts? Anyone who has a question or a comment that they'd like to give? I like the way you mentioned at the beginning how it's so easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers. Easy to focus on the numbers, and the numbers are staggering.

But then at the end, you gave us the focus that it's the person in front of us. That's what God calls us to, just loving whoever it is on our street. I really, really was blessed by that. Thank you for sharing those thoughts, Rosa. I was very encouraged.

We've been living in a big city since August, and it just fills me with excitement. And I know that's probably the sensationalist feeling at this point, but just the thought that you shared about being called to your street, I just really love that. And the idea of prayer walking, I love to take a lot of walks and do. And I've done that a little bit, but I'm inspired to do it much more just to pray for this neighborhood. And thank you so much for sharing that. It's just been very encouraging.

We have eight children, and like you said, we know what we're called to, of course, when we have a family. But I still feel like I just love that idea that I can serve in that way. And prayer is such an important element, as you did share already. So yeah, God bless you for that, and thank you for sharing that with us.

Bless you as you serve there in your new community.

Thank you.

Okay, Rosa. So there's a question that came in here. Let me see if it disappeared on me. Oh. Is there any help or people trying to reach the people who are doing the human trafficking?

That's a very good question. I know many ministries wrestle with that. Obviously, in order for the problem to stop, we have to reach the people that are causing the problem. I personally don't know of any ministries that are actually trying to reach the trafficker. I'm guessing there's some out there. It's a very, very difficult type of work, but maybe it's something we need to pray about more. I believe there's people—I'm sure there's people out there that are attempting, but I don't know of anyone personally.

Yeah. I think that is a really, really good question. Thank you for that comment. And I was just thinking, when it comes to organizations that work with trafficking, there's oftentimes three pillars. And I'm thinking if I can get it together here: intercepting supply, confronting demand, and transforming facilitators. And I know here in my neighborhood, that's something I really struggle with because intercepting supply, that's what we were talking about. Love is the best prevention.

Reaching out to that lonely child down the street, baking cookies with them, or having the children in the neighborhood over for Bible stories. And oftentimes, I think about it that we focus a lot on vulnerable girls, rightly so, because they're easy to exploit. But then I look at these teenage boys and how they're—when they're lacking in role models and how I think that that is really something—and to be able to reach out and to have that heart of transforming.

Another thing I thought about is I love the way you touched on teaching our children about healthy sexuality. And I think that is so important. And it's not just sons. It's our sons and our daughters because a lot of pornography—and I don't—maybe, Rosa, maybe you know the percentage. I can't think about it right now, but a high percentage of pornography is created by victims of trafficking.

And so if you think about it, if people are feeding the industry for pornography, then that's actually feeding the issue of trafficking. And that is something I think just to realize and confront the demand in our own hearts and also as we teach our sons and our daughters what it means to really live redeemed lives.

Yes. Thank you for that, Jamelia. That is very, very true. The porn industry is definitely linked to trafficking very, very closely. And so, yeah, if people are watching porn, they're basically supporting the trafficking industry. And I don't know the percentage either as far as what percentage people that are trafficked would be involved in the porn industry, but yes. And also the part about reaching the teenage boys as well. They are going to be the next generation of men. And are there ways that we as a church can influence them now before they get to the point of being involved in the trafficking industry? I did think more about the question too as far as are there ways that we can reach those that are doing the trafficking.

My mind did go to Thailand when we prayer walked in the red light districts and talked with the women there. We tried to be very aware of the bar owners and the people in charge of the businesses there too and just tried to extend our kindness toward them as well. And yeah, I felt like if we could build a relationship with them too, that was just another step into reaching the women there, reaching into hearts of people in that type of industry.

Yes. I love that. I think also one of the foundations is just being able to recognize that we're all made in the image of God. And so that means all of us. It's not just the people that we want to protect. It's also the people who—because oftentimes, they say a lot of traffickers were actually once trafficked themselves or they were actually victims of exploitation. And so to have God's heart of compassion, that we don't turn this into the good guys and the bad guys, but that we love all men equally well.

Anyone else? Hi. I've got a question. Thanks so much for talking on this topic. I have recently watched Sound of Freedom, and so it's fresh on my mind. And I'm wondering if there are any organizations or, I guess, methods of rescuing trafficked people that are truly effective and good organizations to either financially support or—I don't know.

This topic has been on my heart a good bit in, I don't know, the past few years. And just thinking maybe someday, if God provides leading or opportunities to get involved myself, what should I look for as far as how to support either financially or in getting involved?

Yes. That's a really good question too. I would encourage you to, yeah, just research, see if there's any organizations in your area. And the two ministries that I mentioned in my references, North Star Initiative in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and also Free from Human Trafficking here in Berks County, Pennsylvania, they are two ministries that I would fully support—Christian organizations that I know are making a difference in the lives of girls and women. Of course, every woman still has to make their own choice. And I think every ministry grows through that pain and disappointment of seeing people that they're trying to help walk away from the help that they're trying to offer.

And yeah, it's a big part of a ministry like this is that pain of seeing people choose to go back to what was familiar to them before because that feels safer. Getting out of trafficking, it's a whole new world. It's a whole new culture. It's safe, but it doesn't always feel safe to them, and they choose to go back to what was familiar. So yeah, I know a lot of these ministries, these two ministries that I mentioned, and I know there's many others out there are making a difference in the lives of a lot of girls. But then, of course, there's always those that still do choose to go back to where they came from.

Thank you for that, Rosa. I like that. And just again, your emphasis on prayer. And I just wanted to add to that you mentioned that traffickers pray on unmet needs. And so I think that as we pray and God opens our heart and as we look for ways that how can God use us, it's just think about it. What are unmet needs that people have around me?

And I think it can vary by our different locations, but one unmet need can be like a crisis pregnancy. Are there young women who are in crisis pregnancies and they don't have anyone else to support them? One unmet need, really, a lot of times, it's just emotional support. Do you live in a neighborhood where you just see there's a lot of children who are home alone for hours? And just things like that, I think sometimes that, like you said, just being aware of what's happening around us and that God can just lead us. That's a great question. Thank you for that. Did you have anything you wanted to add to your question, Christy?

I don't think so. Thanks so much.

There's a question here that came in on the chat. It says, "Thank you, Rosa, for making us aware of the symptoms of trafficked people and giving us ways that we can help. As we'd walk with our baby in our stroller around the neighborhood, perhaps we will now become more aware through prayer of people and their needs surrounding us."

You're welcome. Yes.

Rosa, you gave us some resources there at the end of your talk. I didn't know, did you have anything else you wanted to add to that? Any books that you've read that have really inspired you or anything else?

Yeah. I didn't really use a whole lot of books in preparing for this talk. Several books, or one in particular that comes to my mind that really opened my eyes to what's happening here in the States was a book called—I think it was A Slave Across the Street.

I don't remember the author. I could try to pull it up. It was a story about a girl that was trafficked. She was still living at home, but a boyfriend of hers was trafficking her out of her home. And yeah, it just really opened my eyes as to what some situations that are happening right here in the US.

Thank you for that. You called that book A Slave Across the Street? Mm-hmm. Did anyone else have any questions or comments, anything you wanted to share or, yeah, hear discussed?

I was wondering, how do you recognize traffickers? Either if you want to reach out to them and protect your own children and other people from them, do you have any suggestions on that?

Yeah. That's a really good question. It's hard to know how to answer that because traffickers take on so many different forms. They can look like businessmen. They can look like the drug dealer. They can look—yeah, there's so many different forms.

I don't know. Does anyone else have any thoughts on any of that? I personally am not sure how to answer that.

My first thought when you asked that question is that they probably don't look like you think they're going to. But that was just the first thought. I had an interesting experience probably about maybe a year ago. I was talking with some of the young women in my neighborhood, and she was sharing some hard things and how she had a sister who had unfortunately gotten involved in prostitution and how there was a young man in our community who was encouraging the girls. He was showing them pornography and telling them that if you do this, you'll make a lot of money. So I asked her who it was, and she told me. She was positive I knew who he was, and I couldn't picture him.

What was very interesting about maybe four or five months later, I got a message on my phone from this young man. He was just saying he wanted to learn to know our family, just relate to us. And I said, "Oh, okay." I was a bit taken aback, and I asked my husband what I should do. So we just said, "Come to church with us sometime."

And he hasn't, but one day he finally came to the gate, and I was shocked. I was truly shocked. Just the clean-cut-looking young man. And I still have a hard time reconciling. And so I think that, yeah, I think it's hard to really—when it comes to just saying, "What is a person going to look like?" It's more just being aware of unmet needs and how those unmet needs could be preyed on to be exploited. That's a thought that comes to me. One thing I've been wondering, Rosa, when you mentioned prayer walking, I love the idea of prayer walking. And I just wondered, out of curiosity, as you prayer walk, did you all have—did you have any verses that you prayed?