April 12th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk (WAR) wrote these posts for us to open our eyes to the rampant problem of trafficking around the world, and also give us specific ways that we can make a difference! I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

They know who to prey on—traffickers target the weak, the vulnerable, the unprotected, and the alone.  Impoverished women and children, widows, orphans, or street children are easy prey.

Traffickers are known to wait outside of orphanage doors as the girls who graduate from the orphanages may have no family support, no governmental protection, no familiarity with the world outside of the orphanage, and no education or job training. They are eager to live, eager to begin life, and eager for any job. Traffickers are ready with smooth promises of good jobs, modeling tours, an exciting life, etc.

Each hour, 115 more children are forced into prostitution. [1]

Chirawan’s Story
Thailand

Future—it is a word that Chirawan does not take for granted. She won’t dwell on what could have been—she was brought to the orphanage by a kind relative and rescued from all kinds of potential horror stories.

She knows that many girls from Thailand’s northern hills, where she grew up, are sold into sexual slavery. Now, instead of being brought to the city as a slave, she is going with a promising future. A recent graduate from high school, she is excited to be a full time student at the University!

A safe home

In mountainous northern Thailand, 110 girls, ages 4-23, find a home, a shelter from potential exploitation and trafficking.

Something in these girls’ story indicated that they were at risk. In small villages, the news that a father or stepfather is going to sell his daughter travels quickly, and a kind relative or neighbor may bring the girl to the orphanage.

Here, the girls find protection, safety, and knowledge of their loving heavenly Father. This orphanage provides them with education and skills so that they can make a safe living for themselves once they graduate.

Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) partners with this orphanage, helping them to expand their buildings and program. In addition, we sell embroidery made by the children’s families, getting to the root causes of these children’s risks, poverty and devaluing of women, by providing income to the family through women and in conjunction with these girls.

What you can do!

Prayer truly should be our first response—we cannot see, rescue, or protect every child, but our God is omnipotent and omniscient. He sees each tear. He has allowed us the privilege of being his co-workers through prayer.

WAR, Int’l knows the importance of prayer, and asks women to uphold our programs in prayer. We cannot do it without it. For information about our Prayer Circles (read about them here) and on how to pray for WAR, Int’l, please email Gillian at gf (at) warinternational.org or call 616-855-0796.

For you

For those who have entered into a relationship with God through belief in Jesus, we can rest in the fact that Christ has rescued us! His blood is absolutely sufficient to cover all our sins. We are brought to a safe home in his fold. We are secure because of him, and no one can snatch us out of his hands.

We are his, forever (John 10:28-29). We are safe, protected. We are no longer condemned and our hearts can rest at peace (Romans 8:1; 1 John 3:21), because we can do absolutely nothing to add to that. It has all been paid. We are reconciled with God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). No longer are we afraid and assailed by doubts, but He who calms the seas can calm our hearts and minds.

From Kristi: Want to know more about how to find freedom through Jesus Christ? Please email me – I would love to talk with you.

April 8th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk (WAR) wrote these posts for us to open our eyes to the rampant problem of trafficking around the world, and also give us specific ways that we can make a difference! I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Deng’s Story

Thailand

Deng had lost it all—her business, her husband, everything. She only had her son left—and a deep debt from a failed business.

She was lost, unable to start a new business, with no other recourse. Desperate to care for her young son, she finally found a job in a bar in a large city in Thailand, which quickly spiraled into exploitation.

Life continued to cascade out of control as she lost hope. She despaired of life and prepared to lose even that by her own hand. A timely phone call from a safe house staff, telling her that God loved her, saved her life.

That night, she cried out for help and came to the safe house. There her son and she began the journey of finding acceptance, love, a new job, and a new life.

Causes of trafficking and exploitation

Poverty, unemployment, lack of education, lack of opportunities, and gender inequality all played a part in pushing Deng into exploitation. Traffickers know to prey on the vulnerable, the unprotected, the already at risk. Natural disasters, war, political unrest, economic instability, etc. add to the chaos and catastrophe, escalating risk and susceptibility.  The lack of awareness, dearth of real prosecution and punishment for perpetrators, and a paucity of preventative programs and measures exacerbate the problem. These create a ripe “supply” of people.

On the other side, there is a demand, a market to buy human beings. People become objects, something to be bought and sold for personal pleasure. Children are commodified. It is commercial dehumanization.

Women are caught up in something bigger than they—victims of social, economic, and political problems, and preyed upon by an industry that commercializes people. Women and children are pawns in the hands of evil.

What you can do!

Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) seeks to address all arenas—awareness through the Civilian First Responders program; prevention through scholarships, education, micro-loans, etc.; and rescue and restoration through safe houses, job skill training, and employment. To combat such a large and pervasive evil, we need multiple approaches targeting multiple arenas with the whole woman in mind.

Invest in a woman’s life by purchasing her handmade jewelry, providing a viable alternative income, helping her escape or preventing her from falling into this horror. Visit www.warinternational.org to shop online , find our stores, or get information about hosting a home jewelry party.

For you

Like these women and children, you and I also find ourselves part of a bigger story. Satan wants to keep us as pawns while God liberates us, adopting us as his very children, ambassadors of hope.

He created us with dignity, as individuals created with inherent value and with purpose. While we are still God’s enemies (Romans 5:8), still hurting him and hating him, still doing things in our own way, God took the initiative and sent his Son to die for us (John 3:16).

Like the father of the prodigal son, God is waiting and ready for us to come back to him (Luke 15:11-32)—but better than that, he sent his son to find us and bring us back to him (Luke 19:10). When we return, he is there waiting to clothe us with the garments of salvation (Isaiah 61:10). He longs to bring us to true freedom in him, and in him, we are truly free (2 Corinthians 3:17; John 8:32).

From Kristi: Perhaps you are like Deng.  Perhaps you are desperate and feel there is no way out.  Like the safehouse workers and Deng, He will not force you to come.  He is there, waiting for you to call out to Him for help.  Would you like to know more about finding freedom through Jesus Christ? Please email me – I would love to talk with you.

April 7th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk (WAR) wrote these posts for us to open our eyes to the rampant problem of trafficking around the world, and also give us specific ways that we can make a difference! I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Slavery does not just happen overseas. Human trafficking creeps around in America—in broad daylight, as “nice” men, “friendly” strangers, and sometimes as parents. It increasingly affects girls from safe, middle class families; although runaway, throwaway, and homeless youth are most at risk.

Melanie
United States

Melanie now knows it’s a common technique used by traffickers at local malls to entice young girls.  The man showered compliments on her, flaunted his money, and gave her his undivided attention.  They eventually exchanged phone numbers, and Melanie and a friend met up with him and some of his buddies.

By the time Melanie realized something wasn’t right, it was too late.  The men took the girls to an apartment—before she knew what was going on, flirting turned to sex acts, and then to photographs.

Using the photos as blackmail, the girls were coerced into a car and driven around for days until they were disoriented and terrified. Completely unaware of where she was, helpless, alone, she was forced to sell herself on the streets, night after horrible night.  She had no way to escape, no place to go, and no one to help her.^[1]

What does trafficking in America look like?

A boyfriend asks a young girl to prove her love for him by working the streets.

A girl goes to a sleepover, and her friend’s father sells her.

A homeless teen trades sex for food or a place to sleep.

Gangs pimping out minors for a right of initiation.

The problem is larger than most of us know:

• 100,000 girls, ages 9-19, are trafficked in commercial sexual exploitation in the U.S.^[2]

• 300 children a month are for sale in Atlanta, GA.^[3]

• 3,000 children are forced into commercial sexual exploitation—prostitution, pornography, etc.—at any given time, just in San Francisco.^[4]

• 1,000 children are trafficked in Ohio.[5]

• The face of trafficking in the USA is mostly underage.  Children under the age of 18 now constitute the largest group of trafficking victims in the United States.^[6]

• The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 12 years old.^[7]

• 100,000-300,000 children are at risk of commercial sexual exploitation in the United States each year.^[8]

• Three domestic minor sex trafficking victims interviewed were sold 10-15 times per night, 6 days a week, totaling between 9,360 and 14,040 sex acts in a year.^[9]

What you can do!

Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l) knows that trafficking happens in our own backyards—it affects our loved ones. We must wake up and recognize the perversions that are stalking our communities and our children.

We need to protect our children by knowing, fighting, and avoiding the grasp of traffickers bent on reaching our young, our innocent, and our vulnerable. Until the awareness of this evil permeates our society, the problem will continue to thrive in the dark. Once their eyes are opened, people long to do something but are often at a loss as to how to respond.

To help parents, faith based organizations, and churches protect their own children, WAR, Int’l is launching the Civilian First Responders (CFR) program. Homeland Security and WAR, Int’l’s president, Becky, will train on “How to Identify Trafficking Around You” and “How to Train Your Children in an Appropriate Manner to Know and Avoid the Risks.” WAR, Int’l will not rest while our children are at risk!

The CFR program is part of our driving passion to prevent, rescue, and restore trafficked women and children. It is hoped that this project will lay the foundation for future efforts to fight human trafficking to bring this evil to light and usher in God’s justice. For further information, contact us at info@warinternational.org or 616-855-0796 or www.warinternational.org.

For you

We also have an enemy creeping around: he is the devil, the prince of this age.  He is king over trafficking and exploitation, twisting love and destroying lives (John 12:31; John 10:10). He wants to destroy our own lives as well, and keep us in bondage and darkness (1 Peter 5:8).

He creeps into our lives with pretty promises, disguising sinister intentions—he wants to keep us as slaves to sin. Soon the pleasures turn into bondage, what we sought to fulfill us leaves us empty. Our enemy wants your soul for eternity, and because of our sin, he has it—but Christ has ransomed us, buying us back from sin’s slavery.

Christ has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).  When we accept the freedom He offers, we are no longer under sin’s power but are Christ’s beloved! (Acts 26:18, John 8:34, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:18, Galatians 4:7).

From Kristi: Want to know more about how to find freedom through Jesus Christ?  Please email me – I would love to talk with you.

To find the other posts in this series, or to find how you can be involved in spreading the word, click here.

[1] Adapted from L. Vincent. “Caged.” World Magazine (23.8), April 19, 2008.

[2] FBI.

[3] Atlanta Women’s Agenda, 2005

[4] Standing Against Global Exploitation

[5] Shared Hope International.

[6] Shared Hope International, “Demand,” 2009

[7] US Dept. of Justice, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 2007

[8] Estes and Weiner, “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico,” 2001

[9] Shared Hope International, 2007

April 6th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

For the next two weeks, I will be reposting our Redeemed series focusing on the serious issue of human trafficking and the ministry of Women at Risk, International. Gillian Ferwerda of Women at Risk (WAR) wrote these posts for us to open our eyes to the rampant problem of trafficking around the world, and also give us specific ways that we can make a difference! I pray you will join us and be changed through it!

Ellie’s Story
Thailand

Ellie was her newest child, an infant of two weeks old. But toher impoverished mother, she was only another mouth to feed. Her mother was desperate and went to desperate measures, selling her two-week old baby into sexual slavery. When Women At Risk, International’s(WAR, Int’l’s) partners heard of this, they tracked down Ellie and loaned the mother money to buy her child back, despite violent threats by the traffickers. Ellie was rescued—but passive and quiet, already having learned she had no voice.

Child Trafficking

Baby trafficking is the newest face of trafficking. Younger and younger children are being trafficked, robbing the cradle, as well as the joy and wonder of childhood. Today, the global age of entry into forced prostitution is 12. Infants are sold for organs or worse, and young, young girls are imprisoned in the dark hallways of the red light district. There is a myth that the younger the girl, the less likely it is that the buyer will get AIDS.[1]

Consider: 75,000 Filipino children were on the streets in 1998, forced into prostitution according to one report. 3,266 Filipino children become victims of exploitation each year.[2]

1.2 million children are trafficked internationally each year; as many as 2 million children are currently subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade.[3]

Years ago, Becky, president of WAR, Int’l, made a commitment to rescue women and children—her mommy heart broke when she realized how young many of these victims were!

WAR, Int’l was birthed out of her passion to rescue children who are trapped against their will, chained to beds of horror till broken in body and spirit. We are dedicated to wrapping arms of love and protection around these precious little ones, tirelessly working to tuck children into cradles of safety and circles of protection where they hear stories of hope whispered and sung to them.  There is no greater joy then seeing a woman or child rescued, redeemed, restored, and empowered!

A happy ending

Ellie is now being adopted into a safe and loving home she needs and every child deserves. She is now laughing, smiling, and joyously talking as a happy two-year- old!

What you can do!

Elliana necklace

You can celebrate the redemption of Elliana and support the ministry of Women at Risk, International in a beautiful way!  Click here to view the Elliana necklace, bracelet, and earring collection.  You can also learn more about “WAR babies” here.

Partner with us to rescue children by donating to our Emergency 911 Fund which enables us to have ready funds to rescue women and children in imminent need. In addition, we also have a specific fund for children that flow through our programs—either emergency trafficking needs or for our orphans in India, Thailand, and South Africa.

Your children, family, Sunday school, or child’s school class can get involved by collecting coins in one of our baby banks to rescue these children! Contact us at info@warinternational.org,  616-855-0796, www.warinternational.org .

For you

We are also sold to sin, we are all slaves. In our dire situation, we are unable to help ourselves. We try to save ourselves, or ignore the consequences, or enjoy our self-focused life, or try to do anything to appease our empty hearts. Many of us are scared to realize how helpless we are. But like Ellie, we can do nothing.

It is in precisely this position of dire need that Christ came to us and rescued us from our helpless state. He himself paid the price for our sin and took our sin upon himself. With his own blood, he ransomed us. We are redeemed and adopted as God’s own children (1 John 3:1-3; John 1:12-13; Romans 8:16-17). We too can have a happy ending, finding the peace and pure joy that we were meant to have when we are reconciled to God!

From Kristi: Want to know more about how to find freedom through Jesus Christ?  Please email me – I would love to talk with you.

To find the other posts in this series, or to find how you can be involved in spreading the word, click here.

[1] Coalition Against Trafficking of Women

[2] Kyodo News, 1998; GABRIELA, 1998

[3] UNICEF