I’m thrilled to have the insightful Tim Fall guest posting today. “Enjoy” seems like the wrong word to introduce this post with, so…read thoughtfully? Tomorrow, I will be posting about some new resources available from the Evangelical Covenant Church to prevent, recognize, and combat human trafficking.
Un-Innocent Bystanders
Earlier this month my son and I attended a conference entitled The Church and Human Trafficking. It made me think about Adam and Eve, but not the part about how everything was sinless and free of awful things like human trafficking in the Garden of Eden. It got me thinking about us too, but not just “us” in the sense of me and my son but also “us” in the sense of you and everyone else.
An Awkward Conversation
God told Adam and Eve to eat whatever they liked in the Garden of Eden, except for the fruit that gave knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 3 covers the whole story. I’ll paraphrase occasionally here.) Later, Satan asked Eve to explain these rules about eating fruit. In what was far from her finest moment, Eve got the facts wrong.
“We can eat whatever we want, but we’ll die if we eat or touch that tree’s fruit.” (Why she added that bit about not touching it is anyone’s guess.)
“Oh come on, you can eat it,” said Satan. “And once you do you’ll be like God himself.”
So Eve ate some forbidden fruit. Isn’t the suspense killing you, though, wondering why Adam wasn’t there to help set Eve straight? Oh, that’s right. He was there.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
He was right there with her the whole time! As soon as they took those bites, they knew they’d done wrong and tried to hide from God. Hiding from God never works.
“Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” said God.
Direct, to the point, simple to answer: yes or no.
“The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Hmm, that’s not quite a yes or no answer. More like: “It’s your fault, you put this woman here! It’s her fault; she’s the one who served me the fruit! It’s not my fault! I was just standing there!”
Innocent bystander? I don’t think so.
Driving Traffic
At the human trafficking conference (held at Mount Hermon in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains in California, by the way) we heard from people who have gained tremendous experience, sometimes by choice and sometimes not. One person who gained her initial experience not by choice told us of the trafficking going on in pornography.
As a young woman, she fell into a crowd that seemed nice enough. Sure they were a little rough, but they were better than those she’d known before. Then one night they invited her into the backroom of a bar and drugged her. It wasn’t a regular street drug. It was the type sometimes called a date rape drug. These drugs make you unable to remember what’s happened. They break down your ability to resist. They can give the appearance that you are wide awake and willingly participating in whatever’s going on.
A room full of men repeatedly raped her.
They filmed her, too. That was the point, to distribute this as a sex video. She had no idea what had happened to her when she woke up. Then it happened the next night … and again, and again, and again. Although she suspected possibly being raped, she still did not know that she was being filmed. Not until someone showed her the video, that is.
This happens to women every day. It might be in the backroom of a bar, it might be during a college party, it might be at a friend’s house. One common scenario we learned shows how people can be drawn into participating in this. Suppose a group of young men in college have raped someone on video and then invite others to watch it. The way group dynamics work, a viewer won’t easily be able to speak up in protest. Once they’ve seen it, they are then complicit in the film even if they were not there initially. They may try to claim innocence because they had nothing to do with creating the movie, but it sounds as hollow as Adam’s response to God.
You think, “Well, I don’t watch porn, and I certainly do not ever want to watch a gang rape.” Good, but that’s not all there is to human trafficking. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime:
Trafficking in persons has three constituent elements;
The Act (What is done) Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons.
The Means (How it is done) Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim.
The Purpose (Why it is done) For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.
So it’s not just sex. We learned that one common variety of labor trafficking occurs on street corners throughout the United States. Ever see those fruit vendors who are set up with a stack of strawberry boxes or bins of cherries or bags of oranges? They might look like they’re from some local farm, but they’re not. These people are driven to a corner and told to stay there all day selling fruit.
At the end of the day, they’re picked up and driven to a house or apartment, likely sharing a room with several others. They may be from another country, originally arriving here willingly on a promise of finding a better life. But once here, isolated from friends and family, they are told they have to work selling the fruit and hand over their wages, that the people controlling them will turn them in to the police if not, that the family back home will never see them again.
It’s easy to control people who are in unfamiliar territory, who don’t know the language, who are afraid of what might happen to their families. It’s easy to control people who feel worthless. It’s easy to oppress victims.
It’s what human traffickers do, and they do it well.
They get away with it because too many of us are mere bystanders, even claiming to be innocent bystanders.
I don’t know about you, but I’m un-innocent. Spluttering excuses like Adam in the garden just won’t cut it. God calls us to so much more.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8.)
God’s justice, God’s mercy, done God’s way. That’s what I’m after. Where to start?
Start with prayer. Ask God to help you understand the problem.
Read up on the subject. The UN link above might be a good place to start.
Talk to your friends and see if anyone else is interested in the issue. I’ve found that if God has work for me to do, there’s a strong likelihood he’s got someone for me to do it with.
Whatever you do, it’s a start.
Biography: Tim is a California native who changed his major three times, colleges four times, and took six years to get a Bachelor’s degree in a subject he’s never been called on to use professionally. Married for over 24 years with two kids now in college, his family is constant evidence of God’s abundant blessings in his life. He and his wife live in Northern California. Tim guest posts on other peoples’ blogs, but is too lazy to get a blog of his own.
Fruit vendors, workers in some nail salons, bussers and dishwashers, agricultural/landscape workers – there are victims of human trafficking all around us. It isn’t always about sex, but is is always about $$$. We need eyes to see, and the will to act on what we see.
Absolutely, Michelle. Follow the money and you’ll find the trafficking, victims and oppressors. All of this is in need of God’s redemption and grace, and he uses his people to carry out these things in this world.
Tim
Michelle,
You’ve got great eyes to see where the more vulnerable work. Loved your comment!
When I visit with those who work 2-4 jobs to make it, I often notice how little time they have to take care of their Soulation, to ask the,selves what dreams THEY have.
I liked Tim’s final line: whatever you do (listen into the fears and hopes of the woman giving you a pedicure) do SOMETHING,
Thanks Jonalyn. Doing anything means there is something for God to redeem in our efforts. It’s good to remember that he makes all things beautiful in his time!
Tim
This was eye-opening for me. Of course I knew about sex trafficking in the States, but I had never heard about the labor trafficking. And drugging girls to make sex tapes–ugh. Awful.
Stomach-churningly awful, Jen. Trafficking has been on the radar for me and my son for years, althoug we developed the awareness on independent tracks from one another. Still, I was dismayed to learn the details of how pervasive the problem is.
It was encouraging, though, to see how the church is involved, and how that involvement can increase in doing God’s kingdom work.
Tim
P.S. Thanks so much for giving me space here at your place to write about this. It was weighing heavily on me and I am so glad you gave me the opportunity to share what I learned with others.
Tim,
I feel like I need to read about this subject once a week. When I read, I think, “Why isn’t anyone doing anything” and when I’m done, I think – “My coffee’s getting cold.”
That’s a problem.
Nick, I am right there with you in that problem. Constant awareness – like reading about it once a week, as you say – leads to initiating action, I think. That’s what I hope to get to, action.
Tim
Thanks for raising awareness, Tim. I’m going to send my mom over to your article–she just reviewed a book on this topic for book review club last night. I don’t want to botch the title so I’ll ask her to leave it in the comments. The authors are involved in a ministry that my mom contributes to. It all seems so overwhelming, but prayer is definitely the first place to start. I know for me, it is so horrifying to even hear about that I sometimes like to pretend like it isn’t around. But that is of course extremely unloving.
Aimee, thank you for spreading thisw awareness too by bringing your mom along. Her interest will probably resonate with this article, and perhaps lead others to a better understanding as well.
And I don’t think pretending it doesn’t exist is necessarily extremely unloving. Some things are so horrific that disengaging is what we have to do occasionally, at elast for a time.
Tim
Tim,
I’ve always had a heart for the homeless children in Africa and other countries (which was initiated from visiting an orphanage when I was a child)…and had been made aware how the children gather outside the police stations at night to sleep on the ground to stay alive, because they would be raped, tortured and killed by the soldiers/rebels. Then, 3 years ago, a small, non-profit organization was started in Sierre Leone Africa by a few christian women and their husbands in Nashville, TN as they became aware of the homeless children there when they adopted children from that area. The president stopped adoptions and would not release anymore children out of the country, hense The Raining Season ( TRS) was started. It is a wonderful organization and we sponsor 5 beautiful children; we get to skype w/them once a month…it’s very personable. I love it! ( http://www.therainingseason.org )
Well, about a year ago I was on the internet reading one of Aimee’s articles and somehow stumbled upon another website, SIS (Sisters in Service) which is an international ministry mobilizing advocates to equip women against poverty, oppression, exploitation and spiritual darkness in the world’s hardest places through practical grassroots projects. A huge amount of women are forced into prostitution and their babies grow up in the brothels …that’s if they live. I ordered several of their books which has testimonials of many women they have reached through their ministry…very powerful! “FORGOTTEN GIRLS” Stories of hope and courage, and “DAUGHTERS OF HOPE “. You can’t read these books or go on the website of TRS without putting forth some kind of action…even if it’s crying. My heart is with them and I do what I can …pray and contribute with a joyful heart. If each one of us would contribute in whatever way we can, the victems would not have to ask, “Don’t they know we’re here…don’t they know we are dying?”
Margie, thank you so much for giving me the link to The Raining Season. I just read Erica Stone’s story of how they got started, and that is one wild ride she and her husband went on. It looks like God continues their adventure each day. How wonderful that you are with TRS and SIS along the way.
Tim
Margie, this sounds amazing. I will be looking into this more. I lived in Liberia, just a hop, skip and a jump from Sierra Leone, for several years. Thanks so much for sharing this info!!!
We are our brother’s keeper, aren’t we? An issue like human trafficking seems so big (and it is!), but it all starts with caring what happens to those we encounter here and there every day. Even in those situations, love and vigilance can make a difference.
“Love and vigilence make a difference.” That could be a chapter of it’s own in a book on this, Karen. (Care to write one?) You’ve reminded me that when we love, we always make a difference even if we don’t see it. Thanks.
Tim
I’ll make note of that for my next (or next) book, Tim. Thanks.
Tim, Thank you so much for writing about this subject. Human Trafficking tears my heart out. I’ve been praying for the opportunity to do something, and praise God, I got an opportunity to help in writing form. One day I hope to do more. This date rape drug scenerio is horrible, so horrible. Have you seen the movie “Taken” with Liam Neeson? That movie is so powerful — makes it real. I wept and wept the first time I watched that!
I like how Karen wrote about us being our brother’s keeper. We are. We very much are. If we see a need we very well might be the ones God wants to use. There is no time to wait for someone else to step up. If God is speaking to our hearts we need to step up and do something. He will provide and equip when He calls. He will never leave us hanging.
“If we see a need we very well might be the ones God wants to use. There is no time to wait for someone else to step up.” Amen! And may God give us wisdom and courage!!!
I saw the movie, and as horrifying as it was that is such a sanitized version of what I’ve seen in my courtroom and heard about from speakers at the conference.
I agree with Jenny, too, about your comment that we might be exactly who God has to help those he’s put before us. Great reminder, Jane.
Tim
Tim,
Thank you for raising my awareness of this issue, as gut-wrenching as it is. Hearing about forced laborers that may be all around us, I can’t help but wonder if there are practical ways for me to help them. For example, this may be a naive question, but are there “warning signs” to watch for, like there are warning signs for an abused child? And what resources are available to help people intervene domestically? Of course, foreign intervention is a concern, too, but I am particularly unnerved by the thought of it happening in my own backyard. I feel like I am even more complicit in that area, and I’m wondering how to break out of that. Any suggestions?
Kim, I’m going to be posting a great, free, downloadable resource that is exactly what you described tomorrow! It has TONS of suggestions, warning signs, ways to work with your church, community, etc. It’s about a 30-page PDF, easy to skim and really well-organized. So come back tomorrow–I don’t have all the links and stuff yet!
It looks great! Thanks!
Kim, you are so right that it can be hard to know when someone is trafficked or just in a bad spot personally. One resource is the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Here’s the website: http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/national-human-trafficking-hotline/the-nhtrc/overview
I think you’ll find a lot of resources there, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Jen has for us here tomorrow!
Tim
Great post, Tim. One of the most frustrating things to me is how to know–how do you know if the clothes you buy were made in a sweatshop? How do you know if that vendor on the street or the girl giving you a pedicure is someone who is trafficked, or not? And what do you do if they are? But I appreciate the education you’re giving us and the way you’re making us think!
I’m posting the ECC’s new resources to help with that tomorrow! I’m super-excited about them–they’re really good, I think!
Keri, I ask those same questions. As I mentioned in my reply to Kim, one resource is the national hotline (linked above). They will take a report and investigate it. These are trained workers in the field who know how to discern the facts from mere speculation.
Tim
You’re welcome. Some of the young children in the orphanage there (which is called The Covering) at TRS, were rescued from slavery used for mining black diamonds (as in the movie Black Diamonds).
The Covering. Sounds so apt, Margie.
Tim, thank you so much for this article. I often post things on my facebook page about human trafficking. Did you know yesterday was World Day to End Child Labour? The e-mail said mark your calendar. Unfortunately, the email came late yesterday afternoon. No time to rally anyone. In Canada, we managed to get a little over 1500 names as pledges against Child Trafficking in order to get Ottawa to take action. Thank goodness there were enough names. But part of me says where are all the others. There should have been millions of names on that list. I post to my page and feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. Three shares for a child who is starving and sold into prostitution, nearly 3000 shares for a turtle who is stuck in a plastic six pack holder. Now while I love the environment, I can’t help but see that there is something really wrong here. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a light in a very dark place. Bless you all. If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem. I pray that if we all join together in prayer and in stepping out when the opportunity arises, Satan can be defeated. Please pray that God will send his Spirit to minister to all of those who suffer in this war and hedge them in with his angels for protection. Thanks for the new links as well. New places to be useful!! We all can make a difference!
Ev, thank you so much for stopping by and encouraging us here, and for all you do in your ministry as well.
Blessings,
Tim
I have told so many people stories such as these and they still try to make excuse saying, “well the girl was in a place where that stuff went on.” and it is horrible that they will try to find whatever way to make it seem like this girl was at fault for her rapes that she didn’t even know occurred! It is terrible. I listened to a testimony of a woman who was drugged (a different drug though, so she was alert to it all) and she was forced to have sex with men, women, animals, and if she didn’t. . .well they did many torturous things to her during the sex acts as it was so she was scared and knew not to fight or she might be killed. Turned out her own husband was behind her trafficking and would bring her to places where “his friend” would come and threaten and attack her. She thought her husband had no idea about it because he was gentle and kind to her. Little did she know her husband was the ring leader.
Anyway, I am glad that you brought up all these various forms of slavery and what human trafficking is. I hope more people open up their eyes to seeing what is going on around them and the destruction caused by pornography as well!!!!!!
I know this is a subject heavy on your heart too, Victoria, and I am so glad you are here to speak up about it. Your own modesty blog at ruby-eyed okapi is such a great benefit for young women (and older women and all ages of men too!).
Tim
Ugh, stories like that are so horrible! And then, like you said, there are people who try to pin the blame on the victim.
Why do we do that?!? Trying to soothe our consciences, or make it seem like it couldn’t possibly happen to people WE care about? :-/ Well, it can…