Tracees story“Is this something new or are we just now hearing about it?” That is a question I get asked a lot when I speak about the issue of sex trafficking. Unfortunately, it is not new. It has been going on for a long, long time. Ecclesiastes 1:9b says,

…there is nothing new under the sun.”

This past week I met with a woman who heard me speak last month. She contacted me through my website and asked if she could meet with me. She said she had a story to tell. We sat down at Starbucks one morning last week. We talked about a lot of things, but when it came to her story, how she was victimized, she felt compelled to write it out for me to make sure she Starbucksincluded all the details. She had buried the memory deeply and hadn’t thought about it in years or ever told anyone about it.

Later that day, I sat down to read through her story. I was curious to see what indicators popped out to me as I read.

  • She came from a single parent home.
  • Her mother worked two jobs just to make ends meet, which left her unsupervised a lot.
  • A friend of hers from school offered to connect her to a guy who was looking for models.
  • She was given the opportunity to model for him without previous experience, an agent, or a photo portfolio.
  • The place the modeling session took place wasn’t a typical studio.
  • It seemed okay at first, but then it quickly went south.
  • He subtly suggested she remove some of her garments for sexier poses.
  • He had her posing nude before she knew it. This was NOT what she wanted to do but he persuaded her to do it anyway.
  • He had nude pictures of her, which caused her to be full of shame and guilt. She never told anyone what happened to her.

Now this lady was very fortunate because things never went any further than pornographic photography. It might be because this was 39 years ago. Teens were being lured and coerced in 1975. The internet wasn’t up and running, so those pictures were limited to wherever print material could be sold.

Today, her photos would likely have been on the internet before she drove home. Because of the strong connection between pornography and sex trafficking, the photographer would probably be connected to a trafficker or be one himself and use the photos as leverage to get her to do anything he wanted.

The pimp I interviewed for Rescuing Hope told me that he pimped for 33 years before he encountered Jesus. I interviewed him in 2010, so he was in the life in the 70s as well. This is not a new issue, it is just finally gaining public attention. People are outraged and deciding to draw a line in the sand and say,

Not on my watch!”

Are you part of the fight against the victimization of men, women and children? Are you taking a stand against modern day slavery? If you’d like to join the fight, but don’t know where to plug in, go here to learn about several organizations on the front lines. If you’d like to learn more about what life is like for those caught in the sex trade, go here and order your copy of Rescuing Hope. It will give you an accurate portrayal of what life is like for a girl caught in the life.

We all can’t do everything, but we can all do something. Ask the Lord to show you what your part of the fight is, then do it.