Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Advocate Series Ep. 5 | Taking Action: How the Church Can End Human Trafficking
47 Plays1 day ago
About this Episode:
We’ve faced the weight of the problem—now it’s time to act. In the final episode of the Advocate Series, Francis Chan, survivors, and advocates challenge the Church to step into its God-given role: preventing trafficking, serving victims, and disrupting the demand. Hope is not lost—together, we can push back the darkness. Watch full series here.
Full Description:
Episode 5 concludes the Advocate Series with a call to action. The fight against human trafficking isn’t just about awareness—it’s about movement. Survivors and leaders share practical steps for prevention, victim care, and ending demand, while pastor Francis Chan reminds us that Christ has empowered His Church to confront evil with courage and compassion.
You’ll also learn about the Abolitionist Project, a national effort to equip and mobilize believers into real action in their communities. This final episode is both a challenge and an invitation: to let our hearts break with God’s heart, to love boldly, and to step forward together as the Body of Christ.
🔔 Subscribe to Trafficking Free America and join the mission to advocate hope for the hopeless.
🕒 Episode Timestamps
0:00 – Opening reflection: the weight of the journey so far
1:20 – The despair of hopelessness vs. the hope of Christ
1:54 – The evil of trafficking: abuse of power and silence
2:29 – What history teaches us: slavery wasn’t abolished overnight
3:04 – Why the Church—not systems alone—must lead the way
3:59 – Aligning our hearts with the heart of Jesus
5:24 – The uncomfortable reality: facing what’s really happening
6:21 – Practical steps: recognizing signs, calling hotlines, reporting
7:22 – Public accountability: laws, penalties, and awareness
7:48 – Trafficking is everywhere—and so are churches
8:33 – The Church’s call: love them where they are, consistently
9:22 – Three strategies: prevent, disrupt demand, serve the vulnerable
10:34 – What prevention looks like: foster care, youth, education
11:03 – Disrupting demand: awareness and accountability
11:35 – Serving the impoverished with tangible resources
12:27 – The Abolitionist Project: how to join the movement
13:42 – Building an army of abolitionists across the nation
14:23 – Final encouragement: God is already at work
14:57 – Closing prayer and call to action
Recommended
![The Best Ways to Support a Safe Home [REPLAY] | Safe Home Series, Part 4 image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/640a1493181f834e694b13d6/20777798-06ea-438b-8fe4-26e91f8b685e.png)
Transcript
Acknowledgment and Introduction
00:00:48
Speaker
We're only five weeks in, but I'm sure you felt the weight of this content. I understand this is heavy. So first of all, thank you.
00:01:00
Speaker
Thank you for taking time to do this. Thank you for having the strength to work through a lot of this difficult material. To feel hopeless means that there's a deep sense of disparity in which there seems no future possibility of comfort or success.
00:01:20
Speaker
There doesn't seem to be a way out or an end to the suffering. This is why when Jesus read the words of Isaiah that he was the great Messiah and liberator, it was such good news to those who were poor, captive, and oppressed.
00:01:38
Speaker
When Jesus read those words, he was saying that hope is not lost.
Understanding the Evil of Human Trafficking
00:01:45
Speaker
The great evil of human trafficking is that it's based on human beings abusing their power over others.
00:01:55
Speaker
Whether it's the trafficker or the buyer, there's someone's baby girl or precious son being used as a product. This is the recipe for hope to feel lost to a victim.
00:02:10
Speaker
And the easiest way for hopelessness to remain is for others to remain silent or simply ignore those who are at arm's length.
00:02:21
Speaker
This week, we're going to talk about our response, putting what we've learned into action. Remember our first week when we talked about the abolishment of slavery?
00:02:34
Speaker
It wasn't a task done overnight. It wasn't one major thing that happened. It was an overall belief that kept on growing and growing until slavery could no longer be tolerated.
00:02:50
Speaker
The fight against modern day slavery is finally being exposed.
Call to Action for the Church
00:02:57
Speaker
As we continue to expose it, we can create a better world for our children and grandchildren's generation, just as those who abolished slavery did for future generations.
00:03:09
Speaker
I believe that if we want to see an end to human trafficking, it will not be because of a perfect elected official. the most strategic governmental system, an overly aggressive judicial response, or some sort of creative outsourcing of efforts, the scriptures are clear.
00:03:32
Speaker
that Jesus has called, empowered, and supernaturally gifted his followers, the church, to face something like this head on.
00:03:43
Speaker
And while we may see good systems and healthy laws come into place, it is only through Christ that true restoration can take place.
00:03:59
Speaker
I think when you begin to get the heart of Jesus, and my question is, how would Jesus react to human trafficking? How would Jesus react to children, especially being abused and in ways that we can't even imagine?
00:04:14
Speaker
I think that our heart should be His heart. What breaks His heart should break our heart. What He what he has compassion for, we should have compassion for. What He doesn't like, we shouldn't like. And I think that when we examine our life and say, okay, is my life lining up?
00:04:28
Speaker
Not just with the teachings of Jesus, but how about his heart? What's the heart of Jesus? Because Pharisees could do all the right things, but their heart was far from God. Jesus said, what did the Bible say that? You worship me hourly, but your heart is far from me.
Public and Official Responsibility in Combating Trafficking
00:04:44
Speaker
And I think there's something about the heart when God begins to invade the human heart, then things that concern God concern me a lot. And especially with children.
00:04:55
Speaker
And they say, hey, bring the children to me. Let the children come to me. You know, the reality of what's happening is exactly like when Jesus walked and talked to the people that everybody thought that he was, oh, you're Jesus Christ, you can't be going in that person's house.
00:05:11
Speaker
You can't be going into the tax collector's house and eating with him. It's the same way. We're the church. The church of God, what you're going to hear me say is not going to make you comfortable, but it's a reality.
00:05:24
Speaker
And if I can't come up here and tell and share with you some of the reality of what's going on, you will never understand how bad this is. there There should be a more conscious approach to discussing this issue and recognizing that generally speaking, those who are engaged who are engaged in sex trafficking are the victims of sex trafficking. And those who are those who are are pimping, so to speak, are the ones that we should be focusing on. Here's what you can do.
00:05:52
Speaker
You can learn what the signs are. You can learn how you can help. There's a national trafficking hotline. You can even call law enforcement as well.
00:06:05
Speaker
Get literature in the churches that tell you about the different signs. Maybe get into some of the vulnerabilities. Put in some scenarios of how it happens.
00:06:17
Speaker
The human trafficking and and what individuals can do or how to report something, I think that you need to put it out there a little bit more where you're educating the public. Because a lot of people, if you tell them, hey, what is human trafficking and what does it look like?
00:06:29
Speaker
um I don't know. You know, going to a mall and seeing a guy in the mall with a little girl holding her hand and she's giving you some telltale signals that I need to some help, but I can't say help.
00:06:41
Speaker
you know what are some of the signals that she's given off or what can you do to make eye contact with that young lady or that young boy to say, do you need help? When the public says enough's enough so and they're going to elected officials says, hey, regardless of whatever political aisle you're on this is wrong.
00:06:57
Speaker
And we want to see silver penalties. We want buyers held more accountable. We want traffickers held accountable. We want statute and laws put in to help victims of trafficking, to help them able to get into a normal lifestyle and not have to live down the road with the stigma that they once were victimized in
Community and Church Engagement
00:07:19
Speaker
sex trafficking. So the public plays a huge part in this.
00:07:22
Speaker
And so it's one thing for me to say, hey, our children aren't for sale, not here. It's another to actually enforce that. Enforce that not only within our respective systems, but across systems and beyond that, to invest in the resources to even do prevention as a part of the process.
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, you know, there are some reports out there that say every zip code in the United States right now has had at least one arrest for sex trafficking. So it doesn't matter if church is located in a suburban area, a rural area, an urban area.
00:07:53
Speaker
Doesn't matter if it's high population, low population. no matter if it's a wealthy environment, a poverty environment. Trafficking is happening in everywhere. So if trafficking is happening everywhere, turns out there happen to be churches everywhere, right? And so those churches in whatever environment they happen to have been established should be looking outward about what's happening in sex trafficking in their community.
00:08:13
Speaker
Just make it like known, make it known. And when you see the people that are like that, love them and just pull them close, show them the love of Jesus, be consistent, just be consistent in their lives. Treat them like they're people, treat them like they're your equal, because we're all pink on the inside. God made us all in his image.
00:08:33
Speaker
No one person is better than the other. Just love them where they're at. As a earthly father protecting his children, a heavenly father looks down at unprotected children.
00:08:46
Speaker
And according to Ephesians, we're the hands and feet of Jesus. He's the head, we're the body. So the body should respond to the head. And that is to go out and to somehow, however that is, and he gives strategies and and ways that we're able to say, you know what, we can make a difference. We can begin to push back darkness. We can begin to save and to and to rehabilitate and to help kids not just come out, but to get healed and whole from what they've been through.
Strategies for Prevention and Support
00:09:22
Speaker
As we consider the practicalities of how to engage in the fight and to end human trafficking, it's important to know that the experts have boiled the recipe for success down to these three categories.
00:09:38
Speaker
prevent child recruitment, disrupt the complacency of purchased sex in society, and serve those who are impoverished.
00:09:50
Speaker
Each of these categories are, by all means, challenging to wrestle through because each aspect requires intentionality, context, and wisdom.
00:10:03
Speaker
For instance, as it pertains to preventing child recruitment, how can we help educate and train those who are in direct contact with kids and youth every day?
00:10:14
Speaker
How can we become further involved with things such as foster care and teen pregnancies? Are we prepared to assist minors who are adjusting to life after they age out of group homes and foster homes?
00:10:30
Speaker
for disrupting the complacency of purchased sex? Are we standing up for victims by spreading awareness? Are we holding political leaders accountable for how they are preventing or responding to human trafficking in society?
00:10:46
Speaker
Are we respectfully educating our own church leaders so they don't ignore this atrocity in our neighborhoods or perhaps even in our own congregations?
00:10:58
Speaker
Do our church discipleship models move us to compassion like Jesus as we look to our own communities? When it comes to serving those who are impoverished, we have over 2,000 years of history that shows how the church is the best at doing this.
00:11:18
Speaker
The question now is, How can we strategically provide tangible assets to vulnerable people so they don't have to sell themselves?
00:11:29
Speaker
How can we go out of our way to affirm worth and dignity in people? What organizations or efforts can you partner with to serve those who are marginalized?
00:11:42
Speaker
Included in this week's study are resources and further reading for each of these areas.
Invitation to the Abolitionist Project
00:11:49
Speaker
As a group, choose one or two these categories to talk through with some practical ideas.
00:11:57
Speaker
You'll see some suggestions in your study guide to help with this, but allow for creativity and prayerful thought to lead the conversation. By going through the small group study, you've already engaged with us to end human trafficking in America.
00:12:14
Speaker
If you're someone who wants to engage more as an individual in the fight against human trafficking, I want to invite you to become what we call an abolitionist.
00:12:27
Speaker
Hi there, my name is Jeremy Hicks with the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking. I'm sure you have felt God tugging at your heart as you have watched this series and thought to yourself multiple times, I do care about this or I want to help or I want to take action, but how?
00:12:44
Speaker
What are my first steps? I'm here to share with you that a program exists right now to help answer those questions. It's called the Abolitionist Project. The Abolitionist Project is a training and recruitment program to help connect you to the actionable steps and organizations that fight human trafficking in our community.
00:13:04
Speaker
We have partnered with organizations around the world, from foster care agencies to safe homes, pregnancy care centers, victim care centers, and more. And we are plugging in our team of abolitionists to create an army that fights human trafficking throughout our nation.
00:13:19
Speaker
Our focus with our army of abolitionists is to prevent trafficking, provide victim care, and discourage the demand from buyers. To become an abolitionist, simply go to our website right now and sign up.
00:13:31
Speaker
We will be in touch with you to help guide you in the right direction based upon your location, your time availability, and your gifting so that you can begin taking an effective approach toward this fight. Our battle will not be accomplished overnight.
00:13:44
Speaker
It's going to take many individuals, many groups, and many leaders taking action to help solve the problem. We're going to go on the offensive against the oppression, the abandonment, and the abuse in our country, carrying out the commission that the Lord has called us to do.
00:13:57
Speaker
As long as we're all doing something, we can make a dent in this industry. If you want to get involved and take action, your first step right now is to join our abolitionist project today.
Assurance and Continued Advocacy
00:14:07
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining this movement and becoming more involved to end human trafficking in our nation.
00:14:23
Speaker
A final word. You're not alone in this. The amazing truth is that God is already at work and already moving ahead of us.
00:14:35
Speaker
Jesus didn't leave us to figure things out on our own. We have within us the Holy Spirit to help and guide us to follow and become more like Jesus every day.
00:14:50
Speaker
He will give us the wisdom and tools that we need along the way. I pray that God can use this series and unite his church around the mission to end human trafficking.
00:15:06
Speaker
Please continue this mission and never back down advocating hope for the hopeless.