Greece Trafficking Recap

I had the awesome opportunity to spend a week in Thessaloniki, Greece with the amazing team of The A21 Campaign learning more about the global problem of human trafficking but more specifically in the context of Greece.  I honestly, was extremely honored to have rubbed shoulders with the dozen or so expat laborers in Greece from all over the world (US, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Australia) that God has called as abolitionists for this season in time.

As the reality of 27 millions slaves worldwide is coming to the light, people (like you and me) want to ACT.  We want to DO something.  This reality is powerful because awareness without action is useless and honestly just poor stewardship.  Some of the best ways that we can act is to educate ourselves, help others become aware through our own giftings and creativity, and pray.

Education:

Here are a few things I learned or was reminded of that are worth highlighting.

There are six main trafficking methods:

1. abduction (least common)
2. fake job opportunity (girls promised opportunity in a different city to make money)
3. lover boy scenario (a trafficker will pursue a girl and then once he has her trust sales her)
4. family (family member will sale their daughters in order to make money)
5. false immigration
6. false friendship

It is extremely difficult to prosecute traffickers because the girls that are trafficked are very rarely seen as victims.  Most girls that are trafficked are prostitutes.  The problem is that most people assume they chose to be a prostitute when most of the time they were sold and beaten and threatened and forced into the life of prostitution.  In my personal, non-professional opinion, I think that the next big awareness piece after people understanding there are 27 millions slaves is that girls that are prostitutes are most likely victims of sex-trafficking.

Greece Specific Information regarding Demand for Sex:
1. Prostitution in Greece is legal and socially acceptable.
2. Of the 600 brothels in Athens, only 6 are legal.
3. 60-70% of men use prostitution on a regular basis
4. 20,000-40,000 women are in the Greek sex industry
5. Women can serve up to 40 men daily
6. 50% of married men use prostitution.
7. It's a social activity
8. At age 15, dads take their sons to brothels as a right of passage for manhood.

Because of the Schegan Zone (borders/customs agreement) Greece is considered not only a transition country for trafficked girls but also a destination country.  Basically if they can get the girls in Greece then they have access to all the other countries.  Its similar to the problem we have in Houston, if they can get them to Texas through our Mexican border than they can traffic the girls to any other part of the US with no problem or need of passport or papers. Also, the problem of sexual immorality of Greece is an ancient problem from as early as our Biblical days.  Prostitution and acts of sex have always been a part of worship and their culture. Rulers were known for having a wife, their lover, and than a harem of prostitutes.  Nothing has changed.   The sexual culture passed down throughout the ages (literally) is the main catalyst and sustainer of sex trafficking and the demand for sex.

So how do you abolish slavery when the root of the slavery is in the thread of ancient civilization and culture?  Where's the hope, especially in light of the fact that less than 1% of the 27 million are actually rescued?  I don't know if we will ever see slavery abolished, but I am even more convinced the deeper I get into the trafficking that the only hope is Jesus.  He is the only one that can provide hope in the desperate and dark places that these girls are in, he's the only one that restore identities, he's the only one who can heal them. He's the only one that can restore, redeem, and provide a platform for forgiveness and life.  Christ transform cultures and societies.  Evil will always be present, but Jesus is bigger.   As a pastor, I am more and more convinced that trafficking ministry or outreach at some level has to involve the proclamation of the Kingdom and inviting people to know the ONE who can give them life, redemption, and wholeness.  Therefore, Church, we are the solution to abolish trafficking.  Its not the job of great organizations, or great campaigns, or even good hearted people...it's the job of the church to champion the cause of abolishing slavery.  Church we can't back down from offering the Kingdom and life to those entrapped or those victimizing.  Therefore, Church prayer is essential and the catalyst and the ground work for all activity for seeing slavery abolished.  When we pray we go to war.  Don't discount your prayers or minimize it to "not enough".  Prayer is the most effective and powerful action step you can take to abolish slavery in our generation.

Creativity:

When you became a follower of Christ, the spirit deposited literal gifts in each one of us to build the body of Christ- these are commonly known as spiritual gifts. He has also given us really also gifts of creativity through the arts,  professional skill sets, and pure talent.  Whatever gifts God has given you leverage them for the kingdom and towards the cause of seeing slavery abolished.  Use you gift of photography, video, organization, administration, communication, etc and see how you can come alongside great organization that are fighting trafficking.  Put your gifts into play.  Leverage them for the kingdom.  We were designed to create.  We are most alive and most like Him when we contribute our gifts for the purpose of the Kingdom.

Resources:

Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls are Not for Sale: A Memoir - I read this book about a year ago and it was probably the best and most informative book I have ever read on trafficking and really understanding this billion dollar industry.

Human Trafficking Video-  We watched this 3 hour movie in Greece.  It's gives you a great understanding of how girls are trafficked and more information about trafficking rings around the world.

Nefarious-  This is my favorite documentary on human trafficking.  Great research and ends with hope.

Freedom Church Alliance- This website is still under construction, so keep checking back and bookmark it, but soon this provide all the information you need to know regarding trafficking in Houston.

The A21 Campaign- They of course of rockstars.  Read their website and learn!

**All stats and information provided I received from the A21 staff in Greece.

Greece and Sex Trafficking

In the winter of 2011, I was living in Southern California and had just accepted the offer to move to Houston Texas and help plant Bayou City Fellowship.  I had no previous ambition to be a pastor or even work at a church, so when I was given the opportunity to attend a Catalyst Conference in Orange County, I felt it would be a good step towards wrapping my mind around becoming a church leader. After all, this conference was specifically for church leadership and apparently that was my new position.  All that to say, I don't really remember anything about that conference except for a talk that I heard from Christine Caine the founder of the A21 Campaign and it was the beginning of a journey God would take me on to understanding the fight against the injustice of human trafficking.

Christine Caine is an Australian firecracker and one of the most anointed women communicators of the gospel and the Word that I have heard in my lifetime.  She was one of the guest speakers for Catalyst that year and she was the first person that I heard speak on the problem of trafficking that accomplished taking my cognitive understanding of this injustice and made it a heart issue for me.  She took the time to take a very large number (27 million) and brought it the story of one.  She told stories of the lives of women, just like me that were trafficked, and for the first time I began to take interest and really understand the intricacies of trafficking.

There is an estimated 27 million men and women trafficked around the world.  The slavery "industry" rakes in $32 billion dollars each year. $32 BILLON! That's an underground network whose annual revenue is greater than that of Google. As many as 17,500 people are trafficked into the US annually.  That's nearly 48 people a day who have become slaves on the very same soil where it was abolished 150 years ago.  And average age of these people? 14 years old.  Think about all the things you did when you were a teenager.  Being sexually exploited isn't one of them.  80% of them are women.  Anywhere between 600,000 - 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year.  And somewhere in the neighborhood of half of them are children.  Every minute of every day, 2 children-- children who should be playing and learning and enjoying the most precious part of their lives-- are sold into slavery. (Source and for more info: http://enditmovement.com/learn.php). 

Since hearing Christine speak, I have slowly grown in my knowledge and advocacy of those enslaved.  I have had the joy of advocating for the end of human trafficking through participating in the End It Movement, running and raising fund for the gospel focused ministry of As Our Own, mobilizing people to brothel van tours in Houston, and most recently joining Freedom Church Alliance of Houston Texas as an advisory member.

Houston rivals Atlanta as the city in our nation with the largest population of trafficked girls.  In response to this reality, the churches and non-profits of Houston realized that the issue of trafficking is too complex, inter-disciplinary in nature, and ruled by corrupt systems that there is greater strength in unifying the churches of all type of denominations and an non-profits with their best practices to form an alliance to abolish slavery in Houston. Therefore, the Freedom Church Alliance was birthed this year and my church Bayou City Fellowship is one of the dozen or so churches that help form this alliance. Because of my position as Mobilization Pastor and our churches involvement, I got offered a position to serve on the advisory board for this Alliance.  I consider this a huge privilege and thankful for the opportunity to fight and advocate for the thousands of girls that are trafficked in my city and down the street from my home as if they were my sister, my niece, or my daughter.

Through my connections with the Alliance, I got extended an amazing opportunity to got to Greece, the hub of human trafficking for Eastern Europe, to learn from the A21 team there in Thessaloniki!! It's kind of a full circle moment to learn from the people that first stirred my heart for this injustice.  I swear, the Kingdom of God is filled with full-circle moments! The A21 mission it to abolish injustice in the 21st century through prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership. I have had the joy of meeting Christine Caine (at a Hillsong conference)  briefly and there is no person more gospel Jesus loving and is one of the most honorable, vast, and respectable trafficking ministries in the world.   So I am so honored to go to Greece and learn from their team.  During my time there we will have opportunity to be educated in trafficking in Eastern Europe, tour the red light district there, and also travel to Bulgaria and experience the process of what specifically happens to a girl when they are trafficked and all the while learning and processing and debriefing with the A21 team that is on the ground.

I leave for Greece tomorrow (Tuesday, June 10) and will return a week later.  I wanted to share about the purpose and nature of this team so that you could cover me and our team of 10 ladies in prayer.  These are some specific things I would ask for prayer for.

1. Protection- Of course pray for safety for travels, but more importantly, we will be walking into some extremely demonic and dark places this week.  Please pray for spiritual protection and for us to be keenly aware of our spiritual surroundings.  Pray also for opportunity to bring light and truth in to dark and desolate places.

2. Mobilized- I can't lead my people (Bayou City Fellowship) to a place that I myself am not mobilized to.  Ask that God would bring to the top what my role in trafficking is and how to lead my people in it. I tend to be more logical and problem solving than emotional, but I really want the stories and lives of these women to have Kingdom impact on my heart not just my mind.

3.  Ministry Opportunities-  This is more of an awareness trip than a "doing" trip, but man would I love an opportunity to pray, share the Kingdom, or encourage someone while I'm there.  I get to sit behind a computer all the time, but my heart in this moment is that I want way more than that and to DO some ministry while there and not just learn.

4.  Take-Aways-  Pray that God would bring to the top the exact things that he wants me to walk away with that will encourage, mobilize, build, or contribute to the trafficking issue in my city with the places of influence that I have been stewarded.  Not sure at all what God wants me to learn yet.  So pray it would rise to the surface and it would be clear when I get back what God spoke to me.

Skeleton Schedule if you want to pray for specifics: (we are 8 hours ahead of you in Greece)

June 11 & 12-  Acclimating and Education of Trafficking in Eastern Europe and Time with A21 team
June 13- Day in Bulgaria- A day in the life of a trafficked girl
June 14- Tour of the Red Light District
June 15- Free Day Touring Biblical Ancient Sites in Thessaloniki
June 16- Head Home

Thank you in advance for your prayers and for making it all the way through this post!