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!
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!
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Praying!
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