The Familiar Face of Sex Trafficking
Author Rachel Linden worked with a faith-based organization in Europe for seven years, focusing significantly on women who experienced trauma and exploitation, so human trafficking an issue close to her heart and one she addresses in her new book, Becoming the Talbot Sisters. She hopes through her story she’s able to help create a greater awareness of the problem at large. She will even be donating a portion of the sales to help exploited women.
It is easy to become overwhelmed by the enormity of this
issue. Almost 30 million women and girls are modern day slaves according to the
2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery. That is more than the population of
the state of Texas or the entire country of Australia. Many of these women and
girls experience sexual exploitation and trauma. Ninety-nine percent of sex
trafficking victims are female.
If you are a media outlet interested in interviewing Rachel, contact me at ajenningspr@gmail.com.
The Familiar Face of Sex Trafficking
by Rachel Linden
We sat across the table from one another in the capital city
of a former Soviet country in Eastern Europe, cups of homemade cherry juice on
the wooden table in front of us. A victim of human trafficking and a
missionary. Two women in our twenties. She was a pastor’s daughter. So was I. We
had a lot in common.
I shared about being sexually abused as a child by a
friend’s older brother. She had been trafficked by a man who pretended to be
her boyfriend. She felt such shame, she confided to me, as she looked with
wonder at the photos of my husband and baby son, daring to hope that one day
she would have such a life. It can happen, I assured her. God can restore all
things.
She was taking her traffickers to court, the safe house
caregiver told me as I prepared to depart. A gutsy, courageous move. This tiny,
brunette wisp of a girl with huge, sad eyes was bravely standing up to the men
who had exploited her. She was seeking justice.
Her name is Miriam, and for me, she is the face of global sex
trafficking.

The thought of millions of women and girls enduring sexual
exploitation can feel crippling in its horror and scope. How in the world can
anything change? How in the world can we as Christians hope to make a
difference when faced with such a massive, intricate global problem?
The answer lies not in the vastness of the problem but in
the immediacy of the solution. As the director of a safe house for trafficked
women in Moldova once told me, “We are not about causes. We are about people.”
Jesus was not about causes either. He was about people – the
oppressed, the marginalized, the exploited, those in deepest need. He met them
on an individual level, person to person, and brought the promise of hope and
healing and redemption to those he interacted with.
It is in Jesus’ example that we find our footing in the
intricate, overwhelming web that is modern day sex slavery. “We are about people,”
is exactly the stance we Christians need to take when faced with the reality of
modern day sex slavery.
Sex trafficking can sometimes feel sensationalized. The
graphic details of rape, torture and enslavement of women who have been trafficked
and exploited are frequent news items around the globe. And movies like Taken
starring Liam Neeson can sensationalize it even more, making the reality of sex
trafficking into an action movie with glamor, suspense, and a tidy resolution
after ninety minutes.
We must remember that sex trafficking is not an action movie
nor is it a faceless, abstract issue too huge to comprehend. Every victim of
sex trafficking is a woman or child with a story, a family background, a name.
Many have suffered early abuse in childhood and then been exploited because of
economic need or through promise of relationship and love. Every woman and
child who has been sexually exploited deserves to be treated with dignity and
to have justice, to be treated not just as a victim but as an individual with
intrinsic value.
How can you help this to happen? There are many ways.
Volunteer with or contribute financially to organizations that seek to prevent
sexual exploitation or provide after care for women who have been exploited. Seek
training in your church or community to better understand how sexual
exploitation happens and how you can be a part of the solution. Support
organizations that provide legal services for trafficked women or who are
working to change laws to empower victims. Use your vote to support politicians
who have an interest in ending sex trafficking and helping bring about justice
for the exploited.
Recently Congress passed the FOSTA-SESTA bill, a good step
toward ensuring justice for sex trafficking victims who were exploited online
in the US. We can work together to end sex trafficking. One law, one step, one
person at a time.
As Christians there is one further thing we must remember,
the most important thing of all. Talking over coffee one day with a leader of
an international Christian anti-trafficking network, I asked how he coped when
faced with such trauma every day. His reply floored me.
“I identify with these women,” he replied.
Intrigued, I asked him how. He was a privileged, educated
American male. In what way could he identify with these exploited women?
“When I talk to women who have been rescued from sex
trafficking,” he explained, “They tell me about the day they were set free. But
they aren’t talking about the day they were rescued from sexual slavery.
They’re talking about the day they met Jesus. For them, that is the day they
become truly free. And that is the day I was set free too. We are all slaves in
some way, saved by the grace of Jesus.”
I’ve never forgotten his astonishing words and the way they
changed how I view people who have been trafficked and exploited. As we engage
with the enormous horrors of global sex trafficking, as we consider what our course
of action should be, we must do so in the light of this truth: We are all
slaves, set free by the grace of Jesus.
God is not about causes. He is about people. About freedom,
justice, and fullness of life for every person. This is true for Miriam. This is
true for you and me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rachel Linden is a novelist
and international aid worker whose adventures living and traveling in fifty
countries around the world provide excellent grist for her stories. She holds
an MA in Intercultural Studies from Wheaton College and a BA in Literature from
Huntington University. Linden also studied creative writing at Oxford
University during college.
Currently,
Rachel lives in beautiful Seattle, WA with her husband and two young children. She
enjoys creating stories about hope and courage with a hint of romance and a
touch of whimsy. Her first book, Ascension
of Larks, released in 2017. Becoming
the Talbot Sisters (Thomas Nelson) is her second release.
Find
Rachel Linden online at www.rachellinden.com, on Facebook (authorrachellinden) and
on Instagram (rachellinden_writer).
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