STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 36

Check out this ministry in Louisiana:
SpeakingHope...

“Reaching a Generation at Risk”

Understanding the risks of predatory relationships, abuse, exploitation, trafficking in today’s culture...and how we can live a destiny of hope. 

Bringing truth, testimony, and restoring worth, purpose, and hope for those in need of healing.

So this generation will know true destiny as world changers with God’s rescuing love.

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 35

-->

In this season of warfare against the giants of the land, here is a must read from Merrie Cardin.  She is the lead apostle and pastor of Brazos Covenant Ministries in Granbury, Texas.  She also serves on the apostolic council of the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network:

The LORD spoke to His prophets because their life was a life of prayer.  He then often asked them to display with words and actions the decisions of the LORD’S word to them. Isaiah spent 3 years walking in his loin cloth to display what would happen to nations. (Isaiah 20:2-6) that Israel trusted in instead of Yahweh.  I want to challenge the church of America – even if only a remnant. We must begin to consider our lives as lost to Christ, forsake our lust for comfort, and boldly face what kind of land we leave for our children.  First we are called to pray. 

It is courageous to pray and to obey in our time here in the nation.  Let me say UP FRONT that there is nothing scarier to me than for God’s people to move without a word from the Lord.  Any action or obedience that is not following a word from the Lord is obedience to something else.  But I do believe we will see times of Spirit-led action in the near future.  Our prayers and active obedience will not just be motivated by love of our nation.  Please hear that COVENANT with God is generational and our motivation – our passion is generated by our hearts joined to see His Kingdom come to earth and His love for generations of those that will serve Him

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Christian living in America when he felt he must return to Germany as it was being overtaken by Hitler and Nazism.  He was a man of prayer and he also died a martyr in prison.  He said some beautiful things:

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  I do believe his prayers and even his death paved the way for Hitler’s defeat.  He said, “The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.” He also stated, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”  He also said that “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” 

I have always admired these two people who died for what was righteous and just- both honoring the law of love and insisting on that God’s people never give in to hatred or false judgment.

Recently I met a black Bible Church pastor who had been involved in our nation’s struggle for civil rights for the black race.  He is a very bold man and for several reasons I am not going to name him but I want to quote him also.  He said, “We have way too many evanjelly-fish.  The minute he said this I could see many born-again floating around in an ocean called church with no backbone what-so-ever. Why quote all these people who stood in times of national conflict?  Because we stand in such a time!!  For the sake of space I will not give you the many cases right now in our nation concerning decisions that attempt to hinder and stop Christianity from witnessing, from speaking up, from stating Biblical values.  Other nations have already fallen to this due to the silence of the church.  I am speaking out because I firmly believe our prayers may need to be expressed in actions that demonstrate our refusal to leave our children to secular humanism and atheism.

 I write this as a call to prepare your heart to resist fear-based comfortable unawareness leading to complacency.  I write this as a cry from Father’s heart.  I have never felt that politics or political parties can save a nation, although all should vote.  We know that only God’s people have the place of authority to turn and heal a nation.  Our biggest need in this hour is to know that following Jesus is not the same as being His disciple.  (Luke 14:25-35)  This is a call to become His disciples, to lose our life for Him, and to boldly resist where we are commanded disobey His Word.  Not one of our Christian forefathers affected this nation through fear, complacency, lies or comfort, but through not loving their lives even unto death (Rev 12:11) Am I talking protests?  If directed by our Father for the future ability of our children to serve God with freedom, YES.  Am I talking civil disobedience?  If we are asked to do things that directly oppose what God is saying and has said in His Word – ABSOLUTELY.  My greatest concern is that many are oblivious to our season lost in the ocean of the cares of this life, the busyness of the day and maybe even anesthetized with church programs. 

This is for those who have ears to hear and the willingness for form an unusual courage.

For our future hope,

Merrie Cardin

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 34

The following was posted on the Traffick911 website:

Today I was writing about the lack of safe homes and services for American children forced into sexual slavery for a 21-day prayer initiative coming in September. And then this article came across my desk.

Do you know our American children are being devoured AFTER their trafficking because of lack of services?Triumph House will be a long-term restorative campus for victims of sex trafficking under 18. Check it out: Article from Miami Herald.

That's why places like Triumph House are so important. The safe home will not be one big, institutionalized house.  It will be a campus of smaller homes where children can flourish in a home setting. 
Triumph House campus is located on a 168-acre ranch strategically located in the middle of the triangle formed by the major highways that connect Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.  Having the property located in this location makes Traffick911 a new model for safe homes - within a couple of hours of most major Texas cities.

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 33

I draw your attention today to the Trinity Legal Center in San Antonio.  Here is their link: Trinity Legal Center

Trinity Legal Center is a nonprofit, public-interest litigation and legislation support center with a threefold purpose:

To change the legal landscape through litigation to achieve a culture of life.   

To assist legislatures by providing scientific research on women’s reproductive health issues.  

To change public opinion concerning abortion through education and personal testimony.

In the courts

Lawsuits and other legal efforts on behalf of women and minors injured by abortion.

In legislatures

To inform and educate legislatures and organizations by providing legal advice and nonpartisan analysis, study, and research concerning women’s reproductive health issues and fetal development.  

In the public arena

Inspire, motivate, and equip women through the Women’s Council on Abortion to support litigation and legislative goals; and, provide a network of information, resources, and opportunities for women who have experienced abortion to advance life and justice.

Sexual Slavery in the United States 
Hundreds of thousands of thousands of human trafficking are brought into the U.S., but American children are also its victims. Human trafficking at its core is slavery. Thousands of American girls and boys are kidnapped and/or coerced into sexual slavery in America. It's a multi-billion dollar industry that is a scourge on our country. 

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 32

Two passages are running through me like a fire.  I know that we are in day 32 of a 40 day initiative regarding human trafficking but all of his can be summed up in God's declaration that life, and not death, will be released on earth.  Whether we are talking about trafficking, prostitution, sex slavery or abortion - we are talking about death stealing life away.  We are talking about destinies being stolen and dreams being destroyed.  But God is life!  And God is on His throne.  And God is rendering His verdict.

"I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool.  His throne  was  ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. "A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened" (Daniel 7:9-10).

And His verdict His life! He will, as a just and holy God and Judge, rule with righteousness.  Even if

we choose death, God will always choose life.  And He will, because it has already been sealed through the cross, will destroy death and its attempt to rob us of life.

"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;  in that I command you today to love the Lord  your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord  your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.  But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,  I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong  your  days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,  by loving the Lord  your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord  swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them" (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).

LIFE FOREVERMORE!  GOD HAS RENDERED HIS JUDGEMENT!

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 31

Yesterday the following post was on the Traffick911 Facebook page:

This weekend, one of our girls who was trafficked for 5 years walked across the stage for her high school graduation. So many dreams have been snatched from this girl, but this one came true. Yet, not one member of her family chose to attend. Many of these children have no one to do life with and that is how the traffickers lure them into their web.

A few weeks ago during our morning prayers, someone prayed a very common prayer: "Lord, rescue these children and return them safely to their loving homes." As wonderful as that prayer sounds, most often those captured by traffickers are children that had already experienced the horrors of abuse at home.  They ran away only to be held captive by a new set of abusers.  I heard a story yesterday of

a young girl who "tried sex" and the father's response was to sell her to others.  He declared, "At least make money for us."

Lord, we need safe havens for those who are rescued.  Yes, a few can return home to parents that have been grieving over a kidnapped child.  But we need more homes or safe houses that will provide genuine love, compassion, care and healing for those traumatized by this giant!

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 30

If there has been a key phrase or focus regarding human trafficking in our daily prayers - it has been exposure.  We have declared and decreed that the Lord would expose the darkness and uncover the hidden places.  We pray that He would reveal the places of captivity and the actions of the perpetrators.

Lord, let Your light shine on every hidden place.  Expose the trappings of the enemy. Confuse their communication lines. Root out the plots and plans of the enemy.  Stop the flow of money. Break all the corrupt connections between government, authorities, businesses and traffickers.

O Lord, You and You alone are the judge of heaven and earth.  Send forth Your just, righteous and holy verdicts. Shake the foundations. Destroy and consume the roots of unrighteousness.  Give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to perceive Your plans, strategies and declarations that will be used to destroy this giant.

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 29

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 51-55:
   

1. The AIDS epidemic in Africa has left many children orphaned, making them especially vulnerable to human trafficking.^l
2. Nearly 7,000 Nepali girls as young as nine years old are sold every year into India’s red-light district—or 200,000 in the last decade. Ten thousand children between the ages of six and 14 are in Sri Lanka brothels.^j
3. Human trafficking victims face physical risks, such as drug and alcohol addiction, contracting STDs, sterility, miscarriages, forced abortions, vaginal and anal trauma, among others. Psychological effects include developing clinical depression, personality and dissociative disorders, suicidal tendencies, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.^l
4. The largest human trafficking case in recent U.S. history occurred in Hawaii in 2010. Global Horizons Manpower, Inc., a labor-recruiting company, bought 400 immigrants in 2004 from Thailand to work on farms in Hawaii. They were lured with false promises of high-paying farm work, but instead their passports were taken away and they were held in forced servitude until they were rescued in 2010.^c
5. According to the U.S. State Department, human trafficking is one of the greatest human rights challenges of this century, both in the United States and around the world.^l

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 28

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 46-50:
   

1. Human trafficking and smuggling are similar but not interchangeable. Smuggling is transportation based. Trafficking is exploitation based.^l
2. Sex traffickers often recruit children because not only are children more unsuspecting and vulnerable than adults, but there is also a high market demand for young victims. Traffickers target victims on the telephone, on the Internet, through friends, at the mall, and in after-school programs.^o
3. Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and in some U.S. territories.^e
4. The FBI estimates that over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from nine to 19, with the average being age 11. Many victims are not just runaways or abandoned, but are from “good” families who are coerced by clever traffickers.^o
5. Brazil and Thailand are generally considered to have the worst child sex trafficking records.^k

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 27

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 41-45:

1. Japan is considered the largest market for Asian women trafficked for sex.ⁱ
2. Airports are often used by human traffickers to hold “slave auctions,” where women and children are sold into prostitution.^m
3. Due to globalization, every continent of the world has been involved in human trafficking, including a country as small as Iceland.^k
4. Many times, if a sex slave is arrested, she is imprisoned while her trafficker is able to buy his way out of trouble.^l
5. Today, slaves are cheaper than they have ever been in history. The population explosion has created a great supply of workers, and globalization has created people who are vulnerable and easily enslaved.^l

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 26

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 36-40:
   

1. According to the FBI, a large human-trafficking organization in California in 2008 not only physically threatened and beat girls as young as 12 to work as prostitutes, they also regularly threatened them with witchcraft.^e
2. Human trafficking is a global phenomenon that is fueled by poverty and gender discrimination.^k
3. Human traffickers often work with corrupt government officials to obtain travel documents and seize passports.ⁱ
4. Women and girls from racial minorities in the U.S. are disproportionately recruited by sex traffickers in the U.S.^l
5. The Sunday Telegraph in the U.K. reports that hundreds of children as young as six are brought to the U.K. as slaves each year.^m

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 25

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 31-35:
   

1. Human trafficking is estimated to surpass the drug trade in less than five years. Journalist Victor Malarek reports that it is primarily men who are driving human trafficking, specifically trafficking for sex.ⁱ
2. Victims of human trafficking suffer devastating physical and psychological harm. However, due to language barriers, lack of knowledge about available services, and the frequency with which traffickers move victims, human trafficking victims and their perpetrators are difficult to catch.ⁱ
3. In approximately 54% of human trafficking cases, the recruiter is a stranger, and in 46% of the cases, the recruiters know the victim. Fifty-two percent of human trafficking recruiters are men, 42% are women, and 6% are both men and women.^d
4. Human trafficking around the globe is estimated to generate a profit of anywhere from $9 billion to $31.6 billion. Half of these profits are made in industrialized countries.^d
5. Some human traffickers recruit handicapped young girls, such as those suffering from Down Syndrome, into the sex industry.^l

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 24

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 26-30:
   

1. Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.S. are ranked very high as destination countries of trafficked victims.^l
2. Women are trafficked to the U.S. largely to work in the sex industry (including strip clubs, peep and touch shows, massage parlors that offer sexual services, and prostitution). They are also trafficked to work in sweatshops, domestic servitude, and agricultural work.^l

3. Sex traffickers use a variety of ways to “condition” their victims, including subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang rape, physical abuse, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim and victim’s family, forced drug use, and shame.^l
4. Family members will often sell children and other family members into slavery; the younger the victim, the more money the trafficker receives. For example, a 10-year-old named Gita was sold into a brothel by her aunt. The now 22-year-old recalls that when she refused to work, the older girls held her down and stuck a piece of cloth in her mouth so no one would hear her scream as she was raped by a customer. She would later contract HIV.^l
5. Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Criminal organizations are increasingly attracted to human trafficking because, unlike drugs, humans can be sold repeatedly.^k

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 23

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 21-25:
   

1. Over 71% of trafficked children show suicidal tendencies.^l
2. After sex, the most common form of human trafficking is forced labor. Researchers argue that as the economic crisis deepens, the number of people trafficked for forced labor will increase.^k
3. Most human trafficking in the United States occurs in New York, California, and Florida.^l
4. According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over the past 30 years, over 30 million children have been sexually exploited through human trafficking.^k
5. Several countries rank high as source countries for human trafficking, including Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, China, Thailand, and Nigeria.^l

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 22

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 16-20:

1. More than 30% of all trafficking cases in 2007-2008 involved children being sold into the sex industry.^o
2. The Western presence in Kosovo, such as NATO troops and civilians, have fueled the rapid growth of sex trafficking and forced prostitution. Amnesty International has reported that NATO soldiers, UN police, and Western aid workers “operated with near impunity in exploiting the victims of the sex traffickers.”^g
3. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” video is about human trafficking. In the video, Gaga is trafficked by a Russian bathhouse into sex slavery.^f
4. Human trafficking is the only area of transnational crime in which women are significantly represented—as victims, as perpetrators, and as activists fighting this crime.^a
5. Severe natural disasters have left millions homeless and impoverished, which has created desperate people easily exploited by human traffickers.^k

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 21

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 11-15:

1. Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children.^l
2. The end of the Cold War has resulted in the growth of regional conflicts and the decline of borders. Many rebel groups turn to human trafficking to fund military actions and garner soldiers.^k
3. According to a 2009 Washington Times article, the Taliban buys children as young as seven years old to act as suicide bombers. The price for child suicide bombers is between $7,000-$14,000.ⁿ
4. UNICEF estimates that 300,000 children younger than 18 are currently trafficked to serve in armed conflicts worldwide.ⁿ

5. Human traffickers are increasingly trafficking pregnant women for their newborns. Babies are sold on the black market, where the profit is divided between the traffickers, doctors, lawyers, border officials, and others. The mother is usually paid less than what is promised her, citing the cost of travel and creating false documents. A mother might receive as little as a few hundred dollars for her baby.^k

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 20

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 6-10: 
   

1. Human traffickers often use a Sudanese phrase “use a slave to catch slaves,” meaning traffickers send “broken-in girls” to recruit younger girls into the sex trade. Sex traffickers often train girls themselves, raping them and teaching them sex acts.^l
2. Eighty percent of North Koreans who escape into China are women. Nine out of 10 of those women become victims of human trafficking, often for sex. If the women complain, they are deported back to North Korea, where they are thrown into gulags or are executed.^h

3. An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24, and some are as young as six years old.^j
4. Ludwig “Tarzan” Fainberg, a convicted trafficker, said, “You can buy a woman for $10,000 and make your money back in a week if she is pretty and young. Then everything else is profit.”^l
5. A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a year.^l

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 19

Fifty-Five Little Known Facts about Human Trafficking

For the next few days I will share these facts.  We'll focus on a few a day so that you can cover them in prayer.  The source for this is:  http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

Here are facts 1-5:

1. Approximately 75-80% of human trafficking is for sex.^a
2. Researchers note that sex trafficking plays a major role in the spread of HIV.^b
3. There are more human slaves in the world today than ever before in history.^l
4. There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking.^l
5. Human trafficking not only involves sex and labor, but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting.^k

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 18

Traffick911 posted:


We are posting this for our partner organization, Justice Society. Great opportunities to support our children:

Volunteer opportunities supporting or working with commercially sexually exploited youth.

Dallas training in August for anyone interested in participating on the Court Observation teams
attending Dallas County trials in support of commercially sexually exploited women and children.
If interested contact: Alisa at volunteer@justicesociety.org

Dallas training in August for women over 21 interested in mentoring a high-risk young lady (under 18) associated with the juvenile ESTEEM court program.
 
If interested contact: Stacie at stacie@lovehealscounseling.org

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 17

Go to Messenger International (A Ministry of John and Lisa Bevere)

Save the Next Sophia

Save the Next Sophia. Help Bust a Major Trafficking Ring. 
Sophia was trapped on the streets of Malaysia. They had told her back in Russia that she would have a job as a waitress at a restaurant for tourists on the coast of China. They told her mother it was by the beach, and that Sophia would be able to send over $300 USD home every month and still have enough to live comfortably herself. She and her mother had dreamed of sending her younger brother to school and maybe even buying a train ticket home every few years.

Sophia and her mother trusted them, with their papers and their promises, and so, Sophia packed bags and hugged her goodbyes.

The 16 year-old knew something was dreadfully wrong, however, when the driver refused to provide her passport or a decent meal, despite her many requests. Fear sunk further as she crossed through southern China, then Laos, then Thailand's borders, only to find herself beaten, hungry, and terrified, delivered with two other fair-skinned girls to a pimp in a local red-light district in northern Malaysia.
Three long weeks from her mother's goodbye, Sophia found herself in a foreign country without a passport or cell phone, forced into prostitution to pay a debt of $6,000 USD the pimp said she owed him. She had done the math--she knew she'd never see the beach, never send a paycheck back home, and probably never see her mother again.

Sophia was a teenager, and she was trapped in the hell on earth that is sexual slavery. She had fallen victim to not just a local pimp, but rather she had become a pawn in an organized crime ring that regularly deceived young Russian girls, shuttled them through a series of bribes and connections south across borders, and into Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia--where having sex with a white-skinned prostitute was a high commodity, bringing the pimps and traffickers high pay-outs.

***

It's not often that the average person gets to literally play a role in busting a major crime syndicate overseas. It's not typical for most of us to actually empower high-level investigations into a human trafficking system that spans at least three countries. But seriously fighting for God's justice can lead us all places neither average nor typical.

We have the opportunity to fuel an investigative effort into a crime ring, like the one that entrapped Sophia. This particular system of trafficking from Eastern Europe into Malaysia is a well-oiled machine that will take great resources and collaborative efforts to battle and bring down. The local government and an investigative team in the field have asked for funds to gather key evidence in their second stage of investigations into this crime syndicate. Prayerfully, the teams will gather enough evidence to build a case against the key players involved-- from Russia, through China, into Thailand, and into Malaysia. The unique thing about this case is that the local government believes so greatly in its importance that they are willing to invest a large portion of their limited budget into the pursuit of it. And we have been invited to help.

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 16

How can we tell?

• Scripted answers.                        
• Inconsistencies in story. 
• Branding or tattoos, especially that reflect ownership or money.     
• Bruising, with varied stages of healing with black, purple, blue, yellow shades.
• Cigarette burns, rope burns, scars, cuts or other physical abuse.
• Coming on to several men.
• Appears helpless, shamed, nervous.
• Malnourished.
• Inability or fear to make eye contact.
• Chronic runaway; homeless youth.                            
• Dating much older, abusive or controlling man.
• Not attending school or has numerous school absences.
• Sudden change in attire, possessions, behavior.
• Travels to other cities frequently.
• Uses terms common to the commercial sex industry.

On its own, one of these signs might not indicate trafficking, but 2-3 together are a good indication. The average life expectancy for a child forced into sexual slavery is 7 years. Don’t wait. Call 911 and the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 1.888.373.7888, if you suspect something. It’s better to be wrong than not to report it. A life might just depend on it. Please also call Traffick911 and we can get them the help they need for healing, court, etc.

“This information has a short shelf-life. Trust your instincts. As we get older, we stop listening to our little Jiminy Cricket.”

 
- Phoenix Vice Sgt. Chris Bray

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 15

This is the Facebook page of Freedom Movement; a group led at Texas A&M. They raise awareness as well as funds to help stop the trafficking.  Thanks to Suzy Debayle for sharing the information.

Here is the link: Freedom Movement

SPECIAL NOTE:  CORPORATE PRAYER REGARDING HUMAN TRAFFICKING AT GLORY OF ZION PRAYER TOWER AT 6 PM ON TUESDAY, JUNE 11

STOP THE TRAFFIC - DAY 14

Child Trafficking in Texas

Check out this site.  Here is an article posted there:

Texas is a hub for international human trafficking because of its many busy interstate highways, international airports, countless bus stations, the shipping commerce through the Gulf of Mexico, and its shared border with Mexico. This border is North America’s number one supply site for young children used in sex and labor trafficking. Texas is also home to Houston, the fourth largest city in the U.S. with one of the largest international communities in the country. In addition, Texas houses the I-10 corridor, which the Department of Justice designated as the number one route for human trafficking. Texas continues to serve as the biggest point of illegal entry into the United States largely because traffickers are able to get aliens across the border without documents. Trafficking in Texas especially flourishes due to three major factors: proximity, demographics, and the large immigrant labor force. In fact, in the last quarter of 2007, 30% of the calls received by the National Human Trafficking Hotline were out of Texas and 25% of all international victims certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were in Texas.

Texas is also a hotspot for domestic human trafficking because cities such as Dallas, Houston and Austin have many runaway and “throwaway” youth. On average, both Houston and Dallas have about 6,000 runaways each annually. According to National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children, an estimated one out of every three children that run away is lured into sex trafficking within 48 hours of leaving home. Even more frightening is the fact that the average age of entry into sex trafficking is between 12 and 13 years old. Children who run away from home can often be found at bus stations, which have become a major recruiting ground for prostitution. ICE Operation Predator estimates that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys in the United States are sexually exploited before they reach adulthood. Texas is also home to a large amount of sexually oriented businesses including strip clubs, massage parlors, and modeling studios, most of which can be found along inter and intra-state highways. In addition, Houston, Dallas, and Austin, with their many university and professional sports teams and events, attract many visitors. Major sporting events and conventions provide a great demand for the commercial sex industry and traffickers often travel to these events to fill that demand.