Intervention

Beyond A Christmas Story

(This is an excerpt from the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Initiative’s New Year newsletter. Please consider subscribing to this monthly update by clicking here).

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This past month we were excited to see your generosity first-hand! Together, you bought and donated thousands of dollars in gifts to girls who are recovering from being trafficked, or who are still entrapped in their situations.

We were so thankful that we had the opportunity to have a Christmas Party for victims at Youth For Tomorrow, one of our partner organizations. They are the only home in Northern Virginia that has beds specifically for teen sex trafficking victims, providing long-term care at their facility. Our mentor team was able to meet many of the girls there, which going into the new year will be the beginning of vital one-on-one relationships.

You also donated to a group of young women who are still either being trafficked, or are highly vulnerable to being trafficked, as they work in the sex industry.  Christians from our community have been forming healthy long-term relationships with these women, pursuing them with the truth of who Jesus is–not just a distant “Son of God,” but the one who came to love the hopeless, aimless, and the messed-up.

Whether a trafficking victim finds themselves at a shelter, placed in juvey, or aren’t even aware yet that they are being trafficked–many are still so far from both emotional and spiritual healing.

Can you imagine being taken advantage of and fully believing that this is what you deserve? That this is just your lot in life? That you are worthless except for your body or servitude? I know I have a hard time comprehending the bondage of extreme manipulation and coercion–these keys of control, which are often the distinguishing markings of a trafficking victim in the United States.

During the holiday season we think of “new beginnings” and God’s intervention for humanity–giving Jesus as a humble child to change the course of history. For those victims of modern slavery in our area, the only way they can begin to experience the healing and that “new beginning” is if someone intervenes on their behalf. Not just momentarily, but with commitment and persistence.

A trafficker will pursue and be committed to using their victim for profit. They use tangles of lies, promising they won’t let go, while saying that law enforcement and service providers can’t be trusted.

We believe God intervened on our behalf, so let us intervene on His behalf for these victims. Just like this past Christmas, in which you were generous and gave gifts to show these girls value, we have the opportunity to continue to counteract these lies by providing for victims physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  Sometimes this requires us to get out of our little worlds, and get our feet dirty. It can be hard when we realize these victims are imperfect and even manipulative themselves–broken, walled-up, and often crass because of their experiences.

On an outward level we might care about human trafficking being stopped in our area. But do we care enough to be the ones who will intervene?

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If you are interested in ways we are working with victims, ways which you can help, please click here to browse the rest of this newsletter.