Early in High School, one of my closest friends participated in a fundraiser called “Dressember.” She wore a dress every day for the month of December and used that time to raise money that would go toward ending human trafficking. Through this friend, I was introduced to the concept of modern-day slavery.
The next year, I decided to participate in Dressember with her. As I wore a dress and attempted to raise money, I learned a little bit more about human trafficking. I glimpsed what I believe is one of the darkest, ugliest forms of evil this world has to offer. My heart broke.
But my goal for my life has always been missions, and anti-trafficking work didn’t seem to align with my conception of missions. I continued to primarily pursue missions, exploring anti-trafficking efforts on the side.
At some point I remember googling something to the effect of “anti-trafficking work and missions.” Several hits popped up, one being an organization based out of my hometown – Zoe International. I remember looking at the webpage and thinking “Huh, I didn’t think that these two things could overlap, but here it is.” Yet it still didn’t seem to match the picture in my head of what it meant to be a missionary.
At the time, I wouldn’t have used the words I am about to use, because they were not part of my vocabulary. But the ideas were there. My reasoning went something like this: Anti-trafficking work is a form of Social Justice. Social Justice is probably good, but it’s not the most important thing. Proclaiming the gospel is the most important thing, and so I need to find some kind of mission work that will just focus on sharing the gospel with unreached people groups. Anti-trafficking work still didn’t quite fit into my category of “missions.” I could advocate and speak up for trafficked children and women, but God was calling me to something else as my life’s work.
Thankfully, God has a habit of shaking up my thinking and challenging my conceptions about life.
I decided to go to Bible college and pursue a degree that I anticipated would help me in my missions efforts. But God wasn’t going to let me just cruise to my idea of missions without getting my presuppositions poked at along the way.
My first semester of college, I gave a speech about human trafficking. I delved into more of the statistics and stories. I explored resources like Operation Underground Railroad. I read In Our Backyard. I learned about the various forms that human trafficking takes – sexual abuse, migrant farmers, maids, and factory workers. As I prepared my speech, I thought: This is bad! This needs to stop! Is God calling me to do something about it?
The learning didn’t end there. It didn’t take long until my Old Testament class was talking about the Social Justice laws in the Torah. “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning” (Leviticus 19:13). “Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 16:20). Social Justice permeated the Old Testament laws, God’s expectations for his people. Further study of Israel’s history led to discussions about the exile. Why was Israel exiled? A large and repeated reason was their abandonment of justice. The prophets had a lot to say about that topic: “How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers…they do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them” (Isaiah 1:21,23). “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)? It also became clear through scripture that justice is part of God’s character. We are called to be people of justice because our God is a God of justice. “Yahweh within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail” (Zephaniah 3:5). I was so intrigued by the theme of justice in the Old Testament that I did my final project for that class on the topic, which you can watch here.
I then turned to my New Testament classes. Part of what Jesus came to do as the Messiah was fulfill this prophecy from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). I saw again and again that our orthodoxy (right belief) must be accompanied by orthopraxy (right living) – which includes speaking up for those who have no voice. James 1:27 says “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Social justice is somehow central to God’s plan for his people.
So now what? I now had this picture of how justice ministry fit into God’s plan and his heart, but I still didn’t know how to blend it together with my narrow view of what missions entailed.
Turns out, my view of missions had to expand.
I read The Mission of God’s People. I learned from this book that our mission as God’s people needs to align with God’s mission and his heart. We are invited by God to enter into his mission – and that can be done in a variety of equally valid ways. This book expanded my previously narrow view of “real missions.”
I read Visions of Vocation. Here I learned that part of our vocation, our job, as God’s people is to seek the flourishing, peace, and shalom of people around us. God’s kingdom is one of ultimate peace. As we join in his mission to bring Shalom to the earth, that will include not only spiritual shalom (peace with God) but also physical flourishing by seeking the well-being of those around us. Our work of sharing the gospel and inviting people into relationship with God through Christ ought not be disconnected from doing things to seek the flourishing and well-being of those around us.
Children who are trafficked are NOT flourishing. They are NOT experiencing God’s shalom. But what good does it do to tell a child who is being abused for the pleasure of others day after day that God wants them to flourish spiritually if you don’t step in and do something to care for the physical condition of that child? What good does it do to preach a gospel that is empty of compassion and care for the vulnerable? When Peter and John in Acts chapter 3 encountered the lame man at the temple gate, they didn’t say, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, you’d better believe the gospel and be saved from your sins!” No, they said, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6)! Then, when pressed by the crowd for answers about what had taken place, they pointed the people to God and to the gospel (Acts 3:13-26). We may not have the power to bring miraculous healing, but I have come to believe that we are called as Christians to gospel-saturated care for the vulnerable.
Finally, I presented all of this to God. Are you calling me to step into this? Are you calling me to care for children who have been trafficked? If so, I trust that you will give me the strength to step into this mess. But please give me some kind of confirmation that this is what you want me to do.
Remember Zoe International from before? I received an email from them, announcing an August 2023 trip to Thailand to see and minister at their facility where they care for trafficked children and work to prevent more of the same evils. In what I believe is the next step of obedience to God, I am going to Thailand for ten days this summer to see what gospel-saturated anti-trafficking work involves. I am going prayerfully – praying for the end to this atrocity, praying for protection for my team while we are there, and praying that God will show me how he wants to use me. I am excited to see what he will teach me and (as strange as this may sound) how he will break my heart for what breaks his.