Related Project: 

A21 Trafficking Prevention / The Five Hundred Project

Protecting girls from being trafficked again by helping with their education & training.

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Hey everyone,

Here is a piece that Beth Redman recently wrote. It tells of her personal awakening to the reality of a "crime against humanity" that is capturing the attention of the world. I asked Beth if we could post her story online because of the "divine connection that inspired her to this next chapter in her life and calling". I love watching how God works His Master Plan in all our lives and that a UNITY is maturing and prevailing on the earth, where God is joining the dots, so that we together (by and through His Spirit) can "prompt and inspire and encourage and partner in His purposes". Continue to pray for A21 and all those involved at any level ... whether on the front line or in the faithfulness of ongoing prayer and financial support.
Bobbie

27 Million

This time last year I sat down for a drink with Christine Caine. We were both speaking at a women’s conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I had met Nick & Chris Caine previously at the Hillsong Conferences. We love Hillsong and have so much respect for the work they & The Caine’s do around the world.

As we sat down to catch up and share hearts, I was in the middle of the fog that comes with the birth of one’s fifth child! My passion was my family & writing books and speaking to a generation of teenage girls and young women; calling them to run after God with all they’ve got and fulfil the purpose God has for them on the earth.
Little did I know Chris was about to deliver a wake up call that June evening in Northern Ireland that would change the course of my life forever.

I talked first-about babies, America, travel, blah, blah, blah! Then Chris spoke and I heard, for the first time about the work of A21 and the issue of human trafficking on the earth today. How had I not known about this? Where had I been? Stuck inside shovelling Christian comfort into the hearts of so many, yet not knowing or acting on behalf of the poor, marginalized, 27 million slaves I shared the planet with?

As Chris will remember, I doubled over and wept to the point that I was almost sick! Part conviction that I’d been asleep, and part mobilizing me into action.
My Spirit was groaning-something had to be done-My life and my mission had changed forever.

Shortly after that chat, my husband and I continued with our plans to relocate from the US to the UK. Once the children were settled I travelled to Greece to meet the wonderful team there and visit the A21 shelter. There I met the most precious young girls whose freedom had been stolen but yet were now beginning the restoration process thanks to the work and effort of A21 and its supporters. Trafficked into Greece from all over the world; these girls were now safe. Though, still in shock and traumatised, they bravely told of the horror of their abduction and entrapment into the evil world of human slavery.

As we travelled back to our hotel and the night drew in, we saw dozens of young teenage girls working as prostitutes. As our car turned the corner one young girl came out of the shadows, with her hands on her hips she offered her self to each passing car. Her body was looking for work but her face was shattered and stony; a child no more, unable to fight this evil, somehow she found herself on the corner, after midnight, on this filthy street. She should have been tucked up in bed, secure, treasured, safe, and innocent. Instead here she was. In salacious black clothing- Without a rescuer. A victim of this 21st century evil. With one fearful eye on the pimp who stood not far away. A car pulled up beside her.

As I went to bed I could not get her face out of my mind. As I rested, her forced slavery continued. I realized that in order to save her we must tell anyone and everyone we meet that she exists, that the evil of human trafficking and slavery on the earth is bigger than its ever been and join forces with everyone from the individual to NGO’s, to corporates, to government, to statutory authorities and together rescue girls like her-one by one- find and prosecute her traffickers so that this evil will be exposed and punished and slaves set free.

I watched a documentary on Sky2 last week about the subject of human trafficking in Eastern Europe. The interviewer, Ross Kemp, was talking to a convicted sex trafficker. When asked how he felt about the girls he had destroyed he replied with a smirk “The girls are nothing. They are like footballs. They are worth nothing. If one is destroyed, you can always get another.”

"People are so much easier (to traffic) than drugs," the man replied. "The sentencing is a lot less, and you can just kick them and they'll do what you say."

We cannot be silent!

Through my work with A21 I was In London for the Launch of The Centre for Social Justice ‘Slavery in the UK’ Policy Review.

The Centre for Social Justice is an independent British not-for-profit think tank set up by Iain Duncan Smith, to advance the education of the public in the subject of social justice and to promote the role of the voluntary sector. The CSJ involves figures from across the political spectrum in its governance structure, research and events, such as Labour (UK) MPs Frank Field (UK_politician) , John Reid (politician), and David Blunkett, and Liberal Democrat, MPs Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy. The Centre for Social Justice conducts social research to provide evidence and solutions that will help to overcome the causes of poverty and to promote social justice.

Andrew Wallis, Founding Director of Unseen (UK) and CSJ Slavery Working Group Chairman spoke passionately. He said:

“In 2007 the UK celebrated the 200 anniversary of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and in doing so led the world to recognise: “that slavery was trafficking in human blood and tears, in misery and suffering and that it had to stop for the sake of justice and humanity”.

Yet, here we are in 2011, with slavery rife amongst us. Whether we like it or not as a
society, as individuals, we are in contact with slavery more often than we realise.

They say we are all joined by six degrees of separation from any other human being on the planet. In all of these scenarios we are in much closer contact with slaves either here in the UK or overseas. None of us have clean hands.

We often hear much about human rights. But for there to be rights we have to acknowledge there are wrongs. I accepted the offer of chairing this policy review because I passionately believe slavery is wrong.
This policy review will bring together all those who are involved in combating slavery so we can actually achieve what our forbearers hoped for – an eradication of slavery. Two hundred years ago as a nation we led the world in saying: slavery is wrong, and we still aspire to that – to lead the world in combating slavery and bringing justice and freedom for those who are enslaved”.

As I have discovered through my work with A21 and again at the press launch for the ‘slavery in the UK’ policy review: The truth is, if there were no demand, there would be no slaves. If you’re a slave master in 2011 you can always get another commodity. Tragically the price of human slaves are the lowest they’ve ever been. It’s time to set the slaves free!

So what is next? We have recently recorded a song for A21, called 27 million, which we will be releasing as a single and we hope will continue to raise awareness for this issue but also raise funds to find and prosecute the slave masters and to rescue and restore the victims.

And the good news is if you didn’t know about this before, you do now! We don’t need to be overwhelmed by the statistics but rather be outraged enough to do what we can and as Christine Caine said in her CNN blog:

My job is to help put tools in people's hands and say, 'Yeah. Together we can stop that from happening. Often, I think, because we think, 'I can't do it all,' we end up being paralysed. So we do nothing," said Caine. "But if we understand we can't do everything but we all must do something, and we all find the one thing that we can do, then we'll find that together we will all make such a huge difference and we'll be able to put a stop to this."

We can be the change!

Beth Redman.