“When she came to us, her trafficker did not let her do simple things like brush her teeth,” states Jacqueline Williams describing one of many sex trafficking survivors. “She had to almost be rehabilitated in just your normal day-to-day practices. She had a fear of showering because he would come into the bathroom and do things to her.”
That debilitating trauma one survivor suffered after being trafficked for sex is emblematic of those rescued through a ministry of the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH) named Freedom 43:19.
Williams, the ministry’s case manager supervisor, says the trafficker had maneuvered himself into the woman’s life, taking his time and gaining her trust after she became bored with the man who had fathered her two children.
“Almost two years later, she had transitioned from our actual home and into one of our apartments on our campus. She had started back having visitations with her children. By the time she left us, she had obtained a car, she was gainfully employed, and the last I checked, she had reunited with the children’s father and they are all living as a family now, and she’s still working.”
The ministry receives rescued women and teenagers referred from such groups as the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, the FBI, local law enforcement, private families and by tracking national databases. the ministry, funded in part by the Missouri Baptist Convention, is also supported by congregations through medical assistance and volunteers. Its name is inspired by the hope found in Isaiah 43:19.
The World Population Review ranks Missouri eighth in the nation in human trafficking, seeing 3.78 cases per 100,000 people. Missouri trails Nevada, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Delaware and California, World Population Review said. Michigan and Texas follow Missouri in the 10 states with the highest rates proportionate to population.
As recently as August, Missouri law enforcement officials worked with federal agencies and officers in 11 other states to rescue 47 victims of human trafficking and arrest 102 perpetrators in Operation United Front, a sting operation that Kansas City Fox 4 News reported. The operation was likely the first of its kind.
Women and teenagers referred to Freedom 43:19 benefit from comprehensive care including an intake assessment, placement in a drug treatment facility for detoxification when needed, the work of onsite trained social workers ensuring round-the-clock presence, care from registered nurses and onsite supervisors.
Charles Phillips, director of the Kansas City facility, said staff members are also trained in developing proper relationships with clients, based on “trust-based relational intervention.”
“We can just see clients getting their needs met and training them in how to deal with that trauma and how to work through that trauma,” Phillips said. “That trauma happened and we’ll never be able to erase that; however we can help them learn how to work with the trauma and how to become stronger with it.”
While anyone, from any denomination, can give to support the work, Baptists in Missouri gave $510,000 to MBCH in the fiscal year ending in 2020, according to the 2020 MBC Annual Report. They hope to increase giving this year, MBC Executive Director John Yeats said.
“We support MBCH‘s ministry through a Cooperative Program allocation and with 17 percent of our State Missions Offering that has a goal of $725,000 this year,” Yeats said. “Many of our churches and individual Missouri Baptists directly support the MBCH. Missouri Baptists have increased their support over the last few years and I would hope we are able to do so in the future.”
Other sources of funding for MBCH programs, encompassing Freedom 43:19, foster care, adoption, pregnancy services, transitional living and other programs, include service contract fees, fundraising and ministry partners. Churches gave nearly $375,000 to MBCH in 2020, according to the MBCH Family of Corporations 2020 Annual Report.
Greninger, Williams and Phillips also encourage prayer for survivors as well as case managers and others involved in their care.
“We hear the stories and we cry with them and love on them and care for them,” Greninger said. “(Prayer) seems like not much, but it’s huge. We could use a lot of prayer for our clients and our staff who work with that clientele.”
Yeats encourages believers to help human trafficking survivors by providing a safe place for every child and the vulnerable, praying for those in need and listening to their stories, supporting ministry efforts, advocating for public policy and laws aimed at “prudent and just remedies” and inviting trained Christian counselors to host survivor support groups at churches.
“We had a young lady who was Wiccan. She’d come from a very dark place of trauma,” Phillips said. “And it wasn’t too long after she came to us … and she said, ‘Did you hear what I did this week?’ She said, ‘I accepted Christ into my heart.’”
–Diana Chandler | Baptist Press News Service