Anti-Trafficking Conference

I had the privilege of attending a Human Trafficking Conference last week organized by the Central Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force.  With almost two hundred others in attendance, representatives from anti human trafficking organizations, and dynamic speakers it was a day very well spent.

The first two speakers were Erin Kulpa, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the West District of VA and Detective Bill Woolf from the Fairfax County Police Department.  They shared the stage in the morning taking turns discussing issues such as; common myths about trafficking, U.S. trafficking cases, who is vulnerable to be trafficked, who the traffickers are, and working with victims.  Both of these speakers brought years of experience working in this field and backed up their facts with real life stories.  I think one of the most powerful came from Det. Woolf.  He is involved with a new trafficking awareness program in the school system in Northern V.A. for 6th-12th graders.  At the end of the program he came into the school and did a presentation.  When he had finished speaking four different girls came up and told him that they were currently being trafficked.  Most victims do not self identify so the fact that these girls were not only able to see their situation for what it was but also seek help is huge.  We definitely need these programs in more of our schools!

The morning speakers did a wonderful job presenting but the third speaker, Tajuan MaCarty, definitely stole the show.  I wish it were possible to describe her fire, passion and most of all the realness with which she spoke.  Let me share some of her story with you (as best I can remember it).  Born into an abusive home Tajuan was raped at age 12 by neighborhood teens.  After that traumatic incident she began to run away and was trafficked several times.  By age 15 she was trapped full time in the sex industry.  She spent years in the industry leaving more than once only to return again and again.  She has been sold in every state in the U.S. (except for Hawaii and Alaska), and also in Canada and Mexico.  That is unfathomable to me, but I am afraid her story is more the norm than the exception.  She shared only brief stories of the abuse she suffered at the hands of pimps, customers, and police officers.  Speaking from personal experience and now 4 years of helping rescue other women Tajuan made several things very clear.  

-“Drugs are not the problem, they are a symptom of the problem.”  
-Our culture sexualizes everything and that is what perpetrates the problem.  
and…
-The bottom line is that we are all born with a Jesus shaped hole in our heart and until that is filled appropriately nothing will ever change.  

Her ministry, The WellHouse, is still helping victims but Tajuan  now devotes herself to speaking.  Every single place she has shared there has been someone who has been trafficked or who knows someone who has been trafficked.  After hearing her speak I had a better understanding of the enormity of this problem in the U.S. but somehow also more hope for the fight.  She told us “If you make a difference in one person’s life you’ve succeeded,” and that loving people is what really makes the difference. 

Thank you to everyone who made it possible for me to attend this conference!  I hope the snippets I have shared not only make you more aware but give you ideas of ways you can make a difference.    

- Tabitha
        

redemption - a work of God

“He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a special people eager to do good works.”  Titus 2:14

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and converted us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”  Colossians 1:13-14

I’m not sure the true nature of salvation often really sinks in to those of us who have spent all of our life “in the church”.  In saving you and me God didn’t take mostly good people with nice intentions and help us a little along our way.  Nor did He take our works which had gotten us pretty far and span the rest of the way with the cross.  God encountered lawless, evil to the core beings, bound by darkness and radically redeemed, cleansed, delivered and converted us.

In pondering this picture it reminds me strongly of what I see women in prostitution needing.  These are words and phrases we pray for them… but how often do we believe they are truly possible?  Perhaps if we better understood our own salvation we wouldn’t be so quick to doubt.  As humans separated from God the gulf is no wider for one person than for another.  It is no more challenging for God to save a prostitute than to save self-righteous sinner.

Even more encouraging is to see that this is God’s heart!  Saving people from the black mire of sin and completely transforming them was first and only HIS plan - not ours.  We don’t have to wrestle with Him to convince Him to engage in this project, He invented it!  When I gaze at God through the scriptures I can’t help but think He delights in saving these women.  So let’s be encouraged and not doubt either God’s willingness or His power.      

a real story

This is an amazing story about a "normal" family helping a real trafficking victim - it is simple, potent and beautiful - I encouraged you to check it out!  

http://emilymeganphotography.com/2015/09/01/two-weeks-a-trafficking-victim/

where we are loosing the war

Trafficking doesn’t begin when a child is kidnapped, or when a girl is sold.  Trafficking doesn’t begin with traffickers and pimps and johns.

Trafficking begins long before that. 

Everything starts in the family - or the breakdown of the family

every child who was trafficked due to neglectful parents

every teen girl who went looking for love in the wrong places

every boy who got hooked on drugs and now sells girls for his next fix

every young woman who was raped

every young man who was taught porn was ok

every trafficker who was once just someone’s baby

every individual entered this world as a helpless infant - and more than likely their parents were too preoccupied or too selfish to protect them from the evil of the world and to teach them about the evil inside of them

when the Church

has ceased to speak meaningfully on issues of the family, growing up, engaging   the culture while staying free of it’s evil, purity and sexuality

does not confront evil among it’s own - porn, sexual impurity,etc. 

does not teach that Jesus can free from addictions

does not agree that Jesus can completely heal and restore

does not nurture families, children, the orphans and the lonely

does not provide support for the abused

does not hold culture and government to a higher standard

does not fight evil

does not rescue the enslaved  

then we fail

Education

teaches children to honor and applaud sexual perversions 

teaches children their sexuality is an animal instinct not a gift from God

teaches young people there is no meaning to life or higher power

teaches young adults that sexuality is meant to be “free”

teaches college students perverted ways to view sex and calls them enlightened 

Culture 

sexualizes children from a young age through clothing, toys, tv, music, pop stars,

teaches young people incorrect views of sexuality and encourages promiscuity 

does it’s best to destroy the value of human life

tells adults at every turn that they are not good enough without a partner, will not be happy outside of an ungodly sex life, and that any and every kind of sexual evil is not only ok and normal but good 

We aren’t just loosing the battle against trafficking at the level of rescue and rehabilitation - we are loosing the battle in our homes, in our churches in our schools, and in our culture.

Trafficking doesn’t begin when a child is kidnapped, or when a girl is sold.  Trafficking doesn’t begin with traffickers and pimps and johns.

Trafficking begins long before that. 

If we are going to be effective in this war we need to start fighting the battles closest to home.

At Youth Explosion!

This past weekend we were given the opportunity to represent “The tREehouse Project” and raise awareness of Human Trafficking at an event called Youth Explosion.  Having had less than a week to prepare it was incredible to see how the Lord worked everything together so wonderfully.  In just five days’ time we became official, complete with email address, business card, brochure, and drama team!  Isn’t our Lord good?!

Youth Explosion, held in a beautiful valley in Elk Creek, VA, was well attended by many of the Church youth groups in the area.  We were graciously allowed to set up a booth to distribute literature on Human Trafficking and given a time allotment on stage.  Before Tabitha came up to speak our newly formed drama team preformed a drama depicting the horrors of Human Trafficking.  It was with wonder and amazement that I watched as teens who were previously disinterested in what was happening on stage were drawn in as the music started and the drama unfolded.  No one told them what they were watching, yet they were captivated.  For those of you who haven’t seen this drama, it aptly depicts how people are trafficked and what that means for the victims.  It is intense.  When Tabitha got up to speak there was a silence almost haunting, she held the audience.  

That night several hundred teens were made aware of the seriousness of Human Trafficking.  Not one can say that they don’t know.  What they do with that information is their responsibility.  It is our sincerest prayer that all who heard what was said went home resolved to make a difference.  Why does it matter?  I think Tabitha said it best: “Because people matter, God created people, He loves them and they are precious.”

~ Rebecca

reflections on our visit to The Refuge

Have you ever met someone who just radiates from the inside?  It’s like encountering sunlight trapped inside a body but oozing out from every pore,

and you know it has to be Jesus.  

Have you ever met someone who’s past just doesn’t line up with who they are today?  Someone who has been radically healed so that the deep wounds instead of marring the finished vessel only add grace and beauty, 

and you know it has to be Jesus.  

That is what it’s like to talk to and walk with women who have been rescued from the sex industry.  That is what I loved most about our recent visit to The Refuge for Women.

I have been just one of many visitors over the years to be welcomed to the refuge with hugs.  It is the first thing each resident encounters when they enter their new home and they learn the lesson well.   “Jesus loves me this I know…” it’s a new concept for these women and one that must be often repeated and continually modeled.  Sometimes it takes longer than others - but they get it.  These staff who radically love them are only a mirror image of an enormous God who loves them infinitely more and who has been pursuing them with His love all along.    

As we got to sit in on classes, and processing, share meals and hear life stories I was blessed by what radiant and real Christians these women now are.  Their worldview is astounding.  They understand sin and forgiveness, God and mankind far better than many of the people lining our pews today.  

Sometimes we are tempted to believe that someone is unreachable.  Or when we come face to face with the horrors of the sex industry we may think these women can be rescued and even perhaps redeemed but restored?  In these moments of doubt we reveal our very small view of God.  How could the effects of sin ever be greater than His power?  

The women who graduate from the refuge are a shinning example of the transforming and healing power of the gospel.  And when God begins something - He finishes it.  Yes, He CAN completely restore these women.  The amazing thing is He has chosen us as tools to accomplish that.  

I encourage you to visit the refuge’s website and listen to some of the stories of these women from their own mouths.  May you come away encouraged by the work being done there and burdened to see many more women and girls in the sex industry reached.    

www.refugeforwomen.org 

      
~ Tabitha

why

“ ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?  Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’  Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all of your workers…. 

‘Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  

Is it not to share you're bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?  

Then shall you right break forth like the dawn, and you healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be you rear guard.  

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, “Here I am.” If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 

if you poor yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.  

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorches places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.  

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.’"  
-Isaiah 58

the beginning...

We turn around sometimes on the path of life, peering backwards, trying to pin point when something first began.  At what moment did we know which career was for us, when did we first start falling in love with our spouse, what was the first step of our journey towards this God given dream?  There are epiphany moments, but the longer we stare at the past the more threads of God’s plan come to light woven through the most ordinary things so long ago.  Eventually I give up, marveling at His foresight to be forever preparing and shaping each of us for the next step which takes us to the next journey and on to a new vision.  

I can tell you when I first started thinking about The Tree House and I can tell you what lead up to it from my perspective.  However the more I follow this path the more I am convinced God was working towards this goal long before He started calling me, and the more I realize that this is in no way my story.

Hello and welcome to The Tree House Project; a vision to see a Christian safe house for minor girls who have been rescued from the sex industry established in Virginia.  As the name implies we are a project, right now just at the beginning stages.  We know that God’s heart is to see the enslaved rescued, redeemed and restored and believe this vision is what He has called us to invest in for this season.

This blog is a way to keep people informed in more detail about The Tree House Project, as well as provide a platform for anti-trafficking awareness.  

Thank you for joining us here - I hope you enjoy keeping up with the project as much as we enjoy sharing with you.

because God created people to be priceLESS,

The Tree House Project