Setting captives f.r.e.e. from the bonds of slavery
By Mike Bartel
It’s 3 a.m. and my cell phone rings. It’s a local police department telling me they busted a prostitution ring and there are some 18-19-year-old girls who speak an eastern European language held as sex slaves. No, I’m not a missionary to Bucharest, or Bangkok, or Bogotá – I’m a missionary to America.
Two years ago my wife Denise and I began the journey of being appointed as U.S. missionaries to international and domestic victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution. Many individuals are unaware of the extent to which human trafficking and forced prostitution plague our own country, but statistics reveal the magnitude of these injustices.
People from 77 different countries have been rescued and certified as slaves here in the U.S. Of the 14,500 to 17,500 people trafficked into this country each year, more than 80 percent are women and 70 percent of them are forced into the commercial sex trade. And tragically, between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are commercially exploited for sex each year, with 13 being the average age of entry into prostitution.
Essentially, these numbers represent hurting and unreached people here in our country.
In the fall of 2008 we founded f.r.e.e. international, a non-profit organization dedicated to a four-fold mission to: (f)ind, (r)escue, (e)mbrace and (e)mpower women and girl victims from sexual slavery and forced prostitution. We are strategically and uniquely positioned to equip our churches and ministries in direct outreach and aftercare of human trafficking victims.
All of the resources needed to make an impact in the lives of those who have been victimized are found in our churches. Take for instance Darlene. Soon after beginning this work, we met Darlene. Darlene is a worship leader at a wonderful AG church in New York City, a devoted Pentecostal committed to the cause of justice of the oppressed. She’s also a special agent for Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement. Darlene is set to retire from the agency in January and when she does she’s going into fulltime ministry.
Darlene is going to start seminary, pursue Assemblies of God credentials and join us at f.r.e.e. international as our director of Outreach and Investigation! For security purposes we cannot tell you the nature of all Darlene has done in this field but we can say she is one of just a handful of officers our country has invested untold thousands of dollars to train specifically in the field of Human Trafficking. Darlene is currently on our board of directors and her story is just one of many illustrating the resources in our churches and shows how well the Assemblies of God is positioned to bring “liberty to the captives.”
Currently, f.r.e.e. international is working with churches in three states to create housing for rescued victims and raising the necessary funds for those locations. Our desire is that when we find a victim or my phone rings at 3 a.m., we won’t have to turn those girls over to social services but we can embrace and empower them so they will know that Christ makes ALL things new!
For more information, go to www.free-international.org or email michael@free-international.org.