Out of the Shadows

Last year Michelle Rollins, missions director at The River Church in Bar Harbor, Maine, was at a church conference on trauma when one of the speakers said he had a book he wanted to give away. He had a stipulation, however; he wanted it to go to someone who was starting a ministry to combat human trafficking. 

“There were 1,000 Christians in that room, and I was the only one who stood up,” says Rollins, who was inspired to dive into this ministry after reading an article about a large human-trafficking bust in the U.S.

Jasmine Grace-Marino, a survivor of human trafficking, wrote the book Rollins received. Grace-Marino was only 19 years old and attending beauty school when she met a man in a club who began courting her and showering her with fancy gifts. He manipulated his way into her heart and earned her trust so when he encouraged her to work at a seedy massage parlor for the weekend, she agreed. 

“She was trafficked, and everything was stolen from her from that point on,” says Rollins. “When she told him she didn’t want to do it anymore, he became violent. Mind control was also huge as he made her feel worthless.” 

Ultimately, Grace-Marino worked as a prostitute for five years before breaking free. The pain and trauma she had endured caused her to turn to drugs. One day, however, she found herself at a church where salvation found her.

“She met some ladies who sat with her in her car, sharing the gospel of Jesus with her,” says Rollins. “That was the start of her transformation.”

After reading The Diary of Jasmine Grace: Trafficked, Recovered, Redeemed, Rollins reached out to Grace-Marino to ask if she would be willing to be part of a panel for The River Church’s upcoming human-trafficking forum, Hope on the Rock. Grace-Marino agreed to speak, but on one condition: She wanted to address not just women but the entire community as the issue affects children and men as well. Rollins loved the idea since she wanted to engage as much of the community as possible. 

Local law enforcement officers, domestic-violence advocates and anti-human-trafficking organizations were also part of the panel, which included Steve Dyer, a criminology professor with a background in law enforcement; Carey Nason with CourageLIVES, an organization that helps survivors of sex trafficking; and Tricia Grant, a survivor who was trafficked in the area. Emergency room nurses, psychologists, educators, police officers, survivors and interested folks from the area all attended. Several border control agents even drove three hours down from Canada to attend. 

“I think there is this sense of, ‘That couldn’t be happening in my community. It only happens in big cities or other countries,’” says Rollins. “But when people start to read the statistics and understand what trafficking really is—that it’s not the Hollywood idea of being chained up in the back of a box truck and transported across the border—they realize that this can be occurring in their own neighborhood.”

Rollins understands that many church congregations don’t feel equipped to tackle such a difficult subject. 

“But if God is calling me to this work, he’ll equip me,” she says. “Jesus is in the business of setting captives free. If he’s in that business, so am I.”

Rollins admits that this is a messy subject, which is one reason many people turn away just as she did initially. 

“For a long time, I’d heard about child pornography cases, but it was so awful and heinous, it turned my stomach. I didn’t want to hear about it or know about it,” says Rollins. “But to know about it and be silent is not good. Child pornography is horrible, but that is a form of trafficking.”

She suspects that the reason more churches aren’t getting involved is because it’s messy. 

“We don’t know how to clean that up, but the truth of the matter is that we don’t need to be the one,” says Rollins. “We need to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Only by his Spirit can things change.”

Christy Heitger-Ewing
Christy Heitger-Ewinghttp://christyheitger-ewing.com/

Christy Heitger-Ewing is a contributing writer for Outreach magazine. In addition, Christy pens the “Now & Then” column in Cabin Life magazine. She also writes regularly for Christian publications such as Encounter, Insight, and the Lookout. She is the author of Cabin Glory: Amusing Tales of Time Spent at the Family Retreat.

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