Category: Greed

Human Trafficking: The Facts and How to Help

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Human trafficking is closer than you think, the film ‘Sound of Freedom’ opens the pandora’s box by raising awareness to the general public of a dark, underground $150 billion dollar industry. This incredible true story is about federal agent Tim Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel, who quit his job and put his life on the line to rescue trafficked children from sexual exploitation, this has been tastefully done and brings light to this heinous activity. Seeing the film is the first step in spreading awareness about child trafficking, see the trailer above and more information can be found here: Visit angel.com/blog/sound-of-freedom to read more about how you can join the fight to end child trafficking. Please support the movement, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men stand by and do nothing, be the voice of those who have none.

“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” ~ Luke 17:2

What is human trafficking?

Human trafficking is a nefarious practice that many thought had been abolished years ago. However, slavery is alive and kicking in the 21st century and is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world, it is big business worth $150 billion dollars! It covers an array of ways to exploit another human being for profit, whether it be slave labor, sex slavery, organ harvesting or drug trafficking, the list goes on and gets darker.

There are 27 million enslaved, 7 million of them children and increasing. So many of us aren’t aware of how wide spread this issue is, because it’s not at the forefront of the media, and we think it doesn’t happen where we live. But this is the closet crime that is exploding and rising all around us at astronomical rates. There are more people enslaved today than any time in history, even when it was legal!

Where is this taking place?

The subject matter is too dark for polite conversation, but burying your head in the sand won’t make it go away. This evil is prevalent worldwide and according to the charity organization ‘save the children’ statistics, children make up 27% of all human trafficking victims worldwide, and two out of every three identified child victims are girls. The United States is the largest consumer of child rape videos and one of the largest producers worldwide.

MYTH: Traffickers target victims they don’t know

FACT: Even though this is true, a majority of the time, victims are trafficked by someone they know, such as a friend, family member, family friend, a person esteemed in the local community or a romantic partner.

MYTH: Only girls and women are victims of human trafficking

FACT: Boys and men are just as likely to be victims of human trafficking as girls and women. However, they are less likely to be identified and reported. Girls and boys are often subject to different types of trafficking, for instance, girls may be trafficked for forced marriage and sexual exploitation, boys for sexual exploitation also, but more likely to be trafficked for forced labor or recruitment into armed groups.

MYTH: All human trafficking involves sex or prostitution

FACT: Human trafficking can include forced labor, domestic servitude, organ trafficking, debt bondage, recruitment of children as child soldiers, and/or sex trafficking and forced prostitution.

MYTH: Trafficking involves traveling, transporting or moving a person across borders

FACT: Human trafficking is not the same thing as smuggling, which are two terms that are commonly confused. Trafficking does not always require movement across borders. In fact, in some cases, a child could be trafficked and exploited from their own home or community. In the U.S., trafficking most frequently occurs at hotels, motels, truck stops and online.

MYTH: People being trafficked are physically unable to leave or held against their will

FACT: Trafficking can involve force, but people can also be trafficked through threats, coercion, or deception. People in trafficking situations can be controlled through drug addiction, violent relationships, manipulation, lack of financial independence, or isolation from family or friends, in addition to physical restraint or harm.

MYTH: Trafficking primarily occurs in developing countries

FACT: Trafficking occurs all over the world, though the most common forms of trafficking can differ by country. The United States is one of the most active sex trafficking countries in the world, where exploitation of trafficking victims occurs in cities, suburban and rural areas. Labor trafficking occurs in the U.S., but at lower rates than most developing countries.

DO YOU SUSPECT SOMEONE IS BEING TRAFFICKED?

Spot The Signs

Identifying trafficking is the first step to stopping it. Understanding the signs to look out for could help the most vulnerable people within your community.

Significant Signs

Stop the traffic organisation Stop the traffic states, that there are a number of signs that are common across all types of exploitation. Including, if a person:

  • acts as if instructed by another, as though they are forced or coerced to carry out specific activities
  • demonstrates signs of physical or psychological abuse, such as lacking self esteem, seeming anxious, bruising or untreated medical conditions
  • seems to be bonded by debt or has money deducted from their salary
  • has little or no contact with family or loved ones
  • is distrustful of authorities
  • has threats made against themselves or family members
  • is not in possession of their own legal documents

SAVE THE CHILDREN: If you suspect someone is a victim of trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-800-373-7888. The confidential hotline is open 24 hours a day, every day, and helps identify, protect and serve victims of trafficking.

Stop the traffic: Spot the signs – STOP THE TRAFFIK

Identifying trafficking is the first step to stopping it. Understanding the signs to look out for could help the most vulnerable people within your community.

Specific Signs

Many of the main types of exploitation have significant signs that are specific to them.

NSPCC: Report child trafficking What You Need to Know About Child Trafficking | NSPCC

Children who are trafficked are intentionally hidden and isolated from the services and communities who can identify and protect them. If you’re worried about a child, you can take steps to keep them safe.

  • If you think a child or young person is in danger, contact the police on 999.
  • Contact your local child protection services. You can find their contact details on the website for the local authority the child lives in.
  • Contact the Modern Slavery Helpline to get help, report a suspicion or seek advice. Call 0800 012 1700 or fill in their online form.

Living in the end times

We live in a fallen world with entitled individuals who think they have a right to do what they want, when they want and to whomever they want without accountability. There has been a major attack on our children from every side because they are the new generation that is supposed to be an arrow in the bow for God’s Kingdom and this attack starts in the womb. (I will do a separate article on this important subject). It’s easy to become discouraged when we focus on the news today, but there is goodness and hope in a broken world, look to God’s promises and don’t be mere hearers, but doers of the Word. There are many brave heroic individuals who have been doing just that, and one walking in their calling is a man called Victor Marx, a victim of abuse himself, on the frontline defending and being the voice of those who cannot defend themselves, shares what we need to know about child trafficking. He’s an abolitionist, NGO specialist, activist and philanthropist, and is the founder and president of ‘All Things Possible’ that rescues children from child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation and has assisted in the arrested of thousands of predators.

Quotes

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33 (ESV)

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” -Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” -Romans 15:13 (ESV)

Here are a few ideas on how to be a light in your sphere of influence:

  • Start and end your day reading the Word of God.
  • Memorize God’s promises.
  • Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
  • Love your neighbor.
  • Pray for people in your life.
  • Pray for the world. Pray for our leaders.
  • Pray for people who are oppressed.
  • Share God’s love with others.
  • Give to those in need.
  • Get involved in meeting a need.
  • Show acts of kindness.
  • Encourage those who are discouraged.
  • Give the gift of love, peace, gentleness, patience, grace, kindness. (navigators.org)

How to get involved?

Please start by watching and supporting the film the sound of Freedom, there are numerous ways to support the individuals on the front line, but to get a flavor of what’s going on, I urge you to watch sound of freedom, it’s a dark subject matter that has been tastefully done, but punches you right in your stomach and at the end of the film, you can either choose to bury your head in the sand or stand up and do something about it.

Support the non-profit organisations fighting human trafficking:

Destiny Rescue: Destiny Rescue

All Things Possible: https://victormarx.com/trafficking-solutions/

Child Liberation Foundation: Child Liberation Foundation

Stop the Traffik: Spot the signs – STOP THE TRAFFIK

The Nazarene Fund: Home – The Nazarene Fund

Save Our Children: Save the Children UK | International Children’s Charity

NSPCC: What You Need to Know About Child Trafficking | NSPCC

Relevant articles:

Child Safety Online

5 Ways Your Kids Are Under Spiritual Attack

How To Overcome Porn Addiction and the Link To $99 Billion Dollar Sex Trafficking Industry

6 Reasons Why Sexual Predators Target Churches

Trusting God to Heal the Scars of Sexual Abuse

Self Worth and Self Esteem

Forgiving Others

Prayer For Forgiving Others

The Abortion Debate

Deal Radically with Impure Thoughts

Invisible Barriers to Healing

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**Article by Lori McPherson / Picture Angel studios

The Financial Policy of Jesus and The Apostles

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Jesus has given us an example in money-matters that all who serve Him, and all churches must follow.

When Jesus worked as a carpenter, up to the age of 30, He earned His living – honestly, without ever cheating anyone and without ever getting into debt. “Every servant of the Lord must ensure that he manifests the attitude of Christ in relation to money.”

Thereafter, He was in full-time ministry for the next 3½ years. During this period, He had some strict principles in financial matters. His apostles followed those principles exactly and rigidly. The church is the Body of Christ and therefore it must follow the same principles that the first Body of Christ (Jesus Himself) followed. All churches and all who are engaged in Christian work must follow those same principles. 

What were those principles?

First and foremost, since Jesus was a servant of His Father, He trusted His Father alone to provide all His earthly needs – just like anyone working for a company would expect that company to take care of his financial needs. So, Jesus never ever told anyone other than His Father about His financial needs. He never advertised His ministry anywhere and He never gave any reports about His work to anyone to get their support. God Himself directly prompted some people to give gifts to Jesus voluntarily – and He accepted such gifts. Jesus appointed a treasurer (Judas) to keep the money that He thus received. 

See Luke 8:2-3: “Mary Magdalene and Joanna (the wife of Chuza, Herod’s palace-manager), and Susanna, and many others contributed to the support of Jesus and the 12 disciples, out of their private means”. And Jesus accepted their gifts.

Secondly, Jesus was very careful about how He spent the money He received. John 13:29 gives us an indication of how Jesus spent His money. When Jesus gave some instructions to Judas there, the other apostles thought that He was directing Judas to spend the money as Jesus had always spent His money. That is: (1) To buy what was needed; and (2) To give to the poor. This must be our guideline always; in the way we spend our money. 

The apostles followed Jesus’ example exactly. They also trusted their heavenly Father to provide all their needs. So, they never told anyone about their personal needs or the needs of their ministry – either verbally or by letter (for that would have amounted to indirectly hinting about their need for money). Whenever the apostles urged the churches to take a collection of money, it was always for distribution to the poor believers – and never for any other purpose (See 2 Cor.8 and 9 and 1 Cor.16:1-3).

Some people misquote 1 Timothy 5:17-18 and teach that pastors and Christian workers must be paid a good salary. But what do those verses actually say? 

“The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of DOUBLE HONOUR, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing’, and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages’”. 

Those verses do not say an ything about money at all. They only teach that elders who work hard at preaching must be given double honour by their flock. If this verse were referring to money, then it would mean that God was commanding churches to pay their leaders double the salary that others in the church get!! That is ridiculous! Paul was actually teaching believers here to appreciate and respect the elders of their churches. He was saying, “Give them due honor, just like you allow your ox to eat the grain that it is threshing”. So, we see that an elder’s primary wages are honour (appreciation and gratitude) from his flock – and not money.

This is similar to the exhortation Paul gave in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 “Honor your leaders who work so hard for you…. overwhelm them with appreciation and love” (Message Paraphrase).

Paul does however speak about the financial support of Christian workers in 1 Corinthians 9:7-18. There he says: “Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock? If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?” 

But Paul then continues, to say, “Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.  It is true that the Lord has directed that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the gospel. But I have used none of these things. It would be better for me to die than to have any man make my boast an empty one. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I still have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward (my salary)? Just this, that, when I preach the gospel, I can offer it without charge to everyone. So, I do not make use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.”

So, Paul never preached for a salary or for gifts, but because he was “compelled by his love for Christ” and because “God had committed the stewardship of the gospel to him”. He wanted to give the gospel freely to others, without any charge, lest it appear as though God were charging people money for hearing the gospel. And he asked others to follow his example (See 1 Cor.11:1 and Phil.3:17).

So, we see that the New Testament does teach that a servant of the Lord can receive gifts for his support (as Jesus Himself did). But at the same time, we also see that:

(1) No Christian worker was ever paid a monthly salary. Jesus never promised His disciples a salary. The apostles never received a salary. They trusted their heavenly Father to move people’s hearts to support them financially (just as in Jesus’ case). Such a life of faith was essential for them if they were to have power in their ministry. It also protected them from covetousness. 
(2) In situations where Paul saw that this provision of support was being abused by preachers, he decided not to take any money from anyone but to support himself, so as to protect the testimony of the gospel that he was preaching. He says in 2 Cor.11:7-13(Living): “I preached God’s Good News to you without charging you anything. I didn’t ask you for anything, for the Christians from Macedonia brought me another gift. I have never yet asked you for one cent, and I never will. And I will tell everyone about it!  I do this because I want to cut out the ground from under the feet of those who boast that they are doing God’s work in just the same way we are. God never sent those men at all; they are “phonies” who have fooled you into thinking they are Christ’s apostles.”

We see here that Paul did receive gifts occasionally – when the Christians in Macedonia (Philippi) voluntarily sent him some money. But he never took any money from the Corinthian Christians (as we see above), because he wanted to show them that he was different from the fake Christian preachers in that place.  Paul never ever asked anyone for financial support at any time – and he never hinted about his financial needs either.

Paul did not take any money from the Thessalonian Christians either. He says in 2 Thess.3:8-10: “We never accepted food from anyone of you without paying for it; we worked hard day and night for the money we needed to live on, in order that we would not be a burden to any of you. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to show you firsthand how you should work for your living”. 

Paul did not take any money from the Ephesian Christians either. He says in Acts 20:31-35: “All these three years I was with you, I did not seek for anyone’s money or clothes. You know how I worked with my own hands to support myself and the men who were with me. I showed you by working hard in this way, that we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus that, `It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ “

Every servant of the Lord must ensure that he manifests the attitude of Christ in relation to money, as Paul did. 

In every one of our CFC churches that God has planted, all the (more than) 150 leaders/elders support themselves. None of them has ever received a salary.This new-covenant pattern has worked perfectly for us for 47 years now (from 1975 when the first CFC church was started, and right up to now – 2022) – both in large cities around the world as well as in the poorest villages in India. This stand of ours has saved us from being infiltrated by covetous preachers who quote Scripture and exploit people for their money. 

The above is the stand that all of the Lord’s servants took in New Testament times. But Christendom has drifted away from this standard through the centuries. Today, many pastors and preachers keep urging people to give them money and write moving letters to their sponsors (often with false statistics about conversions) expecting more and more financial support.

Because of this wrong attitude to money found among Christian leaders, God’s anointing is missing from most of Christian ministry today and there is no revelation from heaven in the ministry of most preachers. No-one can serve God and money (Luke 16:13). 

The Lord said that only one those who are faithful in money-matters would be given the true riches (Luke 16:11) – the riches of divine revelation and the anointing of the Spirit.

There is yet another important principle that we must bear in mind: A servant of the Lord must never receive money as a gift from unbelievers or from anyone who is poorer than him. Any gift given by a poorer person must always be put into the church’s offering box and never used for oneself.

Here is a checklist that we have placed on top of our offering boxes in CFC Bangalore:
Before you give your money, please check:
1. Are you a born-again child of God?
2. Do you have enough for your family’s needs?
3. Are you free from debt (other than house-loans)?
4. Are you reconciled with all people?
5.   Are you giving cheerfully?

You can go to the following link to see the Scriptural basis for the above standards: 
http://www.cfcindia.com/our-financial-policy 

We don’t judge other churches or preachers who do things differently from us, in this area. That would make us Pharisees. But we ourselves seek to strictly preserve the standards that we see in the life of Jesus and in the lives of the apostles.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Amen.

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**By Zac Poonen © Copyright – Zac Poonen. No changes whatsoever are to be made to the content of the article without written permission from the author. https://www.cfcindia.com/

The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman

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An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. The boat had several large, fresh fish in it.

The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the Mexican how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The banker then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican fisherman replied he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman replied, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.”

The investment banker scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You could spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats until eventually, you would have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to the middleman you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You could control the product, processing and distribution.”

Then he added, “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City where you would run your growing enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15–20 years.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions.”

“Millions, señor? Then what?”

To which the investment banker replied, “Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

The moral of the story highlights the importance of contentment and trusting in God’s provision. The Mexican fisherman, living simply, finds peace and fulfillment in his relationships with family, friends, and with God’s provision of meeting His needs. While the American banker represents the constant striving for wealth, success and greed, the fisherman demonstrates that true richness comes not from accumulating possessions but from living a life centered on what is truly valuable—faith, love, and community.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus teaches us not to worry about material needs but to seek first the kingdom of God, trusting that He will provide for us. The fisherman’s life reflects this truth: he is not consumed by the pursuit of more, but finds joy and peace in what God has already given him. This parable reminds us that living with contentment, rather than ambition for worldly success, is the path to true fulfillment in Christ.

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** Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh at pexels