Fight Against Human Trafficking Continues

Marty Grimes, director of women’s ministries at First Wesleyan Church/ALIVE in Central, S.C., learned just enough about the atrocity of human trafficking to make it impossible to stand by and do nothing. In the spring 2009, she and the women at ALIVE organized a community forum.

The Church Responded

The church responded powerfully to the community forum, realizing that something more had to be done. Rather than starting from scratch, the church looked at the places in its community and in the world where it was already investing. ALIVE had already worked cooperatively with Frontier Care Ministries in East India. This group of 22 national pastors serves unreached people groups on the borders of Bhutan and Nepal. And when ALIVE contacted their director about sponsoring an anti-human trafficking training event on location, he responded positively. He knew about local brothels and realized that the rural, poverty stricken villages his organization worked with were particularly at risk for trafficking.

Step of faith

In partnership with Kristin Wiebe at World Hope International, ALIVE committed to raising the $13,000 required for the Hands that Heal curriculum to be presented to national leaders in East India.

“I had points where I wondered if this was ever going to happen,” admitted Beth Peterson, assistant pastor at ALIVE. The women’s ministry at ALIVE held a yard sale to raise money for the training and the church contributed money from its own budget. Combined with generous donations from World Hope International and Wesleyan Women, the target amount was within reach, but more was still needed. The congregation at ALIVE stepped in and closed the gap, contributing the necessary funds.

“All these different groups and individuals came together and gave sacrificially. It was God because it couldn’t have been done alone. It was a miracle!” said Peterson.

Training in India

In November 2009 twenty Indian national leaders were trained by Wiebe in Silchar, India. Trainees included pastors from Frontier Care Ministries, Wesleyan district superintendents, Wesleyan lay leaders, and representatives from other evangelical groups in East India.

“It has been a great blessing to participate,” said one participant. “Had it not been for the training program, we would have been in complete ignorance and darkness of this heinous crime going on right in front of our face. This training has been an eye opener. We have made a deep commitment to train others.” 

A local pastor who works for World Hope with community health and rural development in eastern India said that the training would help to carry on the ministry in a better and healthier way for the people in east India.

Leaders see benefit

These national leaders are doing strategic planning now to see how they can best care for those who have been trafficked and educate rural communities. 

“Because many of these leaders work with unreached people groups along the Nepal and Bhutan borders, they will be taking the information about human trafficking to at-risk villages,” according to Peterson.

ALIVE’s faith and obedience to initiate this kind of ministry will continue to have far-reaching effects that will not be fully known until we reach heaven. But Peterson insists that some of the effects are tangible right now within the congregation. “This has given a sense of purpose to the unrest and injustice that we felt when we learned about human trafficking. It has been powerful to know that we are a part of what God is doing.”

Alive Still Actively Fighting

ALIVE continues to work against trafficking. The congregation sent two lay people to the Wesleyan Women’s Hands of Hope training in September and are strategic in organizing two fall training events for The Wesleyan Church’s southern area, to be hosted at Southern Wesleyan University. They are also working with the South Carolina branch of Not for Sale, a campaign fighting human trafficking, and partnering with another local church that is actively fighting human trafficking.

Andrea Summers is a writer and member of the adjunct faculty in the adult professional studies program at Indiana Wesleyan University.