Red-Light Rescue
The 'business' of helping the sexually exploited help themselves.
Dawn Herzog Jewell | posted 12/29/2006 09:05AM

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After years of pouring Jesus' love into the lives of Moon and her young family, the Crawfords' team is witnessing a transformation of her entire family system. Moon's husband, who became a Christian four months ago, now reads the Bible to her daily, and local women on the Garden of Hope's staff are teaching Moon to read and write while they disciple her.
Moon, with her knowledge of human trafficking, helps Mark train staff to work with victims of trafficking and exploited street kids. "I cannot teach reading or writing or help in a lot of ways, but I can use my experience to help other girls like me," she says. "I don't want the same thing to happen to them."
Recently, Moon helped rescue Wan, a 16-year-old girl. Wan was dirty, hungry, and wearing a very short skirt while walking the streets near the Thai border. Moon bought her lunch and a soft drink, then heard God telling her to help the girl more.
Wan said her parents had encouraged her to prostitute herself. Minutes before a trafficker arrived to ship Wan to Bangkok, Moon led her to safety at a staff person's house. Moon counseled her during many late nights, and the staff prayed and encouraged Wan until she realized she had other options besides prostitution.
Moon's identity has changed from rescued to rescuer, from victim to counselor, thanks to the Crawfords' ministry and God's redemptive love. But hundreds of thousands of women and girls around the globe are still waiting to escape.
Dawn Herzog Jewell works with Media Associates International, a ministry that trains publishers, editors, and writers around the world. Her forthcoming book, Escaping the Devil's Bedroom, will be released in 2008. She and her husband, Matt, live in Wheaton, Illinois.
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Related Elsewhere:
'Inside CT: Sex Isn't Work' and 'Child Sex Tours' accompanied this article.
Ministries mentioned in the article include:
Business as Mission
Just Food. Inc.
Hagar International
Freeset
The Well
The International Christian Alliance on Prostitution can be reached at contactICAP@gmail.com.
Child Sex Tourism Prevention Project aims to engage citizens against child sex tourism and includes links to law enforcement agencies for reporting abuse of children overseas.
Break the Traffic sponsors an online petition to express solidarity with trafficking victims and to make a statement against human trafficking.
The Salvation Army offers a prayer guide on sex trafficking and prostitution (email: penny_matheson@usn.salvationarmy.org) and also spearheads the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking.
Other Christianity Today articles on prostitution include:
Sex Isn't a Spectator Sport | Germany's World Cup pimping will fuel sex trafficking. A Christianity Today editorial. (July 1, 2006)
Asia: Christian Women Combat Sex Trafficking | Christian women lead girls out of sexual bondage. (October 4, 1999)
Back From the Brothel | Thanks to brave ministries, prostitutes are still entering the kingdom. (January 2005)
Churches Rescue Thailand's Sex Tourism Workers | Protestants and Catholics work against $2.2 billion industry (November 1, 1999)
Angels of the Night | A Chicago street ministry reaches out to male prostitutes working the street. (January 11, 1999)
A Bridge Over Troubled People | Sinners of all stripes find a church home under the I-35. (April 1, 2004)
Fighting the other slave trade | Women against sexual trafficking.(Christian History & Biography, April 1, 2006)