EP. 96: Combating Human Trafficking with Mallory Pickering

Human trafficking isn’t just about abduction—it’s often rooted in relationships, power, and control. In this episode, Mallory Pickering of the Mississippi Coalition Against Human Trafficking shares what trafficking really looks like in Mississippi, from familial exploitation to labor trafficking.

With a compassionate, pastoral lens, Mallory explains grooming, dependency, and why leaving isn’t simple. She also offers practical ways churches and communities can recognize signs, support survivors, and take action.

This conversation brings clarity, compassion, and real next steps for making a difference.

Special thanks to our sponsors: 

Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Mississippi College, Anderson United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Real Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters.

Transcript

Welcome, Mission, And Sponsors

SPEAKER_00 0:12

This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines.

Meet Mallory Pickering

SPEAKER_01 0:28

To Live and Reconcile with your guest host, Nettie Winters, and my special guest, Mallory Pickering. Brian is not going to be with us this morning. He's got some other things that precedent him. And so we're going to go for it this morning. I want to give a shout out to our sponsors, Nissan, St. Dominic Parsipil, Atmos Energy Region Foundation, Mississippi College, Allison United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Rear Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Dark Spowell, Robert Ward, and Ann Winter. We thank those sponsors for our Living Reconcile Podcast, and we're just excited to have them sponsored. If you would like to be a sponsor, a part of the work that we're doing, you can go to missionmississippi.org. That's missionmississippi.org and click on the donate button and uh become a sponsor and partner both of the podcast and the work of Mission Mississippi. This morning I'm excited and really uh happy to introduce our guest this morning, Mallory Pickering. I'm gonna allow her to tell you about herself. But Mallory, welcome this morning.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Thank you. Um, it's good to be here with you. It's an honor.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Right. Well, we're excited about I am, I'm really excited about the the the work that you do and and and and what you're doing because this impacts uh uh perpetually generations uh what's going on. So we're excited about that. So if you would tell the people a little bit about who you are and uh uh your your uh walk with the Lord and so forth, and and uh sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Okay. Well I grew up in Mississippi, uh pastor's daughter, United Methodist pastor's daughter, moved around a good bit, um, felt called to ministry at a young age.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Um you say young need, you're not that old NASA. What is this young age?

Hospice Chaplaincy And Presence

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Well, that's debatable, but um I uh felt called to um minister God's love to people. I feel like my calling is kind of centered on embodying the tenderness of Jesus to those I've come across um very drawn to work in areas of justice and mercy. Before I came to work at the Mississippi Coalition Against Human Trafficking, I was a hospice chaplain for almost seven years. And um it was such a it was such a gift. It was the most joyous thing I've done.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Um unfold that just a little bit for me. You know, you were just uh uh like a ministry or presence, just the the watch and help or or just that's right.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Um, ministry of presence is a good descriptive um word for that. Uh so I would go and to be with people who are dying, um, maybe those who are close to dying, like actively dying, but also those who were months or even sometimes years away from dying. Um in order to go in hospice, you need to have um a predicted death date. That doesn't sound great, but a predicted death.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Well, you know, they predict those dates, they don't always work out.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

But it's been predicting them all about.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Right. But for for Medicare to cover hospice, you need to be um away from death six to twelve months. That needs to be your predicted lifespan by your doctor. But some people end up making it years. I had someone I saw for six years um as a hospice chaplain. Um so I would go to be with the patient and their families and their homes. I was home hospice, and then sometimes that would involve going to nursing homes or assisted living, memory care, also the state hospital here in Mississippi. So, like a wide range of experiences. But it was just such um a privilege and an honor to be with people in such a tender space and just to um to learn from them, to soak up their wisdom.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

So how do they work? You hold a hand, you you sit there, you do you talk, and what what happens during that time while you're there?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

You just have to, you can't plan it, you just gotta roll with it. I learned that early on. I used to like prepare scriptures I was gonna read to everybody, and then a pastor friend of mine said that she thought I was using that as a crutch, and that I just needed to, you know, bring your Bible, go in, but just see where the Holy Spirit leads. Just be so present. It's just being so present that you kind of go roll with what's rolling.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yes, but that's the first time I heard somebody use the Bible as a crutch, but yeah, I can understand the sentiment of that I understand.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Sure. So, like I um, so maybe if a certain scripture came to mind or I felt like I was supposed to read to them a certain scripture, I would do that. Um, but I would generally pray with people, sit with them, sing to them, um a lot of hand holding. But um, yeah, it was um an intimate, special place to be.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Wow, I know it is. Um so you're a pastor's what did you what are what do you call a PK?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Yeah, I'm a PK and I'm about to be commissioned by the United Methodist Church in June. So I will be a reverend myself coming up in a couple of months. You seem like that's exciting.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, you seem like you're excited about that. So tell us uh how did you meet the Lord? How did you get uh uh uh connected with uh Christianity and you know, tell us about your story and how you became a Christian? Let me clear that up.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

How I became a Christian. Um, well, I you know, I was just brought into it from such an early age, being raised in a Christian family, being raised by a pastor. I was baptized as a baby by my grandfather, and I just felt like I knew the Lord. Um even you know, at the age of like four or five, I felt the Lord's presence with me. And I've always, you know, known, I've always been able to, I guess, in my life know that someone was with me, that God was with me, Jesus was with me, the Holy Spirit was like, um, there is this person that I, you know, feel by my side all the time, um, have felt throughout my life, have sensed his presence. And that is what's most compelled me to be a Christian. It's less of an argument or a series of, I don't know, propositional statements, but it's more of just this connection to the Lord that I that I feel that was nurtured in my life from an early age.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Okay. So this this you know, you you you talk about the your your ministry presence and a sense of being there. So you have this compassion like Jesus. I think you made a statement that indicated that you had this compassion toward Jesus. So when did you know that you had this beyond your connection as confessing to Christ at an early age? I when did you feel this connection of knowing that you're that what you're doing now, being divorced for those that don't have a voice and uh seeking justice for them and other things as you're doing that?

Enter Anti-Trafficking Work

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I don't know. It's um I guess it's kind of devolved. When I was about 13, I remember reading 2 Corinthians 5, and where it talks about the ministry of reconciliation and being an ambassador for Christ. And I felt really connected with that. I felt a sense of calling whenever I read that scripture. And I I do think as an adult, that's what motivates me is wanting people to have, even if it's just a slightly cracked open door to God, to Jesus, to come into their lives and to give them meaning and purpose and hope and joy. And as far as compassion, I hope to embody the compassion of Christ. I'm not saying I do or or always do, certainly, but um I do think that that's something that's that's missing sometimes in some Christian circles is just the sense of how much God loves us and how much God understands us, understands our struggles, understands our doubts, and you know, wants to convey his mercy to us. Um not this this harshness. I mean, there are times for for harsh words, like prophetic words. I just feel like for me, God was calling me to embody tenderness. Um and being in hospice ministry, that was a great place to do that because often tenderness is not a good trait to have in our world, or sensitivity is something that you know the world kind of wants to beat out of you. But in hospice ministry, that's a that's a gift that is what you need. So it really felt like such a good fit. And um so, but at the end of close to seven years, I really felt burnt out, honestly, just kind of burned out. I was really tired. Um, and I just felt like I wanted to step back and do something where I had had some distance from the issue that I was working on or the people that I was ministering to. It wasn't like more of an administrative position. I wanted to go, I wanted to leave the field, if you will, and go back to the office. Like I just felt the you know, the ex exhaustion of being with people, you know, in the hospice here. It's intense, it's intense so much. Um there's a lot of conflict, there's you know, family issues, you just wouldn't even believe all the things that can come up. It's not Tuesdays with Maury. I thought it was gonna be Tuesdays with Maury and just holding hands, but there's a lot of um difficult things that arise at the end of life in in families. So there's suicide interventions sometimes, you know, sometimes there's you're exposed to you know, some really bad family dynamics. Sometimes you have to, sometimes there are children who are being harmed, and you have to make a report on children in the family being harmed. And this these are all things that you don't expect, but they're pretty taxing. Um, even just the sights and the smells and um being so close to death and all of the gritty things that come with it. I felt worn out. So anyway, I just started talking with people and looking around, and this job came, this job in human trafficking or anti-human trafficking um came up, and I didn't even know really what human trafficking was. I thought that that involved like taking people across national borders or state lines or something like that. I didn't know that Mississippi, Mississippi has the highest recorded incident rate of human trafficking in the US per capita. So it is very much here. I wasn't aware of it, but I learned so much and found have found my own reasons to want to do this work since I've since I started it, which is a little more than two years ago. Um yeah, so I also didn't realize that when we talk about human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking, we're we're talking about most frequently here at Mississippi, familial trafficking. So the most common form of human trafficking in Mississippi is families who are selling their children um for money for drugs, for money for drugs. Um, this is what's happening. And I felt, you know, I had no idea that that was happening.

Familial Trafficking And Grooming

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Um Yeah, I didn't either. You know, I know about the sex trafficking and you know, young, young uh uh uh children or young teenagers being kidnapped and you know put into uh sex trafficking and all of that, but I didn't realize the majority of it was coming directly from the family. Now you transition out of what I call drama-draining ministry. As it relates to death, how death affects in a I said affect and ineffect people in so many different ways. Uh as a pastor, I've had to minister to folks that you know was dying and then die and then all kind of drama and yeah, difficult. Yeah, you know it. I'm telling you, it's like, really? Is this the same person six weeks ago was talking about how much they love this person and all of this, and then you know, six weeks later they're like at each other's throat. So yeah. So, but isn't it a lot of drama and and and dynamics similar to uh family dynamics especially if they're selling them in the tribe? So tell us more about this how this family thing is is working. Is these uh how do I put this? Is these uh citizens or or immigrants or who are these people that's selling their children? It's it's just common job or just you know, how do how people this is people in Mississippi, just Mississippians.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Um it kidnapping is actually involved in less than 3% of human trafficking crimes. So it's not it's not usually kidnapping. That's that's more of like kind of what the Hollywood version, I guess, of human trafficking is.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

That's the kind of uh attitudes and assumptions that people make that I talk to about it, is thinking it's the Hollywood deal.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Right. It's not, and it's at least not in Mississippi. What law enforcement sees here is largely familial trafficking. The biggest group to be trafficked is is underage females, and they're usually trafficked by their families. If not um their families, it's a romantic partner, or it could be a person in a position of authority, like a teacher or coach or a youth minister who um creates a relationship with them where they trust them. So they um they've created, they'll take time to groom the victim for a they'll take months, maybe even years, to create this relationship where the victim is dependent on them and trust them, and then they'll choose to exploit them. So it's really a crime of relationship, it's called more like domestic violence. Like um there are dynamics already going on in the relationship. There's already a power imbalance, and it makes it difficult for um the person to not do what they're told to do, in other words.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Wow. So how did how do you all help with that?

Survivor Support And Scholarships

SPEAKER_02 17:30

How do you hit specifically how you work at how you could do yeah, and just back to what you were saying about it being a lot of drama? I mean, that's definitely the case. Um, but from where where I'm sitting, I'm usually working on a computer. Now I'm not out there, you know, engaged in any like human trafficking operations that law enforcement would be doing. Our organization is a nonprofit. We provide education about human trafficking, so I'll like go and speak to people about it. And then also we have some survivor programs. Like we will help a survivor, like if there's a survivor who is um receiving help through like a domestic violence shelter or a human trafficking program here in Mississippi and they need help, like they're trying to live independently now, and they don't get enough hours at their job, or they have just some sort of financial obstacle. It could be um a car repair and they need a car to get to work, or a medical bill, they need some kind of help um financially. We can supplement that. We can we can pay for whatever is hindering them from moving forward because if they can't live independently, then they're at a very high risk to going back to a trafficking situation. We also have a scholarship fund. Education is so key, it's so essential to be able to craft a life where you can live independently and you know just have a solid, firm existence um in the world. So being able to help people go back to school is a really gratifying thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Okay, so you you guys help uh recovering uh people that have been rescued out of it to get a fresh start, to get going, and and and so forth uh as it relates to that. And uh well, that's that that's very interesting. And so how how would you educate the typical me fans? I'm ignorant of all of the above. Because I'm thinking you're out there on the front lines. How do you educate us in terms of recognizing to help with it, prevent it, you know, that kind of thing? Do y'all get into it?

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Well, I've never been on the front lines, but our executive director has, and my other coworker has. So I really learn from them and from others who have been on the front lines. So um, and we also we pull upon so many resources and people to help us do this work. We have meetings all over the state where we get together with law enforcement, social workers, service providers, um, people who work at like children's advocacy centers, uh and we talk about what they're seeing, how we can help, how we can bridge gaps in services to survivors. Um so we bring in as many voices as we can, and we try to um close those gaps.

Referrals, Mentoring, And Church Help

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I see. So as I just want to take a hypothetical here. As a as a pastor uh or or as a leader that would want to be involved in this, the partner that you talked about would probably be a great connection to begin to to uh seek out those things and so forth. But we'd first start with you. If if if in fact I come to let me put it another way. If in fact I know of some people that have been involved with this or a person and they need help, I could refer them to you. How would that work?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Well, the best place to refer them probably would be to um a program like a human trafficking program or a domestic violence shelter if they needed some kind of immediate need. And then from that point, we wouldn't necessarily work directly with them. We would someone from that organization would call us to arrange services for that person.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Um, we're starting a mentoring program this year, and so we'll be looking for recommendations from people who've worked with human trafficking survivors. Um, we need them to refer people, refer people to our program, and then from that point, we have trained mentors, very well-trained mentors who will um walk with them. And I would say along the lines of pastors, we we love for pastors and other community leaders to come to our meetings and to learn how they can get involved. I speak to a lot of churches. I love um I love speaking to churches and determining how they can be a part of the effort to support survivors. Um, I know my church, Hawkins United Methodist Church in Vicksburg. We have a sewing group right now, and they're making quilts for um survivors who are living in a home for girls. We have our organization started a home for girls. It's the first one in Mississippi underage victims of human trafficking. And um, so that's some that's one way that the church is being a part of that. And they've also raised money for the organization. So there are ways for people to get involved. The mentoring program is a good way for people in churches to um to be a part, if they want to go through that training. Um, you know, they can be paired with someone to mentor. And that's a bit more, that's a bit more hands-on. And that's a bit more hands-on than anything we've done so far, but we're really looking forward to it.

Labor Trafficking And Signal Case

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Okay. Uh so talk about, you know, we talked about the sex, you know, you're your human trafficking, you your coalition against human trafficking. So what else involves and you know, beyond the sex thing, what else is involved in human trafficking? They recruited.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Okay, well, there's also there's also labor trafficking, and that means that the person is being used for labor of some kind. We see that in Mississippi, like in construction, restaurants, agriculture, those are some of the fields where labor trafficking uh might be happening. It's probably just as prevalent as sex trafficking, but it is really hard to get good data um about human trafficking. It's often underreported. You won't know until years later. I always tell this story about um in Pascagoula after Hurricane Katrina. So that's been 20 years ago. It's hard to believe, but there was a company there that uh hired Indian male workers. So they went, they were, they were charged with rebuilding damaged oil rigs along the coast, along the Gulf Coast, Alabama and Mississippi. They went to India and they recruited these 500 Indian males. They said, if you um pay us anywhere between$10,000 and$20,000, they could come here and work for work for them and that they would receive a green card. So they would have a permanent citizen status um in the U.S. Well, that's not what happened at all. So these people, you know, paid this fortune. And when they got here, they weren't given a green card. They were given a temporary work visa that bound them solely to work for this one company, Signal International. And then they were taken to live in what the company called man camps, and that was just like a bunch of trailers um with barbed wire surrounded them, guarded trailers where they were where they were sleeping a lot of men to one trailer, really bad, um, really bad conditions. They were fed moldy bread, frozen rice to eat. Um, from their paychecks, they had to pay a thousand dollars each month for those conditions that they were living in. And they couldn't go anywhere without a guard. Like they needed to go to Walmart just to get some personal supplies, they were a guard went with them. So that's an example of labor trafficking that happened in Mississippi, and I didn't even know about it um until I started working here.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

But um let me let me get this straight. The people in India paid to come here with the promise of working and getting a green card. And when they got here, they uh uh they didn't get the green card, but they did get work, and then they had to pay for the living conditions and for uh whatever they needed to live and and to breathe. Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

So what I it was this it was a scam, and it's actually illegal to go and make someone pay, like for job recruiters, that's illegal. But um, what happened eventually was that one of them got in touch with a nonprofit that specializes in labor trafficking, and they helped them escape, and they went the the case was actually taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, and they were they won a victory over that company. And of course, it took several years. But um, there's actually been a book written about it. It's called The Great Escape, and there's MPR has done a number of pieces about it as well, if anybody's interested in learning more about that. You know, it's it's so interesting that this happened in um in a coastal town, and I'm from the coast originally, and uh, you know, I just had no idea anything like that was going on. So I'm sure there are a lot of things right now that we just don't know are happening.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Well, that just man, I just I can't comprehend a company being able to do that with all the supposedly checks and balances and laws of bringing people in and out of the United States and all the things that but I guess with with a company like that 20 years ago, I guess those things were possible. Just and I'm sure there are other well other forms of of labor trafficking in uh beyond that.

Smuggling, Debt Bondage, And Exploitation

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Sure. Um, I think that people who are foreign nationals, they're immigrants, you know, this happens a lot with people from Central America. They don't know the laws. So they don't know that they shouldn't be paying$10,000 or$20,000 to come here. They don't they don't know what their rights are, so it's very easy to bring people in from other places and then exploit them. I mean, if you think about they're not they don't know our our language a lot of times. They're they're relying on us, they're in a weaker, vulnerable position. Um, and then people can really take advantage of them. Uh, like for instance, I was speaking to a group on the coast not long ago, and it was a group of Spanish speakers, so I would speak, and then someone was there to translate, and someone there shared that their husband works around the clock, and he doesn't, she feels like the situation is is bad for him. He didn't, he wasn't given a work contract. There's no set number of hours, there's no set like dollar amount per hour that he's supposed to get paid. Well, you know, we would know from being here how things should go, you know, that there should be this agreement, this working agreement. But um somebody coming from somewhere else may not know exactly how they should be treated or how they can expect to be treated. So, yeah, that's a tough situation. They're definitely at a higher risk for both sex and labor trafficking um than citizens are.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Well, I knew that uh I was somewhat aware, at least uh uh understanding that there are people that come here illegally. And those because they're here illegally, they want to stay on the radar and they will be exploited and taken advantage of and and and and treated in in those ways. But company uh doing that wholesale is like, wow, yeah, that's that's great information to know and know that it's happening. And if it was happening 20 years ago, I'm I'm almost certain when I see people. In fact, I walked through the neighborhood this morning and I saw uh what I know uh uh uh uh not native American citizens working in trees and rooftops and things, and uh it never occurred to me that there might be um traffic, labor trafficking going on there.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah, it could be. You know, and it it happens to people who come here illegally, but also just to people who who do have legal status here.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

I'm saying both.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Um yeah. So and sometimes um people think that human trafficking is smuggling or is the same thing as smuggling, but it's not it's not the same thing if someone wants to come here and they're brought over a border. However, it can turn into to human trafficking. So sometimes like Central America, if someone's in Central America, they will hire what is called a coyote to bring someone across the border. Maybe it's their teenage child and they want them to escape a bad situation or they want them to, they think they're gonna have, they're gonna come here and get an education or be able to make a lot of money, whatever the reason. They'll send, they'll pay a coyote, this a person, to smuggle them across the border. Well, then they get here and they'll say, you know, your family didn't pay enough. They'll come up with some story on why they need more money from that person. So sometimes teenagers will even be, they'll be working, they won't be in school, they'll be working off a debt to a coyote. Um, and the debt never goes away. It's uh just it's bondage. They're kept in a situation. You know, their family thought one thing and then got here, they were exploited, and so now they're working around the clock and they're not getting paid for it because this person is telling them, you know, you owe me. And then and then they're in a bad situation, right? Because if they're not here legally, it's not like it's easy, it's not easy for them to reach out to law enforcement at that point. So it's a bad situation to be in.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yeah, they're not gonna chase down the first peace sank, police precinct, and deport these people. Because in doing so, they'll get um they'll get deported. Deported back to where it came from and end up with the situation started with. But this, I guess, in some sense, this thing of slave labor gives them some hope of at least eventually getting out of it because they keep telling them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Yeah. Sound like that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Sound like in the old days, uh what sharecropping used to be, people would sign up and be a part of that and never get out of debt, never pay it off. Right. They'd end up escaping in some form or fashion. So yeah. Who would have thought that would be going on in Mississippi? Or any other place for that matter?

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Or even in the US, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

And so labor trafficking and sex trafficking, there are other exports of how we we're exploiting human beings?

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Any others?

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Well, sometimes like we talk about domestic servitude, and it can kind of fall under labor trafficking as well, but that's like when someone hires a housekeeper or maid and they're not leak they're not here legally, and then maybe they're not here legally, or for some other reason, they're able to keep them in the position where they don't get to leave and they aren't and they aren't treated well. Um that happens sometimes too.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

So um there are agencies out there. Would you name those agencies again that if if uh as a as a pastor, as a leader or as a person would recognize some of the conditions that would would appear to be illegal or uh in trafficking or whatever else, where would they go? How would they report it?

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Okay, well, the the best way to report it would be to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Um, I can give you that number.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

Well, it's posted on your website, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Yeah, it's on our website.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

So give them your website and information about where they can go on your website and get information.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Okay, well, our website is www.nomoreht as in nomorehuman trafficking.org. Nomoreht.org. So you'll find the human trafficking hotline number. You can also call the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation if you know of something specific going on. There is a human trafficking unit there, and they will go and investigate uh leads that they that they're given. So that's another place to go. If you have someone who's been in a situation, they're not in it anymore. Like they've gotten out of it. It's not an ongoing, you know, it's not a situation where you need law enforcement to go and get them out. They're just out of it now and they're trying to recover. The tower in Pearl is a great place to go for human trafficking support. Also, Catholic charities here in Jackson, Transformation Garden and Tupelo, Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence on the Coast, or just several, those are several places that we work with who um where you can come and stay and go through um some healing and recovery at their facilities.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

And you guys do a lot of good education and and uh awareness work, as I understand.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

I think so. I'm passionate about that because especially as somebody who just came into this really ignorant about what this was like, I think it's uh it empowers everyone to be able to have the information and to be able to understand the experience of survivors. Um, I think it's really important to share stories about how people are manipulated or forced, coerced into this type of situation and why it's very difficult for them to leave, even if they aren't chained up, which most of them are not chained up. It's very difficult for them to get out of these situations. So just meeting some survivors and hearing their stories is very eye-opening and cultivates compassion and empathy. So I'm glad to be able to shine a light on what people are going through.

Water Story And Christian Responsibility

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Okay. Um I I I think I want to put a bow on this because you shared a lot of good information and uh you've opened my eyes to uh understanding this thing about trafficking beyond the sex trafficking, beyond the the things that I thought about. Uh, well, this you call it Hollywood, you know, in terms of people, you know, I hear about people getting kidnapped in parking lots and other things, and you know, even young teenage women getting um seduced into um, I guess pimp prostitute relationship kinds of things and stuff like that. I heard about all of those things, but this thing of family.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

And often that that's a cycle, you know, later they may be in a situation where they're being pimped out by um by someone they meet. Maybe they think they're in love with the person, maybe it's gang related. They may end up in that situation later, and that could have started at home. So that's something we see too is the situation started at home. They're taught how they are to be treated. They're taught this is what you're worth, you're worth being treated like this. And then throughout their adult life, they're replicating that because that's what they've learned. I want the world to know, this is kind of random, but I there's this graduation speech by I think his name is David Foster Wallace, but um, he tells the story of their there are these two little fish, they're swimming in the ocean, and an older fish comes by and he says, Good morning, boys. The water feels great today, doesn't it? And he swims off. And then one of the little fish says to the to the other one, What is water? When I heard that story, I it really makes a lot clearer to me. When we're born into Mississippi, when we're born into the U.S., we're born into the 2000s, we're not just coming to an empty space, we're born into a context, we're born into a community and a context that has its own set of struggles. So I feel like the Lord invites us to be a part of this time right now for a reason, to change how stories have been written, to write better stories going forward, to liberate people, to bring people together, to bring wholeness and shalom to the earth. So we're all called to just be here, be in the fight, and you know, do what we've been given to do in our time.

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Thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippi.org or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.