No More Games

In this episode, I talk with Sariah, who is an author and an advocate speaker creating awareness on human and sex trafficking. Sariah describes the problem in detail, highlighting several incidents from her story, with a particular focus on the major causes and consequences of trafficking.

Episode Key points:

[00:05] Introducing our guest today, Sariah Hastings. 

[01:38] Did you have an "it might be me" moment?

[02:25] Sariah's backstory of physical and sexual abuse. 

[13:47] You have to come to the end of yourself.

[24:09] Sariah discusses more in detail the world of human and sex trafficking.

[42:22] The impact of Sariah's ordeal on her Family. 

[49:09] Advice from Sariah to listeners.

[50:21] How to contact Sariah

Connect: 

Find | SARIAH HASTINGS

Website: www.sariah.info 

Facebook: Sariah Lanae Hastings

Instagram: Sariah Lanae Hastings

Podcast: No more Games

Book: No More Games

Find | IT MIGHT BE YOU

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Leah McIntosh  0:01  
Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of It Might Be You. Today I have guest Sariah Hastings. She's the author, and a advocate speaker, how are you today? I am well, how are you? I am great. I'm excited that you're here. And then I get to hear your story. Just because the little bit that I've have seen, I know is going to be impactful. So with that, you want to share a little bit about you.

Sariah Hastings  0:34  
Yes, well, good evening, good morning, wherever you lovely people are at. My name is sariah Hastings, I am a survivor or an actual actually I call myself an overcomer of human trafficking. I was trafficked in the United States for almost 20 years. And I have been out of that lifestyle for almost 10. So I am 35 years old. So that kind of gives you an idea of how long and when I started it. I now work with women and I have written a book about my life, and how I got out and I now speak about in bringing awareness and different things to the light of what human trafficking looks like in United States.

Leah McIntosh  1:25  
Awesome. So let's kind of start on packing a heavy, you know, heavy topic. So did you have it might be me moment, or just the combination of your whole experience.

Sariah Hastings  1:48  
My, if I was done with it all was when I found out I was pregnant again. And when I called my, my my pimp or they call it a trafficker, but my pimp, and I told him that I was pregnant, and he said to me, I don't care. Where's my 15 $100? That was my it moment. Yeah, that was my moment. Yeah. And

Leah McIntosh  2:21  
so yeah, um, so, okay. As you're telling Elena, so you started getting traffic at five years old.

Sariah Hastings  2:40  
So at the age of two, I got molested. Okay, so I was groomed from the age of two to the age of, I was raped at 12. So to the age of 12. So from the age of two to the age of 12, I was molested by family members, close family members, distant family members, friends of the family, you name it. And then when I turned 12, that's when I was considered the whole or the, the easy. girl in my city. So from the age of 12, to the age of 18, I was basically sleeping with everyone. And the guys were passing money, but I never got any money. So that's where the grooming and the conditioning and the thought process of Okay, this is supposed to happen, because I was told at a very young age that the only way I would ever be married is if I was having pimpin heart relationship. So that was my that was my upbringing, you know, between that in being called fat and marred in all different types of names by my family, because my family said, I want you to hear from us so that you know how to deal with the kids on the streets.

Leah McIntosh  4:12  
So with that, where were you raised in a two parent home? Yes. And two parents into up who hold type, like

Sariah Hastings  4:28  
that. So, so my mom, my mother works and my father had a bunch of women that would come through and give him money.

Leah McIntosh  4:38  
So he was a pimp. Sounds like in some form or fashion. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Oh, good. This is a lot. This is a lot to unpack.

Sariah Hastings  4:50  
Usually, I'd say this a lot of people when they start to try to unpack my whole story. I come You know, it's only an hour Yeah.

Leah McIntosh  5:00  
Can you eat no like it? Yeah, the fact I'm just thinking about how young you were. And like you said, you were groomed and conditioned to believe that you're worth, or that really that you had no worth.

Sariah Hastings  5:17  
Right, I was only good to lay on my back. That was what I was told by my mother, that I would only be good to lay on my back.

Leah McIntosh  5:26  
Wow.

So you said in the beginning that well, how did you meet? Or how many pimps Did you have throughout this?

Sariah Hastings  5:37  
I lost, I lost count. I didn't live in 33 different states. So I didn't lost count. You know. And so, when, when I first started when I officially and I put that in my book, in the very first page of the first chapter, I put that I officially became a prostitute in a team, meaning I got raped by three men, and one chose me. And when he chose me, he brought me to his house. And then that's when I started working the streets and walking up and down the streets and making money. And that's was that was it. That was it, that was all that was my life. That was my life, you know, and so, you know, I traveled I will leave one pimp and I would get to, you know, he will do something or he will say something, you know, I've written my most horrific. My was, you know, there's two horrific things that have happened to me in in human trafficking. One was when I was putting a tub full of ice, water, and I had to be in there for over four hours, and I was banging my head against the wall in the hotel room. And the pimp said, If I don't stop that he was going to kill me, because I wasn't quiet and then maybe stand in front of the air conditioner naked, and took pictures of me and put my pictures on, on the internet. And then the other time was when I got stranded in a city and I, I don't even remember the dude's name. And this guy came after I called them, took me to an abandoned house and raped me. And then I, you know, ran out. Because they said, they were gonna make money for me, you know, I had to make money for them. And they, they rate me and then I left the house. And when I got out, they started shooting at me. And so I had to duck and dive because I was trying to get out. So those are my two horrific situations that I have personally experienced, you know, the beating the slapping the knife pulling out on me that guns pulled out. That's that was normal. But the most horrific, you know, I've had pepper sprayed, you know, at me and stuff. That's, you know, but those are the two most horrific situations, you know, and then I had people that I, you know, was on the street with, you know, and I write it in my book that I saw, grow, give birth, you know, her, her pimp gave her drugs. She was due, he gave her drugs, told her go back, go on the street, go make her make as money. And she gave birth to a baby on the street. It was raining. Never forget that night. It was raining. And I couldn't help or I had to walk away. I had to keep going. Because I would have got in trouble.

Leah McIntosh  8:24  
So how did you cope? You know, how did you cope with

Sariah Hastings  8:30  
it a lot of crystal meth. And a lot of I did a lot of crystal meth some so uh, Pam's you know, I was talking to somebody the other day, and I was telling them, you know, that some of my friends wouldn't allow me to use drugs. So I had to just like, deal with the fact that I'm laying on my back and all these men's are coming through, and then I would sneak out and try to find it. And then I would get in trouble from my parents because I didn't. Or, you know, so I found a way to get drugs, you know, and stuff, but it was, you know, someone pimps didn't like it, and I would get beat for doing it. And some of them allowed me to, and it was like, okay, you know, so, it's, it was a whole it was something that was normal. Because that's how I grew up. You know, so it was it was, you know, I felt like no one who would want me because, you know, I have family members close family man is my mother telling me all in good lay on my back. I got my father telling me the only way I'm gonna get married, would be in a pivotal relationship. So why would I believe anybody else who would tell me no, you're worth something when somebody that that is that close to me, tell me what I'm supposed to, you know, what's gonna happen to me? And so, you know, for, for a lot of reasons, and I tell a lot of people that the reason why women Get involved in human trafficking is because that as a child, they've either been abandoned. They've been abused emotionally, mentally, physically, or they have been through a situation that they can't cope with. You know, they have been traumatized because they've seen something. When you hear people call you different names all the time, you then think that that's what you are. There's a scripture in the Bible, it says that your tongue holds life and death, what you say about somebody determines on how they're going to be affected for the rest of your life. You know, people don't understand that. You could, that's why I tell people, you know, a gun, man who cares, I you know, I go, the other night, I went to go get girls off the sheet, just pick them up off the sheet, just come on, you want to leave, let's go, like, you know, just walk up to them. And just let's go. Because what's the way you know, what a guns you know, what are knives wouldn't when you cut me, whatever, that's physical. That's, that's, that's something that's on my skin. But when you say words to somebody, yeah, that holds more weight in someone's life than anything. And then that's when they think that that's what they are.

Leah McIntosh  11:24  
Yeah. And I'm glad you touched on that, because from the age of zero to seven is the imprinting stage. And for you to have had to enter the amount of trauma that you you had to take from, you know, two to 12 year olds identity was shifted in that, you know, right, whatever they were saying to you, that was your beliefs and values were ingrained at that young age. And I can attest to that, because I was molested from I can't remember what, what ages started. But I know it stopped around seven or eight, I think I can't even remember. I know that I blocked out a lot of my childhood. And so big chunks of time or me are gone. And I'm like, I think it stopped. It could start at 10 I don't even remember. And I know that that's just my mind protected me. And so what you just said about guns and knives, and you know, making those scars, the physical scars, what people don't realize are how deep the you're the words that people tell you in the beliefs. Those are so much more impactful. And it takes so much more to get rid of those. For me, my like my ego. My it might be me moment. I didn't even realize that some of the patterns that I kept playing over and over were because of what happened to me as a kid. And so with that, how did you start healing from that? Or, you know, this is a it's a journey, because you'll never truly be completely and utterly healed. I mean, that's still part of who we are.

Sariah Hastings  13:35  
But well, I'm actually I'm all I gotta I gotta tell you, that's not that's not entirely true. Because that's not who I am. You know, you you got to, you have to come to the end of yourself. And that's what I deal with. I deal with women who want to come to the end of themselves, like they done, they don't with everything they done. And for me, I was done. You know, ripping around the country, you know, moving and I tell them I used to tell people I'm the most richest homeless person ever because I would The only difference between me and a homeless person is I was staying in hotel rooms. While I had people staying in houses. I was paying for my pimps to live in houses with their, you know, come to find out their wives and children I'm paying for while I'm staying in the hotel trying survive in a hotel room. And that's why I tell people that's what the difference between people when they say that there are some viver an overcomer there's a difference because you survive that lifestyle you to get to where we are where you are. That means you've survived that. Yeah, you know, people read my book and they say sariah I can't make it through. I see what you mean. You can't make it through. I lived it. I made it through. If I can make it through. You can Read an hour and a half of it. You know, it's, it's not a, something that you're dealing with that you know, and it's a it's a year and a half snippet of my life where I lived all my life, you know, and so when, when I came to the, to the end of myself and I said, All right, I met a woman, you know, I came out to New England and I met a woman. And I told her, you know, I wanted to abort my child because I was pregnant. I want love that I just I was done. I didn't want nothing. I had left my other kid, I just didn't want nothing. And she convinced me and then she told me about Jesus Christ. And I said, Okay, what's the worst case scenario? What's worse, we won't happen. I then tried every man and ended everything. Okay, let's get what's gonna happen, but my life is gonna stay the same. I mean, I didn't slept under a freeway having rats run past me and slept on the beach. I didn't had a heart attack. I didn't get it all. Everything that happened to me. So Well, okay, what what's this man, Jesus going to do something different. Okay, let's try them out. And that's really how I said it is like, Okay, let's try it. And from that moment on, my life has changed. And I can literally tell you, I am not that same person. Yeah, there's, I, you know, I went and went the other day, because I got a phone call a mother called me, she goes, please get my child out of out of out of this. And I said, Okay. And I said, Give me 48 hours, let me figure out, let me put some stuff together. Because I, you know, I have a nonprofit organization that I started to where I go out, and I get women off the streets and stuff and men and children. And I said, Okay, let me let me put something together. And, you know, let you know what's going on. And in 48 hours, I had me and my crew, we went out. And they said, How are we going to do this? I said, I'm a poor off the street, if I see are more poor off the street, they're like, suraiya. They're like, but you're like, I said, What? And I went, and I couldn't find her. But I told him, I said, I'm not going to waste my time. So we drove around, and I saw girl walking, I hopped up the car, and I started talking to her. And literally, I wrote it in my, my, on my Instagram and Facebook, I said, I just saw death. she smelled like death, you know, I just smelled death again. And when I took a whiff of that death smell, it reminded me of where I came from. Because I literally was death. Like I had no, I had no joy. I had no love. I didn't love myself. I didn't love no one I didn't want to live I had tried to commit suicide so many times. I just didn't want. And I saw that in this woman that I was talking to. And she goes, how can he do this? He's having sex with another woman right now. And sending me pictures. How can I do this? For years, I said, Honey, I've been there 20 years was with one of my pins for five I said, I've been there. I have a kid I don't know how to take care of I want to be a mom. I said I've been there too.

You know, when when you start hearing women cry out and saying I want help. But at the same time they so hooked on to the drug and they so they said I can't leave them. I can't leave up in person I understand. at a time. I used to say the same thing. I can't leave them. everybody around me will tell me he's not good. He's not I can't leave him. I can't leave him. You know, and that's when when people have to realize when you want to officially change your life. And you want to let go of the past to move forward. That's when and you know, I tell everybody you could be whatever religion. That's where I literally can say Jesus Christ has changed my life. Because I was told I would never graduate from college. I would never amount to nothing or anything. My parents were telling me this, you will never amount to anything. And yet, I'm 35 with an associate's degree from a Bible College. They said that I wouldn't be able to read write talk, but yet I have a book that I didn't published. There are things that people will say, but God is greater. God, Jesus Christ is greater than what people will say about you. And so when you know PTSD came into my life because I had it in the beginning. I was very Are you having to PT you know, PTSD was very heavy and stuff. I tell you, I haven't had a PTSD moment, even with going out and gang going back into that lifestyle and trying to get these women out. I am had PTSD in almost 10 years. aireon you know, drugs you don't, you don't need nothing like that, at the end of them tell you there's a scripture that says that he renews your mind. He renews your mind. Well, how does he renew your mind? you when you read Jesus, when you read the words, he waters you and he constantly reforms you and renews you. So I'm not you know, even today, you know, even after all that one of the one of my bosses came to me today and they were like, you exude so much love and just mind you the moment and they've read my story and then go, we don't understand how you can have this much love and this much excitement and joy and laughter and have a smile on your face like you do every day. From the lifestyle you came from. And I tell people to aim me as Jesus Christ, because he gives me his joy. So when you're not having joy is because of the fact that you're you're, you're, you're not fully full, you're not fully allowing yourself to heal from that lifestyle. Like you said, there are things in your mind that you've blocked out, mentally blocked out. And so there were so much stuff that I blocked out, that was through the through the Word of God that it's opened up. I mean, I even I even wrote in my book, a live experience that was going on. In 2019. I had, I had to have a major surgery that I take out of ovary. And when I came out of surgery, it was like the whole, like, I had a word just hit me boom, Grace. And I said, Whoa, said what? They said you never received great. So how can you give Grace? Right? Because literally, I sat them I thought about it. There was days times years that I used to beg my pimps, please live and I don't want to have sex today. Please let me not do this, please. I just want to lay here, please. I don't feel good. No, you have to you have to they didn't care. There was no grace. It was a dog eat dog world, you do what you got to do to get where you got to go. And so when I sat there, and all this, you know, years a you know, a few years had been going on and I was working this program and stuff and I was you know, helping on and, and the director of the program kept on telling me sariah Grace, Grace, and I was like I'm giving grace. And it hit me boom, you can't give grace because you've never saved grace. So you don't know what grace looks like?

Leah McIntosh  23:07  
Yeah.

Sariah Hastings  23:11  
So when that happened, then I wrote that in my book. And that's how my book came about. Because there's a lot of ways the way the book came about. But that was the way of the theme of it. At the end of the day, the woman who got caught in adultery. They want to stone her and kill her. But Jesus said, He who has no sin cast the first stone will Can't nobody throw stones because they're Baden sin. Yeah. And then he says, Go, you know, he goes, where's your accusers that go and sin no more. Go and sin no more mean going, go and live a life, knowing who you are, where you came from, but don't sin and continue to do that same thing over and over again. You know, and that's, that's where I have to try to help people understand. Human Trafficking, can be demolish, if people start really focusing on how they treat their children and how they talk to each other. The hip hop world is the hype of everything is the floodgates of this society. When you look at what the Chris Brown and and all these rappers and all if you look at their videos, they got half naked women. Yeah. And they and they got Sex, drugs and violence is what they and what is what they promote. And then you look at these and you look at these rules. For women who are rappers and all this, and they degrade the way they talk, and there is no respect about themselves and all and they just start cursing, and they, they like I feel so I told somebody I said there is 1000 words that you can express show yourself without cursing. You don't have to excel, you don't have to do that. Because it makes it don't make you look like you educated and make like it. There's something about those that like really like you, that's all you can come out with. And so you, you, you do all that, and then this world is the way it is. Because they want the Fast Money, the fast cars and the girls. So then you wave society, right? And then you sit there and then you know, people don't people get mad at me because I say at the end of the day, a strip club is where you have human trafficking men or women. And I've had people are you know, that's not true. Oh, really. But yet I have organizations that I'm connected with that go into strip clubs to get these women out. Because they're being human traffics II, because they say, Oh, no, it's a job and they want to do it. And they want to do this. Not a lot of women want to take their clothes off and be half naked in front of people.

Leah McIntosh  26:23  
Yeah. And see, I never would have thought about that being kind of like a bedrock for human trafficking. I wouldn't just kind of assume that. Oh, they must want to do it. But when you say it like, No, no, no. Right. And then people don't realize that some of those women, they get their money. And the minute they hit their head, they got to give it to their pimp.

Sariah Hastings  26:50  
But you will never see the pin. You never see them. You never see see the woman you know, or when people watch porn, because in 2020 since everybody got to be locked down. Now you got to deal with a high there's a high spike that went to pornography. Well, you're just now you're promoting human trafficking. Because most of those women are being human traffic's. That's not the Oh, yeah. Who wants to lay on the back? It has sex with all different types of men. Right? I mean, really, I remember I went to a doctor's because one of my pension I needed to go and get checked to make sure that everything was straight. And the woman asked me how many men you know how many men you've been so you know, sexually active with this, you know, this past few few weeks. And I looked at her I said in the last three weeks, and I told her, I said no lot, almost 3000 men, and 90, and 90% of them were without condoms.

Leah McIntosh  27:59  
Oh my gosh,

Sariah Hastings  28:01  
cuz I'm walking up and people don't not realize, literally, when you walk up a street. I was getting 567 dates on one side of the street, that's 20 minutes. 20 minutes, seven days, come walk back up another Street and I'm on the street for 10 hours, do the math and do it for 667 days a week it was every single day thing. This ain't no like, okay, work a nine to five, five days a week. And you got two days off? No, every single day. And you got to make quotas. And you got to do this. And you got to do that. And this is how you could this is where you could be this is how you're going to just this is how you're going to walk. This is what you're going to eat. This is what you're going to do.

Leah McIntosh  28:46  
So okay, so I have a question. How, how were the checks and balances was was the pimps out there riding or

Sariah Hastings  28:57  
they ride around, they drive around, I used to get in trouble because I can't make eye contact with Hampson and stuff, but I'm trying to pay attention to the cars but I can't look at the certain cars and stuff not realizing what car it is and stuff like that. But their their pimps are riding around because they all circulate him to make sure that the girls are doing what they're supposed to be doing. And then you got to women have to look down. So here like I tell everybody, everybody's so gung ho about domestic violence women. But when it comes to human trafficking, they want to be quiet. If you take away the money, if you take that main thing out, you have the same situation.

Leah McIntosh  29:43  
What is the same situation? Because you're the woman's not getting the money, right? The money she's getting abused by people. So I look but no,

Sariah Hastings  29:56  
but nobody looking like that don't know where to look. Human trafficking is similar and almost in line with domestic violence. When you see a woman walk down with her eyes down and she don't look up at nobody, she makes very short conversation. Usually they're like, Oh, she must be, you know, in the domestic situation. Well, guess what? When you're in human trafficking, I remember I had to go to the hotel room and I had to look down. Women were in then they told me Okay, yeah, go to the bathroom, got to look down, go in the bathroom going, standing there can't sit wait till he come give me I can't look down the women. They're not a part of my family. Because there's families and stuff and he's the daddy and I got family and I got white feeds and who's what and where? and all that kind of crazy stuff. Nowadays, they didn't the pimps didn't switched up their whole game. I you know, because everywhere you know, I'm going and stuff and getting these women they're telling me Oh, no, I don't have a pimp. I have a boyfriend. Which is so funny, because I didn't catch on to it until I realized right before I ended, you know, and left out of the battle. I call it the game. That's why I say no more games. That's why it's it's my books called no more games, I left the game, because it's a manipulating game that they play. And I remember at the very end, I remember one of my pimp said, I was like you, I was like, You will pay for you pay for me. Oh, he goes, I'm not you're paying for I'm your boyfriend. But still did the same things that people do take the money, tell me when to go dead and all things. But they just changed it. I'm your boyfriend.

Leah McIntosh  31:32  
Just change the label. Yes. Yep. So I want to I want to kind of backtrack, because it's just been on my mind. What cost your pill to put you in a ice bath. for that long. What was the punishment?

Sariah Hastings  31:58  
Yeah, that was a punishment. And I explained that in my book. So what happened is, I was speaking to my pimp on the phone, and I had got pepper sprayed, and I couldn't see. And I made it to a McDonald's and I was crying. I was begging them. I said, Please, can somebody just give me something so I could put on my eyes. I just got pepper sprayed, and stuff. And so I they threw some they gave me milk, I throw it on my eyes and stuff like that. And I was begging my pimp on the phone to please send somebody to help me. He never did. And I still had to go and make money that night. So the next night he called and I had him, I was on the streets. pimps were riding around in their cars and things like that. And I was yelling him out on the phone. And I was like, how dare you? You left me and data that and this then third. So he wasn't around. So he had his cousin to watch me for the night or whatever. And so I'm in the hotel room, and his cousin tells me go in the bathroom. And I was like, but he goes go on the bathroom. I said hi. So he goes in the bathroom. And he says don't leave this spot. So I'm sitting in the bathroom, he comes back with bags of ice. Oh my god. And he comes in he pours the bags of ice in the tub. He turned on the cold water. And he says give him the tub. Make it had a gun. Again, tub naked. I sat there. I was my mind. I mentally made myself think that I was not saying ice tub. And I said okay, and I lasted for about a good two, three hours. The last hour I just started paying because I had I couldn't bear the cold anymore. My body had just got cold. So then finally they He told me to get out. And then he put me in front of the air conditioner for about like another hour or so. took pictures of me. And then my pimp called and told me he goes he's he says to me, he goes lay down. He goes warm up so you go out there and make money.

Leah McIntosh  34:21  
Wow. That's just like, didn't understand you could have died of hypothermia. I mean, there's so many things that could have went wrong with it. And so yeah. And another thing you touched on was having a family like we're there. Did you ever have a pimp that was a woman?

Sariah Hastings  34:54  
Did I ever have a pump? That was one so did I have a madam? No. I'm mad. I'm trying To a woman tries to be my pimp. No, however, I have pimped out women. I have been a matter of before I've been on both sides being in that lifestyle for 20 years, almost 20 years. You go on both sides and flip flop recruit women for Pam for my pamper whatever better bottom. Better wifey better Madame. Better running Renegade. All that stuff I've been I've been off you know? My the one I was recruiting the women they would get mad at the pimps would get mad at me because I would tell the girls Yo, you don't have to work tonight. It's telling me Oh, you don't have to work tonight. Go to sleep, sleep sleep. You don't have to work tonight. All day we get so mad. And I'll tell him I said why we why we work and I said the hotel room pay for the next full days. Yeah, let's get a day off. Like why are we working? And then we get mad, I will get in trouble. But I would but they you know, because some some some places that have Madams are the high rank. And that's it stops there. But some who are Madams quote unquote, they still have a pimp above them. You know, it all depends on where you're at and what you're doing. And if you're like on calls, you know, call Sir, you know, escort services, call services, whatever you want to call it, you know, or if you're on, you know, different sites and stuff and everything, you know, where you're at in the United States. You know, a lot of people think that, um, there's so many hotspots, you know, there's so many major hotspots you got Florida, New York, DC, Chicago, Detroit, Vegas, California, they're all considered hotspots, but people don't realize like, I live in New England and I run I run all through all six days try and get women off the streets. And they they say oh, New England they're there. That doesn't happen New England. Oh, no. What happens is they recruit the women from New England and then they take them down to Florida faily

Leah McIntosh  37:22  
So how does this grooming and recruitment happen? Are you talking about women that are grown or teenage girls it could be both Wow, okay.

Sariah Hastings  37:40  
I used to I have the the dude that put me in the hole in the in the tub. He had two girls one was 15 one was 16 or they were turning someone was turning 17 something like that. But they were they were young I got beat up for them because I'll try and get them out they went back to him and I had I got beaten up the whole is I've I've passu with was 45 years old. So this is it. It all depends and then you got to understand that the grooming comes when Mike one of my parents used to say oh I love you. You beautiful Wait what? You think I'm beautiful? Wait My family has all told me that I will never I'm not I'm ugly. I'm fat I'm this you saying? I'm beautiful.

Leah McIntosh  38:32  
Right? They tell you what you want to hear.

Sariah Hastings  38:37  
And then when people don't realize like that's why I tell people what you say to your children the words that you say carry more weight than anything because at the end of the day a man could walk up to a girl and say all baby girl which is the universal language you know I did that the other day to grow the beard I just walked up to baby girl She made me look at me me and talk to me and stuff like that and I knew both okay you all up in you is part of human trafficking. Okay? That's universal word baby girl. Oh baby girl You're so cute. You must shorty as they say in the south you must show me Show me Well no, I shall show it but you hear that y'all do Southern ADO from the south say that to a girl that's heavy said low have low self esteem. Oh al shorter you might be my shoulder you you good looking you think dang

now now you couldn't hooked her. Oh my baby he thinks are cute. He I could do whatever.

Leah McIntosh  39:54  
And yeah, and I can see how that you can just get looked into that. And then look up Yeah, you're just caught up.

Sariah Hastings  40:04  
But the the biggest thing right now, that's not new, but it's new because of what's going on is the fact that the text messaging, so everything is so like tronic electronic. And so digital now that face to face is no longer a thing to do. So what's going on, and it happened at the college that I live by, that the kids came to me and told me about, and I had to help them. So they're getting test text messages, saying, Hey, are you trying to pay off your student loan? Are you trying to earn extra money to pay off your student loans? Give us a call at this number so that you can have you know, and we'll tell you more details of it. And they make it seem as if it's a job interview and stuff. And so what happens is, what do you usually do a job interview, you dress up for it right? And you don't bring nothing but what your usually your purse. Right? Or sometimes you don't bring anything but like what your ID, or whatever, depending on what kind of woman you are, right? They they tell you to meet you at such such place to whatever, but your text messaging, never wants to people call anybody you text message back and forth all this information, then you went back this place. And next, you know, you're off with them. Because now they may either pull the gun out on you or told you to do something or whatever. And now you're stuck in the situation. And that's what happened to a few people. A few women that was at this at this college, they got stuck in a situation where thankfully we got some out, but it's that easy. Don't nobody want to be calling Nobody. Nobody. Okay, yeah, I'll go Yeah, this that.

Leah McIntosh  42:05  
Yeah, that's scary. To know that you can be duped? Yeah, like that. So you mentioned that you had a child? Are you actively involved in your child's life? Or was that a situation where, you know, you haven't been able to be in contact. So my oldest son,

Sariah Hastings  42:38  
I walked away from him at the age of two, because of the lifestyle because I was chasing love chasing men. Because I wanted love. So I walked away from him. And what I did was I told my family and my family and I made an agreement that when he gets becomes an adult, then I would reach out because I was you know, in the beginning I was calling but it was a sporadic calls and, and then he would always say, I'll see him and I didn't see him. And so all this stuff. And so just to across the board, wait until he got an adult and stuff. So cuz he was messing with him in school and things like that. And so I respected my family, and I saw him all right. And so that that happened, and now I have my other son and my other son, I'm I'm, I'm a single mom. Um, it's me and him, you know? I don't know who was that is because it was pimps and, and so the pimp thankfully the pimp that I thought it was wasn't it didn't look nothing like him. So, you know, but I was involved with so many men, and I can't, I don't know who was who, or what, what was up or what was down at the by the end of the, by the end of my time in human trafficking, because I was doing so much drugs because I was trying to kill myself. So you know, that's, that's where I'm at. Now. You know, my son, I love my son dearly. He goes to a Christian private school. You know, the, the Lord has opened the door for him to do that. You know, thankfully, people have heard my story. You know, I was I had an interview with the 700 Club that was aired around the world. And people have heard it and you know, the things that they have done to help me as a single mom is amazing on what the Lord has allowed doors to open. You know, I've been able to work through the pandemic been able to maintain my son going to school full time face to face, where a lot of people haven't been able to do that. You know, I've been able to move out or move into my own place in this time of The COVID, you know, and we're talking about we're a year and a half in and I, you know, been had a job through this whole thing, you know, the, this, the things that the Lord has provided for my child is is amazing, you know, and through all this and still know that there's still women out there, you know, that all forget where I can't come from, you know, I tell the woman that I talked to and i and i ministered to, when they get out and stuff, I tell him never forget where you came from. Because the minute you forget where you came from, is the minute you fall back into that lifestyle is the minute you fall, it never fails, because you think you're better than what you were. And when you start looking at other people, and you start getting that chip on your shoulder, like, Oh, I gotta like that, and I'm good and all that you'd have forgotten that you were once almost dead. You know, and that's why you know, and that's why it's helped me being I put that on my Facebook today, you know, the other day, today or the other day, and I said, You know, I smelt death, and reminded me of where I came from, and how grateful I am that Jesus pulled me out of that death, because I was deaf. And I think that's the reason why I have such a passion to go back into the streets and really just face to face and just pull them like, let's go. because it reminded keeps me humbled. You know, it keeps me humble. That's why I tell people, you know, when you read my story, that's 20 years of my silence, you can you can hear the pain, and you can hear the treatment that I had with my family and stuff. But I tell people, you know, my book ain't no expensive book, and a no book that, you know, it's a hour and a half rain, if that money, you know, if that and you really just when you buy it, you really are just hearing my voice. You know, and then I tell people, I wrote the book, because I needed to get that paid off for me. I released the pain and you know, like I told somebody I don't I have not picked up my book to read it. Since I think I read it twice. The whole time that it's been out. I'm gonna read that because every time that that that sends me back, I don't want to go back to that lifestyle. I don't want to go back to that world. I look at it every day.

Leah McIntosh  47:27  
Right? So since you've been out and helping other women, do you know how many women you vote, get off the street or to even keep count?

Sariah Hastings  47:39  
I don't. I really don't. Like I said the other night, I was supposed to go get one and I was helping out another one. I ended up helping them with another one. You know, a dog, you know, I've brought girls to detox centers and stuff. And just so that they could just, you know, some of them, they'll I know that they won't get out. But they just need they just need a place where they can just just detox and just rest their body. Because I know they're going to go back out, but they just need to rest their body. You know, and so I've taken that, but Oh,

Leah McIntosh  48:22  
and that there has to be hard to know that there go back out, you know that they haven't quite got to that point where they realized how worthy they are, you know, and then that in itself is is a hard pill to swallow. Yeah. Yep. I mean, the work you're doing is amazing. Amen. Yeah. And I don't know, you know? Well, you're just resilient, beyond resilience, to be able to go back out and face that lifestyle that you escaped from. So yeah. I commend you. And with that, what piece of advice would you give the listeners who might have a family member or could be going through this themselves.

Sariah Hastings  49:23  
So there are people that are trapped in this lifestyle, and they're trying to get out. You can do what I did and call first call on Jesus Christ. But secondly, to call the number 211. Every state in Cal in United States has a 211 and they will help you get out. There is a hotline for human trafficking but that 211 will direct you to all those things and help you and patch you into different shelters and organizations that will get you out. If you have someone a loved one who you're trying to get out but don't know how to reach out to me and I will depict no matter what state you're in. I have numerous organizations around the United States that will help in fighting trying to get your loved one out. And you can reach me at sariah dot info. And that will you can email me it'll go straight to me and I will I will connect with you there.

Leah McIntosh  50:35  
So how will you just give how they can contact you but do you have like social media channels? What What is your preferred?

Sariah Hastings  50:45  
So I do I have a Facebook sariah ne Hastings, Instagram, same thing sariah Hastings and I do have a podcast called no more games. And I go on there about once a month and I kind of just, I bring hope in is a quick encouraging word five to five to 15 that no more than 15 minutes just a quick encouraging we're like once a month and just you know keeping people's hope alive in fighting whatever we're going through.

Leah McIntosh  51:18  
So as to have a lot to process. Because your story is just Oh, girl, you don't look like what you've been through. Not at all. That's the grace of God right there. Yes, you know. Wow. But yeah, there's a couple in the beginning. Like I could feel myself getting emotional. I'm glad I was able to keep it together. And and learn because this was a lot. You know, this, this was very informative, because I wouldn't have known some of the stuff and the trauma, you know, that these women are going through currently. Yes. I want to thank you for coming on and sharing your story. Man. Thanks for having me. Yes, it was a it was a blessing to have you on and I wish you well on the rest of your endeavors and going out and helping these ladies break free. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for coming and sharing