I found Pullinger\u2019s book to be both fascinating and heart-wrenching.\u00a0 The author presented a story of intrigue, passion, and heroism in a nonfiction book detailing a portion of her life.\u00a0 This book is a true story about the author\u2019s journey through a dark kingdom and the beautiful touch of God that she brought to prostitutes, drug addicts and criminals in the Walled City in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
The book was compelling to me, because I am doing my dissertation on human trafficking, which is also addressed in the book.\u00a0 The world of human trafficking is a dark world of pain and torture.\u00a0 Pullinger helped to bring many women out of the sex industry and into the arms of the Savior.\u00a0 The author did this by infiltrating the multi-million dollar sex industry and providing a safe haven for trafficking survivors.\u00a0 It is also a story of haunting despair for those left behind.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking is all around us, although most people don\u2019t believe that.\u00a0 It can be difficult to recognize at times and blatantly recognizable at other times.\u00a0 Prostitution is human trafficking because it is often handled through pimps.\u00a0 Pullinger not only recognized and exposed human trafficking, but she also helped individuals break the barriers that kept them locked in the world of sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking is also known as \u201cmodern-day slavery.\u201d\u00a0 Most women who are being sexually exploited are not being physically restrained. In fact, it is better that anti-trafficking organizations not use pictures of girls in chains to represent those who are stuck in this life. If we believe that sexually-exploited individuals are always chained up, we may miss those who are being trafficked right before our very eyes.<\/p>\n
The question is always asked:\u00a0 if she\u2019s not tied up, why is she staying in this life? The answer to this can be hard to digest. The average age of entry into forced prostitution in the United States is 13.\u00a0 Think of a child being lured into a romantic relationship with a man who is intentionally preying on her innocence. A trafficker looks for a young girl whom he can easily persuade to follow him by focusing on meeting her emotional needs.\u00a0 Once the relationship is established, he begins to force her to sell her body. If she doesn\u2019t give in to the demands of the trafficker, the consequences are unthinkable: extreme violence, homelessness, mental abuse, forced substance abuse, or threats to harm her family.<\/p>\n
But there is hope! As Christians, we know that no one has experienced too much abuse for the gospel of Christ to rescue them. Jesus can restore, heal, and bring new life to anyone at any time.\u00a0 But it means reaching out to these victims and helping them find a new way of living away from the pimp.\u00a0 This was Pullinger\u2019s focus and she helped changed the life of many young people as she journeyed through the streets of the Hong Kong.\u00a0 What an amazing person who was definitely walking in God\u2019s light to accomplish her good works.<\/p>\n
As a licensed professional counselor (LPC), I work with human trafficking individuals to help them find their way to becoming a survivor, not a victim.\u00a0 Serving on the board of the Kalamazoo Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition has helped open my eyes to the trafficking that is taking place in the world around us and in our own communities.\u00a0 As I meet individually with girls who have been trafficking, I begin to understand their pain:\u00a0 hurt, haunted, hopelessness, despair, trauma, PTSD, etc.\u00a0 The list goes on as the tears flow from the victims.\u00a0 Former President Jimmy Carter once said:\u00a0 \u201cEveryone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 The human trafficking victim has none of these rights.\u00a0 Beating, abandonment, and death threats become routine for them.\u00a0 They live in a sordid, shadowy world \u2013 until someone can bring God\u2019s light into their world.<\/p>\n As I work with trafficking victims, I sense their insecurities and distrust of the world around them.\u00a0 The defenses are hardened and their ability to accept and give love has been buried deep with them.\u00a0 Shame is one of their greatest barriers which prevents them from often seeking mental health services.\u00a0 So, breaking the barrier of shame is the first step to helping them find freedom.\u00a0 As a counselor, I help my clients understand that I will offer a judgment-free environment without condemnation.\u00a0 I am sure that Pullinger\u2019s love showed through for her to be able to reach into the dark world of prostitution and drug abuse in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n Getting human trafficking victims to trust me and accept my help can be a huge obstacle.\u00a0 Trafficking individuals have lost all sense of trust; both in others and in themselves.\u00a0 A quote I once heard from an unknown author stated:\u00a0 \u201cPeople were created to be loved.\u00a0 Things are created to be used.\u00a0 The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 This is such a powerful quote to me, as our society has often become a backwards society – and many young women are paying a price because of it.\u00a0 You may choose to look the other way at the world around us, but you can never say again that you did not know.<\/p>\n I find working with human trafficking survivors is both heart-wrenching and powerfully rewarding.\u00a0 \u00a0My dissertation focus is to help churches\/individuals to reach out and help human-trafficked individuals through mentoring as the survivors walks this journey toward freedom.\u00a0 I see that often, trafficked victims are counseled and cared for after they are rescued, but then they are sent out into the world to navigate without a support system in place for them.\u00a0 My desire is to help build a mentor program, so that people can walk this journey with them as they navigate the new waters of freedom.\u00a0 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.\u00a0 Through Christ, all things are possible.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I found Pullinger\u2019s book to be both fascinating and heart-wrenching.\u00a0 The author presented a story of intrigue, passion, and heroism in a nonfiction book detailing a portion of her life.\u00a0 This book is a true story about the author\u2019s journey through a dark kingdom and the beautiful touch of God that she brought to prostitutes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1321,1245],"class_list":["post-18768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp9","tag-pullinger","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18768"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18771,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18768\/revisions\/18771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}