Never Too Late

It’s never too late to get involved.

It’s never too late to raise awareness.

It’s never too late to help someone.

I want to share something a little heavy on my heart this week. While I have been aware and active in the fight against human trafficking over the past 10+ years, something happened last week that awakened my sense of urgency in spreading awareness. 

About to head to my daughter's tennis lesson at a nearby country club, I noticed an urgent text pop up warning of a police standoff near the very entrance I use to access the club. Rumors began to spread wildly among this friendly community that it was an alleged prostitution ring. Yellow tape divided yards and streets in the same place where children are used to riding their bikes freely and without fear.

Then, later that evening, I received a text from a friend who I play tennis with, and she informed our group of friends that her house was the one diagonally in front of the house in the news. She reported to us, as an eyewitness, that members of a SWAT team stood guard all day, waiting for the go-ahead to enter the house and rescue whoever remained inside. She mentioned seeing a girl that morning knocking furiously on her neighbor’s door asking for help. At that time she didn’t know what was going on, but knew it was not normal.

Then the truth came like a punch in the gut.

Evidently earlier that morning this very woman, around 26 years of age, jumped from the second floor window to escape. Why? She had evidently shown up for a party at the house the prior evening, and was quickly locked inside forbidden to leave. At that point, she became enslaved with supposedly 7-8 other women inside those Texas brick walls. What blows my mind is that this two story house, sitting on the golf course on a busy street, in this suburban neighborhood was the least likely of places for this sort of thing to happen. Or, so I thought.

I don’t know if the police ever located the man who lived in the house. He escaped before the SWAT team entered. Four women were waiting inside and some women had been taken with the man when he left that morning.

How is this still happening? How can this happen right here - under our noses? How is this happening in a house on our same block, next door or in our community?

We must wake up.

We must get educated.

We must act.

Here’s where you can start. My husband sits on the Board for a non-profit organization, Love 146, that is working to end child sex trafficking. They are hosting two important Webinars in the month of October and I want you to attend along with me. While this is geared toward child trafficking, there will be key information shared to help you understand predators and victims, and what we can do.

Do you want to learn more as to why this happens so easily?

Do you want to learn how to identify trafficking victims?

Do you want to build your own awareness, so that you can talk to your children about how to protect themselves against predators?

Say yes.

Visit their website. Join me. Join us. Share with a friend today.

It’s never too late to start doing something.