Months ago I attended a meeting hosted by the Freedom Church Alliance. Their mission is to fight human trafficking through Jesus Christ by uniting and mobilizing churches to work alongside trusted anti-trafficking organizations. The modern day slavery of human trafficking has many faces, and sadly, Houston is a gateway city for this horrific injustice. It is a deep pocket of brokenness in our city, which is precisely why we believe Jesus is calling us to display a picture of his beauty.
As a first step to 1) grow in our awareness of the problem and 2) learn how we might join countless others in our city in the fight against it, we are honored to have Leigh Kohler, the Executive Director of the Freedom Church Alliance with us at City Church on Sunday, October 16. She will be our guest during the worship service and will then lead a forum immediately following the service in the House of Blues restaurant from noon – 1 PM. Due to the subject matter of this forum, we recommend that parents use discretion for children middle school age and younger. High school students are typically already aware of, and even passionate about this issue.
I’ll never forget something I heard Gregg Matte say at the meeting I attended a while back. Gregg is the senior pastor of Houston’s First Baptist Church, which is located right off Interstate 10; unfortunately, one of, if not the most heavily human trafficked thoroughfare in the United States. Gregg said, “as I grew in my understanding of human trafficking in general, and the rampant presence of it in the city of Houston, plus the reality of where we are physically located as a church, I realized that if we didn’t respond, it would be like living on the road to Auschwitz and not doing anything.”