Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

the exodus road

One thing I've never had to worry about when interviewing for a job

I’ve had my share of job interviews in my working years: at a radio station, a movie theater, college newspaper office, two daily newspaper companies, a bus magazine, a curriculum company, a non-profit. Never in all of those interviews did I have to worry about becoming a slave.

Overworked? Yes.

Underpaid? Yes.

Unappreciated? Yes.

Fired? Yes.

Enslaved? No.

That’s Anna’s story. anchiliexodusroad

Investigators working with The Exodus Road met Anna and Sophia, two European women, working the streets in Southeast Asia in the fall of this year. Anna was promised a job in Southeast Asia–maybe it was cleaning houses or being a nanny–and an income that would support her and her family. She arrived to a much different scenario.

A sex trafficker took her passport and said she owed him $5,000 (US) for the ticket and her housing. To “work off” her debt, Anna and Sophia now work a red-light district in Southeast Asia making about $50 a night. Even if Anna could work off her debt, the scars–physical and mental–of the abuse she has suffered will follow her.

ER-crowd-night

She just wanted a job. To help her family. To escape poverty.

Now she is trapped, forced to sell herself night after night to pay a debt to her captors.

Anna and Sophia’s stories have been documented by The Exodus Road investigators but pursuing a case against the traffickers is in the hands of local non-governmental organizations. The Exodus Road can provide funding and personnel in pursuing this case to conviction. In the meantime, two girls wait on a street corner, cigarettes in their hands, wearing tall heels or trendy high-tops, mini-skirts and make-up, trying to catch the eye of a Western tourist or a local passing by, looking for drinks or fun, parties or sex.

Click here to find out how you can help The Exodus Road help girls like Anna and Sophia.

Letter to a stranger: How you can encourage a hero

Next month, a team from The Exodus Road will travel to Southeast Asia as part of their work rescuing children from sex trafficking. During that visit, they also plan to deliver letters of encouragement to the investigators who do the front-line work of rescue: posing as customers, collecting video evidence, and all the while putting themselves in danger for someone else’s freedom. Here’s an open letter of thanks and encouragement to an investigator. If you’d like to write your own, the address and instructions are at the bottom of this post. Deadline is January 5.

Dear investigator,

I don’t know you. We’ll probably never meet. But your work, it inspires me.

In a world full of darkness, you are a light.

In a world quickly losing hope in humanity, you are living, breathing hope. ER-flower

You are courageous and committed, going into places few of us will ever see or would ever want to. You go willingly where others have gone unwillingly.

You stifle your own fears to get the job done. You offer life and rescue to those who have given up on both.

You choose to go in with no guarantees of your safety or success in your mission. And still you go.

You will never be publicly recognized as a hero because you work undercover. And still you go.

And half a world away, I am grateful.

Words from another letter, written centuries ago, seem appropriate for this letter as well: “Do not become weary in doing good.” The good you do changes lives.

I humbly send these words to encourage you, wishing I could do more to strengthen your resolve. You do not carry this burden alone.

Keep fighting for rescue where you are. I will do my part where I am.

And together, we will shine a light on the darkest parts of the world.

With great thanks,

Lisa

Want to write your own?

Handwritten letters can be mailed by January 5 to:

The Exodus Road PO Box 7591 Woodland Park, Colorado 80863

OR submit one online. The crew at The Exodus Road will translate your letters, if necessary, and hand-deliver them in January.

The Exodus Road blogging crew has more than 60 members. If each blogger and four readers write a letter, the team will send more than 300 letters to investigators in the field. Will you be one of the four?

Here are The Exodus Road founders Matt and Laura talking about why this is important.

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