It Is Written

Hidden in Plain View

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001470A


01:30 >>John Bradshaw: This It Is Written program
01:32 focuses on the subject of human trafficking and therefore could
01:36 be considered unsuitable for children.
01:40 ♪[Theme music]♪
01:50 ♪[Theme music]♪
01:59 ♪[Music]♪
02:08 >>John Bradshaw: This is It Is Written. I'm John Bradshaw.
02:11 Thanks for joining me.
02:13 You wonder how it can happen.
02:15 I mean, we're a long way into the 21st century now,
02:18 and yet the problem is as bad, in fact,
02:20 the problem is worse now than it's ever been before.
02:27 CNN reported that a Pakistani man worked seven days a week
02:31 in a cell-phone store in Hong Kong.
02:34 He slept on the floor of the store
02:36 and was regularly beaten by his employer.
02:39 He was sent home to Pakistan
02:41 without having been paid one cent.
02:44 When he complained about his treatment,
02:47 associates of his employer
02:49 threatened the lives of him and his family.
02:53 CNN also told the story of two Bangladeshi men
02:56 who paid six thousand dollars each
02:58 to secure work at a hotel in Scotland.
03:01 They were told they would earn $22,500 a year.
03:04 When they got there,
03:06 they found that had been changed to $125 a week, $6,500 a year.
03:12 And then they didn't even get that much.
03:16 When they complained about the treatment they were receiving,
03:19 they were told by their employer, “I am sponsoring you.
03:22 If you complain, I will withdraw my sponsorship,
03:26 you'll be here illegally, and you'll be arrested.”
03:31 And then there's the 14-year-old middle-schooler
03:33 who was picked on by her classmates.
03:37 An older girl befriended her
03:39 before introducing her to a man in his thirties.
03:42 That man treated her wonderfully,
03:46 before asking her for favors.
03:50 Before long, she was servicing forty men a day.
03:57 Forty.
03:59 She found herself trapped in a web
04:01 she simply didn't know how to get out of.
04:03 And when she talked about leaving,
04:06 a gun appeared and her life was threatened.
04:10 ♪[Music]♪
04:20 ♪[Music]♪
04:25 Human trafficking is the second most lucrative crime
04:28 in the world, after drug trafficking.
04:31 And 22 percent of all human trafficking victims
04:33 are forced into prostitution.
04:36 Based on the numbers we have, that would mean that right now
04:39 there are more than four and a half million women and girls
04:43 who have been forced into prostitution,
04:46 against their will.
04:48 And they're not all somewhere else.
04:51 Some of them are near you.
04:54 Human trafficking is a massive global problem.
04:56 A problem that's hidden in plain view.
05:00 And even if you can't see it from where you are,
05:01 the problem is real.
05:04 It's very real.
05:06 Girls as young as 12 or younger.
05:09 Mothers who are forced to leave their families
05:11 to find “work” far from home.
05:13 Men forced to toil as laborers without pay
05:18 and without any hope of escaping their difficult existence.
05:22 Trafficking sees people pressed into forced labor,
05:26 child labor, domestic servitude, bonded labor,
05:30 where people are forced to work to pay off debt,
05:33 even the debts of ancestors in some cases,
05:36 sex trafficking, or child sex trafficking.
05:40 The United States State Department website says this:
05:43 “Modern slavery, trafficking in persons, and human trafficking
05:50 have been used as umbrella terms for the act of recruiting,
05:54 harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person
05:58 for compelled labor or commercial sex acts
06:02 through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.”
06:06 It's estimated that one in 100 Moldovans is trafficked.
06:11 If this was the United States,
06:14 that would be the equivalent of 32 million people.
06:18 That's an enormous amount of people
06:20 from this little country who have been
06:22 forced against their will into lives of slavery.
06:26 >>Irina Arap: So imagine a 35-year-old woman with two kids,
06:32 abused by her husband,
06:33 with no prospectives for very good job opportunities,
06:38 is receiving a very good offer from a neighbor
06:42 to go abroad to earn some money for a living.
06:46 So these are the main push factors that help
06:51 the traffickers to make the citizens fall into their traps.
06:56 >>John: And the poverty and the lack of opportunities means
06:59 Moldova has become a fertile breeding ground
07:02 for human trafficking.
07:04 >>Lidia Gorceag: Yes. There are victims that are very aware
07:08 that they will be exploited.
07:10 They go back and forth again and again,
07:14 not because they want to be exploited,
07:17 but because they see no way out of their situation.
07:22 >>Irina: So it's about poverty and vulnerability.
07:25 Social factors also determine the citizens
07:29 to accept the offers of the strangers sometimes.
07:34 It's the same as, let's take the case of so-called woman.
07:40 She has no house.
07:44 She has, for example, divorced from her husband;
07:47 she has two kids.
07:49 Sometimes it could be, one of them could be a disabled child,
07:53 so she does not see any future better opportunities
07:59 for her in Moldova.
08:02 So it means that she has no perspectives here in Moldova.
08:06 So then she is to accept this job abroad.
08:12 >>Lidia: Two sisters, 18 and 23 years old,
08:15 came from a boarding school.
08:19 They have no external support.
08:20 No parents, no siblings, no house,
08:25 nothing to their name except a child that the older one had.
08:33 Through the internet, they met a man from Albania
08:37 who offered them a job.
08:38 Knowing that they had no money,
08:42 he paid for them to fly to Albania.
08:48 So they took her six-month-old baby and left,
08:51 knowing that it was potentially dangerous.
08:54 When they arrived, the trafficker took the baby
08:57 to stay with his parents away from the girl,
09:01 and the girls were taken to Switzerland
09:04 and Germany to become prostitutes.
09:09 >>Irina: Recruitment measures used by traffickers have uh,
09:15 have uh changed a bit.
09:16 They have become, let's say kinder or mild.
09:23 But this is also not very good for us,
09:26 the professional in this field, because sometimes
09:29 it may bring to a lower level of identification
09:32 of victims themselves.
09:34 I will talk in examples.
09:35 We had a victim of human trafficking
09:38 for sexual exploitation in Spain.
09:42 Of course, she was in this house
09:46 where the exploitation was taking place.
09:50 But she had, she had a cell phone
09:53 and in the building there was also Wi-Fi.
09:57 So, uh, she was given some money, but very little money,
10:02 just to buy cigarettes, and she had the possibility to,
10:07 to go to the shop, just two minutes from the building.
10:12 But at the same time she does not know the language,
10:16 and her cell phone has not a valid uh, Spanish number.
10:22 >>Lidia: My colleagues and I sometimes feel guilty
10:25 because we cannot help enough.
10:30 Once the victims leave our center, where can they go?
10:34 We feel like we have not done enough
10:38 because there simply aren't enough long-term resources.
10:41 >>Irina: Up to 15 percent of the victims who have been identified
10:47 and assisted within our program get to be retrafficked
10:52 in several years or so.
10:54 >>John: I'll be back with more in just a moment.
10:57 ♪[Music]♪
11:06 >>John: You want to experience personal peace in your life,
11:09 oneness with God, victory in the place of defeat.
11:13 But how can you have that?
11:14 Today's free offer will tell you how.
11:17 I want you to receive “The War is Over.”
11:20 To receive “The War is Over” free,
11:22 contact us at 800-253-3000
11:25 800-253-3000
11:28 Visit us online at itiswritten.com,
11:31 or write to the address on your screen.
11:33 “The War is Over.”
11:34 Free for you today.
11:37 This It Is Written program focuses on the subject
11:40 of human trafficking and therefore could be considered
11:43 unsuitable for children.
11:47 ♪[Music]♪
11:55 >>John: This is It Is Written. Thanks for joining me.
11:57 There are 21 million people in the world right now
12:02 who are the victims of human trafficking.
12:04 That's almost the population of Australia.
12:08 Of that amount, 68 percent are exploited for labor,
12:12 10 percent are in state-imposed forced labor,
12:17 and 22 percent are being sexually exploited.
12:21 I'm in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.
12:24 Moldova is a landlocked country
12:26 located between Romania and Ukraine.
12:29 For more than 50 years Moldova was a part of the Soviet Union.
12:34 Over the centuries, it's been the scene of invasions
12:37 and revolutions, not uncommon for Europe.
12:41 It's estimated that 1 in 100 Moldovans is trafficked.
12:46 If this was the United States,
12:49 that would be the equivalent of 32 million people.
12:53 That's an enormous amount of people from this little country
12:57 who are being forced against their will
12:59 into lives of slavery.
13:02 Remember what the State Department says:
13:05 “...through the use of force, fraud or coercion.”
13:09 Many of them forced to work in the sex industry.
13:13 >>Irina: She would get the money from the recruiter to,
13:17 to have her passport done, most of the time they do not have,
13:20 they do not hold their passports.
13:23 Then she might get some money to travel.
13:26 It can be by bus, by train, or by plane,
13:29 recently it's not a problem; it's affordable.
13:32 But this is also something that they are
13:36 afterwards constrained with,
13:37 because you have a debt to me so you must work for this to,
13:44 to give me back the money.
13:47 Sometimes, the exploitation occurs immediately,
13:50 or sometimes she could be given some time
13:54 to adapt to the situation.
13:56 She will be in an apartment with other 10 ladies or so,
14:02 if we talk about sexual exploitation.
14:05 And then she will get, you know, this physical abuse sometimes,
14:09 or psychological abuse, and the exploitation can, can go on,
14:17 I mean, start immediately.
14:21 For example, the last case I dealt with,
14:24 I think in middle February, was about nine Moldavan citizens
14:32 who were exploited for labor in the Russian Federation.
14:35 They were hiding in their rooms just to,
14:38 only one of them had a cell phone.
14:40 But they somehow managed to threaten the trafficker
14:45 that they would call the police.
14:47 Nevertheless, one woman was, um, also exploited.
14:54 And because she tried to escape, she was kept in the outside
14:59 for two hours with almost no clothes on her, at minus 20.
15:05 So this was a sort of punishment.
15:07 But, nevertheless, they managed to escape.
15:09 They retrieved their passports.
15:11 So they were repatriated to Moldova.
15:15 But in regards to the criminal investigation,
15:18 I cannot tell the stage of it.
15:26 >>John: Human trafficking is simply a response
15:28 to a demand that exists.
15:30 Because prostitution is treated so blithely
15:33 by so many in society today you know, boys will be boys,
15:37 it's a victimless crime, it's the world's oldest profession,
15:42 makes it possible for trafficking to flourish.
15:44 It can operate in the shadows of an evil profession which itself
15:48 thrives in every major city in the United States and,
15:52 it's fair to say, in every major city throughout the world.
15:55 And because from a distance one prostitute looks pretty much
15:58 like another, you can't tell whether that woman
16:01 standing on the street corner is pursuing a career choice
16:05 or is being trafficked against her will.
16:08 It was reported that in Columbus, Ohio,
16:11 of the 1,000 prostitutes put behind bars every year,
16:15 92% are being trafficked.
16:18 That's almost every single one.
16:21 So what does this have to do with the Bible?
16:23 Everything.
16:26 Jesus said in John 8:36,
16:28 “Therefore if the Son makes you free,
16:30 you shall be free indeed.”
16:33 Now, consider this:
16:34 With 21 million people being trafficked
16:36 in the world right now,
16:37 between 600,000 and 800,000 people are
16:41 trafficked across international borders every year.
16:44 Eighty percent are female, and half are children.
16:48 With between 14,500 and 17,500 being trafficked
16:53 into the United States every year,
16:55 that's 50 a day, every day, do you think it's only atheists
17:00 doing the trafficking, or the using?
17:03 You see, God's desire is that people are free.
17:07 And yet there's another form of slavery
17:10 that affects even more people than human trafficking.
17:14 I'll tell you more in just a moment.
17:16 ♪[Music]♪
17:28 >>John: The flight attendant noticed her.
17:29 She appeared to be 14 maybe 15 years of age
17:33 and she looked out of place.
17:35 She was disheveled, her hair was greasy,
17:39 she looked uncomfortable.
17:41 And she was seated next to a man
17:42 who was considerably older and very well dressed.
17:47 So the flight attendant alerted the pilot,
17:49 the pilot alerted authorities on the ground,
17:52 and when the flight from Seattle landed in San Francisco,
17:56 law enforcement officials were waiting to intercept the man,
18:00 and to release the girl and return her to a much better life
18:05 than the life moments before, she was facing.
18:09 Human trafficking happens,
18:11 and more than likely it happens near you.
18:14 If you've traveled through airports
18:16 you may have noticed signs up in airports warning
18:18 about human trafficking.
18:20 It really does take place.
18:22 It might be taking place at the mall in your neighborhood
18:25 as young people are groomed by unscrupulous men
18:28 who would turn them over to a life of misery and shame.
18:33 I'd like to encourage you if you suspect that you are witnessing
18:36 human trafficking taking place,
18:39 you go online to www.ice.gov/tips
18:46 and share the information that you have.
18:48 Something can be done.
18:51 Also be sure to pray.
18:53 Pray about what you are seeing
18:54 or pray for this awful phenomenon in general.
18:58 Also you might want to know
19:00 its best not to approach the supposed victims or perpetrators
19:05 of human trafficking.
19:06 If you are a human trafficking victim, speak out, seek help.
19:12 Cautiously contact law enforcement officials
19:15 and know that there people that will help you.
19:20 >>Announcer: In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says,
19:23 “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bead alone,
19:26 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
19:30 “Every Word” is a one-minute, Bible-based
19:32 daily devotional presented by Pastor John Bradshaw,
19:35 and designed especially for busy people like you.
19:38 Look for Every Word on selected networks,
19:41 or watch it online every day on our website,
19:43 ItIsWritten.com
19:45 Receive a daily spiritual boost.
19:48 Watch “Every Word.”
19:49 You'll be glad you did.
19:51 Here's a sample.
19:54 ♪[Theme music]♪
20:00 >>John Bradshaw: If you're old enough,
20:00 you'll remember it like it was yesterday.
20:02 In 1987, an 18-month-old little girl
20:05 somehow fell down a narrow well shaft
20:07 in her aunt's backyard in Midland, Texas.
20:09 She was stuck 22 feet under the ground for two and a half days,
20:12 and the nation and much of the rest of the world
20:14 watched around-the-clock coverage
20:16 of the rescue of Baby Jessica.
20:18 Of course, all these years later Jessica doesn't remember
20:20 what happened back then,
20:21 but every time she looks in the mirror today,
20:24 she sees a scar on her forehead,
20:26 a reminder that someone saved her
20:28 when she couldn't save herself.
20:31 I Corinthians 15:4 says, “Christ died for our sins.”
20:35 You weren't there at the time,
20:37 but whenever you open a Bible
20:39 you'll be reminded of what God did for you.
20:42 It's something that you never want to forget.
20:46 I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written.
20:48 Let's live today by every word.
20:51 ♪[Music]♪
20:55 This It Is Written program focuses on the subject of
20:58 human trafficking and therefore could be considered
21:01 unsuitable for children.
21:05 ♪[Music]♪
21:17 >>John: Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written,
21:20 in the Republic of Moldova.
21:24 It's a country with a turbulent history littered
21:26 with conquests and invasions.
21:28 In the 1940s and ‘50s, 250,000 Moldovans
21:32 were sent to labor camps in Siberia.
21:36 During World War II, thousands of Jews perished here.
21:41 But the crime against humanity that plagues
21:43 Moldova today is the same as that which plagues
21:46 societies all over the world.
21:50 Human trafficking right now flourishes in the United States.
21:54 And what that means is, you can buy a human being,
21:59 usually a woman or a girl,
22:01 for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
22:04 And you can own her
22:06 just like you would own a pair of shoes or a dog.
22:12 Except very few dogs were ever treated as badly
22:16 as a woman who is trafficked.
22:17 There's a growing awareness in Moldova and around the world
22:21 of the problem of human trafficking,
22:24 with more light being shown on the subject,
22:26 and more and more people willing to lend their support
22:28 to the fight against it.
22:30 There's one thing, and only one thing,
22:33 that will actually fix the problem.
22:36 You can't blame the women and the girls involved.
22:39 No female chooses to be trafficked.
22:42 If you locked them all up,
22:44 all you'd be doing would be punishing the victims.
22:47 And if you locked them up,
22:48 there'd be a fresh batch of victims back out on the streets
22:51 to take their place in no time at all.
22:55 The reason human trafficking exists is economics.
22:59 It's a case of supply and demand.
23:01 If unscrupulous businessmen wouldn't exploit workers,
23:05 you wouldn't have forced labor.
23:07 And if men wouldn't pay money to exploit trafficked women,
23:11 the problem would just go away.
23:14 But the challenge is, there's a market for this.
23:17 The problem is, there are sick men who will pay money for sex,
23:22 and in many cases knowing full well that the victim involved
23:25 is trafficked, or illegal.
23:28 And who are these sick men?
23:30 You might be thinking it's the creepy guy
23:32 who lives down the street from you.
23:34 Ask the experts, and they'll tell you.
23:37 These are schoolteachers and policemen
23:40 and doctors and you-name-it.
23:44 Everyday people.
23:46 Most likely someone you know.
23:49 The problem is hidden in plain view.
23:53 Changing laws might certainly help.
23:55 But laws get broken every day.
23:58 We could take some time to talk about the climate in society
24:02 which fuels this sort of demand.
24:05 The objectification of women,
24:07 and the sexually hyper-charged society
24:10 in which we live that creates demand
24:13 and then presents this as, as some sort of option.
24:16 Ultimately, this is a problem of the human heart.
24:21 You see, there's another kind of slavery.
24:24 Let the Apostle Paul explain in Romans 6:16.
24:28 “Do you not know that to whom you present
24:30 yourselves slaves to obey,
24:32 you are that one's slaves whom you obey,
24:36 whether of sin leading to death,
24:38 or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
24:42 Thankfully, there's a way out.
24:44 Verses 17 and 18:
24:46 “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin,
24:50 yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
24:53 to which you were delivered.
24:55 And having been set free from sin,
24:58 you became slaves of righteousness.”
25:01 Now, notice: The Bible says that those who are the slaves of sin
25:05 the King James uses the word “servants”
25:08 those who are slaves of sin are slaves of the one they
25:13 have chosen to serve.
25:15 See, ultimately, sin is a choice.
25:20 It might not always feel like that.
25:22 It might feel that it's less of a choice
25:24 if you've become accustomed to living a life of sin,
25:27 and more a matter of being on autopilot.
25:30 But the Bible is clear.
25:32 You can choose to be either the slave of sin
25:36 or the slave of righteousness.
25:39 Romans 6, verse 20.
25:40 “For when you were slaves of sin,
25:43 you were free in regard to righteousness.”
25:45 And verse 22. “But now having been set free from sin,
25:50 and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness,
25:55 and the end, everlasting life.”
25:58 So a person who is the slave of sin
26:01 can become instead the slave of righteousness.
26:05 The servant of righteousness.
26:07 A person can learn to love doing right as much as he or she
26:11 ever loved committing sin.
26:14 In 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, Paul speaks to a group of people
26:17 who were adulterers and fornicators and idolators
26:20 and thieves and drunkards and so forth
26:23 and he says this to them in verse 11,
26:26 “And such were some of you: but ye are washed,
26:30 but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified
26:33 in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
26:37 That's what God can do for you.
26:40 If you let Him.
26:42 And so it's right to hope and pray and work
26:45 that those who are caught in the grip of human trafficking
26:47 find liberation, freedom, find hope in their lives.
26:52 And if you're caught in spiritual slavery,
26:56 you can find that same hope and liberation and freedom
27:01 through Jesus Christ.
27:02 Because “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
27:09 ♪[Music]♪
27:18 You want to experience personal peace in your life,
27:20 oneness with God, victory in the place of defeat.
27:24 But how can you have that?
27:26 Today's free offer will tell you how.
27:28 I want you to receive
27:30 “The War is Over.”
27:31 To receive “The War is Over” free,
27:34 contact us at 800-253-3000
27:36 800-253-3000
27:40 Visit us online at itiswritten.com
27:42 or write to the address on your screen.
27:44 “The War is Over.”
27:45 Free for you today.
27:47 Thank you for remembering that It Is Written
27:50 is a faith-based ministry,
27:52 and it's your support that makes it possible for us to
27:54 share God's good news with the entire world.
27:58 Your tax-deductible gift can be sent
28:00 to the address on your screen, or through our website,
28:04 itiswritten.com
28:06 Thank you for your continued prayerful support.
28:08 Our toll-free number is 800-253-3000
28:12 800-253-3000
28:14 Our web address is itiswritten.com
28:18 Let me pray for you.
28:20 Our Father in Heaven,
28:22 we are thankful today that there is freedom in Jesus Christ.
28:28 And I want to pray,
28:29 Lord for the so many in this world
28:31 that are caught in the grip of human trafficking.
28:34 There are so many major problems besetting our world today.
28:38 But we know that you are great enough to turn back
28:42 the tide of evil and sin.
28:44 And I pray that you would do so.
28:47 Father, I know there is someone today
28:49 who is reaching out to you.
28:51 They're saying, “I'm stuck in sin.
28:53 I'm a slave to sin and I want to be free.”
28:56 Lord, set that man, that woman, free in Jesus right now.
29:01 And let that day be soon when Jesus returns to this earth
29:05 to take us home to be with you forever,
29:08 in a world where there is no sin.
29:10 We thank you for that hope.
29:11 We hold onto it.
29:13 And we pray in Jesus' name.
29:15 Amen.
29:17 Thanks so much for joining me today.
29:19 I'm looking forward to seeing you again next time.
29:22 Until then, remember:
29:25 It Is Written.
29:26 Man shall not live by bread alone,
29:29 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
29:33 ♪[Theme music]♪


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Revised 2017-07-06