The success of this year’s box-office hit film “Sound of Freedom” has no doubt lit a fire under Americans to fight a strong battle against the cultural disease of human trafficking.
As of last week, the movie, starring Jim Caviezel, has brought in over $190 million since its release on July 4, and it has raised the awareness of a catastrophe that continues to grow and grow as the culture becomes darker and more sexualized.
It’s a fight that one organization, Selah Freedom, has been waging for more than 12 years to help save women and children from the horrors of this demonic crime; not only bringing them out of bondage but also providing a safe place of healing in which to help them move forward and to put their terrifying experience behind them and to help them discover “who God created them to be.”
During the decade-plus, Selah Freedom has helped thousands of sex trafficking survivors to do just that. It has become a model for how to bring solution for survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation effectively. According to its website, it came up with the title of Selah Freedom because the word Selah in Hebrew means to pause, rest and reflect.
Selah Freedom is one of several such organizations throughout the country that help victims of human trafficking to not only find their freedom but recovery. Pastor Troy Brewer, founder and senior pastor of Open Door Church in Texas, has also formed Troy Brewer Ministries that wages daily battles against human trafficking and has emerged as a beacon of hope for victims.
Brewer says “Sound of Freedom” has shone a huge spotlight on an issue that has been a plague worldwide for many years.
“God has opened a portal with [Sound of Freedom]. I think the title was prophetic,” Brewer told Charisma News. Brewer has spent the past two decades in relentless pursuit of combatting child trafficking worldwide.
“I’ve personally seen it. And I’ve personally experienced the witchcraft of tons and tons of people that go together, that do this kind of thing, whey they have attacked us on a supernatural level,” Brewer says. “I’ve been in the houses, I’ve been in the rooms, I’ve been where the cameras were still set up and where there had been horrible things that happened; seen it. I have kids under my care right now that have experienced it.”
And because of that, organizations like Selah Freedom have tirelessly taken what they believe is their godly duty to save these women and children.
First-Hand Experience
The founders of Selah Freedom came across unthinkable stories about local children in Tampa, Florida, that were being bought and sold for sex in their own community. What began as a grassroots initiative quickly transformed into a thriving movement that partners closely with law enforcement agencies, legislators and influential leaders to shed light on the staggering statistics of human trafficking in America.
Selah Freedom implemented five foundational programs including awareness, prevention, outreach, residential and counseling. It brings human trafficking awareness and education to the community and organizations through its speakers bureau team, it’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children 101 Course, law enforcement training and organizational consulting.
It also advocates for changes through legislation and equips parents, youth and those who work with them with the tools they need to avoid being manipulated by a trafficker, which, hopefully prevents them from being commercially sold.
Once these victims who become survivors are retrieved from their horrific experience, Selah Freedom helps them with an educational plan, job placement, trauma therapy, life skills, medical and legal assistance and restorative care.
“As we bring light into the darkness of sex trafficking, we see victims transformed into survivors,” the organization’s website says.
Selah Freedom Executive Director Stacey Efaw told The Christian Post that the organization partners with the National Trafficking Shelter Alliance. The majority of the nonprofit is government-funded, but it also receives financial support from individual donors.
Counseling services range from trauma therapy to regular mental healthcare, dealing with treating complex emotional issues for individuals. There is also a spiritual side to the organization, and Selah Freedom is open to helping people of all faiths.
“We also have a spiritual counselor if they want to focus on their relationship with God, or they are just looking to explore that area,” Efaw told The Christian Post. “They need someone that loves them, is not judging them. And we just try to show God’s love through our work.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
