Around 40 faith leaders from the Wichita area crowded a room at Eastside Community Church, presumably creating a fire hazard last Saturday. They were there to combat an industry that’s been spreading like wildfire for years — human trafficking.

The Wichita State Center for Combating Human Trafficking and the Wichita Outreach Community, composed of five local churches, hosted an anti-trafficking training workshop to focus on what local leaders of faith can do to extinguish the industry of human slavery.

Karen Countryman-Roswurm, the center’s executive director, led the training. She challenged the group to consider what they could do to fight trafficking within their own congregations and community.

“I think it’s important that, as a faith community, that we are intentional with our (anti-trafficking) efforts,” Countryman-Roswurm said. “I think there’s a lot of people who’ve been hurt, who are vulnerable, who are marginalized, and their interactions with the faith community have been very negative.

“Because there has been maybe very well-intentioned action, but not intentional action. So I think it’s important that, as a body of faith, that we stop, that we make sure we do our homework before we react.”

‘I know what it feels like’

Countryman-Roswurm shared some of her own story with the audience, emphasizing her personal connection to those on the streets, who are considered most at-risk for being trafficked. As a 13 year old, Countryman-Roswurm said her single mother committed suicide, leaving her to grow up in foster homes, group shelters and on the streets. At 16, a judge granted her legal emancipation, and she was on her own.

She went on to work for the Wichita Children’s Home and later received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from WSU, as well as her doctorate in community psychology.

What means more than her degrees, she said, are her experiences.

“I know what it feels like to operate out of desperation,” Countryman-Roswurm said. “We do a lot of things we typically wouldn’t do when we’re hopeless, when we’re desperate.”

In those situations, everything focuses on survival. But, she said, the other thing she really knows, is hope. And as entities of faith, she said the leaders in the audience have the opportunity to help provide that hope.

Cathy Turner, leader of the Wichita Outreach Community and president and CEO of Hope Ranch for Women — a nonprofit that helps abused and exploited women — stressed the privilege faith leaders have in the community.

“Each of you guys are people of influence,” Turner said. “There is somebody that you have in your life that you can influence. Come and join in this issue. I am going to challenge you to go back to your churches and be people of influence.”

Turner said it’s important for churches to become unified and cross inter-denominational boundaries to create change and fight human trafficking.

The training

During the workshop, Countryman-Roswurm said many myths and stereotypes have perpetuated the continuation of trafficking. She asked the group what words and images came to mind when she said “prostitution” and “pimp.”

Some audience members suggested women in short skirts, people who chose that lifestyle or people who were desperate. Money and abuse were mentioned.

“I was brought up to think pimps were cool,” said Damian Berry, youth pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church. “They were in all the songs I listened to.”

Berry said in eighth grade, a teacher pointed out to him that pimps did bad things to women and were not good people. It was the first time someone had told him that.

“I think it’s really important for us,” Berry said, “especially as a faith community, to be aware and then challenge those positions and speak truth.” 

Countryman-Roswurm said changing the language used is essential, because while the words “prostitution” and “pimp” carry mostly negative stereotypes, the phrase “human trafficking” reframes the issue as one of abuse that will receive help, rather than a jail sentence.

What faith congregations can do

Countryman-Roswurm said people of faith often expect victims of trafficking to come to them, broken and needy, tearfully asking them to be a rescuer. She said they don’t often expect the hurt person to spit in their face and say they don’t want help, although that happens.

She said the best thing people of faith can do is realize that only God can be the rescuer in those situations, and they can choose to walk alongside them in their journey and be there for them, even if it’s a rollercoaster at times.

When faith congregations reach out to Countryman-Roswurm and want to get involved in fighting human trafficking, she tells them all the same thing.

“Stop your awareness stuff, stop your T-shirt sales, stop your outreach efforts to go in and try to find somebody on the streets right now,” she said. “Start doing a prevention group in your own church right now, with your adolescents on one end and with your men and women who are struggling with pornography addiction, because that drives the demand for commercial sex of children…If we’re going to deal with trafficking, we have to deal with the demand.”

As the training drew to a close, Countryman-Roswurm challenged the group to think of what they could do to serve within their own communities — from prevention and assessment, to identification and intervention, to helping with the restoration and prosperity of the victims. She gave statistics on the number of trafficked people, but said that big numbers shouldn’t be what drives change.

“We know that these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg,” Countryman-Roswurm said. “The fact of the matter is, if there’s even one person trafficked, it’s one too many, and we should be doing something about it.”

The Center for Combatting Human Trafficking will host three more events in January focusing on human trafficking as part of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. More information on the events and other training workshops can be found on the organization’s Facebook page or website, www.combatinghumantrafficking.org.