After having a very long day, I was searching through the Firestick to see what I could mindlessly watch. Something told me to scroll down further where I saw this movie called “Priceless” with a 4.4 gold star rating and free on Amazon Prime. The description caught my eye, “A desperate man making a shady cross-country delivery is compelled to save two frightened sisters in this powerful story of love, strength, and redemption.”
I’ve seen this movie on here for months now but never have watched it. When I realized one of my favorite Christian bands, For King and Country, was a part of this movie, I was sold! The lead actor of this movie, Joel Smallbone is actually a member of this band.
The movie was based on real stories about sex trafficking and I was definitely moved while watching this. Sex and human trafficking have been on my heart lately. The fact that people are fooled or blackmailed into being trafficked is appalling. What’s even crazier is that many don’t know that it’s happening here in the U.S. and it might even be happening near your house.
We had a family member who had too close of a call. She had this friend, a girl, talk her into traveling to Texas to go party. Once they got to Texas, her “friend” totally gave her over to her pimp. Our family member asked if she could use the bathroom to clean up and was able to call 9-1-1 and SWAT intervened. Thank God they were able to rescue her from that fate. Many don’t get that chance.
A few years ago I pulled off at a gas station to air up my flat tire. This hot rod pulled up with a couple in it. The guy got out at the pump to gas up his fancy foreign car. I noticed he kept watching me and I also took note that the pretty blonde with him was in a sparkly dress. It was weird that she was so dressed up in the middle of the day and he wasn’t at all.
The guy was pulling away from the pump and stopped right next to me and said, “hey you wanna come party with us?” And the pretty blonde in the passenger seat smiled and said, “yeah it’ll be fun!” I nervously said, “no thanks.” I think he asked one more time and she said “come on” but they drove off after that. It dawned on me that he could have been a pimp looking for another girl to pawn off for cash.
The thought that perturbed me most was that the girl with him was also trying to coax me into going with them. How could she do that if she knows that it would ruin my life? I found out that these girls get doped up and are threatened to cooperate. There’s literally no way out if they did join on a voluntary basis because the pimps won’t let them leave. So they get accustomed to this lifestyle and learn to go with it to survive, even if that means deceiving innocent girls.
And it’s not just sex trafficking, the majority of human trafficking is forced labor. I found these statistics: 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally.
- 81% of them are trapped in forced labor.
- 25% of them are children.
- 75% are women and girls.
So how can we fight this and protect others?
- A knowledge that it’s occurring is the first step.
- Teaching awareness to others and that it’s okay to say “NO.” A lot of this starts on social media now. “Friends” and “boyfriends” want to meet in person only for you to find out that they lied to you. Then the next thing you know, you’re in a foreign place being injected with drugs and forced to do unspeakable things.
- Learn how to help others who have been trafficked by getting them in touch with sex trafficking organizations and local law enforcement.
National Human Trafficking Resource Center 1 (888) 373-7888
SMS: 233733 (Text “HELP” or “INFO”)
Websites: http://pricelessthemovie.com/partners
- Get involved by volunteering or donating to these organizations fighting to end this.
This is just the beginning of my quest for researching human trafficking. I hope that this movie opens up your eyes like it did for me and that you will find a way to get involved in the cause. Keep in mind that this movie is rated PG-13 so you may want to watch it without the kiddos around. There were some intense scenes.
A Prayer For You
God, please help me to be aware of what is going on around me at all times. Please protect my loved ones and me. Show me how I can help prevent others from being taken advantage of bringing hope to those in dire situations. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Below is the trailer for the movie and the song “Priceless” by for King & Country.
Stay hopeful!
6 Comments
Thank You Heather for writing about this. It’s one of the best ways to get the info out there for people to be aware. I didn’t realize it was such a huge issue until I started reading about it a few years ago.
You’re welcome but it wasn’t me, God put it on my heart. Yes everyone needs to know this is happening and hopefully some who stumble across this info can help spread the word.
Great post. When our daughters were in high school, they’d go on mission trips to Mexico and my wife would lecture them about the tactics of sex traffickers. Young girls need to be aware.
We watched that movie on Amazon and thought it was good. I don’t know why some people gave it low reviews.
Can you add a follow button? I don’t see one on your page.
Thank you! I agree we all need to be aware and I’m glad your wife gave your daughters the lecture. I’m glad you liked the movie too! Oh and I just checked and the email updates sign up is under my about me on a desktop. If you’re using a phone, it should be at the bottom. And I think the WordPress follow button should show up like it does for all WordPress users to follow?
From a computer, the follow button is usually on the bottom right corner of the screen, but not on yours. You can add follow tabs if you want from your admin.
It has been added! Thank you Bill!