Elijah Rising
Elijah Rising
Recapping This Year (2024) at Elijah Rising - Ep. 84
Every organization working to combat human trafficking dreams of the day their services won't be needed. At Elijah Rising, we've spent 2024 moving closer to that vision through direct action, community support, and faith-based healing. Join hosts David and Micah as they share inspiring stories of transformation from their anti-trafficking work in Houston, including milestone achievements in survivor recovery, program expansion, and community impact. Learn how this frontline organization is planning an even bigger vision for 2025 to help more survivors find lasting freedom.
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Welcome to the Elijah Rising podcast. Today we're going to be recapping all that the Lord has done through this ministry in 2024. But stay tuned to the end, where we share our vision and our heart for what our plans are in 2025. My co-host today is David Gamboa. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Welcome Glad to be on the podcast. I'm excited because this episode we get to share good news. I feel like a lot of our episodes, we focus on problems and the issue of human trafficking, and this is really just us sharing testimonies of what God has done and the growth that he's brought, the life change that we've been able to see happen, and so that's what makes this episode really exciting for me. And so let's just start somewhere. I asked our team because I could not remember the beginning of 2024.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit of a blur.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I asked the team what were some of the highlights of this year and people just started responding in the messages with just testimony after testimony after testimony. So literally for this episode, what I did is just took all the feedback from all of our staff and put it into a list, and so one of the first major expansions that happened this year was the gifting of a new van for our van tours which bring awareness to human trafficking.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you guys know this, but we've been in this like 15 passenger white Ford van for a really long time. And it's kind of been a joke around the office that one day we would have a Mercedes like sprinter van and because of an amazing generous donor they actually went on a van tour and learned about the issue of trafficking through the van tour and we're so impacted by that. They were like let's donate a van to Elijah Rising.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was actually an incredible testimony because we had the week prior just been dreaming like talking out loud and saying, wouldn't it be so amazing if we could have a Sprinter van? You can stand up in it, you have more space for the seats, and I mean we take people on these tours multiple times a week. So, yeah, we weren't even thinking of let's pray about this or let's like fundraise for it. So it really was a gift.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the one of the more important things is that through van tours we've given over 16,000 people education like boots on the ground, education of what trafficking is and what it looks like in the city of Houston.
Speaker 2:And having that second van is going to enable us to open up a spring van tour, which we've already done, because we know trafficking is happening all around the Houston area, not just in the Heights. Our original van tour used to be in the Galleria, and so that's really great to see it expanding and reaching some more areas. Yeah, so that was an amazing testimony. And then this year you know right now we have a full house in our restorative care program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we try to keep those beds full. So our safe home has six beds in it, but we don't just serve six residents a year, so we've been able to serve 18 this year through a number of our housing programs. That includes, like ad hoc emergency services when a girl is literally escaping her trafficker all the way through our safe home to even transitional housing. So I've been really excited to be able to house that many residents this year.
Speaker 2:Yep and the other big highlight this year is we hosted the Abolition Summit in. Atlanta, georgia, with a bunch of other partner organizations, survivor leaders. We came together with one focus and that was to just worship the Lord and pray and refresh one another. And I feel like that's what happens and it was kind of just out of prayer, like we really believe God is mobilizing this next generation to join the work of abolition, but also calling organizations to not stray away from their strengths of being faith-based.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that just for our listeners. It's so critical because in the nation there really had not been a Christian-focused conference specifically for anti-trafficking advocates. And something that I've noticed has been there's a lot of emphasis put on care for ministry leaders, like pastors or missionaries, but what we don't see is care for the frontline workers, the people who are literally giving their lives 24-7, 365 for different populations like anti-trafficking. So that was our goal and then so this kicked off an annual. This will be an annual thing next year. It's going to be in Denver, which will be super exciting because the weather will be lovely. I think it's going to be in Denver, which will be super exciting because the weather will be lovely. I think it's going to be in August this year. So just put that on your radar.
Speaker 2:We'll be sharing more about that as we go along. So earlier this year we did a series of podcasts on recovery, addiction and that intersection of trafficking and this has been kind of an avenue that's opened up for us, with Jessica Gobble, who's our kind of resident expert on recovery, has really been pioneering and building those bridges to the recovery community and people who are combating trafficking, because in many ways we serve the same population and our team has been kind of like pioneering. It's something that already exists, it's called SLAW and I don't know much about-.
Speaker 1:Sex and love. Yeah, sex, love addiction. Anonymous.
Speaker 2:So they've implemented this in our program and it's been really, really beneficial.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's important because addiction is such a wide range, I guess what I should say.
Speaker 1:Important because addiction is such a wide range, I guess what I should say.
Speaker 1:There's a wide range of addictions, right, and so we understand the substances, we kind of think of that commonly, but then there's also things like unhealthy boundaries and, again, sex and love addiction. So we want to make sure that we are targeting or addressing all of the issues for that survivor that might make her vulnerable to being exploited in the first place. So this is a really new one and I'll say too, safe homes or anti-trafficking advocates making recovery, addiction recovery a really critical part of their program is not super common, it really should be incorporated in every single program. So a lot of the addiction recovery resources, we are pioneering it and I just wanted to re-emphasize that because I don't think people realize how much cross-pollination there is in the population but how little there is of collaboration between recovery groups and anti-trafficking and how desperately needed that is. And so with these efforts that our team has been able to pioneer, we've been able to bring that to a national platform and introduce that to both parties. So it is really kind of on the cusp of recovery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and these things are real exciting for us because it's just uncovering hidden talents in our team, dreams and visions that they have of like hey, it'd be great if we implemented this, and so that's been really encouraging to see. But it was very interesting. I had a phone call with a volunteer yesterday and he was just sharing with me. He was asking questions about our work and he was just like how do y'all like how I just don't see how women can come out of trafficking, like all the barriers just seem so impossible.
Speaker 2:And I was like you're right. It's really miraculous, like many of the testimonies and the stories that we hear of just women overcoming you know, there is a strength that they have, a resilience that they have, but it's also the Lord is just working in ways that we can't understand or see. Working in ways that we can't understand or see, and that's why we rely so much on our faith and that's why prayer is such a foundational piece. And so let's share about some of the resident recovery milestones, because those are big.
Speaker 1:They are big and they're easy to gloss over, I think because it's micro, it's on the micro level and individual level, but this is what it looks like for a woman to come out of trafficking, and so let me just give some context. In our program we look at her life comprehensively, like holistically, right. So what financial challenges or legal challenges or interpersonal challenges is she facing? And on and on. I could keep going with that. But we look at her life comprehensively and say what does she need in order to thrive? So this is one piece of it.
Speaker 1:So with addiction recovery specifically, we were able to celebrate multiple women establishing a full year of sobriety and that could look like a variety of substances, that can look like, again, sex and love addiction, and so it's a huge milestone, it's a huge marker, and what we have found is that when women enter our program, there's these 30, 60, 90-day milestones that put her more, she's more vulnerable to recidivism. Additionally, when she leaves our program, she's out on her own, she's living independently. That's another milestone that makes her vulnerable. And so what our team has been able to accomplish has been able to wrap around here, throughout all of those milestones of vulnerability, to extend sobriety, hopefully to a lifelong sobriety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also one of the things we're seeing with our restorative care is just a growing what we call alumni community women who have graduated our program. They've been in it for a year, two years and now they're, you know, living their life, but they still need some assistance, they still need community, and that's one of the things I feel like is really rewarding or really exciting to see is just kind of this organic community that has been formed of alumni and they're actually coming in and speaking into the women that are currently in the program.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're like living testimonies of like look, if I did it, so can you.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I just know that number is going to keep growing as women move through our program, so that gives me something to really look forward to in the future is a better day.
Speaker 1:But they're going through their own process of healing and yet they're still willing to come back and say like but I was in your shoes, and that to me is it's such an incredible testimony, but also it's so life-giving for them, right. Anytime you pour out, it serves you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you get to see their leadership come forward like they're planning events and thinking through ideas of ways to continually build that community. So, that's really exciting to see. So we just had a lot of victories. We had multiple residents achieve freedom from legal challenges. One graduate had a potential 20-year sentence dropped due to her success in our program.
Speaker 1:Isn't that incredible.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:So this is another tangible right, just the legal ramifications for survivors. A lot of times PIMPs, traffickers will capitalize on them being in their coercion, manipulation, their cycle of victimization by making sure that their ladies get arrested and get these legal um charges on them in order to continually capitalize on their vulnerability and so um. You know, this is one kind of practical place that we work. Our case managers work really closely with our residents to expunge records, to clean up records, to get off probation, all of these things right, so that they can go on and live successfully.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Another great aspect of our program is just the education and job placement career help that our case management provides. So we had some victories this year. We had one resident began her college courses. Another resident who just kind of felt like she couldn't really dream or envision herself pursuing anything academically, she ended up discovering she had a passion for learning, enrolled in GED classes. Another resident began pursuing her real estate license. So that just speaks to our individualized care. We're really assessing kind of what do you want to do with your life, what are your strengths, and then helping connect you in the right lane.
Speaker 2:An alumni shifted her educational focus to victim studies to help other people who have been trafficked, and then three residents secured employment and one even entered into management training, and so that's a big part of our program is that we're able to help find them stable and healthy jobs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, just to bring it down to an individual level, many of these women I know there's one in this list in particular who I know her family would literally say to her over and over you're stupid, you're worth nothing, these types of things that are being spoken over them as children for years. And so there's a place of overcoming just the lies that, like I am stupid, I don't have what it takes, I can't learn, I'll never go to college, I'll never be worth anything, there's all these lies that have to be overcome in order to even have the courage to apply for school, and so I'm so incredibly proud of our little cohort right now. I'm so proud of them for all of the milestones that they've been able to reach and just muscle through. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to do this worksheet. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to study for my GED.
Speaker 1:All of those micro level decisions actually take a ton of grit and perseverance, and so those are again the daily places of traction where our team comes in and helps, coach them and say like no, we believe in you, right, like you do have the capacity. And I remember this one moment this year where this woman was like I can't learn, I've given up. It was math specifically, and it was like fractions. Can't learn, I've given up. It was math specifically, and it was like fractions. And I remember a team member coming in and explaining fractions and they used this pie and something clicked and then she was like, oh, I actually get this and I can do this. And then went on and on, and on and on. So all that to say, those are the micro level decisions and the practices and the habits on a daily basis that it takes to overcome all of these obstacles with education.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one of the things that I've really enjoyed seeing is just our connection with local tattoo artists. I know it's crazy, but many of the women who come into our home literally have branding marks or the name of their trafficker tattooed on them, and so what we found is hey, we need to partner with tattoo artists to help cover up or remove those, and so we've had a lot of great traction with people that do tattoo removal but also tattoo coverups.
Speaker 2:And this year we've made a really, really great connection with someone local in Houston and so she comes in feels like she's been coming in every week, but every couple of weeks she comes in and does tattoo coverups for the resident and that's just been so amazing. A lot of times it'll be a trafficker's name and she'll turn it into this like crazy, like flowers, you know, or butterflies, or it just shows kind of the change that they're going through as well of that past is being erased. So that was that was really, really amazing. We partner with three dental providers to ensure comprehensive oral healthcare. To ensure comprehensive oral health care, we helped one resident reduce medical debt from $16,903 to just a little over 200 bucks, and this shows you why case management is essential to meet every need. There's no way that we could just out of pocket fund all these things, and so partnering with just amazing dentist office that want to give back like this has been so beneficial to the ladies we serve?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Because whenever they're being trafficked, there's no medical care, there's no dental care, right, she might not have gone to the dentist for 5, 10, 15 years. So we're kind of going back to the beginning, if you will, you know. And the other thing I'll say about the tattoo coverups it's really important because even when a woman is like I'm making a change, I'm coming away from my trafficker, or like I'm trying to make these life decisions to transform my life, Sometimes there is a little shred of like I'm going to, but I'm going to hang on to this piece of my old life, including her trafficker, because so many times he has this emotional connection to her, making her believe that he loves her, all that stuff, Right. So for her to decide, you know what? Now I'm going to take the step to cover his name and erase his name from my body. I don't know if our listeners understand. It is such a big milestone for them and it really shows their willingness to cut off their old life and move into the new.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so just kind of talking about the new, what are we looking forward to in 2025? You know, and I hear all these testimonies and it's very easy, I feel like to begin to move on, but I feel like it's so important for us to just give thanks to God, like because he really brought us through this year and you know, we shared all the high points but along with that, there's a lot of challenges.
Speaker 2:Um, there was a lot of situations where we found ourselves okay, well, we gotta, we gotta pray, you know, we gotta ask God to come through and he has and it's only when, if you're able to look back, can you see God moving and working in all those mysterious ways.
Speaker 2:And so we give credit to the Lord for all these testimonies and just where he's brought us from being just this little prayer meeting over 10 years ago to being able to provide these really, really beneficial and life-saving services to people, and I feel like this next year, god has really began to expand our vision of what even we think is possible, especially when we're talking about helping women stay out of trafficking situations stay out of the life, because once they graduate our program, you know they're in the real world and real life happens your car breaks down, you can't make the rent payment.
Speaker 2:You know, situations happen and it's very easy to want to go back to that old life, but we really are committed to walking with survivors through that. Whether they're in our program, after our program, we want to be there for them. In many ways we are their community, we're like family, they know us, they're our friends, and so that's one of the biggest challenges we've seen is housing. So many women are being trafficked right now because of a lack of housing. I think the stat is like 75% of women in trafficking experience homelessness. So in many ways we're not just fighting trafficking but we're also fighting addiction, recovery or fighting homelessness.
Speaker 2:And so this next year we're really excited to begin to roll out a transitional aspect of our program.
Speaker 1:Yep, we're looking forward to that. Probably I'm going to say quarter one 2025. We're looking to purchase another facility, which is really exciting, to even say out loud. We're hoping that it'll be kind of an eight to 10 bed facility and the difference between this and our safe home is that in our safe home it's 24 seven staffed care. So that looks like, you know, whenever they have flashbacks, whenever they have self-harm ideation, like somebody is there to coach them, walk with them, mentor, all that stuff. So once they've gone through the safe home process albeit a year or two years, whatever that is to stabilize, then they're ready to have some autonomy. You know they're ready.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the goal isn't for them to stay in our program or in our safe home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so by this point, when she's graduating the safe home, she's usually working and or in higher education. I mean, she has a car, you know all these things right. She's integrating back. And so with our next phase, which would be transition housing, there will be no staff present. They live independently. They live independently. They do pay rent. At times it can be a subsidized rent depending on their situation. But, yeah, working a job, living independently, caring for themselves and for their premises and just learning all the skills.
Speaker 1:And then we have some touch points that are still sobriety, addiction recovery support. And then we do have a points that are still sobriety, addiction recovery support. And then we do have a mild, very minimal kind of case management to keep them focused on their goals. We want to make sure again, that they're not becoming dependent on the organization at that point either. But this is such a critical piece. So when women leave our safe home, we have found that there are a couple of hurdles that they sometimes face. So pimps and traffickers will put them into situations where they can get incarcerated, get a felony record even on their record, so they're unable to secure housing or ruin their credit intentionally, again not able to secure housing. So with this transitional program they can stay for as long as it's needed to repair their credit and to rebuild a positive rental history enabling them for future success. And so this is our big milestone in the first part of next year that we're very, very excited for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you guys want to follow along with that, I'm sure we'll be posting updates about it via Instagram. So follow us on Instagram or Facebook. If you're not on our email list, go to our website, elijahrisingorg, and so that you can be up to date on all the things that we're doing. But yeah, we're really excited for 2025. And just to kind of wrap this episode up, is there anything you felt like we missed covering for 2024?
Speaker 1:Yes, I think one thing we didn't touch on was the expansion of our case management offices. So what that means is that, essentially, we have remodeled one of our office spaces to be more of a private. We have a private entrance for residents and survivors so that they can go in and get the services that they need without having to, you know, just kind of be out in the open with all of our office space and all of our wonderful staff. But sometimes that that's that's a need. So we have additional office space that's set aside for survivors, specifically for their care and for their needs. And then, you know, going forward into 2025, I would say keep your calendars marked for the Abolitionist Summit that's going to be such a big milestone. It's going to be a much larger group this year Again, held in August in Denver. It will be something that you don't want to miss Again held in August in Denver.
Speaker 2:It will be something that you don't want to miss, yeah, and I'll just say like, if you're just kind of like a volunteer or you just listen to the podcast and maybe you feel like, oh, I don't belong in that crowd, I'll just say it's open to anyone. Like we're making the tickets very affordable for people to come. And we were actually the last one. We really didn't talk a lot about trafficking, it was really just connecting with the Lord and worshiping and praying and just being spirit led and it was a I feel like it was a healing time.
Speaker 2:It was a real kind of time for vision, of just seeing what God is doing around the nation and building connections, cause that's important, like there's no way Elijah, rising in and of itself is going to end trafficking or be the end all solution for women. You know, it's just we can't do everything. We need different people who go in different lanes, and so it's been amazing to just see organizations, ministries, churches, coming together and being united, churches coming together and being united. But it's also, you know, I'm, hopeful for new ministries to form, like in Houston. We need you know, local hotline.
Speaker 2:we need emergency shelters, and so I think you know many of those people are going to be sitting in the audience at these types of events or just in churches when we go and speak, and it's time to be activated. It's time for the body of Christ to rise up and begin to meet some needs, because you can totally do it. If we can do it, anyone listening. If God's called you to do this, you can do this work.
Speaker 1:That's so true. You know, if God has called you, he will equip you.
Speaker 1:We aren't anything special or unique we literally learned as we went along are unique. We literally learned as we went along, and so you know we would love to be a resource to you guys. If you're listening to this podcast, if you feel encouraged and inspired to take action, please check us out at ElijahRisingorg. You can listen to any of the podcast episodes All are full of great educational content or even reach out to us directly. We're always available. So thank you so much for listening to this episode and we hope to be able to share amazing stories with you here in just a few months.