Melissa’s Story

About seven years ago, I took what felt like a very small step of obedience, one that I had no idea how God would use. I had this growing sense that I was wasting time and was meant to be involved in ministry in some way. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could, but it kept surfacing.

I shared my feelings with my campus pastor’s wife, and she asked a simple question: Did something happen to your job? I told her no—that was the confusing part. I didn’t know what this meant, only that I needed to be obedient and say it out loud. Afterward, I began serving more in Women’s Ministry and discovered how much I love helping women, listening to them and meeting their needs.

Around that same time, I attended a sex trafficking awareness event. I went thinking I might serve and maybe learn how to keep my daughter safe. But as I heard about the lives of trafficked women, the manipulation they endure, and the lies they come to believe about themselves, often at the hands of those meant to love and protect them, God broke my heart.

God had been shaping my heart for the voiceless long before I had language for it.

That night, my eyes were opened to a population I hadn’t even known existed. And in that same moment, God gifted me with a beautiful burden that has changed my life.

Three years later, after much learning and prayer, I left a 14-year career to join the work of anti-trafficking. I get to be one tiny part of how God brings survivors to a safe place where they can heal and be introduced to Jesus, the only One who offers true and lasting freedom.

God alone deserves the credit for opening my eyes and leading me into this work. He has been patient and kind with the burden He placed on my heart, never moving me faster than I could bear, yet gently urging me forward whenever my heart lagged behind His leading.

Looking back, I can see that God was preparing my heart for this type of work long before I ever knew trafficking existed. From the time I was very young, I had a recurring dream that followed me into adulthood. It was a dream of trying to cry out for help and having no voice. For years, I assumed the dream was about me. It wasn’t until much later, after I had already stepped into anti-trafficking work, that I understood that God had been shaping my heart for the voiceless long before I had language for it.

A survivor’s story I was reading mirrored my dream exactly. She had once been a child with a man who, to the public, appeared to be a harmless, loving grandfather. In reality, he was trafficking her to a police officer—a man who would let her play with the siren in his patrol car before becoming the “monster under her bed,” as she described him. Having no words to explain or ask for help, she was the voiceless woman in my dream.

Looking back, I can see that God was preparing my heart for this type of work long before I ever knew trafficking existed.

Anti-trafficking work is heavy. The emotional toll can be overwhelming. Progress is slow, setbacks are common, and trauma runs deep. It challenges your sense of safety at times and exposes you to realities most people never see. It requires holding space for immense pain while believing—sometimes on behalf of someone who can’t yet believe it themselves—that healing is possible.

It means carrying heartache for those who aren’t ready to hope again. It means showing up, knowing spiritual warfare will follow—against you, your family, your home, and the ministry itself. It requires more time, more sacrifice, more resources, and a complete reshaping of our expectations of healing.

The work is hard…BUT GOD. He came to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed.

God did this for me, and He wants to do this for you…for those who are being trafficked…for all of us. Jesus went all in, holding nothing back. To God, the cost of not providing redemption through His Son was greater than the cost of giving His Son. I was worth it all. You are worth it all. The woman being trafficked is worth it all.

My hope for us as a church is that we would truly know the fullness of the grace and mercy given to us…and be willing to go all in for one person, no matter the sacrifice, just like God did for us, and that we would keep taking steps of obedience, both big and small. I have no idea who said it, but I wrote it in my Bible that God’s love language is obedience. I ask myself each morning what step needs to be taken today? We never know when He might use that step to do something extraordinary, but we can know with certainty that He is delighting in our obedience.

Through my years working in anti-trafficking, I’ve come to understand that the mission God has ordained for our partners is centered on the woman who has been victimized—but it’s also about me, and about you. Ultimately, it is about God and for His glory. It is about how we surround her with love and truth, bringing light into the darkest places, just as Christ did for us.

Jesus gave up everything—leaving heaven and enduring the cross—so that we could know true freedom. He saw our individual worth and chose the cross anyway. We were worth every nail, every lash, every bitter drink, every crown of thorns.

As I reflect on the past seven years, I see how much God has taught me. He has met me through His Word when I needed it most and given me endurance I didn’t know was possible. He has changed my perspective—revealing the ways I was judging others and making assumptions—and has stretched and grown my patience in a work that is often slow to bear fruit.

Jesus gave up everything—leaving heaven and enduring the cross—so that we could know true freedom.

God has shown me just how truly gentle and lowly He is. He has reframed what once felt important, giving me the courage to step away from a lucrative career and into His holy work. This work has led me to repentance, deepened my dependence on Him, and taught me to rely not on my own strength, but on His.

I don’t do any of this perfectly, but there has been so much shaping and molding that has happened since that one simple step of obedience to speak something out loud years ago. I’m thankful that God has taught me, and is still teaching me, that my biggest sin will never be greater than the grace and mercy He is willing to pour out over it if He has my heart.

God also loves to teach us through experiences. One of the sweetest moments in my time in this work was telling our first home resident that we had been waiting for her for four years—four years of work, prayer, tears, and faith by many people in this church and others.

Saying yes to Him, stepping into work that helps bring a voice, dignity, and hope to women who have been silenced by abuse and exploitation has been one of the most meaningful seasons of my life. I simply get to lift one corner of her mat, like the friends who carried the paralytic to Jesus. Just one step of obedience to bring her to the feet of the same Savior who rescued me.

What a God we serve!

Melissa attends the La Grange Campus.