Stories of Hope for India’s Trafficked with David Harms

This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by India Partners. It's time to end the nightmare for another girl. Rescue her now at IndiaPartners.org slash faith. Here are some hope-filled stories about an organization that's changing the lives of young women and children in India. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, we've been looking forward to having David Harms back on the program. David is with India Partners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing impoverished women and children from exploitation and abuse.

India Partners has a 40-year record of doing just that. David, delighted to have you back on the program. Well, always a pleasure.

Thank you for the opportunity. David, just in case someone missed your last appearance, give us an idea of the extent of human trafficking in India. Well, we're talking millions of, this is an estimate, but millions of underage girls are trafficked and sold in the country of India, in Mumbai, India, where we kind of center our work in the red light districts. Estimated to be about 200-300,000 underage girls just in Mumbai alone.

So the problem is extensive. It is driven by poverty, where so many times, girls that are 12-11 years old are tricked into, quote, going into the city to find a job so you can send money back to your parents. And that's not at all what happens, and they end up in the red light districts. They are tricked, they are abused in every way, shape, and form.

They will see upwards of 30 men a day as customers. And with India Partners, the beauty of it is, if you can call it that, is the restorative work that Jesus does as we rescue them out and put them in safe houses that we operate. Several of them, numerous safe houses, and that's where really we're able to present Jesus and the healing that can only happen through him. But we start with rescuing them out, and then the transformative long-term work begins in the safe houses. It's heartbreaking, and yet I'm so thankful for the work of India Partners on the ground.

Unpack that just a bit more as to what you're doing there on the ground. Well, it starts with having what we call social workers. These are really our missionaries who go into the red light districts every day and befriend the girls, try to locate them first.

That's always an issue. And then as we befriend them, we show them there's a better way. Many times these young girls have babies as a result of their work, and so we tell them that we can get their children out as well. And they come in, and that again, into the safe houses.

We can get them out, but if we don't have a place for them to go, well then that doesn't really solve the problem long-term. So the safe houses are really where it happens, and we're very, very thankful for the opportunity to tell you about those safe houses and to let people know how they can find out more and support this work. Well, one of the best ways to understand the power of what God is doing through India Partners is to hear the testimonies. David, I know you're going to share a couple of them with us today.

What are we going to hear? Well, I wanted to share Lapta's story with you because she epitomizes what you would hear and go, huh? Really? That happens?

And the answer is yes. She wasn't even quite a teenager when she was trafficked. Listen to her story. When I was 12, my friend invited me over to play. I didn't know that she and her sister had become traffickers, and they sold me into the red light area. I woke up in a strange place, and I was so scared. Because I was young, I was in very high demand.

At minimum, I would see about eight men per day. They would beat me and abuse me physically and verbally. I was so hopeless. I met India Partners when they invited me to join a prayer group. I came to know Jesus and believe in Him.

I eventually got rescued and escaped the trade. The coming to know Jesus is where I want to pick up in a story. But in the meantime, we're hoping that you will find out more and support the work of India Partners. Folks, I know you're going to want to be a part of helping to rescue these young women and children in India. You can do that at IndiaPartners.org slash faith. That's IndiaPartners.org slash faith. We're so thankful to shine a light on this ministry here at the end of the year. Following this interview, your questions today at 800-525-7000. Stay with us.

Much more with David Harms just around the corner. We provide biblically wise financial advice as part of their practice. You can find a local CKA professional in your area by going to faithbuy.com and clicking find a CKA. An eight year old girl should never be exploited or abused because God's children are not for sale. But in India alone, half a million girls are trafficked and abused each day.

I know that if I'd stayed in the slums, my life would have been wasted. Action must be taken now. This is the mission of India Partners to rescue girls from abuse, provide healing in a safe house and make sure they are never sold again. Rescue a girl today at IndiaPartners.org slash faith. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance.

I'm Rob West. With me today, David Harms. David is with India Partners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing impoverished women and children from exploitation and abuse.

They have a 40 year track record of doing that. And we're so honored here at Faith and Finance to be partnered with them to shine a light on this great work. If you want to learn more, you can go to IndiaPartners.org slash faith. Now, David, just before the break, we heard a powerful story from a young girl, Lopda, who when she was 12 years old, ended up in a human trafficking situation, abused both physically and sexually. And she was rescued. She referred to meeting Jesus as a part of that rescue.

I'd love for you to share a bit more about how that works. Yeah, I think the reality is that if we rescued a girl out, as we do, and that was it, it would be good work, but it wouldn't be complete. For the healing that needs to happen with these girls, when they get to the safe houses especially, we know that that involves the gospel. In fact, I heard one of our team members in the safe houses.

This was about 10, 12 years ago when I first started working with India Partners. When you go into the safe house, when you visit, they're all happy and cheerful, but you know there's a lot of stuff going on underneath. So I asked one of our team members there, what do they really need? Like, when we leave, what is it really like, and what do they really need?

And the comment back has stuck with me here 12 years later. They said, what these girls really need are two things, time and Jesus. Because the depth of their hurt is so extreme.

I mean, you heard LAPTA, minimum of eight, upwards of 30 men per day. That doesn't get healed overnight typically. And so what they get when they come into the safe house is time, and the gospel is interwoven into every part of it. Every week, every girl in our safe house has two counseling sessions with a trauma therapist, one individually and one as a group. And this is where the gospel is presented. We do devotions every evening. They memorize more scripture than I have, and they just get ingrained in the gospel.

And they learn about Jesus. And that's where the healing really does begin. And I've got a great story. When I was first getting started, how many years ago now? Ten, twelve years ago? On my very first trip in, I met a young girl named Muskaan. She was, get this, six. She was six. And she was a rambunctious little girl.

Cute, but boy, a handful, that's for sure. And every year I'd go back, and Muskaan would grow up, and we'd see her start to understand Jesus a little bit more. And then COVID hit, and I couldn't get to India, no travel at all. And so when I finally was able to go back, it had been a couple of years. And I see Muskaan, and she is a totally different young woman. Not only has she grown up, but she just had a leadership characteristic about her. She was in charge of getting all the younger girls in line. She was definitely the girl that all the other girls kind of looked to for leadership. And she embraced Jesus in a way that I was shocked with, in a beautiful way. And so I got a little time alone with her, with a translator, and just started asking about what's been going on over the years. And it was such an encouraging time to see what God has done. And then I said this.

I said, this is where we're finishing up. I said, can I pray for you? She's like, yes, please. And so I prayed for her. I was thanking God for her, like what God has done in her life, the healing that has happened, all of this stuff. And it was a heartfelt prayer. I don't know how long it was, but I felt like, yeah, go God. I was very, very thankful. Tears were flowing. And we get done, and I say, amen. And then Muskaan goes to me and says, now, how can I pray for you?

And I was like taken aback. I'd never had one of the girls in the safe houses asked to pray for me. And I kind of said, well, you can pray for my family and safe travel home, you know, kind of surfacy stuff, kind of, but real. And I admit, in hindsight especially, I thought, well, isn't this cute? She's going to give me some nice little prayer, and I'll enjoy it, and it will be heartfelt, and that'll be great.

It'll be awesome. I said, well, absolutely you can pray for me. She, no joke, hit the floor on her knees, and she started praying in a way that I have never experienced before. She poured out her heart to God for not just me and my family and the things that I had asked for. She was praying for a revival. She was praying for the men who abused her. She was praying for the other girls in the safe houses. We went 20 minutes on our knees together in tears because this young woman now understood the power of prayer and her relationship with Jesus.

We got up from our knees, and I have never been more humbled and more joyful all at the same time. That young lady now is attending college. She is going to become a fashion designer, and she knows Jesus with all of her heart. It's incredible the transformation. And that's the Jesus piece of time and Jesus.

She got both, and that led to her brand new life. Wow, it reminds me when Jesus said, to enter the kingdom we must become like children, and I'm sure that prayer had a profound impact on you. How can our listeners be praying for you? Certainly they can support this work financially, and we'll let them know how they can do that, but how can they be praying? Because I'm sure this work is fraught with not only spiritual warfare, but real challenges on the ground every day.

Thank you, that is 100% true. The challenges on the ground are it's really hard to continue this work when persecution is coming and ramping up in India against Christians. That is definitely something that is happening, and so we can be praying for protection for our staff, our team. They go into some very, very, I'd say scary circumstances and situations, but they do it because they very much want the gospel to be presented to these girls. So we can pray for our team there. We are expanding very fast as more girls get rescued out, so we hope to open up some new safe houses, but obviously the finances need to be there for that.

And when we do take in a girl, by the way, we commit that we will take care of them until they're 23. So that's the time part of the time in Jesus, so that's an expensive proposition. But that's where we know that that impact is happening in the long run. So prayers for our team as they battle the spiritual elements that are definitely coming against them, and pray obviously for the continuing lifting up of the name of Jesus so the healing can happen for these girls.

Those are two of the main ones. There's a real need here financially, David, for you all to continue and, to your point, even expand your work. And folks can give one time, they can give monthly. Talk about how their giving is directed right into this work.

Yeah, thank you. We kind of did the whole math thing. Well, I didn't. Believe me, you don't want me to do the math.

Beam counters did the math. It's $8.89 to underwrite their care for an entire day. That's private Christian school, extra tutoring, medical attention, the trauma counseling I mentioned, all of it, room and board, everything. $8.89 a day. So dollar wise, $275 will underwrite the care of one girl for a month, and $124 is two weeks of their care. We can underwrite the care of one girl for $3,300 for the year.

Everything for $3,300 a year. So that's how it kind of works financially, and we hope people will jump online and at least look at the opportunities there and as God leads to support the work. Incredible. Well, we're honored to be able to shine a light on your great work here, David.

We know as stewards of God's resources in part, we're to give generously, and this is clearly something on the heart of God as we read scripture. Thanks for stopping by today. Pleasure.

Thank you. That's David Harms with India Partners. The website again to give right now is IndiaPartners.org slash faith. That's IndiaPartners.org slash faith. Back with your questions after this.

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Principal loss is possible. Foresight Fund Services LLC. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance.

I'm Rob West. Hey, a couple of people have called in and said, you know, I love the idea of supporting FaithFi and I want to do it to be able to see the gift doubled, which by the way, now till the end of the year, every gift doubled to FaithFi, but I'd rather do it over the phone. Well, you can certainly do that. If you call back on this number about 15 minutes after the program ends today, instead of getting the studio line, you will get somebody who can help you or call you back to help you make that gift at 800-525-7000. But always quick and easy at faithfi.com.

Just click give and thanks to those who have given your gifts have been doubled and we are very, very grateful. All right, to the phones we go here in our final segment to Chicago. Doris, go ahead.

Oh, hi. We're looking into pre-planning our funeral arrangements. And I was just wondering how you start that and what you have to look out for. There's always false things out there.

And if you had any advice on that. Yes, I sure do. And let me just clarify, Doris, you're talking about pre-planning, not prepaid. Is that right? Well, I think it would be, you'd pay on it the way I understand it. So it would be making arrangements and then paying financially. Okay.

Yeah. So the only thing there, I certainly think you ought to do pre-planning and that's going to do to document your wishes, to make sure your preferences regarding burial or cremation, the type of service, things like that would be honored. Financial preparation. So, you know, what I would say there is in terms of planning, you could set aside funds and even put what's called a transfer on death, a TOD on the account so that it goes directly to the person who would be tasked with doing it. But you don't have to go ahead and pay it.

I'll come back to that in a second. And then the third thing is you want to communicate with your loved ones about your wishes so they can execute all of that accordingly. And, you know, this is a great thing to do because it relieves stress and it controls costs and so forth.

And, you know, I think as you research funeral homes and create a budget for expenses and, you know, document your wishes and then put the funds aside, you know, you've done everything you can to alleviate those decisions during what would be an already difficult process. Now, the only thing to consider on prepaying, and this is why I think Consumer Reports would advise caution when doing this, it seems like a convenient way to lock in costs and reduce the financial burden on loved ones. But there are a couple of downsides. I wouldn't say it's a deal breaker, but I just want you to be aware of them.

Number one, limited flexibility. So if the funeral home goes out of business and they do, it might be difficult to transfer or recover the funds. You could have a loss of funds if they mismanage them or, again, the funeral home closes. There might be certain expenses that aren't covered, some hidden costs. And so I would just say definitely the pre-planning, but just make sure you give some consideration to the prepayment. And perhaps if you have the funds to do it, just set these funds aside with a payable on death or a TOD transfer on death.

And that would make sure that the person that is paying for this has immediate access without waiting for probate. Does that make sense? Oh, a lot of sense. Exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you so very much. Okay, Doris.

And I will be calling right after the program. Okay. Oh, you're very sweet. Okay. Thank you. God bless. Bye-bye. And to you as well. Bye-bye.

Let's go to Mississippi. Hi, Larry. Go ahead. Thank you, Rob. I appreciate your godly wisdom. Thank you, sir.

Hey, I had a question. My wife has a beneficiary IRA at a value of $108,000 and she's always been required to take a distribution on it. My question is, what is the difference between a beneficiary IRA and a conventional IRA, especially as how you can manage it?

And I will say she is turning 62 in November. Does that change anything? Well, there is no difference with regard to how you manage it. They can all hold the same investments. The main difference comes in just in terms of the rules with regard to how the funds have to come out. So normally with a non-spouse beneficiary IRA, and this has changed several times recently with the law, but generally I think the latest is those funds in most cases have to be depleted or withdrawn completely within 10 years of the account holder's death.

And so that would be the main difference. But in terms of the investments they can hold, you basically have unlimited options in that beneficiary IRA in the same way you do with just a normal non-beneficiary traditional IRA. So depleted, it's been over 10 years since her father passed away and it came from her father.

So it's been over 10 years. And when you say depleted, how do you mean depleted as far as needs to be taken out of the account and taxes paid on it? Correct. Yeah, because as the money comes out, as long as it's not a Roth IRA, that money would have to be then paid. You have to pay tax on it and move to a non-IRA account. And so generally, and this is where I check with the CPA just to make sure, because depending on what year he died and what the tax law was at that time, currently there's in most cases a 10-year window to withdraw all the assets from the account after the original account owner's death. This is known as the 10-year rule and it applies to designated beneficiaries except for certain eligible beneficiaries. And so, you know, some of those would be minor children or spouses.

And so that's why it'd probably be good for you all to check with a CPA just to go over the situation and understand just kind of what rules are in place right now to be able to withdraw that money and then pay the tax on it. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Appreciate your help. Absolutely. Thanks for your call today. Well, folks, we are about out of time today, but I'm so thankful to have you along with us today. And you know what?

We're always grateful for your questions and you stopping by. At the end of the day, here's our heart is that you would be able to manage God's money wisely. You know, I think it was Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life and the pastor that said there's two questions on the final exam when you get to heaven. What did you do with Jesus? That's the most important.

And then second, what did you do with what you were given? And that's the part that we deal with here. Once you've surrendered your life and placed your trust in Christ for your salvation, now it's about stewardship of time and talent and treasure.

Yes, money and relationships and truth. And we want to help you be that wise and faithful steward of the resources, the money that God has entrusted to you, recognizing it all belongs to him. And so now the way we're found faithful is to understand his heart, the heart of the master. The only way we can do that is to look to scripture. And so each day, our hope and prayers, we can be an encouragement to you in that, give you some practical ideas to think about, remind you of a biblical worldview of money management, looking everything through the lens of scripture. Far too few Christians, even Christians today, operate truly out of a biblical worldview in every domain of life. We want to help you get that right in this money area. It doesn't mean we have all the answers, but we know the source does.

And that source is God's word. So hopefully you found something helpful today. Let me say thanks to my team today, Amy, Tahira, Jim, Anthony, and everybody here at Faithful. We'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithful and listeners like you.