Is Human Trafficking Really an Issue in America?

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Podcast. An apologist, Christian political advocate, and author, here is the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes. There's a plight in America today, and that plight is human trafficking. It's terrible what's happening across the nation. Its children are being brought across the border illegally and kids are being sold into slavery. And not just kids, but adults too are becoming slaves in the area of human trafficking. And there's a man with us today, Pastor Willie Montague, who's joining us to talk about this situation.

So I want you to buckle up, get ready to take notes, so you can find out what you can do to fight human trafficking in the United States of America today. Before we get started though, I want to welcome the Christian perspective. You know, this is a show where we dive into God's Word each and every day in order to develop a biblical worldview so we can then take that biblical worldview into the arena of public policy and politics and try to influence the culture and impact the culture for Jesus Christ each and every day. We're coming to you live from the beautiful studios in Memphis, Tennessee, on the campus of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America College. If you have a student, or maybe you are a student and you're looking for a place to go to college, I encourage you to go online and check out Mid-America College. And of course, maybe you've been established in a career for years and you just decided you want to learn more about God's Word, or maybe you're at a point in your life where you're going to surrender to full-time Christian ministry, I would encourage you to pray about attending Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. It's a beautiful campus right across the street. If you remember Adrian Rogers years ago, he was a pastor before he passed away at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, and the campus is just beautiful here.

It's the home of our studios, and I would encourage you to check out Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. And of course, I want to thank our sponsor, the Citizens for America Foundation, for making the Christian perspective available to you each and every day right here on your favorite radio station. Well, Pastor Willie Montague, you are living in Florida right now, I believe, down in the Orlando area, but you've worked for years in the area of human trafficking and trying to protect people from the plight. It's really across our nation today.

People don't realize that there are probably more slaves and sex slaves in the world today than at any point in the past in the history of the world, really. And so, can you tell us a little bit about you and your ministry, and then we'll jump into the issue of sex trafficking? Absolutely, and thank you for this opportunity. It's always a pleasure when you actually get on a platform where it's faith-based and Christ-centered. So, my background is I was born and raised in Moorhead City, North Carolina, and when I left from there, I went to Bible college in Raymond, Tulsa, Oklahoma. And from there, I started my journey through ministry as you were just mentioning and sharing with the audience about having that call, the full-time Ministry of the Work of the Lord, and that's where the journey that he took me on back in 2007. And from there, the journey began with me starting an organization that works with youth and young adult boys between the ages of 7 to 25. And before then, we would just simply open up our house and do our mentorship, teaching about things, life skills, cooking, cleaning, those things that should have been taught.

But a lot of these boys were fatherless and did not have that role model to really help steer them in the right direction. And then we fast-forward into where our organization really took a grasp of just where we're supposed to be placed when we moved here to Orlando, Florida in 2015. We got incorporated. We got our 501c3.

We started off with the boys, and then from there, we started adding different components of the organization. And in 2016 is when I ended up, our program and those that were with us, we ended up in a homeless situation, and that is where the journey began with human trafficking and seeing what was happening on the streets live. What a testimony of how God took you to the right place at the right time. Before we jump into that, I just found out we had something in common, Willie, that I didn't know we had. So you're from Moorhead City, North Carolina? Yes, born and raised, Moorhead City, North Carolina. I know I'm a lot older than you. I've got a head full of gray hair.

You're a good-looking guy without all the gray hair that I have. But when I was a boy, I lived there for many years, and it's one of the favorite places I ever lived was in Moorhead City, North Carolina. The fishing was great. The people were great.

I have a lot of great memories from there. So that's exciting that we have that connection. But I also wanted to touch on something just for a minute, and then we will jump into the issue of human trafficking, is your ministry for mentoring. Willie, that is such an important ministry that really every single person listening could mentor somebody else. And I know that's not what I told you when we were talking about the show today, but can you share a little bit about that? Because I bet it's changing so many lives when you mentor these young men and teach them the life skills that they need, particularly if they're coming from a single-parent home.

Absolutely. This mentorship came and stemmed from my personal life. Most of everything that I've done is a reflection of what I've gone through. And before I left to go to Bible college, I was laying on the floor and I was praying. And at that time, I was just really, really like, you have that zeal, and you just out there, I was just, woo, just praying.

I felt it. And from there, the instructions I got in my spirit was, if you do all that I tell you to do, I will bless you, I will save your family, I will save them. And I remember saying that, God, if you provide me a platform, I will not do to others what was done to me, which was having the absent father seeking direction from church leaders who I don't think they knew how to really get the direction. And so myself and seeing my brother, what he was going through, my brother right now is currently incarcerated until 2023.

I've been there almost about five or so years, and I look at, what if someone was there? What I'm doing now is somebody was there for him to help to instruct him and give him the wisdom and knowledge to kind of steer him the right direction. And so mentoring to me and working with these boys is just from my heart and what I needed, what I did not have, and how God had to heal me and deliver me from the wounds and the scars of all the trauma.

I've gone on without a father in the home or any type of a male role model. And so going through that, I recognize that when I show up to homes and schools when people call me, that these young men are just like my brother or me, whether it's behavior or drugs or whether it's simply needing someone to talk to, they need that opportunity to know that someone is there for them and care about their concerns. Because what it does is it forms like a heart in heart, and they don't know how to, one, receive instructions, and two, they definitely don't want to hear anything when it pertains to Jesus, because their heart is so hardened, and if they can't receive the natural man, they're not going to receive the spiritual either. And so that is the journey that we take, and we've seen a lot have come out with victory. I was just at the juvenile detention center for Orange County last week, and they gave me an opportunity to go in to speak to, it was actually through the school system, I was able to go in to share the straight up truth, and of course you know some have their little crass clown moments, but most of them was actually yes sir, no sir listening, and raising their hand was like, I said, I will help you, when you get out of here, I will help you to be the better version of you that you want to do, and one guy was telling the teacher, hey give me his number, I want this, I don't want to live this, so they want that. These young people, these young boys, they want discipline, they want someone to be there to help instruct them, but they don't have it, and especially when you're around the same people that do the same thing you do, you know the competition is trying to be the coolest, not trying to be the one that does the right thing, and so that's really where my heart is with it. I've seen those who came in full of anger and hate and drugs, and I've seen them leave with their Bible tucked under their arm and telling me, hey I'm going out, I'm going to evangelize, so this is somebody who slept in the car, who was on drugs, who the family didn't want them in the house because they didn't know how to listen to them, to someone who's carrying a Bible and saying now I'm going to be evangelist for Jesus, that to me is what keeps the fuel in my fire to continue to go and know that if there's nothing but one, which is more than one, but there's just one that can have that mindset, we can change the world. Wow, amen, what a powerful testimony, and yeah there's not a person listening right now who could not be a mentor to somebody, and maybe you may not be the person called to mentor boys who come from, or even girls from single parent families, although I want to tell you it's so important, particularly for young men, and women too, to have a positive male role model in their lives, and that's a real crisis within family unit today, Willie, there's so many families where there's been a divorce or either they were never married in the first place and children were born out of wedlock, and there's only one parent there and many times involved in those lives, and I know you said you're going to the prisons, and I don't remember the statistics, but there's a huge number of particularly those that are incarcerated, young men in particular, that come from, I think it's like 75% of the incarcerated men come from single parent families, so we could get involved and be mentors and help them, but not even in that situation, I mean think if you're a 70 or 80 year old woman, you could pick some young woman in your church to mentor, Willie and I are finding out we got something in common, we're both country boys from North Carolina, and I don't know about him, but Willie's seen me, he knows that I like to eat, but there are a lot of young ladies today who don't know how to make biscuits and gravy and all kinds of good stuff anymore, and that's a way to mentor Willie, you mentioned you teach cooking and stuff with these young men too, but a lot of you that are senior citizens might be saying, well I can't go in the mission field, I can't do this or that, yes you can, you can be in the mission field right there at home by picking somebody to mentor, and it's something as simple as calling, like I said, some young ladies in your church and saying, hey I'm making biscuits Saturday morning, why don't you all come over and learn how to make old fashioned biscuits, we're making cornbread, or maybe some of you men picking younger guys and say we're going to have a barbecue Saturday, come learn how to cook a hog, or fry fish or whatever it may be, there's many ways to mentor, and even you older couples that are out there, young married couples need mentors.

Willie, I don't know if you're familiar with Andy Andrews, he's one of my favorite authors, he's from over at Orange Beach, Alabama, close to the panhandle of Florida, not too far from where you are, and he writes a lot of great books, and Andy gave me an idea years ago, he said that you should have a personal board of directors, and so what that is, it's a group of people that don't even know that I'm watching them, but they're kind of like mentors to me, and I try to surround myself with some of these people just where I can glean information from them and learn, there's so many older people out there that I've become one of them Willie, but we can learn from them, and they're on my board of directors and don't know it, but I'm watching them as they're venturing my life in ways that they don't even know, so wow, thank you so much. We're going to have to take a commercial break, but when we come back, we're going to take a deep dive into the issue of human trafficking, it's a serious issue, and the church needs to be aware of what's happening in the country today with human trafficking, so stick around and be right back. This show is brought to you by Generous Joe's, the coffee company with the Christian perspective. This is the answer that Christians and conservatives have been looking for, a coffee company that gives back to causes you care about.

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In 1952, he was offered the position of President of Israel but declined. Einstein's statement, inscribed in Fine Hall at Princeton University, reads, God is clever but not dishonest. This has been an American Minute with Bill Federer. For a free transcript, call American Minute at 1-888-USA-WORD. Folks, welcome back to Christian Perspective. We're so glad you're here with us today. My guest is Pastor Willie Montague. Pastor Willie was sharing with us in the first segment before the commercial break about the mentoring ministry that he's had and how God has used him in such a tremendous way to touch the lives of young men, particularly he's felt called to touch the lives of young men who maybe have had a bit of a troubled past and come from single-parent families and just need a positive male influence in their lives. But a big part of Willie Montague's ministry is really working in the world of human trafficking.

So I asked him to come here today and tell us a little bit about it. So Pastor Willie, a lot of people hear the term human trafficking, but it's distant to us. We think, oh, that's taking place in some third-world country or it's not here. Can you tell us what is human trafficking in America today? Great definition of human trafficking. Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Often when we talk about human trafficking, it doesn't always involve labor, but it can also involve sex. So sex trafficking, labor trafficking is two different things, but it all falls under the category of human trafficking and it is prevalent right here in the United States today. Human trafficking is something that we should be talking about in the churches because right now the churches are the focal point, as we can see, ever since everything went on with COVID, that we can see that the church is a focus point for rescue and help. And so I think the churches have to define it, which is a simple definition. Anything that is a force or a fraud or a coercion, those are things that make up that trafficking part.

But whether it is labor or commercial sex act is when it determines whether it is sex trafficking or not. But Pastor Willie, when we look at that, it's not just in other countries, right? It's pretty big in the United States as well?

Absolutely. It is big in the United States and we are one of the hotspots for the countries. There are about 155 countries that are out there that are prominent and 79% of that is sexual exploitation. And right here in the United States, we're seeing that because of what we're dealing with the border and because the border is not secured, we have a lot of that come over to cross the border from Arizona, from North Carolina, and right here in Florida.

And I can always share throughout the segment those numbers as it pertains to right here where I live in Orange County, Orlando area, Florida alone, just how prominent it is and why we need to make sure that we're educating, not just educating the children, but educating the parents, educating the church leaders and pastors, and educating the workforce. Because where these young people are getting trafficked, a lot of the areas that they'll be trafficked at are not aware of the signs, they're not aware of what to look for and how to identify it. And because of that, a lot of these traffickers are pretending to do their work and they get away with it because there's no identifier. That's the part that is most important, how to identify what's going on with people trafficked. So who's at risk, when we hear about this, who's at risk for sex trafficking? Anyone can actually be at risk that are younger, but the main age is ages about 11 to 14 years old. I know you mentioned the border, but are kids, for instance, in the United States that maybe aren't coming from other countries, are they at risk as well?

Oh, absolutely. That is where the risk is. We have the border, and what it is is we're allowing the traffickers to come over to the border. When I went to the border, I was able to actually see where there was risk bands that were there, risk bands that were there and put on, and one of them is small for like a child, and these are what are given to the cartels to help get them across.

You got to have this risk band. Some of the risk bands had like, these were like prices, like you're pricing these people to come across the border. So then when you look over here in the United States, and you see that these children ages 11 to 14, they're being targeted, and they're moving right here in the United States. They're not taking them back across the border, they're moving them within and through the United States for whatever purpose that they're using for, which most of it is commercial sex, using them to do whatever acts that they want to do.

A lot of this comes from all these apps that are out there, these video games. You'd be amazed at how much that trafficking is not like the movie Taken. It's not like they go and pick them up and take them to somewhere else, and you got to go rescue. This stuff is happening right there, sexual exploitation via online, and this stuff is happening through Instagram messages, TikTok, all these different things, and games, and so forth. These are things that the traffickers are using to groom our children over here in America and start getting into that process of wanting to go a step further, and before you know it, they're thinking there is an innocent thing, and then boom, here they go. They're now being involved in the trafficking area. Whether or not they are taken or not, it's still trafficking if it is coercion, or even if it's not forced, and they are under the age of 18, that still falls under the category of human trafficking.

You're opening up areas that I never even thought about. So if I understand correctly, we'll go deeper into the kidnapping part in a minute. So you're saying that a kid might not even be kidnapped, could still be coming home every night, having supper with mom and dad, living there, but could still be sucked into this sex trafficking in our own homes, and nobody knows about it?

Absolutely. There are cases that happen right here in Florida, actually in Seminole County, where a young girl, that's what she encountered. She literally was being trafficked and was doing these acts, and what it is is she had fell in love, if you would say, for lack of a better term, with this guy who, of course, what he was doing was grooming her, which is a term that is used to basically get them propped up. And a lot of this comes from where they don't fit in or whatever, and then some guy comes in, they'll sell him a pipe dream, we're going to do this, then they get him up on the drugs, and then what they do is they start saying, oh, well, you did that for me, if you really loved me, you would do that for my friend, and then what they're doing, their friend is paying them money to have sex with this underage girl. And then what happens from that is, these kids, they go home, but then that's when, I can talk about that, when you start getting into the behaviors, you start seeing something changing. They're aboard eye contact, they're fearful, they start getting depressed, they have a change in their self-esteem, there's bruises or scars, gaps in memories, all those things that are signs that are things that need to be looked at, especially if you have a child that's excelling in school, all A's and all of a sudden, you start seeing a decline, they're wanting to stay in their room, they're up late at night, just wanting to be on the phone, all those things are signs that you need to start having a conversation, asking, hey, you know, I'm noticing some changes, what's going on, because everything is not just they're born into puberty, there could be something that is major there, and yes, they will traffic, they will let them go home, and there's another story of a girl that was big trafficked every summer that she would go out of state, and that was what was happening until she got too old and she was no use anymore. And so that's what it is, you know, you're groomed up, you're told this is what it is, you're not realizing you're going home with your family, and they may not notice the difference if they're not aware of the signs to look for. Well, this is such a wake-up call for me, because I've got to be honest with you, when I heard the term sex trafficking, I was picturing young girls and boys maybe being brought across the border, and then I guess I watched too many movies, I mean, I envisioned somebody being sold to some old pervert guy and he's got him locked up in his basement, but I never thought about, man, our own kids, and you're mentioning when they change their behavior and stuff, it could be happening and they're living in our own house, and we never even thought about that, could be a way of sex trafficking.

This is incredible. And the alarming part is that the more and more, this is why we're so big about fighting against all this stuff that's going on with big tech and how they are allowing, they are allowing for this pornography to be on social media sites, and it's just pretty much shoved in the face of our children, as you mentioned, which I like, that it is not just girls, because oftentimes we are thinking that it's just the girls, but it's not, and oftentimes the boys are used for labor, but it's not, it's not always labor. But I tell you that a lot of people don't know if Glenn Beck shared, this actually happened with his son, he was getting groomed, Glenn Beck's son was being groomed for human trafficking right in his house, and when you have a chance, I would tell everybody to go take a moment to look up and hear what Glenn Beck said about that, and how it caught him off guard, because he has all these security, all these people that's protecting, and here it is, it's happening to his son right inside of their house.

That just goes to show us that no one's safe, I mean, we think that we live in our own little cocoon in our own little world, but really, if somebody like Glenn Quebec, who is a national celebrity and radio show host, and you're right, I saw Glenn just the other day, and I mean, he's got these bodyguards around him and his family all the time, but they can get to you, I guess, anywhere, and we need to be vigilant, on alert, all the time. Well, Willie, before we move on beyond that, you mentioned also older people, so can you touch on that real quick, how they're at risk? The average age is 11 to 14, but older people can always be used, and what it is, is normally, for example, someone that could age out, it's almost like you have an older woman that comes in, she basically ages out, as you can say, and becomes like the mama of the group, and basically helps with the grooming. They come in and help with the grooming, and they're the ones escorting them to the guys, but a lot of times, they use them until they can't use them no more. I have seen girls who are older, as far as in their 20s, that you can see that are being used or prostituted, all that is all part of that traffic, and that is when it gets into the part where it is a force, because when it's underage, that doesn't matter whether or not they are forced or not. That is human trafficking when they are used for that commercial sex, but once they get of that age, and they are forced or coerced, that is human trafficking, and a lot of times, those prostitutes, we would think like, oh, well, they're just out there. They want to be out there.

They know what they're doing well. If you're giving somebody crack, you're giving speed to somebody's drugs, and they got to get a high, that's what they're used to, and that's what you're hovering over their head and like, hey, well, by the way, well, you can't go get these drugs nowhere else, but you got to stay in here. They're going to stay there for the fact that they're wanting that high, and those are things that we have to look at, too, to tell people when they're dealing with the homeless.

Nobody wakes up and says, gee, this is what I want to do today, so that goes back to the side. I myself have had to contact people where I saw the signs. I was going to pump gas not too far from my house. I saw the guy and his behavior. I saw the girl in the front seat. I saw the girl in the back seat.

Normally, the one who is the pimp or the one that is working these girls, they're not going to get out of the vehicle. They're going to have them do the work, go pump the gas, do all those things like that, and I noticed that they were high on drugs. I noticed how their bodies looked, and so instantly I called. You called the police. How do you know? I'm like, what do you mean how do I know? I'm telling you according to you that this is what's going on, and we need somebody to show up.

That's why it's so important for training to happen across the board from the hotels, and a lot of the hotels in the hotel industry are not properly trained to identify. I went to a hotel one time, and I asked them, I said, where's your human trafficking protocols? I would like to see them, and they brought out a piece of paper.

I'm reading it. I'm like, this is what you used? They're like, yeah. I was like, no.

Did you have a training? They were like, well, no. This is what they gave us, and that is what I believe we need to start doing. The churches have to be trained, but this mask thing was really hurtful to fight back because they could get away with it when you could put a mask on them and be like, oh yeah, well, you couldn't tell whether that person was missing or not or who they were because they had on masks.

So those are things that we have to look for as well, be alert, be vigilant, always, especially with the phone. Let's take a quick break and then we'll jump into that. Folks, we'll be right back with more of the Christian Perspectives. The United States of America has a strong Christian heritage, but most Americans don't know the truly important role that God in the Bible played in the founding of this great nation. This June, join nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes, for four amazing days in our nation's capital. With Chris, you'll embark on a journey of discovering the hidden secrets of Washington DC and rediscover much of America's forgotten Christian heritage. Your tour will include an up close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries. Learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic, one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception.

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Welcome back to Christian perspective with Chris Hughes. It's terrible what's happening across the nation as children are being brought across the border illegally and kids are being sold into slavery and not just kids but adults too are becoming slaves in the area of human trafficking. There's a man with us today, Pastor Willie Montague who's joining us to talk about this and Willie has just been opening my eyes of what's going on. When I thought about human trafficking I was picturing somebody being brought across the border and locked up in a basement somewhere as a sex slave and Willie's opened my eyes to see that it's not just that, I mean it could be my own kid in my own house coming home every night eating supper, sleeping in her own bed or his own bed but they're being used to take pornographic pictures or do things with video games and how they're being groomed for this lifestyle. Willie, you were talking about how older people like some of these women who are too old now to be used as sex slaves are grooming youngers and we saw that with that Jeffrey Epstein situation. I can't remember the woman's name now where he was using a woman to go in and groom and befriend these young girls and be like a mentor to them and then suck them into that lifestyle of being sex slaves for Jeffrey Epstein and all of his friends.

Right and that's what happens and that's why we have to look. How I got into this, as I said I'm always open about my testimony about how we started the program and how I ended up homeless in 2016, came back, we moved to like 11 different hotels and that is when I started seeing what was taking place because these girls were out there that they were beat, they were raped, left out there on the stairwell, high, drunk and so that's when I started getting involved, partnered with some of the local 7-Elevens to get food, putting them up in hotel rooms or whatever I was able to do to make sure that we could help and that's when I even started being able to, I would say I go undercover with security, one of the security guards let me go undercover with him and I would come out there at night because he would work overnight of course and walk and walk till like 5 o'clock in the morning and I was able to go in there and see what was taking place, I was able to go and yes that actually was, when you look back over it, it was the grace of God to protect because it was definitely a dangerous thing to do but I don't take it back because I look at it as it opened my eyes, it allowed me to see what needed to be done, it allowed me to see what was not done and then one of those moments was there was a group of guys that was out there, guys, like I said it worked for both ways and they were coming to this hotel, this young guy was part, he was adopted and oftentimes you guys, this stuff happens with a lot of these foster kids, a lot of them that don't have a place to be placed and somebody comes, hey I'll give you a place to stay, I help to rescue a young boy not too long ago, I think right before the pandemic or right in the middle, it was like maybe two years ago or less and the lady that knew the family had called me and was like, Will I need you to, can you come over here and meet with me and I said sure, let's find out what's going on, they told me the scenario, what was going on, we were able to get every piece of detail that they had, I took it, put my little investigator pad on, went in there and started researching and was able to find out this guy, this young boy was getting ready to graduate from high school so he was like right at the peak, wasn't fully at that age of adulthood but because he wanted to be grown, he wanted to go out there and it was this guy that was grooming him that supposedly met him, get this, this guy's down in high school, met this young boy when he was in fifth grade, this grade and had been following along with him since fifth grade and now this young guy is, you know, now getting ready to graduate high school so he's following along with him throughout fifth grade, watching him, going there, don't know what could have happened before, prior to those things, only what the mother knows as a recent and so when they give the information details to us, well, I started investigating, was able to make a contact phone call, I'm like hey, this is not how it rolls but we was able to get the conversation and I guess we spooked him enough, thank God and was able to get him returned back to his mother so those are things that, you know, need to take place, we came to the rescue and there are human trafficking task force so I do not want anybody to say that you go out there and visualize it. There are task force that are out there that are set up throughout the different states, wherever states that you are, just look up if there's a human trafficking task force and if you have any, you know, signs or anything that you just reported to the human trafficking task force but yeah, so I've seen it, I've seen the grooming take place, I've seen where, you know, it starts as just a simple, you know, hey, come on, I want to go play football with you, I want to go do this with you and it just builds and escalates to when they start asking you to do things that more than just come play basketball. What a shame and this is just a huge area of sin that's in our nation right now and kids turn on TV and they see these pornographic images or sexual images, they're being taught even at an early age in schools and the LGBTQ agenda is being pushed.

Just a day or two ago, Willie, I saw that Britney Spears, who was a famous singer, was posting nude pictures on Instagram but when a young girl who might idolize Britney Spears or other entertainers sees her doing that and then some creep comes along and is trying to take advantage of her in the sexual and human trafficking area, you know, in her mind she's like well Britney Spears did it so, you know, maybe it's not so bad for me to take naked pictures either. Willie in my state, I live in North Carolina now and I've heard that it's just a huge problem in my state, what are some of the areas where human trafficking is prominent around the country? I think we all need to be vigilant but there's probably certain areas that are hotbeds of activity.

Right. Well, I'm going to start here with Florida and Florida is ranked number three, number three in the nation for human trafficking and that, that, that is alarming and a lot of it comes because of the tourist area, we know Florida is a tourist area and then Orange County, which is our county, is ranked number two, number two for human, for human trafficking and then let's see, Orlando is ranked number three among all cities in the United States. So you have Florida, you have Ohio, you have Georgia, you have Delaware, California, Missouri, Michigan, I'm just reading, I have my, my list here and Texas, so you have quite, you know, quite a bit that are up there and they're ranked, they are ranked, you know, according to the highest to the lowest but you'd be surprised. So the top, I'm going to give the top 10. The number one place that is for human trafficking is Nevada, number two is Mississippi, number three is Florida, number four is Ohio, number five is Georgia, number six is Delaware, number seven, surprisingly, is California, number eight is Missouri, number nine is Michigan and 10 is Texas, so those are the top 10 states for the highest rates of human trafficking. Well, this is just shocking to think about how this is going on in a country where, you know, we're, many people, particularly Christians listening are just oblivious to what's going on.

Well, we've got a couple minutes before we take our next break. Early in the show, you were mentioning some of the signs to look out for. For someone who might have just joined the show late, can you again cover what are some of the common signs to look out for for human trafficking, maybe in your own house? They're avoiding eye contact, they're fearful, starting to show some depression, there is an anxious behavior, like, you know, bringing into the self, always look for times when it's like wanting the cops to go in the room, stand up late at night, you know, oh, I'm just going to go to my room, I don't want to eat, I'm just going to go in my room, they're up.

Change in self-esteem, visible bruises and scars, gaps in memory, appears malnourished, resists being touched, grades drop, shows signs of alcohol or drug addiction. And you know, those things that you're listing, Willie, are very common, I mean, like you said a while ago, you know, sometimes as parents, we think, oh, you know, they're going through puberty or they're just a teenager, they just had a bad day at school, and for many of us, it never enters our mind that our own kids, and yes, even Christian kids, could be targeted for sex trafficking, you know, and so, you know, this show, you've already taught me, I mean, I always thought somebody was kidnapped, taken somewhere else, I would have ever dreamed that it was happening at my own house, and then you share that Glenn Beck, you know, who's a national celebrity, it happened with his, it almost happened with his son right there under his nose, if you will. Folks, if you're listening today, we're talking to Willie Montague, he's in Orlando, Florida, his ministry has really been to help young people in crisis, whether it's mentoring young men who don't have a male influence or come from a single parent family, and working into prisons, but his eyes through the life he lived, where God carried him through a specific past, and I bet he could share a whole test, Marty, a whole hour or more on this, how he was taken through difficult times in his life, but because of the situations that Willie's life was placed in, he now knows about a subject that he might be able, God might be using him in a way to save, literally, hundreds if not thousands of kids' lives from this terrible area of human trafficking. We've got to take a break, we'll come back, we're going to talk about what we can do and what the church can do to help stop this, it's a serious issue, and the church needs to be aware of what's happening in the country today with human trafficking. Stick around, we'll be right back.

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Know the truth about the creation of the United States of America, about the faith of the founding fathers and how Christian principles were used to establish this form of government. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com today and secure your spot to join Chris Hughes in Washington DC this June. Welcome back to Christian Perspective. What an exciting show today. My guest is Willie Montague. Pastor Willie lives in Orlando, Florida, and God has just called and put a burden on his life to try to rescue children and others who are gone into the world of human trafficking. If you did not hear the first part of this show, you can get out to Truth Network and become a podcast later today.

You really need to listen to this show. It has been eye-opening to see what's happening with just millions of kids being trafficked in it across the country, and they're not just being brought across the border. It's happening to our kids and in our house without them ever even being kidnapped or anything.

Terrible things could happen to our own kids. Before we go any further, and we are in our last segment here, Willie, can you tell us that there might be a young person listening who has become a victim of this. It's happening to them, and they're scared to tell their parents or their friends maybe because they're embarrassed, or maybe the pimp, or it's not always pimps, but whoever is influencing them in this negative way might have threatened their lives or their family's lives. If there's a victim that's listening to our show today, Pastor Willie, what can they do to get help? Well, the first thing to do is to call the human trafficking hotline. There's a human trafficking hotline that's out there, and I'm going to pull up that number for you guys, and I'm going to give you also some organizations that are good to follow through with.

So give me just a second. I'm going to pull that up for you. Paving the Way Foundation, Jan Edwards is a great organization. She's also an educator on these topics, and goes into the schools as well to help educate, and Tomas, he runs the United Abolitionists, which helps to fight against human trafficking, and those are some of the two that are right here, but the main important one is to dial the number. If you ever feel like you're a victim, and you feel like you know a victim, and you're going through this, it's 1-888-373-7888. That is 1-888-373-7888. That is the national toll-free hotline for anyone to be able to answer.

It is 24 hours, seven days a week, and it's 200 languages. So if you ever feel that this is what's happening to you or someone, that you know that you're part of this, and you don't know how to identify it, and you want to get out of it, or need any help, please call the Human Trafficking Hotline. Well, Willie, thank you, and we'll repeat that before we close out the show. What about those of us that are listening, and particularly our show is targeting Christians and pastors in churches. What can we do to help put an end to human trafficking, not just in the United States, but around the world, but what can we do as churches and as individuals? I would say the best thing is to educate. My goal, as I said, is Dan Ellis, who works with Pavement Away. She goes into the schools and so forth. My task that I believe that God has given me also is to go into the churches and do as much speaking to the pastor and being able to bring it to realization.

So that's what I would say. Pastors have a conversation. Get with your board, get with your elders, however you have your church set up, and find a way to bring someone in that can have that conversation with the pastors first, and then get it to the congregation so it can get to the children. But that's the best thing to do, you guys, research, find out the apps that are out there, get that information, but just don't think because your child is going to school and coming home that everything is well. Things happen through apps, things happen through video games, so you just want to be aware. This is not about fear, it's about awareness, and so that's where I would say the biggest thing is for the churches to don't run away from the subject.

Get out there and get ahead of it by having a conversation about it. Willie, I'm going to ask you to explain something, because a lot of parents, grandparents, some are older like me and we don't necessarily understand the technology, and you're saying a lot of this is happening from apps. Do you mind elaborating just what that means and for maybe some of our older listeners who don't know, and how we can be on alert to see what's happening on those apps on our kids' phones?

Right. So you have, most everyone knows about some of the ones, like we have like Instagrams, you put pictures up, and I'm just going to name some. You have Meet Me, Grindr, Scout, WhatsApp, we see a lot of that used. A lot of these apps that are used are because they have end-to-end encryption, so therefore that people can communicate with it and erase it and race out of the cloud, so you have WhatsApp, TikTok, Bandu, Snapchat, Kik, Holla, Whisper, Hot or Not, Calculator, now Calculator to me is very dangerous because it's actually, it mirrors a calculator, it works like a calculator, but there's a code that you can put into it and it opens up a whole chat world, and you would just think of a calculator, but it's literally a whole chat world after you break that code. And so these are apps that can be used to send pictures, ask for pictures to be sent, conversations where they can create fake accounts and get up there and start the growing process, hey, you look pretty, can you send me a picture with no shirt on, and then next time you know, these young people are wanting to keep, they're up late at night sending pictures, they're up late at night doing these things, next time you know, their body is being used for whatever it may be, for commercial sex purposes, being put on an ad or request, so those are the ways that the app can be used. And the kids never even know it, it's just stolen and the kids don't have an idea. No, the kids don't, well mainly the parents, the kids are sharing this because they feel safe, and what it is is these people, these predators make these fake accounts, not as themselves, they can make an account and end up being, you're 14 and they can make an account where it's like a young boy at 14, use images that are out there and create this whole person and just keep doing that and then you're collecting these pictures.

And so it's really, like I said, it's really shocking how things are done and how manipulative these predators are and how they literally prey on our children. But we've only got a couple of minutes left and before we do this, and you did not ask me to do this in any way, but a big part of what we do at the Citizens for America Foundation is encourage Christians to engage in the culture, specifically in the arena of public policy, and this is certainly a huge public policy area. We also encourage Christians to run for office and to support candidates who share Christian values and have a biblical worldview. And so Pastor Willie, I'm going to share, I hope you don't mind, that you are a candidate for the United States Congress in the Orlando area, is that correct?

Yes, yes sir. And what district are you running in this year? I'm running for Congressional District 10, unfortunately in Florida we're still waiting for our map to be decided, but as of right now, up until probably sometime this month, I'm running in Congressional District 10 and that covers predominantly most of the Orlando area, Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Ocoee, Apopka, those areas like that. So it is definitely a race to run and this is an issue that is forefront for me in my race because I feel like we've got to protect our children. Is there a website where people listening can learn more about you and the issues that you're concerned about?

Absolutely. Go to teamwillie.com, that's team, W-I-L-L-I-E dot com, teamwillie.com, actually just got it up, brand new information and look and I'm excited about it, we got it launched right in time for CPAC, so I'm super excited about it, so go check it out, it's all kinds of information and videos that's up there, so teamwillie.com. So a lot of you that are listening, email me, talk to me, see me at different conferences and say, how can we find Christians that are going to support the issues that we care about and that are grounded in God's work and Pastor Willie is that kind of man. He has a biblical perspective and whatever he does, whether it's going undercover, which we don't encourage you to do in the sex trafficking world or if he is blessed to be able to serve in the halls of the United States Congress, he has a biblical perspective and he's going to take a stand on the word of God.

Before we close out the show, I want to just give you, again if you're a young person who is maybe involved in the world of sex trafficking or you wonder if maybe somebody is lying to you through some of these apps on social media, nobody's going to embarrass you, they're not going to cause any problems but you can dial 1-888-373-7888, that's 1-888-373-7888 or you can Google the organization, Paving the Way Foundation, or even I bet Pastor Willie could help you if you reach out to him at teamwillie.com, teamwillie.com. Pastor Willie, we've got to have you back. This is an issue that most Americans don't have a clue of, particularly Christians and the church and I thank you for opening our eyes to what's happening across America today. Absolutely, thank you for the opportunity and you guys go out there and please educate those that are around you and we can do this together. Folks, again you can visit teamwillie.com, please be praying for Pastor Willie and other Christian candidates across the country and this is why we need you to get involved, this is why we need you to know what the Bible says and then be educated on the issues that are going on. Very few pastors, you don't hear any sermons on human trafficking, in fact I don't think I've ever heard a pastor preach a sermon on human trafficking and pastors if you're listening, I challenge you, you need to wake up, the culture around us is falling apart and it's time for us to get in God's Word and take a stand on the Word of God. Folks, thank you for joining me on The Christian Perspective today, we're here each and every day on your favorite radio station, please listen to us if you miss us or particularly this show, I encourage you to share it with everybody in your church, Google The Christian Perspective with Chris Hughes or find it on the Truth Network, it'll be a podcast later today, be sure to listen and to check it out. Until then, let's go impact the culture for Jesus. Thank you for listening, The Christian Perspective with Chris Hughes, learn more about impacting the culture for Jesus, visit citizensforamericafoundation.com. This is the Truth Network.