Latest News - Page 5 of 120 - Shared Hope International

October 5, 2023 by stephen

A whole lot more than rescues: Our sound approach to sex trafficking

Shared Hope International’s Founder and President, Linda Smith, speaks about our work as restoration-focused in the U.S., not in overseas rescues.

Thanks once again to Hollywood, America added a new character this summer to the pantheon of action superheroes it has created: the swashbuckling man who sweeps into corrupt foreign countries to rescue children from the clutches of sex trafficking. Americans love the archetype of an outside savior boldly setting things right and exacting justice on those who deserve it.

This is the plotline that the film industry has created for us with children and sex trafficking. Although Hollywood has programmed us into believing that ending trafficking can be accomplished with brave rescues, it’s more complicated than that. Disrupting and dismantling what is a developed and multi-faceted industry involves a lot more than what can be shown in a dramatic and suspense-filled story that’s neatly wrapped up in two hours.

Let’s unpack what a rescue is, why it’s problematic, and why Shared Hope International takes a different approach.

Shared Hope does not carry out rescues

Mention “rescue,” and most people will think of a forceful snatching-back of children who have been kidnapped and exploited. By their nature, rescues are dramatic and attention-grabbing.

Shared Hope takes an approach to the sex trafficking industry that is broader and wholistic and that includes more proactive responses. Our work is in three major areas:

Prevention: Through highly developed training for both laypersons and professionals, guidance on internet dangers, and with Ambassadors of Hope (volunteer representatives) across the country, we work on prevention strategies.
Restoration: Our strategic guidance and funding helps local organizations expand shelter and services for survivors.
Bringing justice: Our recommendations through our Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking are changing the legislative and policy landscape in every state.

Working in these areas is sometimes slow and requires involvement in activities on a smaller scale. Changing large systems from within takes a lot of time. Reforms to whole industries do not happen overnight. Healing and recovery for survivors often takes place over many years.

We acknowledge that making a difference in a slow, often low-key way is sometimes frustrating and not as thrilling as a dramatic movie-type rescue. Yes, we work with urgency, knowing that especially children are at risk, but we pace ourselves to run not a sprint but a marathon. We believe the only way to create long-term, permanent change is to be in the work for the long haul. We’ve been at it for 25 years and have developed a good understanding and expertise to tackle the complexity and multiple facets of this issue.

Restoration is the real rescue

People who are able to escape trafficking situations need to be treated with a high level of care and connected immediately to services and supports. Lacking that, a trafficked person is likely to return to his or her former life by choice or by force. A very real danger then is re-exploitation by the original conditions that brought about the vulnerability to trafficking in the first place.

In addition, survivors need time on the long road of recovery. They are often afraid of or feel victimized by law enforcement. They have to learn to trust other people who want to care for them after living for years as enslaved property, being coerced and threatened, forced to live in dependent and abusive situations.

Shared Hope focuses on restoration with two strategic programs. One is through the amazing efforts of our restoration grant partners who do the immediate work that includes providing safe shelter, medical and mental health care, spiritual renewal, education, life skills, job training and vocational skills. The other restoration program is at the core of our long-term strategy. It involves our efforts in every state to promote legislation that requires restoration services to be provided for survivors of sex trafficking.

Rescues are paternalistic

The idea of a rescue is inherently tied to having a savior character. And with that, the person being rescued is viewed as helpless and powerless. That attitude is in and of itself re-victimizing. Shared Hope, in its assistance to and support of survivors, recognizes their agency, their own will and desire to be restored and to recover from their trauma. We strive to acknowledge their autonomy and empower them by giving them a voice. A survivor-centered approach requires that we do not carry out actions intended to burnish our own image or demonstrate our own strength.

Shared Hope’s approach is not designed to create or focus on a single hero. Thankfully, the anti-sex trafficking movement has many heroes, and each year we recognize some of them through our restoration grants program and our Pathbreaker Awards. These individuals and organizations are the real heroes. Our daily work is in outreach to creators of policies and average people who can be part of combatting trafficking as part of their professional and personal day-to-day lives.

Focused and steady wins the race

In the measured, deliberate approach that Shared Hope takes, we work to disrupt the sex trafficking industry from various angles. Our philosophy is that each person has a role to play in preventing and ending commercial sexual exploitation and that a collaborative, community-wide response is necessary. It takes the different parts of our society — the institutions and systems of law enforcement, governments at all levels, and the justice system, as well as the smaller, social units of families, parents, churches and other communities, healthcare professionals and teachers playing a part to undo what commercial sexual exploitation has built.

Shared Hope’s work is in building relationships and making connections between advocates and organizations. Our focus is educating school counselors, changing attitudes of judges and building the grooming-detection skills of youth. This all takes time, but we are` making progress.

We’ll leave the dramatic rescues to Hollywood. A real rescue is only one part of a much larger picture, and Shared Hope is applying its years of experience and expertise to all parts of the scene.

August 25, 2023 by Sidney McCoy

Unjust Criminalization: Zephi Trevino’s Story

Zephaniah “Zephi” Trevino has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to 12 years for murder and five years for aggravated robbery. The Dallas County District Attorney alleged Zephi —along with two men— had taken part in a robbery that left one man dead from a gunshot wound and another injured. Although Zephi was not responsible for pulling the trigger, she was charged as an accomplice. What has been left out of the DA’s narrative, however, is that Zephi is a victim of sex trafficking. The two men who were “lured” by Zephi to the apartment where they were ultimately robbed, were there to purchase sex from 16-year-old Zephi. Zephi was charged as an adult and was facing a capital murder conviction. She took a plea deal, citing the risk of a life sentence was “too grave.”

While discouraging, this result is unsurprising as Texas has refused to see those who have been trafficked as victims, rather than criminals. Indeed, Texas remains one of the few¹ states that still criminalizes minors for prostitution—the very crime that is synonymous with their exploitation. In 2019, Governor Greg Abbot vetoed a bill that would protect minors from criminalization for prostitution and would instead direct them to receive assessment and services through child welfare and community-based services. That same year, after passing unanimously through the House and Senate, Governor Abbot vetoed a bill that would establish a clemency review panel for certain offenses committed by victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

As it stands in Texas, a human trafficking survivor who has been unjustly charged with a crime has just one remedy: a “nondisclosure petition²,” a form of post-conviction relief that is limited to prostitution, marijuana, and certain theft offenses if the offense was committed “solely” as a trafficking victim.³ The relief is further limited because survivors are ineligible for the relief if they have additional convictions, and it requires survivors to provide assistance to law enforcement and prosecutors.⁴

Legal protections for victims of human trafficking are imperative given deeply pervasive forced criminality that exists in trafficking situations. In a 2016 survey, the National Survivor Network found that 90% of trafficking survivors reported being arrested and 60% reported being arrested for crimes other than prostitution or drug possession.⁵ Perhaps most significantly, the survey demonstrated that over half of all respondents believed that 100% of their criminal-legal involvement was directly related to their trafficking experience.⁶ These victim-offenders⁷ are retraumatized by their detention and prosecution. They are also left with a criminal record that hinders their ability to secure safe housing, employment, education, and other services. Contrary to the TVPA’s decree those trafficking victims not be criminalized as a result of their victimization,⁸ survivors continue to be charged with crimes related to their trafficking and states such as Texas fail to provide adequate legal protections to prevent criminalization.

What’s worse, the criminal-legal system itself can often mimic the power and control dynamics that exist in a trafficking situation. Justin Moore, one of Zephi’s defense attorneys, alluded to this in his comments to the press, stressing an “urgent need for a legal system that is trauma-informed . . . and that also calls into question the unchecked power that [prosecutors] have in this country and how they can bully defendants who are victims into taking plea deals.”⁹ This “bullying,” the pressure and coercion that is often applied on victims who are charged alongside their traffickers and co-conspirators, is a tactic used all too often. Indeed, the same youth who are charged as defendants alongside their trafficker may also be called to testify against their trafficker, and that testimony could be central to their successful prosecution.¹⁰ Although it does not appear that the Dallas District Attorney is pursuing trafficking charges against Zephi’s co-defendants, studies have shown that conditions of the juvenile/criminal justice process, secure confinement, and the stigma of criminal records alone further harm and traumatize child sex trafficking victims.¹¹ Prosecutors must weigh considerations of the harm to victim-offenders and the injustice of coercive charging tactics, and further, should be trained on victim-centered investigations and prosecutions to ensure positive identification of survivors and prevent unjust criminalization. Texas does not currently mandate such training.

Sex trafficking victimization and forced criminality are intrinsically linked. Arresting and prosecuting sex trafficking victims for criminal offenses, even violent ones, is in direct conflict with a victim-centered criminal justice approach and reflects a limited understanding of the complex nature of victim-offender intersectionality. Prohibiting the criminalization of sex trafficking victims for offenses related to victimization accounts for the nature and extent of control exerted by sex traffickers, and the influence of trauma on the decision-making process and behavior of survivors. Accordingly, states must enact non-criminalization laws, including an affirmative defense law, that don’t draw a “hard line” on the qualifying offenses and should extend to accomplice and co-conspirator liability.

Successful implementation of this change in law and practice will require training as well as active participation from criminal justice stakeholders, including law enforcement, victim advocates, prosecutors, and judges. To improve identification of sex trafficking victim-offenders, criminal justice stakeholders should take proactive steps throughout the criminal justice process to assess whether a person that is suspected of trafficking had also experienced trafficking victimization.

Finally, non-criminalization and post-conviction relief laws are two sides of the same coin. It is inevitable that survivors will “slip through the cracks” or go unidentified, resulting in unjust convictions. These survivors must be afforded an opportunity to vacate convictions they’ve received as a result of their victimization. States must not limit the types of crimes or charges for which a sex trafficking survivor can seek post-conviction relief to prostitution offenses. States limiting post-conviction relief to trafficking survivors who are convicted of prostitution or other sex offenses leave many sex trafficking survivors without any avenue for relief.

1 As of August 2023, twenty-nine (29) states plus Washington D.C. have passed laws preventing minors from being criminalized for prostitution-related offenses. Eighteen (18) states go on to expand non-criminalization laws to protect child sex trafficking survivors from being prosecuted for other crimes committed as a result of their victimization. Nine (9) states prohibit criminalization for, or provide an affirmative defense to, violent felonies. See Safe Harbor page.

2 See Texas Government Code § 411.0728. Juveniles in Texas are afforded additional opportunities to vacate delinquency adjudications under certain circumstances. However, this relief is not afforded to juveniles convicted of criminal offenses. See generally Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 58.253, Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 58.255, and Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 58.256.

3 Freedom Network USA Texas – Freedom Network USA

4 Id.

5 National Survivor Network Member Survey: Impact of Arrest and Detention on Survivors of Human Trafficking, August 2016. Microsoft Word – VacateSurveyFinal (nationalsurvivornetwork.org)

6 Id.

7 Victim-offender is used to refer to an individual who has experienced, or is currently experiencing, sex trafficking victimization and is alleged to have engaged in conduct that violates the law. See generally Shared Hope Int’l, Responding to Sex Trafficking: Victim-Offender Intersectionality (2020) https://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/SH_Responding-to-Sex-Trafficking-Victim-Offender-Intersectionality2020_FINAL.pdf.

8 22 U.S.C. § 7102(17) (2000) (“The term ‘victim of trafficking’ means a person subjected to an act or practice described in paragraph (9) or (10).”); Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114-22, § 109, 129 Stat. 239 (“[S]ection 108 of this title amends section 1591 of title 18, United States Code, to add the words ‘solicits or patronizes’ to the sex trafficking statute making absolutely clear for judges, juries, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials that criminals who purchase sexual acts from human trafficking victims may be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted as sex trafficking offenders when this is merited by the facts of a particular case.”).

9 “Grand Prairie’s Zephi Trevino sentenced to 12 years in prison in fatal 2019 robbery” Jamie Landers and Kelli Smith Aug. 21 2023

10 Supra note 7.

11 Id.

June 23, 2023 by Guest

Reflections on the Intersection of Mental Health, Human Trafficking and Unjust Criminalization

Dr. Marian Hatcher
Shared Hope Policy Consultant
Ambassador-at-Large, United Nations

Last month was Mental Health Awareness month and as annual attention to this issue prompted introspection about my own personal experiences, I began to think about how the mental health needs of trafficking survivors so often intertwine with the need for federal vacatur and post-conviction relief for trafficking victims.

While the focus on mental and behavioral health overall gained traction beginning in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, finally resulting in the current Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) established in 1992, the focus on human trafficking didn’t manifest until the year 2000 with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Even then, it has taken over two decades for human trafficking to become widely understood as a crime that impacts people across the United States and isn’t just a crime that “happens over there,” no less how mental health plays a role in creating vulnerabilities to trafficking.

Has the formal attention and organization of governmental agencies, programs and initiatives focusing on trafficking made a difference in how trafficking victims are viewed and provided services? Yes, and no. When we look at how long it took for the puzzle pieces of mental health and human trafficking to be named, and considering from 1949 to 2000 discussions around mental health didn’t yet have the framing of human trafficking (although many of the impacts on survivors were inevitably part of those conversations), it makes sense that mental health responses to human trafficking victims have been lacking in critical ways and the mental health needs of trafficking victims/survivors are only recently becoming central to how we respond to human trafficking.

On a personal level, both my mother and I have backgrounds which require us to check the box of having a mental health history. Childhood and adult trauma triggered both of our experiences. I was molested by a trusted family member at the age of seven, which perverted my sense of intimacy and I was also a victim of domestic violence as an adult.

Mental health issues are an “outside looking in” multilayered system of good stressors, bad stressors, pain, suffering, joy and feelings one can’t name or label. In Asheville Insights, Chelsea Jennings stated: “From the outside looking in, it’s hard to understand. From the inside looking out, it’s hard to explain.” While this quote is related to an “immersion” trip experience, I feel the words profoundly describe the mental health journey and what trauma means to trafficking survivors.

“There are many complex and varied issues that affect survivors of trafficking, both medical and otherwise. An article by Lederer and Wetzel (2014) found alarming rates of injury and illness among sex trafficking victims. It does not require a stretch of imagination to infer that these adverse physical and psychological health impacts are the direct result of trauma from victims’ time within the sex trade. For example, a peer-reviewed article on traumatic brain injury (TBI) found that prostituted women suffer rates of TBI at much higher rates than the national average. (Farley, Banks, Ackerman, & Golding, 2018).”[1]

Trafficking is a traumatic experience often resulting in verbal and physical abuse, lack of control, loss of liberty, loss of family and more. It stands to reason, if there is an existing mental health problem, additional trauma(s) would exacerbate that. Substance use, existing or introduced in a trafficking environment also has an impact. Survivors look normal until worn down. At the beginning of my trafficking experience, other people on the street said I looked like the “po po.” At the end I was considered just another “crackhead.”

It’s the wearing down, the lack of good nutrition, lack of sleep, lack of good hygiene, lack of love, lack of empathy…lack lack lack. Where does the lack push you if not to the point of no return? Do I have a memory, of, even if off in the distance, of normalcy to instill hope that it is still achievable? The buildup of lack–physical and mental abuse, torture that is a “prostitution/sex trafficking experience”— creates a wall preventing healthy choices, education, stability, love, care, safety, nutrition, financial security, etc.

I was fortunate, in that I did have a normalcy to claw through the fog of trauma, drugs, guilt, shame, confusion etc. I had a family that never stopped looking for me when I was missing for almost two years. I also had a formal education and career, that I would sometimes have glimpses of, through the pain of beatings and rape and hunger.

There is a shade of gray for each person’s trauma. The hues too numerous to quantify. The names of mental health diagnoses are so many. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, oppositional defiance, borderline personality, PTSD, complex trauma and so on.

Where in this unsavory recipe for disaster, do we realize trafficking victims are surviving, often living exploitative lifestyles with or without nice trappings. These experiences are certainly harsh in many cases, but often so subtle they appear as “willing” participation or cooperation to those without clinical training or personal experience.

What does that mean when it’s time to step out of the darkness of trafficking, into the often blinding light of life? Mainstream society? Family? Motherhood? Employment? School? Financial health? Criminal justice ramifications of victimization that often exist long after trafficking while gaps in post-conviction relief persist? How do we remedy these harms so survivors can heal?

For me, I was able to emerge from the burden of my criminal history by seeking executive clemency from the Governor of Illinois. However, I am fortunate not to have had federal charges, in which case I would have had to seek an executive pardon from the President of the United States. What a daunting hurdle for survivors of exploitation and abuse to have to face in order to not carry a criminal record as a constant reminder of their victimization? This is why I am now an advocate for federal vacatur.

In the Victim Offender Intersectionality (VOI) report, which I contributed to as member of Shared Hope’s JuST Response Council, there are actually many opportunities for a “just response” to criminalized trafficking survivors, but these can’t happen until…

Until the millions of grey hues in the color pallet of pain that is trafficking are understood.

Until the impact of unimaginable sexual violence trauma bonds is considered.

Until there is less bias and more connective tissue between law enforcement, prosecution, and victim services.

Without this, we will continue to face barriers.

So, what can we do? We must wear them down with the truth and a greater understanding of the impact of mental health on human trafficking. And until federal legislation models/mirrors or learns from many states’ efforts to enact vacatur, survivors with federal convictions will be treated unfairly.

[1] Marian Hatcher et al., Exited prostitution survivor policy platform DigitalCommons@URI, https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol3/iss3/10/ (last visited Jun 16, 2023).

June 16, 2023 by Guest

Justice for God’s glory: Soli Deo Gloria

“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” (Martin Luther King, Letter from the Birmingham jail)

What is social justice? How does it differ from “Social Justice” (with capital letters), about which we hear so much today? Are they one and the same, or very different? Which most closely represents “Biblical Justice”? Does it really even matter?

“Ideas have consequences, bad ideas have victims.” (John Stonestreet)

A recent news report in Colorado highlighted how legislators voted against making public indecent exposure to kids a felony because it could be used to “ban drag shows and harm transgender people”. In other words, the perpetrator of such exposure becomes the victim.

Is this right? Who is the real victim, the one we should protect? What standard should we use to guide us in understanding whether a law or movement is meant for good or evil? As a GPS guides us on the best route to follow, we must use a moral compass to guide us to true justice.

As someone with 18+ years of ministering in prisons and 7 years ministering in the area of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, I have seen how laws have impacted those who have been perpetrators, those who have been victimized, and society in general. It is imperative that we view our culture, laws and justice with reliance on the Bible as that moral compass and thus advocate for “Biblical Justice.” It is only through this lens that the world makes sense.

We live in a very turbulent historical moment, a time in which we need to stand for Truth, not confusion or compromise. If we rely on Social Justice, which is based on diversity, identity, and activism, we risk causing greater harm, chaos, and division. Much of what we are witnessing today – confusion in our schools, chaos and crime in our streets, compromise and carnality in churches, corruption in our government, the breakdown in our families – all are the result of Social Justice. “Social Justice” is not the same as “Biblical Justice.” They are not interchangeable terms. Social Justice is built on the premise of equity, a concept far different from equality. “Social Justice” looks through the lens of equity in social and economic factors rather than looking through the lens of God’s moral directives. Social Justice requires that society recognize and hold to beliefs that counter Biblical standards -at the very core is a stealth attack on God’s design, Imago Deo, the value and dignity of life made in the image of God.

“If we want to know what is most sacred in the world, all we need do is look for what is most violently profaned.” ( Christopher West )

As Christians we have a mandate to live out our faith in action, to be “doers of the Word”: to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be a voice for the voiceless, to help the poor and needy, to end slavery, to advocate for racial reconciliation, and to pursue unity without partiality or prejudice. To advocate for Biblical Justice is consistent with our faith, because we are first and foremost “Christ’s Ambassadors.” Our definition of social justice must reflect God’s sovereignty and His dominion over all of life. We are mandated to seek justice (Jeremiah 22:3, Isaiah 1:17, Psalm 82:3-4). However, when we pursue justice with an approach that is not compatible with God’s character, when we seek laws or movements because they sound like good ideas, we run the risk of causing greater harm.

“The problem is not with the quest for justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. And this is a very real problem, because the extent to which we unwittingly allow unbiblical worldview assumptions to shape our approach to justice is the extent to which we are inadvertently hurting the very people we seek to help.” (Thaddeus Williams)

“Defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hands of the wicked.” (Ps 82:3-4).

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts.”

(Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn).

In summary, we are to advocate for justice for righteousness’s sake, to bring light into the darkness – to the glory of God alone – Soli Deo Gloria.

Wendy J. Smith
Fellow, Colson Center for Christian Worldview
Ambassador of Hope

Wendy J. Smith, RN, MSN, ACNP- retired, has worked in the medical field for over 40 years, specializing in hematology/oncology. During her healthcare career she published within her profession in both text and peer reviewed journals. She has also been a speaker on the state and national level addressing issues pertinent to hematology/oncology nursing, and advocacy for her patients and profession. Since retiring, Wendy has been able to focus on issues impacting our culture today, primarily writing and focusing on issues pertain to human trafficking and pro-life. Wendy volunteers with 3 different anti-trafficking non-profits and has been involved in prison ministry for 18+ years. She is also a Fellow of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. (www.colsoncenter.org).

Wendy is married to her best friend, Fred. Fred and Wendy enjoy living in Colorado Springs close to their daughter, Sarah, son-in- law, John, three granddaughters and one grandson: Abigail, Anna, Ali and Hunter Stonestreet. Psalms 71:18 “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.” (NIV)

Some examples of publications:

https://sarahshome.us/blog/

https://aaplog.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/revised-AAPLOG-Joint-CO-5-Pornography-Sex-Trafficking-and-Abortion_with-ACPeds-logo-2.pdf

https://townhall.com/columnists/wendysmith/

https://www.liveaction.org/news/author/wendy-smith/

April 10, 2023 by Jo Lembo

Redemption & Restoration Bring Justice

When we talk about restoring a victim of trafficking considerations must include if they have something to be restored to. Do they have anywhere or anything to which they want to return? (as in the definition above by the American Heritage Dictionary: “an original or normal condition; placed in a former position or location”) Perhaps that 26-year-old barely remembers her early childhood because of the trauma induced by violence or abuse. Maybe they don’t ever remember being safe, loved, or cared for. What if there isn’t a family looking for them, or anyone who cares if they are alive or not? What if this child has run multiple times from the home they are returned to because the abuse isn’t known or recognized…and the child votes with their feet?

If this is the case, as it often may be, speaking about restoration to them will ring hollow. The last thing they want is to be placed in a former position or location.

Instead our goal for transition homes must be to become a place of true redemption for the survivor. A place where they are brought back from the horror of trafficking, and given ownership again of their body, soul and spirit. A place where they find freedom from shame and abuse because they are now in a secured environment that allows them a safe place to learn who they are, and to become that person at their own pace. A place where they are given gifts of peace, self worth, recognition, and value as a child of God.

In this month of Easter remembrance Christians are very familiar with the price that was paid to buy us back from the authority of satan. The devil rightfully held a claim against us when our rights were forfeited to him through man’s disobedience to God. There was a debt of sin that had to be paid to bring us each into right standing again with a perfect God. And God was willing to let His only Son be born as a man on this earth, in order to become the sacrificial lamb to give His life for ours to redeem us back to our Father. I love that John 3:16 doesn’t say that God sent His Son, but that God gave His Son. His was the most precious gift He had, and He gave it freely for each of us to know Him.

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”
(1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT)

What a gift it is to a survivor of trafficking when they are offered not only a safe bed, provision, and protection that will restore them, but also the gift of redemption to know that they no longer belong to that former identity, but are free to become whomever a loving God designed them to be. They have been bought back (redeemed) from destruction and death.

“Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”
(1 Peter 1:23b NLT)

We are grateful that Jesus paid the price for each one of us to give us new life as His free gift. Let’s freely share the Gift with others.

Pastor Jo Lembo, Director of Faith Initiatives, Shared Hope International