The Reality of Human Trafficking – American Family Association

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Hannah Meador The Stand Writer MORE

(Editor's Note: This blog includes the true story of a human trafficking survivor. Some material may come across as graphic or hard to read. However, the story of God's work in the survivor's life is powerful.)

“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know” – William Wilberforce.

When it comes to the issue of human trafficking, I can't imagine a better quote than that of Wilberforce. Once you see or hear the gut-wrenching truths of this heinous crime, it is hard to ignore its atrocities. Often, when I discuss this crime, I find myself reiterating statistics and awareness tactics. But lately, I have learned that there is no better way to understand the horrors of this crime than listening to the stories of those who have personally lived it.

Recently, trafficking survivor Karla Solomon shared her story with us at The Stand. She has given me the great honor of sharing it with you as well. Below, you will find a testimony of the reality of human trafficking – and the power of our Savior.

Trafficked as a child

At age 4, Solomon was sexually abused. Shortly after her grandparents learned of the incident, she was removed from her mother's home and sent to live with her aunt. While living with her aunt, she received everything a kid could ever need. She had a warm bed, nice clothes, and all the food she could ever want, but she wasn't given the love and acceptance she desperately craved. Instead, Solomon felt like a burden.

As time went on, she started acting out. Solomon stole from her aunt and started hanging out with older girls, who negatively impacted her. By age 11, Solomon was taken back to her mother's house. There, she was forced to witness her mom and stepfather rely heavily on drugs and how it changed them. It horrified her.

“I went from eating three meals a day to wondering if I was going to eat at all. Inside the home, my mom and new stepdad were heavily into drugs, and they were very violent with each other,” Solomon remarked.

One night, from the slit underneath her bedroom door, she watched them take the drugs. And what she saw truly “changed her life forever.” So, for the first time, she ran away from home.

But life on the run wasn't all she imagined it would be.

“Every meal, every night to sleep in a bed, everything that you could possibly think of as a basic need cost something – even for a child,” she explained.

A few days into her runaway adventure, she crossed paths with a woman she had seen with her mother. This woman began slowly but surely building a relationship with Solomon. She provided the child with food, friendship, and trust. Before long, Solomon called her “Mom Number Two.”

Before she knew it, things started to go wrong – fast. The woman she so greatly trusted began giving Solomon drugs and selling the child's body.

After attending a party set up by the woman, 11-year-old Solomon was raped and her virginity stolen for profit.

Soon, she was sold to drug dealers and other guys who came to her elementary school and picked her up. But as she spoke about the things happening to her behind closed doors, she became an outcast and stopped attending school.

“I started to spend weeks at a time with this lady out on the streets strung out on drugs at 12 years old,” Solomon continued. “I didn't want to have to be woken up every single night in the middle of the night by arguing or a strange man wanting to have sex with me. But my reality was feeling like my body didn't belong to me.”

In the meantime, she was in and out of juvenile detention. When she told her story to local law enforcement, they didn't believe her. Instead, they took her back to where it all began – her childhood home.

Each time, she would run again.

After a scare concerning her life, Solomon was able to break free from her trafficker's grasp. Solomon then tried to get back into school. But shortly after attempting, she realized she was pregnant and was asked not to return until she had the baby.

“He was 33; I was only 14. I was just looking for a safe place to go,” Solomon said. “I just wanted to be fed and taken care of. At the time, I didn't understand or even realize how not ok that is for a 33-year-old man to be in a relationship with a 14-year-old girl.”

She did move in with this man but found the situation filled with abuse. Instead of being cared for, she was required to do everything exactly as the man requested. If she didn't, she was met with threats. But after she noticed signs that her son was being sexually abused, she fled again.

Trafficked as an adult

By age 30, Solomon had a seemingly good life. She was taking online college courses and was a married mom of three children. But after emergency surgery, she became addicted to pain pills as well as dealing with unhealed trauma from her childhood. The shame and guilt left her even more broken.

“So, I did the one thing I knew how to do very well. I ran,” Solomon said.

“I ran away from my kids; I ran away from my husband. I had this belief that I was going to find a better life,” she continued. “That the grass was going to be greener on the other side. I had absolutely no support other than my husband, and no healing had taken place.”

After separating from her family, Solomon eventually met another man she thought understood her. He would spend money on her, let her travel, and do many other extravagant things. But little did she know, he was nothing more than a “complete monster.”

This man was Solomon's second trafficker. Shortly, he stole all her belongings, including her wedding ring, Social Security card, and other forms of ID. He then posted an ad of her online with the name “Alexia the Australian Princess” and required her to earn $1,500 a day.

One night, she decided to run away from him. She called her husband and explained the situation to him. However, the trafficker found her and told her that if she ever did that again, he would kidnap her 5-year-old daughter and force her into trafficking.

“He even started sending me pictures of the location of where she got on and off the school bus by my mother-in-law's house,” she explained. “I told my husband goodbye, that I was going back to protect our daughter.”

At this point, the trafficker had broken her ribs and refused to take her to the hospital. He stopped feeding her and increased her quota to $2,500 daily. She was at a point where she couldn't even move.

“I was starting to actually accept the fact that I might not make it out of this,” she remembered.

Days later, Solomon was soaking in a tub, suffering from unbearable pain, feeling “every single bone up against the porcelain tub.” She was ready to give up. But then, she looked over to see her cross pendant with the Lord's Prayer etched into it. Quite simply, it reminded her of home.

“And I remembered talking to my daughter one night that she had a nightmare. I put this cross around her neck and said, ‘Baby, whenever God is with you, no evil can come against you.'

“At that moment, I looked up at the ceiling, and I basically told God that I can't take this anymore.”

Thankfully, she didn't give up that night. Because three days later, thanks to her faithful and unwavering husband, she was rescued by law enforcement.

“They were screaming my name down the hallway. And it actually took an officer getting right in front of my face and asking me if my name was Karla Solomon for me to realize in that moment that I'm not Alexia.”

Surviving the past 

Although she had been rescued, Solomon still had trouble healing from her traumas. She experienced Stockholm Syndrome and was an emotional wreck.

“I hid in the house for almost a year,” she shared. “I was so broken and afraid and traumatized and scared. All I could do was shake, cry, and tremble. When people talked to me, I couldn't even look at them in their eyes.”

With what felt like the world's weight on her shoulders, the only solution Solomon could logically see was suicide. So, one night, she opened her bottle of Xanax and swallowed every pill.

Minutes after ingesting, Solomon's phone rang. She heard her new friend Chae's voice on the line.

“I was in the kitchen, and something just completely stopped me in my tracks and told me that I needed to reach out to you,” Chae said.

At that moment, all Solomon could do was weep. She told her everything she'd been feeling and about the pills she'd just taken. But instead of calling 911, Chae took Solomon to the throne room of God. She began praying prayers that Solomon had never heard before.

“October 24, 2017, was the day I tried to throw in the towel and God threw it in my face and said, ‘No, you've got work to do,'” Solomon said with a smile.

Thanks to God's goodness and grace, Solomon never felt the effects of pills. The very next day, she left her house for the first time and got a job working as a waitress.

Living in the fullest 

Solomon's second trafficker ended up on the “Top 10 Texas Most Wanted List” and was put behind bars for 30 years. Instead of living in guilt or shame, she enjoys living life in the fullness of God's love for her. Her trials have become her testimony, and she now serves women with similar life experiences.

Today, she serves as the director of outreach and training for Mercy Gate Ministries, an organization that helps women trafficking survivors, which she was able to help start. She is also a council member for the Human Trafficking Survivor Leader Councilship for the office of the Texas governor, a survivor consultant and subject matter expert for the Department of Homeland Security, and works alongside local law enforcement.

When it comes to her spare time, Solomon loves spending time with her family. Her eldest son (mentioned earlier in the story) is now a student at LSU. He is double majoring in scientific mathematics and physics with a 3.9 GPA. According to Solomon, he also “participates in an international work-study program with NASA, and he works as a technical support operator for the FBI.” Her younger children, ages 11 and 9, also are active in church, sports, and school. All her children love participating at Mercy Gate events and ministering to the women at the facility.

Perhaps my favorite part of Solomon's story is her marriage. Today, she says that she and her husband's relationship has never been better. She claims it is a true “Hosea and Gomer story.” He never left her and always kept searching for her.

“I always ask him, ‘Babe, why did you not just completely give up on me?' And he tells me every single time, ‘God told me I wasn't supposed to.'”

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)

Karla's abbreviated story will be included in the April print edition of The Stand.

Karla Solomon