Fight for Freedom: Tomoka Christian Church holds human trafficking awareness event | Observer Local News

A mock tattoo parlor drew people into the walk-through experience, highlighting who is at risk of human trafficking. As viewers moved further into the exhibition, dimly lit boys' and girls' bedrooms were visible. A table with surgical instruments — alluding to illegal organ harvesting — and 90 photos of the faces of missing children completed the encounter. 

Tomoka Christian Church Lead Pastor Joe Putting, Event Coordinator and Benevolence Director Christina Moore and Missions Director Connie Davis had collaborated to create the event Fight for Freedom: A Night to Uncover Human Trafficking. It was an opportunity to raise awareness, plus money that would go toward preventive measures and victim advocacy. The “Walk-thru Experience” was one aspect of the sold-out event held June 30.

Several years ago, the three began organizing banquets to raise money for ministries around the world. The first banquet was held for Egypt, raising $1 million. That was followed by a night in 2021 for Guatemala, raising $70,000. That night, Putting had handed Moore a map of Africa and told her he wanted a night for the continent. Last year, over $900,000 was raised for nine different African countries.

“We started talking about what we were going to do next,” Putting said. “Do we do southeast Asia, or do we do something else? And it just kept coming around to this topic (human trafficking). No matter where we go in the world, this topic is there. So we said, ‘Why don't we do the whole world, but do it under this banner?'”

Human trafficking across this country is a $150 billion illegal enterprise, and I'm here to say that Florida, we want to use every resource at our disposal to put human traffickers out of business and into jail.”
— RON DESANTIS, Florida governor, in a press conference about new anti-trafficking legislation

Moore said she'd always “had a heart for Thailand and Asia,” but after discussing the group's next venture and Putting's mention of human trafficking, the banquet turned into a global affair.

“We had talked about Asia when we were winding down from Africa and figuring out what's next,” Moore said. “After Joe said human trafficking, I thought, human trafficking is everywhere. It's not just in those places, and it's here. When you talk to people, they don't think it's here. Florida is number three in the country (for human trafficking cases).”

Ministries were invited to set up tables, share videos and speak to the attendees at the event to bring awareness to victim advocacy efforts, measures taken to combat human trafficking and the pervasive nature of the crime.

Davis stacked the stage with keynote speakers, including Tina Kadolph, co-founder of Love Missions Global; Stephanie Freed, co-founder of Rapha International; Charles Birch with Christian Aid Mission; Devin Chance, director of development at Life of Hope Ministries and Alex Hill, senior advisor for strategic partnerships at the A21 Campaign.

After asking the speakers to stand and be recognized, Davis addressed them in her speech.

“You guys (ministry workers) really are our heroes,” Davis said. “You guys are running into the darkness — the darkness that we don't even want to believe exists, and you guys are living it. You're the first responders.”

Kadolph was not only an event speaker, but a survivor of sex trafficking by her mother at the age of 4. She credits her husband, Carl Kadolph, and Jesus for helping her escape at the age of 15. Twenty-five years ago, the couple founded Love Missions Global, then opened Palate Coffee Roasters in Sanford. The businesses work in conjunction to fight human trafficking.

“All I want to do is help other little girls like me and let them see that it's possible to survive this thing—torture that we've endured,” she said in her video “Tina's Story”.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 recognizes two major types of human trafficking: “sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age,” and forced labor, which it defines as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”

In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several bills designed to fight human trafficking. Senate Bill 1690 increases human trafficking awareness programs and victim support, while Senate Bill 7064, in part, strengthens the penalties administered to traffickers. Senate Bill 1210 gives trafficking victims the option to shield certain records from their cases from public records disclosure, while House Bill 1465 makes traffickers who discharge a firearm eligible for mandatory minimum sentences.

DeSantis commented on the bills before signing them at a press conference May 16.

“Human trafficking across this country is a $150 billion illegal enterprise, and I'm here to say that Florida, we want to use every resource at our disposal to put human traffickers out of business and into jail,” DeSantis said.

Donations are still coming in for the Fight for Freedom event, which aims to raise $1 million by Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11, 2024. The money will be distributed among the ministries that attended the human trafficking awareness event.

“The Super Bowl is a millionaire's playground,” Moore said. “Victims are brought in. Pimps send out their prostitutes. It's pretty dark behind the scenes. Certainly not the NFL's doing. Just a great platform for the crimes.”