A Winnipeg pastor joined International Justice Mission (IJM) Canada on a recent trip to the Philippines to see how God is setting the captives free.
Pastor Chris Barnes of St. Aidan's Anglican Church in Winnipeg joined the National Director of Development with IJM Canada, David Pollendine, on a 10-day trip to the Philippines to see the work being done to help children caught in trafficking.
"In the Philippines, we are working together with the government to protect children from online sexual exploitation (OSEC)," says Pollendine. "Often children are exploited by a third party, often in the room and a close family member, even a parent. That abuse travels over the internet, often to a man, a predator, in places like Canada, who will consume the abuse and wire through money live so they can pay for the type of the abuse they want."
Pollendine has been working for the last seven years in the OSEC department. Barnes, a friend of Pollendine's nonchalantly said to him earlier this year that he'd like to go on a trip if possible.
"My affiliation is primarily through our church, St. Aidan's," says Barnes. "I ran into David at Missionfest. I jokingly said, 'Do you have any trips in mid-August?' He said, 'Hold on. There is one, a shorter trip to the Philippines and we're looking for some pastors and church leaders to come along.' As I prayed on it it really resonated with me that I was supposed to go on this trip."
A group from Canada flew to the island of Cebu to connect with an IJM field office, as well as connect with survivors who are being taken care of in the area. A few church leaders from Vancouver also joined.
"It was an incredible experience," says Pollendine. "When we got there, there had been a rescue that morning. The team had come back at 4:00 a.m. and they had just rescued four children. In that case, the mom was taken into custody. We got to see how it works. They had 36 hours to get a brief to the prosecutor and if it's not watertight, it could be thrown out of court. We got to see that."
Children Set Free
On one of the days, the group from Canada connected with survivors of OSEC.
"We had a dinner with some survivor leaders who are now grown up," says Barnes, this being his first time in Asia. "They've been through the process of aftercare and now they're becoming social workers. One of the survivors looked at me and said, 'Chris, I don't only want to live a normal life. I want to make sure the trauma I've been through doesn't negatively impact other people.' To hear that from someone who's gone through such horrible things to come through the other side, that's where you see full restoration. You see God moving through that."
Another time the group visited a shelter that houses and cares for 80 girls between the ages of five and 18.
"They heard we were coming and they wanted to put on a presentation for us. They were singing songs, dancing around, showing what they learned at their Vacation Bible School a couple weeks earlier. They were singing 'We are free.' It was one of those moments where your whole body is crying. When I think of it now, I still tear up. It showed me there is hope in this situation."
People who want to help IJM and what they're doing to help stop OSEC can find more information through IJM's website.
"One thing is, don't look away," says Pollendine. "It's very tempting to look away at these stories. But somebody needs to look at them. We owe it to our brothers and sisters in the Philippines to not look away. Canada ranks fourth in the world for consuming OSEC from the Philippines, so we do have a responsibility."