An American missionary has discovered the driving force behind the world's sex trafficking industry—the quest for love.
Christine Anasco, who has served for 12 years in international missions work, says the women who peddle their bodies and the men who use them are both trying to find love, but in the wrong place.
Talking to Bound4Life, Anasco says she began seeing firsthand the faces of human trafficking in 2014 when she and her husband David started their ministry in Thailand, a Southeast Asian nation that has gained notoriety for its sex industry.
The Anasco couple are now working to help women trapped in Thailand's sex industry by sharing with them God's unconditional love, CBN News reports.
Anasco says their ministry is still in its foundational stage. What they do is to visit Thailand's red light district weekly to build relationships with the women.
"Our aim is show them they are valued, their lives have meaning and God really values who they are," she says.
"When they experience love, they can begin to shift from a mindset of fear to faith," Anasco explains. "Though trapped in human trafficking today, these women were created in His image and He has designed them for something more than what they are living."
She says she and her husband tell the women they meet that "Jesus knows you; He formed you; He has a place and a plan for you."
Anasco says aside from the quest for love, poverty is also a major factor that keeps Thailand's sex industry going. "Many of the women we meet come from the nation's most impoverished areas, the rural farming areas. They have a financial need," she says.
Anasco says it's hard for them to see people "living in sin, doing things that you know aren't good for them, or continuing to make poor choices."
She says all that they can do is to show the women that "Christ really loves them and hungers for relationship with them."
"We spend a lot of time in prayer, just seeking God's heart because we want to do what He is doing. We don't want to do what we think is best or what we think will work. We want to do what our Father says, in this season, is going to bring heaven to earth," she says.
Anasco is full of hope that the victims of prostitution will eventually transform themselves after accepting Jesus. "In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He will wipe away every tear. We can trust His greater plan," she says.
