United States (MNN) – The Super Bowl LIII is just over a week away. As many Americans prepare to host friends to enjoy the game, traffickers are preparing to exploit vulnerable individuals.
Super Ball and Human Trafficking
This year the Super Bowl is being held at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Here the New England Patriots will play the Los Angeles Rams. Per CNBC Make It, over a million people are expected to pass through Atlanta for the Super Bowl.
But, did you know the Super Bowl is one of the biggest events of the year for human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking in the United States?
Atlanta, Georgia (Photo by Jessica Furtney on Unsplash)
Human trafficking is the second fastest growing industry worldwide. It comes right behind the illegal drug industry. Each year, human traffickers profit $150,000,000,000 from exploiting vulnerable people.
Slavery has been around for centuries. But today, it takes a different form than what some history books might portray.
Modern-day slavery can look like human trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, child marriage, and more. This is happening in nearly every country, including the United States.
What is trafficking? The legal definition per the Merriam-Webster dictionary is below.
Human Trafficking: noun : the business of inducing a person to perform labor or engage in prostitution through force, fraud, or coercion.
About 40 million people worldwide are slaves. Of that number, 24 million (or 60 percent) are women and children. To break it down even further, 12 million (or 30 percent); are underage children. The average age of a slave—12 years old. And every 30 seconds, someone else becomes a slave, too.
Find more facts on modern-day slavery here.
The Freedom Challenge’s Super Bowl Prayer Challenge
(Photo courtesy of the Freedom Challenge via Facebook)
Atlanta is already a hotbed for human trafficking because it hosts events throughout the year and is home to one of the busiest airports in the world.
But this year, the Freedom Challenge (an initiative through Operation Mobilization) is participating with It’s a Penalty and the International Institute of Human Trafficking during the Super Bowl.
It’s a Penalty is a campaign working to use major sporting events to raise awareness and globally prevent abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.
During Super Bowl weekend, the Freedom Challenge is inviting people to do one of the easiest and more powerful things they can do to end human trafficking—they’re inviting folks to pray.
How?
With the Super Bowl Prayer Challenge 2019.
Through praise and worship, the Freedom Challenge is encouraging people to trust God and through that trust, face modern-day slavering by putting it in His hands.
The Super Bowl Prayer Challenge 2019 begins February 2 at 9:00 am to 8:30 pm and will resume February 3 at 1:30 pm until 4:30 pm.
“This strategic partnering with the international institute of human trafficking in Atlanta and ‘It’s a Penalty’ around the Super Bowl and creating that prayer challenge where we’ll be having two full days of very focused long prayer, I would one, welcome anyone who would want to participate in that way and two, prayer for that,” Director of the Freedom Challenge Tracy Daugherty says.
Get Involved
Will you join in a time of intercession through prayer and worship and ask for protection, prevention, and the rescue of those enslaved by human trafficking?
Learn more about the Super Bowl Prayer Challenge 2019 here.
Passionate about ending human trafficking? The Freedom Challenge is rolling out new initiatives for women in 2019. Find them here.
“I think the prayer is that God continues to build a movement of women who care, who are resourceful, who are passionate, and who are willing to use their body, their soul, their spirit for the benefit of other women and children. And that is our prayer and we’re not stopping until we see a difference made,” Daugherty says.
For an insider look at the Freedom Challenge, click here.
(Header photo courtesy of the Freedom Challenge via Facebook)
