“Do you know that the average pedophile invests nine months into desensitizing a child? I wish the church would invest nine months into saving a soul. This is methodical. It is a war,” said Jaco Booyens, keynote speaker during the Blanket Fort Hope’s 10th anniversary gala in Birmingham, Alabama.
“We are in a time now in America where it’s become too easy to say the words ‘human trafficking.’ There was a time when I literally begged, ‘God, can somebody just repeat “child trafficking?” Can they just say the two words?’
“Now Americans will say human trafficking is an atrocity. It’s horrible. It’s become status quo to say it but there’s no weight. It’s lost its gut-wrenching, vile feeling in your body when you say the words ‘human trafficking.’ It’s become too easy to say,” he noted during the Feb. 27 event.
Booyens is a successful entrepreneur as founder of After Eden Pictures, co-founder of Eden Green Technology, RESTOR Coffee Company and REVVL Life and co-owner of SKYLAB Tech Republic.
Impacting legislation reform
Even though these are important to him, his passion for 20-plus years has been to impact legislation reform to stop sex trafficking through his nonprofit, Jaco Booyens Ministries.
Many who join the fight to stop sex trafficking become involved due to its attack on children, but Booyens’ “call from God” was very personal. His sister became a human trafficking victim.
“Your 12-year-old sister is trafficked, and it takes six years to rescue her. There’s no dad at home, a single mom. And for six years, every single morning I hear my mom say, ‘God’s got her and she’ll come back,’” Booyens said.
Although his sister, Ilonka Deaton, is a survivor — a worship leader and mother of three — most children who are trafficked don’t have this kind of ending. They become a shell of a person after having their wills broken “like you break a horse.”
“And I’m telling you today that pedophiles know how to break the human spirit. They’re masters at it.
“It is their life mission to understand how a child thinks, how a child will process, how a child will receive love and belonging. They understand Maslow’s hierarchy of needs better than any American,” Booyens said.
The predators learn where a child’s vulnerabilities are and will prey on them. They use language to connect with them. For example, if a child is really into video games, the trafficker will talk about video games.
They are everywhere, in every school and every zip code — and even in churches.
“It’s in your child’s youth group. We’re rescuing children out of youth group. We’re rescuing traffickers that are 16 years old. The trafficker is 16, recruiting girls in youth group.”
Bringing healing
Though Booyens knows that law enforcement is integral in this fight, only faith-based Christian organizations can bring healing to a child who has lived in this environment.
“There is no hope. There is no love. There is no belonging. There’s no self-esteem. There’s a complete bastardization of what unconditional love is, what a relationship should do,” Booyens said.
Victims have learned how to survive in this environment. They know that if they don’t perform the acts required, they will be abused. They live in fight-or-flight mode, doing whatever it takes to survive moment by moment.
Because of this total reworking of their minds, these children don’t even realize they are victims. They don’t try to get free or look for someone to save them. In fact, most try to run away or commit suicide after rescue. Booyens’ sister attempted suicide three times after her rescue.
Booyens’ website, www.JacoBooyensMinistries.org, has many resources, including links to policy and legislation that will “protect children and empower families,” and it has information on issues such as pornography addiction, parenting and abuse healing.
His “5 Things to Know” list links to in-depth education on each topic.
- The fastest-growing form of trafficking is familial.
- Grooming and targeting children happens online.
- Pornography is increasing the demand for sex trafficking.
- School curriculum (“comprehensive sex education”) contains “hard-core pornography.”
- The importance of the nuclear family — the way God intended.
Booyens is also passionate about American history and how it relates to where the United States is today.
“This issue should rock the soul of America and it hasn’t yet — and I can’t quite understand it.
“You think the Founding Fathers today, if they were alive, would look at us and go, ‘Great job guys. You have more slaves today than ever before in human history in this country.’ 500,000 women and children (are) sold today for sex in Texas alone.
“I have said this to the president of the United States. I will say this to anybody who will listen. There is nothing — not foreign policy, not taxation, not no property tax, not zero tax, not draining the swamp, not those going and getting all the money back — there’s nothing. Nothing in the eyes of God will hold a candle to what we do with children.”
To learn more about Booyens’ fight visit www.JacoBooyensMinistries.org. To learn more about the organization where Booyens spoke visit www.BlanketFortHope.org.
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