From Victim To Advocate – Fighting Human Trafficking – with Andi Buerger – Ep. 198

Linda J. Hansen:  Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101® Breakroom Economics Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host and the author of Prosperity 101®- Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck, and the creator of the Breakroom Economics Online course, the book, the course and the entire podcast library can be found on Prosperity101.Com. I seek to connect boardroom to break room and policy to paycheck by empowering and encouraging employers to educate employees about the public policy issues that affect their jobs. My goal is to help people understand the foundations of prosperity, the policies of prosperity, and how to protect their prosperity by becoming informed, involved, and impactful. I believe this will lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement and retention, and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. Listen each week to hear from exciting guests and be sure to visit Prosperity 101.Com.

Thank you so much for joining with me today. If you are a regular listener, you know I have often covered difficult topics. We are covering a difficult topic today. Human trafficking. Human trafficking affects everyone. When we allow our children to be sold, to be used as a commodity, to be violated, persecuted, neglected, discarded, and preyed upon by criminal influences, we deteriorate as a civilized community. There is nothing civilized about using the weak, the innocent, the vulnerable for selfish gain. That quote is from my guest today, Andi Buerger. Andi is the founder of Voices against Trafficking and Beulah's Place. She is one of the world's most fearless fighters against human trafficking. Through her organizations, which I mentioned, voices against trafficking and Buella's place, she has rescued hundreds of innocents from the multibillion dollar transnational criminal industry. Andi's childhood was destroyed as she spent 17 years subjected to trafficking and abuse. She is a wonderful example of allowing God to turn pain into positive action, and her experiences have been helping people worldwide. So, Andi, thank you so much for joining with us today. I look forward to everything you have to share with the listeners.

Andi Buerger:

Well, thank you so much for having me and again, for being part of the solution. As a podcast host, as a media member, someone in the community, bringing this issue out is the only way we're going to get prevention and awareness. So thank you for that.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, we all need to step up and do what we know. We all have voices, we have eyes, we have ears. There's so much that we can do to help prevent trafficking and for regular listeners. You know, I've had Eric Colton on with untrafficked. I've also featured chaplain Krista Hull with the Redeem and restore foundation and really helping people understand the connection between what's happening at our border when we have a lawless, open border and cartels and traffickers are coming in. This is a horrible travesty for adults and children alike. It's not just child trafficking we're seeing, but adult trafficking for sex and labor. And we are also seeing our culture discard children. We were talking before the interview, and you were saying how children just have no value to the culture anymore, which is so sad. And it's not a way to make sure we have a civilized culture moving forward. So I'm sure you've learned a lot through your life as you've come to this point and being at this point in your ministry and your ability to help people, but it began in your childhood with some painful experiences. Do you want to share a little bit of your own history and what led you to your work now?

Andi Buerger:

Sure. Absolutely. I think it's important for audiences to understand this isn't just a part time hobby or ministry that I actually have personal experience. So before Linda, before there was ever a term called human trafficking, in the early 60's, I was actually trafficked from six months old to 17 years old by immediate family members. My birth mother was the primary orchestrator of all evil. And so I just really had nowhere to go. And we hardly talked about child abuse in that culture because, oh, well, just sweep it under the rug or we don't go to that uncle's house or whatever it is, because that's how it was. However, by the time I was five years old, the beatings, the torture, the sexual issues, all of the things that happened by people that were supposed to love and protect me and didn't was so great. My birth mother told me over and over, I can take you out anytime I want. And so I thought I would beat her to the punch and take my own life. And so I went down to the curb of my house and I waited for a car to be coming by fast enough so I could jump in front of it. I just wanted to be dead where no one could touch me, hurt me. No one heard my screams or my cries, I thought. And so as I waited, I looked into this huge blue sky. It was just magnificent. It was just ginormous to a five year old. And I thought, gosh, I wonder if somebody made that. I wonder how far it goes. Is there someone bigger than the people hurting me? And in that moment, I heard this amazing voice in my heart that said, this is not the plan I have for you, suicide is not the answer. And I don't know why, but I trusted that voice. And no car was coming down that street that day, which was really unusual. And so in my life, that was God speaking to my heart. And I went up to the garage and I leaned against the door, and I said to no one in particular, I said, if you keep me alive, I will do what you call me to do. Those were the exact words. I wouldn't have known what calling was at that time. So after that, of course, things were not good. Anyway, I tried a couple more times as the abuse and the situation got worse. And finally, at age 17, that was the last time my birth mother tried to take my life by choking me to death. And the only good thing my birth father did that was decent was pulling her off of me. But here I am. I'm a minor. And in those days, Minors didn't have any rights. They would have sent me back to them even if I had tried to run. And I had a couple of times tried to run, and well intentioned people thought, oh, it's just misunderstanding sent me back, and I paid a greater price. I was locked up for months at a time sometimes. So it was just really difficult. But at the end of the day, once I did get out, I went to college and I started watching how other people lived. And I was hearing their stories of life. And I thought, if I make good choices. And it was very primal, if I live, I win. If I die, the evil people win. And so I didn't have an experiential experience with God. I had a very blind faith. And yet, as we went through different situations, he grew me up in that. And I finally was able to experience what real love meant, what someone being a provider and a counselor and a friend really was, because I hadn't had any of those.

Linda J. Hansen:

That's a beautiful story and so inspirational. And for anyone listening, we don't know where you are or what you might be going through or what you may have been through, but there's always hope. And we'll make sure you know how to connect with me and with Andy. And if we can't help you, we will point you in the direction of people who can certainly help you. So please keep listening through the end of the broadcast because there is always hope. And who would have thought that Andy's life could be something beautiful and she could have such an impact around the world with just this story, with a broken, beaten, betrayed child? And we're just thankful, Andy, that you allowed God into your life and you took a step of faith. Tell us how you began your ministry, how you started your organizations.

Andi Buerger:

So along the way, I married an abuser, which is not shocking when you consider my background. He was a leader at church and looked really good, had all of the right things, good job, a little home and all of that. And what I fought with, stability and love. And within days of being married, it turned into something not good. So God delivered me out of that relationship. And even though people say deliverance is hard, but deliverance doesn't always come in the package you would like it to be, but it's still deliverance. And so in the couple of years after that divorce, God brought this amazing human being into my life, my husband of 23 years. And we both had a heart for youth, especially teenagers. Don't know why, but we got offered a lot of teenagers from parents during Sunday school and stuff. But we just really wanted to help the kids that if you don't help them now, they will replicate where they came from or they'll be in a system or get into trouble. So it's up to us to help intercede. And that's where Buella's place was born. In 2008, I had the fourth of ten massive brain injuries, and so that I lost a year of memory. And all I could think about was, I can't work. I don't know what I'm going to do. This can't be all there is. God, what do you want me to do? I can't even remember what day it is half the time. And so a friend and I were praying and she said, let's just put a website up. And what do you, Ed, my husband, want to really do in Redmond, our city in Oregon. And I told her, I said, we want to be able to help these teenagers that are on the brink of deciding how their life is going to go. And so we put a little website up there, one of the little free one pages, and we stepped out in faith and we started talking about it. I said, I want to develop this short term shelter system using safe houses, kind of like when people take in a foreign student part time, and this way, three to five months, we should be able to help the teen or youth that we rescue get from homeless and desperate and hopeless, to be able to integrate back into community. And that's what we did. So Buella's place was born and what we did, we had several safe houses at that time, just everyday people saying, hey, we will take in one of your kids, worked with them every single day. They had to finish high school. Whether it was diploma or GED, it didn't matter. They had to finish because having that win in their life, having that was like the first step, first deposit of acknowledged worth, right? We're trying to build up their tangible worth as well as their spiritual and mental and emotional. And the other thing was they had to get and maintain a viable job in order to be in our program. And so 14 years and 300 plus kids later and twelve college degrees later, the community helped us put those kids through college that wanted to go. And we had interesting things. We had death threats, we had other stuff happen. Not every teen that we took. I think we released three of them out of that number, which isn't bad because they just couldn't either stay off drugs or they couldn't commit to the program the way they were supposed to. Taking electives is not my idea of getting a high school degree. You have to have the basics. And one of the girls didn't quite understand that. She dropped all the hard subjects. We were very structured. We were like, no, that's not how we do it. So these are the rules. You agreed to it. You signed our contract saying, yes, I'll do this anyway. That's how it really started. And because we had such a huge success rate, Linda, it was a 92% success rate of these kids that we interceded on their behalf for that stayed independent in the communities of their choice. They were viable consumers, renters. They did not need emergency services as often. They still had to deal with their pain. But they had a chance at 17, 18, 19, 20 to change generations. And that was what got the attention of some members of Congress on both sides of the fence. And when the time came, they became very useful for us in the next project, which would ultimately become voices against trafficking due to the, you know, every one of those teenagers, Linda, they were smart. They had a desire. They called as a last hope, the last fragile threat of hope, which is the title of the first book I wrote, because I hung onto a fragile thread of hope and God would make it thicker and thicker and thicker. The more positive deposits into my life, the more faith I had. And when you have a rope you can hang on and someone who intercedes can help pull you up out of the pit. And that's what we were hoping for.

Linda J. Hansen:

Yeah, that is so true. It is. Something that we don't always stop to think about is how important our help can be to someone. Maybe there's someone out there listening who said, oh, I would be a safe house. Or I'd love to be able to tutor someone, or I'd love to just get together and pray with a person who has been struggling like this. But there's all these different ways that we can help, and I'm so encouraged. Again, I always hear stories of people, one person, making a big difference. Look at the difference you have made in so many lives because you chose, you made a conscious choice to take your own situation and turn it around for good. And there are two things you said that I want to highlight. One, you changed a generation. Just because something went on in generations before and there were patterns of behavior does not mean it has to be continued. It can be how we talk to one another. It can be abusive situations, it can be addictions, it can be whatever. But our goal should be not only to make ourselves better with every day as we grow and we grow in Christ, but also to help those around us, our family, our friends, our interactions with others. We should be continually growing to be better. And we don't have to accept negative behavior patterns from previous generations or abusers. And so people, don't be afraid to step out and be the one who makes a change. Don't be afraid. Also something that could make people afraid. You said you had death threats. And I know, especially when there's so much money, when there's so much money involved in human trafficking and people are getting rich off this, and you can sell a drug and you sold the drug, but you sell a person and you can sell them how many times a day, right? If anyone has seen the movie sound of freedom, it really lays it out quite well, too. And I recommend if you haven't seen the movie sound of freedom, please do go. But it just reminds you that people can be sold again and again and again and again throughout a day, and it's so harmful and damaging, and so there's big money involved. This is, I'm sure, why you were getting death threats, because you were interfering with the flow of money for the abusers. And now with the cartels coming in through the border and people from all over the world, especially the big cartels, coming in and owning so much of this, it can be dangerous. But I always say God is bigger.

Andi Buerger:

God is absolutely. He definitely interceded. And that was mostly in the early days. And we got a little wiser every time we had a rescue. We learned a lot from the first one, and we only had a few major, what I would call mission statements. One was love unconditionally, no matter what they look like, sound like what they've been through, what they say, no matter how many unladylike words or whatever, we are going to love them unconditionally. And then we're going to assess their needs and fill them. Food, clothing, jobs, the basics, and then create a plan for the future, which at that time, the future to them was three to six months away. So we would make a three, six and twelve month plan. And if you get here, this is what we'll do. And if you do this, you can earn a donated car that's been given to us. And so it was always about achievement, so that they could build some of their own confidence up and say, well, if I could do that, maybe I could go to college, or maybe I could do this, maybe I could help someone. And that's what's so great. Those lives are precious treasures to the Lord. And we didn't want to waste any of that. I always had a passion from the age of 19 to want to help other kids. I just wasn't prepared. I didn't have the skill sets at that time. But when Ed and I did this, we saw the potential. Like you said, sometimes being a great listener is also one needs. Instead of, well, we'll just pray about it, or, well, if you just do this or do that, and shaking our fingers at someone, remember that anyone who's had even one sexual assault or inappropriate touch can be affected for life. That victim, if they choose to be the survivor and the overcomer that we would hope that they could be or would be, will always have that in their path. It doesn't have to define it, but without each of us interceding and building a community that says, you're welcome, we love you, we want you to be here. We did everything. We did, Linda, as volunteers. No one got paid. We were all volunteers. And so as a community, if you're thinking about, how can you know, sure, you must have a shelter or you must have a youth center or a senior center or someplace in your area that would love to have you as a church family. Nationally, globally, I do believe that God calls us to be Jesus to all people, but especially the broken and the downtrodden and the abused. I want to say one thing, because I feel like maybe someone needs to hear this. A lot of people feel like if someone's a prostitute, that they've chosen that profession. I even have had district attorneys that have said that if you're 18 and older, and when there was a study about a year and a half ago that took a large number of women that were in prostitution. When they interviewed them, they found out that none of them chose that they were recruited as minors, as young as 12, 13, 14 years old. And after six, seven, eight years of it, they simply didn't know either how to get out or that they could get out because they didn't know anyone that would help them or intercede for them. Yeah.

Linda J. Hansen:

It is something that is so heartbreaking to think that they don't even have access to someone else or they don't even know anything different, and that can be better. So prayer is obviously important, but we need to put feet to those prayers as well and be able to tangibly help people and stand in the gap for them. You mentioned that you started voices against trafficking during COVID Tell me, what sparked that? Because you couldn't bring people together in the same way, or what was it that sparked voices against trafficking?

Andi Buerger:

Well, part of it was we had finally had the opportunity to buy a building, and we were going to kind of create a day shelter because we weren't licensed for overnight, but open at 06:00 a.m. And at 10:00 p.m. So that the kids who were on the edge of committing suicide out of desperation, just all the different things that teenagers and young adults go through. And so we were close to getting it open. Then the pandemic happened. Our funding ceased. My husband and I tried to carry the debt as far as we could, but the interest alone on the building was $1,400 a month. So we were not able to do that. And it was heartbreaking. And so I didn't know what God wanted me to do, but he brought a buyer for the building, which was another nonprofit. And I realized that we were really just a placeholder for them and that he was calling me out because he had expanded the ten pegs to an unlimited. I couldn't even see him. And so voices came in the middle of the night. I don't know if any of you out there have had a God nudge, but he's persistent. Okay, what do you want me to do? And all I heard was, more voices. Andy, you need more voices. Yours is powerful, but you need more. And so he gave me the title voices against trafficking. And we launched in 2019 on Capitol Hill due to some amazing partners and people that helped us. And so we basically started our own human rights movement, even though we couldn't literally march on Washington. And that helped us coordinate people from Mexico, Canada, other countries. And we all gathered to say, how can we do this together as a collective voice, because one voice is powerful. But if we all unite, how much stronger will we be?

Linda J. Hansen:

Absolutely. And it's so important. One Americans and people around the world need to be exposed to what is actually happening. The evil needs to be exposed so we understand truth about what's really going on, and then we need to stand up and speak against it and be the change that we need to see. And so you had shared a number with me. You had shared how many children are trafficked, like, every day in America right now.

Andi Buerger:

Every day a child 18 years and under is abducted. That means they're taken or lured into something that looks safe, like a summer job or maybe a modeling or a photography student type thing. Whatever it is, they are not the typical runaway. They actually think that there's going to be something on the other end that is good for them. And it doesn't turn out that way. Even on college campuses right now, the highest risk for trafficking, the most unsafe place is a college campus for a young girl that is 18 to 24 years old, not just for rape and assault, but also trafficking. Young men are also at risk. There are recruiters at our college age that are paid to target college students that could be potentially lucrative for a trafficking ring, invite them to a party or whatever it is, gain their trust momentarily, and then they don't know what happens. And within 48 hours, they could be gone. And so we want to make sure that we are very aware. And to your point, earlier, the average victim, think of a twelve or 13 year old when you hear what I'm going to say, is sold 20 to 25 times a day. Now, most adults can't handle that. And so we wonder why they're drugged, right? Why they're drugged because the predators want to keep them going, keep selling them. And then the few that are actually able to escape, one out of 100 will make it. The average lifespan, once somebody has been trafficked, one time is seven years. So this is serious. Think about the communities that just think that a young person has left the area or it's rebellious and they just want to live somewhere else that often now is not the case. So when they do go missing, we do have 48 hours before they'll probably be taken into prostitution or a trafficking ring.

Linda J. Hansen:

Oh, that's why it's so important to really be aware. And as I have mentioned, I've had on Eric Colton with the organization untrafficked, and the website there is untrafficked.org. And I highly recommend people go there as well. And anytime you hear of a missing child or you think something might not be right, they have special ops that can help track down the location of these missing young people, even adults, but they're really working with that. So it's great to see all of these different organizations rising up. They also have a guardian program where parents, teachers, grandparents, neighbors, friends, anybody can learn how to be a guardian in what to spot. And one of the things I've tried to do in my podcast, and I'm sure you've tried to do, is help employers and business owners understand some of the warning signs. So whether it's maybe an employee that works for them or maybe it's a customer in their store or their restaurant, and they see something and your gut is telling you something's not right, but there's always going to be a little indicator. So can you please help these employers, these employees, and other people in the community know what to look for in their communities so that they can help to rescue people?

Andi Buerger:

Sure. Absolutely. I think we go back to the basics of being aware of who our neighbors are and to think about others before ourselves, or not just ourselves. I think the whole pandemic era, and there's lots of opinions about it, but at the end of the day, it isolated and alienated people from each other. So we need to work a little harder at reengaging in society. So, for example, a very quick example, a big box store. A young woman and her husband were shopping. She's in one aisle, he's a few aisles away. Another man was sort of trolling, as I call it, but was actually just moving an empty basket around the store. And she noticed him, but didn't really think too much about him, but she thought, you know, I'm going to go to another aisle and get some other groceries. And then he ended up being in that same aisle. So this happened a couple of times. So she got a little nervous, and she went out of that aisle and called, yelled for her husband, and he came and she told him what was going on. And then the man that was in that aisle trying to scope out her situation, he went to the front, they went to the front, they paid for the groceries, they left, and he was in the grocery trying to fake checkout, which is like, you have no groceries, but you're pretending like you're running something through the laser. And if her husband hadn't been there, I wonder what would have happened, because she would have been by herself going to her car in a big parking lot. I look at big box stores, look at the back roads. Look at the sides where you may see suv vehicles lined up, as I've seen at big box stores in the back of the parking lot. They're waiting to find somebody vulnerable, not paying attention. With or without a child, it could be, like you said, an adult woman or male. It can be a teenager, a college student, and they will swoop in together and take a human being. So again, first of all, just basic good diligence and awareness. As far as corporations go, I highly encourage some of the training programs. We have. One that's four minutes a day for 90 days. And it actually helps employers, employees, grandma, daycare workers, any human being, any family unit, become not only situationally aware for human trafficking issues, but for crime in general, how to stay safe, how to build a lifestyle of awareness. So when you see something, you say something, or it's like, you know what? We're not going to go into that store. And you don't have to explain to your child necessarily why, but you will have that awareness. I mean, four minutes a day, that's all it takes. So we have other programs, other organizations, I'm sure have things that they can share. The charter members of voices. They offer free training and free speaking virtually. And then if somebody wants them to come, of course. But we're offering everything we can. So you create the awareness because awareness leads to prevention. Prevention is the key to ending, or at least getting as close to ending, human trafficking and sexual exploitation as it can. The other thing employers can do is just open the conversation, use some of the books that are out there. We have a handbook, it's like 20 different chapters, and just start opening conversations. When you're looking at someone in your business, what's their body language like? How do they communicate? Do they give you eye contact? I never gave anybody eye contact because I was afraid that they would find out what was happening, and I knew what would happen if they found out. So look at the eye contact. How is their work performance? Was there a sudden change in it? Just like you look at your children in school, was there a sudden change in behavior, attitude, productivity? Look at that as an employer as well. Don't just presume somebody's lazy or not doing their job. Just kind of see, was there a point where that changed? Does somebody come in looking like they've been battered or been hurt? And have the numbers that we have on our website, voices against trafficking.com, we have helplines and hotlines for suicide prevention, human trafficking prevention, child abuse addictions. All of that is on there. Put that in your phone today. And that's one step forward in prevention. As far as I would get a town hall together, honestly, if you're a business and you're big enough to find a venue, a church, a school, a basketball court, whatever, I would invite other businesses in the community to bring in a speaker and let us do the heavy lifting for you without terrifying everyone. But your parking lot, your bathrooms, your stairwells, your elevators, those are no longer safe places for anyone. It truly is that fast. So I would encourage that. And then for the employees, look out for each other. And there have to be predators if we have victims. So I'm going to let you know. You may be working with some predators, but the difference is if they know company a is really stringent and very aware and has cameras and is educating, they're not going to be as likely to try something because there are more eyes on them.

Linda J. Hansen:

Exactly. Those are such great tips. And please give the website again so people can go and get your resources. They sound excellent. It's just exciting. And employers, employees, schools, everybody can use these resources to help educate people and help prevent and stop the abuse.

Andi Buerger:

Absolutely. Voices against trafficking.com. Voices against trafficking.com. Go to the helplines and hotlines. And then there's other information on that site that you can look at. You could email directly. We try to answer every email that we get. And so if you have questions or you're interested in some of the things I talked about. And then, Linda, one important thing, I think every family unit, whatever that looks like should have is a code word, something generic like let's get pizza or a green know something that if a predator saw the phone, it wouldn't mean anything to them. But your immediate family or trusted family members would have that. And if your child or young adult is uncomfortable or something happens, they can text that and you know immediately they're in trouble. Go get them. Find help, whatever it is. But the second most important thing I encourage people is if your child or young adult had bad judgment. I don't know who hasn't had bad judgment, but if they did, don't judge, don't punish them. Make it safe with you for them to tell you something that could be life impacting, that could lead to a tragedy. If they don't feel they can tell you, you know what, I went out. I know I shouldn't have been with these people, but I really wanted to be popular, but I felt uncomfortable and whatever, right? Any time of day, as tired as we may be as parents, we have to be available to our children so that they will trust us enough to speak to us.

Linda J. Hansen:

So true. And when you're talking about the victims, the victims often feel shame and regret and all these things. And so we need to let them know that we love them, that they are loved, that God forgives all. God is willing to work, all for good. But I would like to also offer that up for the predators. Because oftentimes, not every time, but sometimes the predators are part of the trafficking cycle themselves. They get into being a trafficker and they can't get out, and they feel stuck, and they don't know what else to do. They don't know any other lifestyle. And we want them to be free of that, too. And we want absolutely God forgives everyone. We look at all throughout scripture and through history, people have been used by God who have done horrible things at times. And God can change any life. So in addition to healing and helping the victims, I hope that all of us can be a part in healing and helping predators so that they do not do that anymore. And the know, we have the client list. We think of the Epstein client list. Where is it, right? But also there's the people who pay the money.

Andi Buerger:

That's right.

Linda J. Hansen:

Our everyday neighbors, people we see all the time. And you would never think sometimes that they would be involved in such a thing. And it's heartbreaking. So there's so many broken lives that are involved. And yes, it's a victim, but in a way, everyone is a victim. And society becomes a victim. And so we need to reach out to these individuals and let them understand that Christ can give them a new life. They just turn their life over to him. And he can bring newness and forgiveness and grace and beauty, and he can turn their pain and their past experiences into something beautiful and beneficial for so many others like he has done for you.

Andi Buerger:

Absolutely.

Linda J. Hansen:

Well, thank you so much for this interview. I hope that you have enjoyed it, but also that people go to your website, that they get your resources. And if even one life is saved from an abuse, we're so thankful that we could spend this time together. So please give the website one more time and I'll make sure it's in the show notes as well.

Andi Buerger:

Absolutely. Voices against trafficking.com. We would love to help you, so give us a shout out. Voices against trafficking.com.

Linda J. Hansen:

Okay, thank you so much, Andy. It's just been a pleasure to interview you. Thank you for your bravery and your willingness to let your experiences be a catalyst to helping others.

Andi Buerger:

Well, thank you too, Linda.

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you again for listening to the Prosperity 101® Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a great review. Don't forget to visit Prosperity101.com to access the entire podcast library to order my newest book, Job Security Through Business Prosperity: The Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck or to enroll you or your employees in the Breakroom Economics online course. You can also receive the free e-book, 10 Tips for Helping Employees Understand How Public Policy Affects Their Paychecks. Freedom is never free. Understanding the foundations of prosperity and the policies of prosperity will help you to protect prosperity as you become informed, involved, and impactful. Please contact us today at Prosperity101.com to let us know how we can serve you. Thank you.