Apr 23, 2019
Please note that this episode
discusses the reality of human trafficking, the adult entertainment
industry, and the sex industry. You won’t want to listen to it with
young children.
At the fringes of our culture, there are human beings—people
made in the image of God—living in a darkness that is hard to
imagine. For most of her life, that’s where Mary Francis lived. She
was born in Louisville, the last of 15 children, and she moved from
one poor neighborhood to another as a kid. Her parents split up,
and they passed her back and forth. At fifteen, she went to live
with her father, but she was really alone on the streets,
vulnerable to people who would take advantage of her. That summer,
a man who had originally shown her kindness by showing her
attention and buying her ice cream had his sights on exploiting
her, which he did for many years. This man took her from one
establishment to another, where men used Mary and humiliated
her.
Even when she finally got free of this man, she found herself
trapped in the sex industry, where she stayed for thirty-five
years. She knew nothing else, and had no safety outside of this
man, to whom she returned. Her story is deeply sad, but filled with
profound redemption. Through the kindness of strangers, God drew
Mary to him, and now she uses her story to help others. Usually, we
try to understand someone’s story through a question, but for
today’s episode, I want you to ask yourself the question a stranger
asked Mary - “What can I do to help?"