After years spent focusing on trafficking overseas, Sarah is glad of the opportunity to focus more on what is happening in New Zealand and the Pacific region.
She finds the biggest hurdle when talking with churches here is disbelief, with the typical response being “Slavery is an overseas problem. Surely not here?”
Sarah says slavery is more widespread in New Zealand than we would like to think, with an estimated 8000 people trapped in slavery here. “Most of the trafficking and slavery in New Zealand involves forced labour, people being tricked into accepting jobs that don’t exist. They are forced to pay recruiters large sums of money to get the (false) job and then find out they have huge debts to repay.” With little or no income, Sarah says they are kept in slave-like conditions and forced to endure horrific treatment.
She knows situations where individuals have escaped the building they were kept in and made their way to places of worship. At a recent Government “Forum on Trafficking in Persons”, Sarah heard examples of the crucial role churches can play in helping victims of trafficking and slavery. “In most cases victims are too scared to go to the police, or they don’t know where to get help. But they know churches are places of safety and increasingly are turning up on church doorsteps asking for help. We need to know how to respond.”
The Oceania Freedom Network (OFN) is developing training to help churches know what to do. It covers learning about types of trafficking in New Zealand, what to look for and what to do if you suspect it is happening or someone comes to your church for help. “Part of the challenge we have in New Zealand is that we don’t have a system in place to make it easy for victims of trafficking and slavery to access help, yet more and more cases are being reported,” Sarah says, “It is vitally important that we understand this IS happening here, and that the church has a crucial role to play.”
— David Blaker & Sarah Scott Webb

Pray:
Sarah suggests churches start with prayer — for those involved in trafficking and slavery in New Zealand, for those working and serving in anti-trafficking organisations here, and for the Lord to reveal how you (and your church) can respond. OFN has a quarterly prayer guide specifically for this region, available by emailing oceania@wfn.worldea.org You can also email to find out more about how your church can participate in the training being developed.
• For the Lord to continue to open doors for Sarah to speak with the right people at the right time (Rev 3:7-8)
• For the Lord’s protection over Sarah and her family as she establishes the Oceania Freedom
Network
• For the Lord to raise up others to help grow the vision of the church in NZ (and the Pacific).
Light it up with a desire to care for the vulnerable and free the oppressed.