For many Americans, human trafficking seems like a distant problem in a distant place, something found in a red-light district in India or a brothel in Thailand.

In the mid-1990s, Michael and Denise Bartel shared a similar perspective. While directing Chi Alpha and working with international students at Purdue University, the couple first became aware of the slavery issues abroad. 

“It really became something we thought we needed to jump in with, but we didn’t know how to do that or where to do it,” Michael and Denise say. “There weren’t a whole lot of organizations out there at the time.”

In 2004, the Bartels began working with human trafficking victims as Assemblies of God missionary associates to southern Asia. A few years later, the birth of the couple’s second child brought them back to the States. 

Now, their eyes opened to a need they hadn’t noticed before. Girls were being prostituted at American truck stops and hotels. Young teenagers were vanishing in American cities and never being found.

“We moved back and saw the significant amount of vulnerable kids here in the United States who were being exploited,” Michael says. “Looking back now, I can see moments in my life where this issue intersected with my life domestically, and I didn’t recognize it.”

“The Church is God’s chosen agency to reach the world”

The Bartels felt the call to connect the Church to this need. In 2007, they launched F.R.E.E. International, a U.S. Missions-approved nonprofit with a mission to find and reach U.S. victims of human trafficking, both labor and sex, until exploitation no longer exists.  

Based near Las Vegas, Nevada, today the organization partners with local, state and national government officials, nonprofit organizations and local churches in more than 20 states across the country. Through its programs, F.R.E.E. International mobilizes people of faith to combat trafficking through prevention, rescue and restoration in their communities.

“The Church is God’s chosen agency to reach the world,” the Bartels say. “We don’t run out there saying, ‘Give us money, we’ll go do the work, and then pat us on the back,’ we go out there and work strategically with the local church to apply those resources.”

At the organization’s core are the four programs that spell the acronym F.R.E.E.: Find, Restore, Embrace and Empower. Each program includes several ministries and partnerships.

“Find” identifies victims of human trafficking through relationships with local law enforcement, government and social services. “Find” also includes prevention efforts, like school assemblies, that educate children and teens before they become vulnerable.  

“Restore” emphasizes not only rescuing victims of human trafficking but also putting them on the track to healing. “Embrace” then provides for their immediate needs, and “Empower” helps them build their futures through finding scholarships for college, locating jobs and housing and connecting to a local church.

Over the years, the organization has developed close relationships with the FBI and social services. It has partnered with Miami University School of Law to begin the first human-trafficking-specific legal fellowship in the United States. Twice, Michael has spoken in front of the National Association of Attorneys General. 

Since 2010, F.R.E.E. International has also collaborated with the Klass Kids Foundation and Global Child Rescue to plan Super Bowl outreaches. In its first year, these partners mobilized the college and career group at First Assembly of God in Fort Myers, Florida, for a three-day recovery effort. Miami Vice credited the group that year with reaching three precincts-worth of missing kids, and seven trafficking victims were recovered through that effort.

Bartel says he is excited about the difference F.R.E.E. International is making. 

“We lead where we need to lead, we serve where we need to serve, and in all that, we see the effectiveness of setting the table for those who are part of the faith community for effectiveness,” Bartel says. “God has just given us great favor.”

This article was adapted with permission from Vital.