Making Hope Known

By Jeff Smith

When Paige K. began her freshman year at Moody Bible Institute, she was admittedly a blank slate. She had no idea about God’s calling on her life or what passions He had planted in her heart for future ministry.

Nearly two years later, Paige has blossomed so much spiritually, academically, and personally that she barely recognizes the 18-year-old girl who timidly set foot on Moody’s Chicago undergraduate campus for the first time in August of 2020.

“These past two years have just been the biggest years of spiritual growth in my life,” Paige said. “I cannot thank Moody enough for what it's done for me with the relationships that I've made, the knowledge that I've gained from my studies about the Lord, the amount of growth that I've had in my personal devotion to Him, and just being able to have such world-class faculty here that really care about me. I understand my future career and my dreams that I want to follow from the Lord as well.”

Photo caption: human trafficking and sex trafficking are two of the largest criminal industries in the world, ensnaring its victims in modern-day slavery.

Called to share Christ in a global crisis

One of Paige’s most important discoveries since enrolling at Moody has been God’s direction for her future vocational ministry. Paige chose Moody’s Human Services program as her major in order to follow a career path helping victims of human trafficking (forced labor) and particularly sex trafficking (forced sexual slavery).

“I have really felt a strong calling to work with victims of sex trafficking and human trafficking,” Paige said. “I feel like that pursuit is from the Lord, and I really see a big calling to work with victims, especially women and teen girls and also children, of sex trafficking and human trafficking. I want to show them that they are so much more than what they are told there, especially as image bearers of God.”

Helping girls and women escape trafficking

Paige is so troubled by the shocking rise in sex trafficking in the US and overseas that she wants to make the hope of Christ known to women and children ensnared in this global crisis. She is committed to helping girls and young women escape sex trafficking, where force, fraud, or coercion are used to trap victims into sexual slavery or commercial sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking has exploded into one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing criminal enterprises.

“This has been such a huge thing on my heart and such a huge pain that I see in the world,” Paige said. “There is such darkness that these people are left in, especially these young children and teenagers. I just want to be able to shed a light on that as a child of God and fully pursue Him and glorify Him through that. Through being here at Moody, I see myself excelling in my personal growth to be able to evangelize and work with victims of sex trafficking and human trafficking.”

Through her education and training at Moody, Paige has learned how our world yearns for the hope only Jesus Christ can provide.