Sexual Abuse Survivor Rescues Trafficking Victims

Summary

Podcast Summary: GPS: God. People. Stories.

Episode: Sexual Abuse Survivor Rescues Trafficking Victims
Host: Jim Kirkland, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Guest: Brittany Higgs
Date: July 23, 2025

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Episode Overview

This deeply moving episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. shares the journey of Brittany Higgs, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who has gone on to help victims of human trafficking find restoration and healing. Brittany recounts her early life, the trauma she experienced, how faith and community shaped her, and how she and her family built a groundbreaking safe house ministry—Her Campaign—to restore dignity to survivors. The episode explores the intersection of personal healing, family, and hands-on ministry, featuring transformative stories, faith reflections, and practical insight into fighting trafficking in local communities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Brittany’s Upbringing and Family Influences

• Christian Upbringing in Montana

  • Brittany grew up in a Christian family, strongly influenced by grandparents in ministry ([01:51], [01:58]).
  • Her grandparents, especially on her father's side, broke cycles of abuse and welcomed marginalized people into their home:
    • "There were homeless people walking on the railroad tracks that would just end up in their house and just knew it was a safe place to get a meal to be loved and just to have community." ([02:24])

• Early Acceptance of Faith

  • Accepted Christ at age five, inspired by her grandmother’s testimony of God’s faithfulness despite suffering and loss ([03:08]):
    • "Right there in that upper room in her farmhouse, she prayed the prayer with me and I accepted Jesus into my heart... I just knew that Jesus was real and I wanted to live my life for him." ([03:50])

Brittany’s Battle with Abuse and Shame

• Early Trauma

  • First memory of sexual abuse at age three from a family friend ([04:13]).
  • Pattern of boundary violations and unaddressed trauma in childhood:
    • "I believed this core lie, that this is what my worth is... it is my duty and responsibility to be at service to boys and men that are wanting to use my body for their own pleasure... all I remember is feeling shame." ([04:41])

• Spiraling into Rebellion and Seeking Intimacy

  • Despite understanding of faith, shame led to self-destructive behaviors and a search for intimacy outside of God ([05:30]):
    • "I was drinking, smoking pot, hanging out with people that I shouldn't be, living a promiscuous lifestyle... Trying to get away from God, but really desperately seeking for intimacy that can only come from Him." ([05:30])

• Turning Point with God’s Voice

  • Senior year in high school, Brittany hears an unmistakable directive from God to work at Trails and Ranch—the moment changes her life ([06:14]):
    • "When I heard his voice, my entire world changed." ([06:46])

Marriage and New Vocations

• Meeting Her Husband, Sammy

  • Meets Sammy at summer camp; they marry after seven months ([07:14]).

• Film Business and God’s Redirection

  • The couple starts a successful filmmaking business, believing it to be their lifelong calling, until God calls them into anti-trafficking ministry ([07:38], [08:10]).

Breakthrough into Anti-Trafficking Work

• First Exposure to Trafficking Issues

  • Coffee with a photographer friend who works with rescued women in India/Nepal ignites a passion for the issue:
    • "God, break my heart for what breaks yours. He really will." ([08:41])
    • "The veil has been lifted and I cannot turn away from this issue." ([09:01])

• Calling, Prayer, and Decision

  • After praying with Sammy, the couple feels peace in accepting an invitation from an NGO working to help trafficked women reintegrate ([10:04]).
  • Brittany is soon on a plane to Northern Iraq to document stories of Yazidi and Christian women rescued from ISIS ([10:47]).

• Experiencing the Pain of Survivors

  • Brittany is shaken by the depth of survivors' trauma:
    • "Even though they were on the other side of the rescue, they still wished that they would have just died in captivity... Where is your restoration?" ([11:46], [12:13])

Founding “Her Campaign” Safe House

• Turning Pain into Healing Ministry

  • Realizes the gap between rescue and true restoration; feels called to provide for survivors post-rescue ([12:13]).
  • Goes through personal therapy and healing, believing “we can only serve others well from a healed place” ([12:54]).
  • Receives a vision of a safe house while walking in Montana ([13:31]).

• Training & Launch

  • Mentored by a couple who ran a safe house for 40 years, and trained by an Atlanta-based organization in trauma-informed care ([13:59], [14:44]).

• Running the First Safe House out of Their Home

  • Brittany and Sammy open their home as a safe house (“Her Campaign”), integrating up to three survivors at a time for up to a year ([15:17], [15:34]).

• Family as the Foundation of Healing

  • Healing moments happen in daily family life, not just through formal therapies:
    • "Healing happened around our dining room table and during breakfast... through family and community and being trusted with our children." ([15:38])
  • For most survivors—many formerly in foster care—the experience of genuine, stable family life is transformative ([17:04]):
    • "85% of the women we serve come from the foster care system... being integrated into a family system is just not something they've experienced." ([17:04])

The Power of Innocence and Community

• Impact of Their Young Daughter
  • Brittany’s toddler, Emmy, naturally comforted a survivor with complex PTSD—demonstrating the innate power of unconditional love:
    • "My daughter... would go and crawl up on her lap, hold her face, look in her eyes, and breathe with her until she would calm down." ([18:04])
    • "Even if the survivor was in a different room, Emmy would have a sense of, 'oh my goodness, she's not okay'... and help her to calm down." ([18:51])

Expansion and Program Development

• Emergency Stabilization Programs

  • Collaboration to create an 8-week emergency stabilization program in Billings, MT and Denver, CO ([19:03]):
    • "We really address the person holistically, looking at the body, the spirit and the mind... to stabilize, to get them outside of their trauma so they can make an informed decision for their future." ([19:23])

• Testimony of Rapid Healing

  • Shares a story of a survivor trafficked by her own parents, who, after connecting with Brittany’s team, experienced “unprecedented” transformation ([19:48], [21:59]):
    • "She hears this voice... and the voice told her... 'You made the right decision and only you could have made that decision.' And in that moment she just felt peace wash over her..." ([21:59])

Unwavering Hope and Purpose

• Scriptural Foundation

  • Brittany roots the ministry in Psalm 68 and Isaiah 61, emphasizing God’s design for family and freedom for captives ([17:39], [23:51]).

• Trafficking is Everywhere—Call to Action

  • "Trafficking is everywhere. It is in plain sight. And so this is a huge issue. What we know is that without a safe place to go, a majority of women will go back into human trafficking." ([23:28])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Breaking the Cycle:
  "We're going to follow the Lord and we're going to break this cycle of just abuse and other things that were happening in that family."
  — Brittany Higgs ([01:58])

• On Healing and Restoration:
  "God, there has to be something more after the rescue. There has to be something for them. This cannot be the end of the story. Where is your restoration?"
  — Brittany Higgs ([11:46])

• On Ministry from a Healed Place:
  "If we're constantly trying to serve people out of a place of our own brokenness, then it's only going to hurt the people that we're trying to serve."
  — Brittany Higgs ([12:54])

• On God’s Design for Family:
  "God is a father to the fatherless. He places the lonely in families, and he sets the captives free."
  — Brittany Higgs ([17:39])

• On Turning Trauma into Strength:
  "Wherever your greatest struggle and your greatest oppression is, is actually your greatest strength. The enemy is not creative... what we have to give to other people is what he has forgiven us for."
  — Brittany Higgs ([27:09])

• On the Scope of Trafficking:
  "Trafficking is everywhere. It is in plain sight."
  — Brittany Higgs ([23:28])

• On Human Value and Healing:
  "Getting to see the person she was when she first entered the home and to witness... the joy and the hope and her dreaming again, that unlocking, getting to dream again is just unreal."
  — Brittany Higgs ([23:01])

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Key Timestamps

• 01:13 – Billy Graham on healing through Jesus Christ
• 03:08 – Brittany’s childhood faith experience
• 04:13 – First memory of abuse
• 05:30 – Descent into rebellion and seeking intimacy
• 06:14 – God’s call at end of high school
• 07:14 – Meeting her husband
• 08:41 – Heart breaks for trafficking victims; call to act
• 10:47 – Arriving in Northern Iraq to help rescued women
• 11:46 – Revelation of survivors’ deep trauma
• 13:31 – Vision from God to start a safe house
• 15:17 – Launching “Her Campaign” in their own home
• 17:04 – Family integration creates new hope for survivors
• 18:04 – Daughter Emmy’s role in survivors’ healing
• 19:23 – Emergency stabilization programs
• 21:59 – Survivor hears a voice from God and stays in the program
• 23:28 – The pervasiveness of trafficking in society
• 27:09 – Turning trauma and oppression into strength

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Tone and Closing Reflections

The episode is unflinchingly honest but deeply hopeful, placing faith and community at the center of both Brittany’s personal journey and the ministry she leads. The stories are relayed with empathy and humility, highlighting the pain trafficking survivors face but also celebrating their milestones of healing. The ministry’s scriptural grounding and integration of faith, therapy, and family life testify to the life-changing impact possible through Christ.

“One of the most beautiful things that we can do... is understanding that the things that we've gone through and what he has forgiven us for is actually what we have to give to other people.”
— Brittany Higgs ([27:09])

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Resources and Further Action

• To learn more about finding hope and spiritual healing: findpeacewithgod.net

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This summary provides an in-depth look at the episode’s story of redemption, healing, and practical advocacy against trafficking. It serves as both a recap and a call to compassionate action within listeners’ own communities.

Transcript

[Jim Kirkland]

A quick word before we get into our story that this episode of GPS God People Stories contains material about abuse that might be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

[Brittany Higgs]

I was able to sit on the ground and look at them in their eyes and hear the devastation that had happened to them. Even though they were physically free, even though they were on the other side of the rescue, they still wished that they would have just died in captivity. And that broke me. My heart cry was God, there has to be be something more after the rescue. There has to be something for them. This cannot be the end of the story. Where is your restoration?

[Jim Kirkland]

As Brittany Higgs heart broke for a group of women she met in northern Iraq, she knew there had to be a way to help human trafficking victims complete their journey out of darkness. It's a journey that begins with Brittany's own experience with sexual abuse to where she now helps others live in freedom. Welcome to GPS God People Stories. It's an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I'm Jim Kirkland. Brittany Higgs knows firsthand that true and complete healing only comes from one source. The Bible shares where to find it.

[Billy Graham]

As Billy Graham explains, 700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah, the prophet said with his stripes we are healed. The stripes mean all the physical and spiritual sufferings of Christ.

[Jim Kirkland]

Billy Graham will talk more about the healing offered by Jesus Christ later in this episode. You can discover what it means to be Healed by Jesus Christ's Stripes right now at our website findpeacewithgod.net that's findpeacewithgod dot net and you can always find the link in our show Notes.

[Brittany Higgs]

People.

[Jim Kirkland]

Stories.

Brittany Higgs grew up in Montana with a Christian family who were influenced strongly by her grandparents.

[Brittany Higgs]

I grew up in an incredible family. Both sets of my grandparents were in the ministry in one way shape or another. And my grandparents on my father's side, they were ones that really said we are going to follow the Lord and we're going to break this cycle of just abuse and other things that were happening in that family.

[Jim Kirkland]

Her grandparents on her dad's side constantly open their home to those in need, planting the seeds of ministry in Brittany.

[Brittany Higgs]

From an early age, they constantly were bringing in people to their home. So they had a farmhouse in eastern Montana and it was always a mystery who was going to come to Christmas and Easter. They would just bring in anybody off the street. There were homeless people walking on the railroad tracks that would just end up in their house and just knew it was a safe place to get a meal to be Loved and just to have community. And so that's what I grew up with. It just was normal for us to just come alongside of, you know, the least in our, in our communities, the people who were marginalized and, and just be the hands and feet of Jesus to them.

[Jim Kirkland]

In fact, it was with her grandmother that Brittany made the most important decision of her life.

[Brittany Higgs]

When I was five years old, my grandma was tucking me in late at night. And as she was tucking me in, she started to tell me about Jesus and what Jesus had done for her life. And grandma had experienced so much heartache and abuse when she was little and also had lost almost everybody in her family to death and tragedy. And so for her to talk to me about this, to share the joy and the peace that she experiences in Jesus, I understood that there was something really significant about this. And as she was telling me that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and that he wanted to come and be my savior. So something just clicked within my heart and I told her, I want to know Jesus, I want him to be my savior. So right there in that upper room in her farmhouse, she prayed the prayer with me and I accepted Jesus into my heart. And truly at that age, I just knew that Jesus was real and I wanted to live my life for him.

[Jim Kirkland]

Even though Britney grew up in a Christ centered home, she still fell victim to darkness at an early age.

[Brittany Higgs]

The earliest memory that I have of some sexual abuse was when I was 3 years old and it was at the hands of a family friend. And then truly I think when that seed gets planted, there's something in the spirit too and it kind of just brings more people that are predators to your door. Like I don't know how else to explain it.

[Jim Kirkland]

Sadly, this wasn't the only instance of abuse Brittany experienced. As she just hinted other predators would.

[Brittany Higgs]

Enter her life from there. I just kind of had these experiences growing up, not necessarily sexual abuse, but just boys doing things that I clearly had said no. And yet it just was something that kept happening in my life. And so I believed this core lie, that this is what my worth is, that men expect one thing and that it is my duty and responsibility to be at service to boys and men that are wanting to use my body for their own pleasure. But as a little girl, all I remember is feeling shame. I just felt that something wasn't right. Nobody had talked to me about that, nobody had told me that that was wrong.

[Jim Kirkland]

That pattern of abuse and those feelings of shame affected Britney's outlook on life. Beginning a pattern of Self destruction and rebellion against God.

[Brittany Higgs]

I always had this understanding of what was truth and what was right and what was the life I was supposed to be living. But. But at the same time, it wasn't personal and it wasn't relational. And I still was living in so much shame and guilt from some of the stuff that had happened to me when I was little. And from that shame and guilt, the overflow of that was a life of just running away from him. I was drinking, smoking pot, you know, hanging out with people that I shouldn't be, living kind of a promiscuous lifestyle. And that was just what I was doing. Trying to get away from God, but really desperately seeking for intimacy that can only come from Him.

[Jim Kirkland]

Finally, when Brittany was a senior in high school, God got her attention.

[Brittany Higgs]

I was about to graduate high school, sitting in church one Sunday, not paying attention. And out of nowhere, the first time ever, I heard the voice of the Lord. And he said, go work at Trails and Ranch, which was a camp that I had grown up going to. That wasn't like a very significant thing that he said, but it was just hearing the voice of God. And even though I was not walking with him, even though I wasn't living for him, I wasn't even seeking him out. And yet he came to me in that moment and in that. When I heard his voice, my entire world changed.

[Jim Kirkland]

Something in Brittany broke. She began to weep.

[Brittany Higgs]

After church, I told my mom, I need to go and work at this camp. And she just knew the life I was living. And she said, oh, sweetie, I don't think they want you there. But I just packed up my bags right after I graduate, drove my car up to Montana and ended up working at this camp.

[Jim Kirkland]

That camp was where she met her husband, Sammy.

[Brittany Higgs]

He was one of the very first people I met. We missed took when we were supposed to be there. And so we got there a week before any of the other counselors. They didn't know what to do with us, so they put us on a whole bunch of work projects and we just talked for a week and really got to know each other. And the rest is history.

[Jim Kirkland]

After dating for seven months, Britney and Sammy got married. Soon after that, they started their own photography business together.

[Brittany Higgs]

After college, we really were loving film and photography, so we ended up creating a film company with another partner and really were passionate about storytelling. We were partnering with marketing firms and doing short documentaries and just getting really involved in the film world. We absolutely loved it. We honestly thought that's what we were going to do forever. And we were super content with where we were at in life. And then that is when God stepped in and completely changed the trajectory of what we were doing.

[Jim Kirkland]

The jumping off point for that was through a contact Brittany and Sammy had in their own local network of contacts.

[Brittany Higgs]

Through that, we met a photographer who was taking trips over to India, Nepal, and working with a safe house over there that was helping to rescue women and children, children that were being sex trafficked through brothels. When she came back from that, I asked her out to coffee and I said, tell me about what you just did. Like, I want to learn more about this.

[Jim Kirkland]

Britney's heart broke as she listened to the stories the photographer shared.

[Brittany Higgs]

I think this message of God, break my heart for what breaks yours. He really will. He really will break your heart for that. But what's interesting is I believe that before the beginning of time, God has created and set into motion the destiny and the plans and purposes that are before us to really carry out his will on this earth. And so in that moment where my heart was completely broken, all I understood was I will never be the same. The veil has been lifted and I cannot turn away from this issue.

[Jim Kirkland]

After that day in the coffee shop, Brittany began to pray with Sammy for God to show them how they could help with the issue of human trafficking. The answer came in the form of an NGO or non governmental organization who was visiting the Higgses area in Montana. The NGO shared they were going overseas to war torn areas to help trafficked women reintegrate back into their families.

[Brittany Higgs]

They didn't share where they were going, but there was something about that that made me feel like, gosh, I think I'm supposed to be involved in some way. So afterwards I went up and said, hey, if you ever need, you know, a documentary filmmaker, I would love to come and help this story and try to gain more support from churches.

[Jim Kirkland]

It wasn't long before Brittany received an email from the NGO about an opportunity to go with them overseas.

[Brittany Higgs]

I was just floored. I showed my husband and we immediately hit our knees and our prayer was, God, if this is you, we are all in. But if it's not you, we don't want any part. So please just make it abundantly clear what we're supposed to do. And we both felt peace just rush over us. And so I replied yes to that email. And then I got a phone call later that afternoon that said, hey, we're actually going to northern Iraq. There are Yazidi and Christian women that are being sex trafficked through ISIS ranks. And we are going over to come alongside local militia that are helping rescue these women and placing them back into their families in IDP camps.

[Jim Kirkland]

Brittany was on a plane just two weeks later to meet these women in the idp, or internally displaced people camps. It was a dangerous time to be in Iraq. ISIS had hit a large city called Mosul, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.

[Brittany Higgs]

These are people who were all classes, whether that's middle class to lower class to upper class. Everybody had lost their homes and had ran for safety, carrying just what they could on their backs and trying to escape what ISIS was doing to their cities. And so you're going into these IDP camps, and people who had homes, had careers, they were doctors, they were lawyers, they were teachers. All of a sudden, everything was stripped away from them. And so you're walking into these camps and you just feel devastation.

[Jim Kirkland]

One portion of the trip stood out. It was when Brittany documented stories from a group of women and girls who had just been rescued from isis.

[Brittany Higgs]

I was able to sit on the ground and look at them in their eyes and hear the devastation that had happened to them. Even though they were physically free, even though they were on the other side of the rescue, they still wished that they would have just died in captivity. And that broke me. My heart cry was, God, there has to be something more after the rescue. There has to be something for them. This cannot be the end of the story. Where is your restoration?

[Jim Kirkland]

But Brittany and Sammy had not at all been expecting to or even thinking about starting a nonprofit.

[Brittany Higgs]

We did not think that that was going to be a part of our story again. We absolutely loved our life. We lived in our first home we had bought. We had two small children, and we were doing our film company. And really, it was starting to be super successful, and we were very content with where we were at. But after this trip to Iraq and coming back from that, it broke both of our hearts, and we just knew that we were being called into something greater than ourselves.

[Jim Kirkland]

First, though, Brittany and Sammy prepared their hearts and minds for the journey ahead. Brittany needed to work through the trauma.

[Brittany Higgs]

Of her past, through therapy, through the grace of God, I started to unravel these pieces and start to really see who I was as a daughter and be able to stand in what that was instead of the brokenness that I had experienced. If we're constantly trying to serve people out of a place of our own brokenness, then it's only going to hurt the people that we're trying to serve. So God took us through like a two Year healing journey. And then in that, we were walking the hills in eastern Montana, and I just had a vision from the Lord and in my head, I had this picture of a safe house and just knew that it was something we were supposed to do.

[Jim Kirkland]

Brittany stopped in her tracks and turned to Sammy. She told him she felt God leading her to start a safe house, but she had no idea how to do that in the US we had heard.

[Brittany Higgs]

About it overseas, but just knew that it was something we needed to do. And I do feel like when the Lord gives you a vision and he plants that seed in your life again, kind of that spiritual attraction that happens after that, it really was miraculous.

[Jim Kirkland]

Brittany and Sammy got connected to Rick and Pat Freeland, a couple that had been running a safe house under the radar in Montana for over 40 years.

[Brittany Higgs]

We shared the vision of, hey, we're going to start a safe house. But in my husband and I's mind, we were going to start it and find the people to run it. We weren't going to do that. We were a young millennial couple with two small children. There's no way that we're, we're doing this. And as we kept telling him, Rick kept correcting my husband and saying, no, when you live in the house. And Sammy would be like, no, no, no, no, we're, we're not living in the house. But finally, after like five times, my husband stopped correcting Rick and just kind of listened.

[Jim Kirkland]

On the way home from their visit, Sammy looked at Brittany and asked, are we the host family?

[Brittany Higgs]

I told him, I said, I think we're the host family. So we then did a mentorship under another incredible organization out of Atlanta, Georgia that has been doing phenomenal residential care for survivors of human trafficking for 25 plus years. And we did their trauma informed training, and they really helped us set up everything.

[Jim Kirkland]

It took Brittany and Sammy almost three years to develop their nonprofit while starting the first safe house out of their own home. They named it her campaign.

[Brittany Higgs]

We just had a home with a mother in law suite, and we would integrate survivors into our home, into our family, and provide those wraparound resources. So we did that for three and a half years and had three women at a time live with us for up to a year.

[Jim Kirkland]

In all, 10 women came to live with the Higgs's family in those three and a half years.

[Brittany Higgs]

In the beginning days, when we were integrating survivors into our home, it really was a sweet time. We saw healing happen around our dining room table and during breakfast. We saw healing happen when these women were holding Our babies and going on family vacations with us. They really were a part of our everyday life while also doing these therapies and these therapeutic modalities to help them, you know, heal from what they had just experienced. But it was through family and community and being integrated and being trusted with our children that really we saw just something start to grow and flourish and come to life in these women. But we really did. Every day with these women, we would wake up in the morning and just like we do programs in our home, each hour was scheduled with different things to provide some structure, but we just would come alongside of them in that and, you know, do Bible studies, have breakfast, do dinners, where we're just talking about our highs and our lows like a lot of families do, and just modeling that to them and then watching them start to do that in their own families.

[Jim Kirkland]

Brittany and Sammy recognized that while different forms of therapy helped the abuse survivors heal, it was the Higgs's integrated family and community that helped them grow and flourish.

[Brittany Higgs]

One of the things that they would tell us when we would ask them, you know, what was the most impactful thing about you coming to stay with us? It was always getting to be integrated into a family, to see the way that Sammy loves me, to see the way that we raise our kids. 85% of the women that we serve come from the foster care system at one point in time in their life. So seeing a family and being integrated into a family system is just not something that they've experienced or that they're used to.

[Jim Kirkland]

Brittany truly believes the program goes back to God's design for the family.

[Brittany Higgs]

He says in Psalm 68 that God is a father to the fatherless. He places the lonely in families, and he sets the captives free. And we do feel like there's this beautiful design that he within the family to help people heal and grow and find their purpose.

[Jim Kirkland]

One of the most beautiful parts of having these women in their home was seeing them interact with their young children and how God has even equipped their kids to be a part of the ministry.

[Brittany Higgs]

When my daughter was one and a half years old and we were living in the safe house, we had three women with us at the time. And one of those women really dealed with complex ptsd. It was one of the toughest cases that we had seen, and any noise in the house would set her off in a panic attack. We would use our trauma informed, you know, de escalation tools to try to help her calm down, and nothing really worked. But my daughter, who was one and A half at the time. Every time she would have a panic attack, would go and crawl up on her lap, hold her face, look in her eyes, and breathe with her until she would calm down. We never taught our daughter how to do that. It was just something that God, like was using and inherently gave her to help the survivor.

[Jim Kirkland]

The Higgs's daughter, Emmy, comforted the abuse survivor over 20 times during her stay.

[Brittany Higgs]

Even if the survivor was in a different room, Emmy would have a sense of, oh my goodness, she's not okay. So she would go, oh, and say her name, run to the other room, sit on her lap and help her to calm down.

[Jim Kirkland]

As the Higgs hosted survivors like this woman with complex ptsd, they realized there was another need to be met. They partnered with several other organizations to build out an emergency stabilization program in Billings, Montana and Denver, Colorado, all to help survivors at the beginning stage of exiting trafficking.

[Brittany Higgs]

And that's an eight week program that is more clinical in nature. We really address the person holistically, looking at the body, the spirit and the mind, and how can we come alongside of them to stabilize, to get them outside of their trauma so they can make an informed decision for their future and then we help them get there to their long term goals.

[Jim Kirkland]

They've already seen God work through the program to change lives.

[Brittany Higgs]

We recently had a survivor graduate from our Denver campus, and she grew up being trafficked by her parents and later in life actually testified against them and were able to have them go to prison for the things that they had done to her and her siblings growing up. But after experiencing that, she just naturally went back into the life of exploitation and human trafficking. And up until a few months ago, she was still living in that lifestyle.

[Jim Kirkland]

A hotline advocate reached out through one of the survivor's online escort ads and told her, hey, if you're ready to get out, we're here for you. The survivor remembered that advocate and called them back. And the advocate in turn called Brittany's team.

[Brittany Higgs]

And within a few hours, she was on a bus to Denver to our emergency stabilization program. She went from truly sleeping in a freezer in an abandoned building with this trafficker to on a bus to a recovery program where she was met with love and compassion by our staff and just this therapeutic process to help her stabilize mind, body and spirit. And as she came to us, she wanted this so badly. We saw her work so hard for her own healing every single day. And I think that's a huge part of this, is you receive to the level that you are putting in when it comes to this healing process, healing is so difficult for all of us. I mean, we have self protection and we want to just avoid it at all costs because there's this lie that really if I go through this painful thing, it's going to kill me. But what we saw is she was taking every single day and stepping into it. Day three, she was really starting to experience some fear and wondering if she had made the right decision.

[Jim Kirkland]

The abuse survivor thought since she had made more than a few bad decisions, she had again made a wrong one. So she went outside to smoke a cigarette and come up with a plan to leave the program. But someone stopped her.

[Brittany Higgs]

She hears this voice and she said she actually had to turn around to look because it was audible. And the voice told her a man's voice said, you made the right decision and only you could have made that decision. And in that moment she just felt peace wash over her and the desire to leave completely went away. She ran into the house and she started yelling, I'm staying, I'm staying. And the whole program staff was like, we had no idea you were leaving. But she chose to stay. And what we've heard from the therapists that have worked for with her over that eight week period was this is healing that is unprecedented. We have not seen a survivor really heal and stabilize this quickly in this time and I think she's going to change the world.

[Jim Kirkland]

After graduating from the eight week program, the survivor stepped into a long term program that will give her job skills training and equip her for the future.

[Brittany Higgs]

Getting to see the person she was when she first entered the home and to witness the healing journey and what God has done in her life over that eight week period. And the joy and the hope and her dreaming again, that unlocking, getting to dream again is just unreal. It's unlike anything else.

[Jim Kirkland]

Stories like that motivate Brittany and Sammy to keep rescuing more women.

[Brittany Higgs]

Human trafficking is something that touches our churches, our schools, our communities. It doesn't matter if it's urban or it's rural. Trafficking is everywhere. It is in plain sight. And so this is a huge issue. What we know is that without a safe place to go, a majority of women will go back into human trafficking.

[Jim Kirkland]

For the Higgs, their anti trafficking mission goes Back to Isaiah 61, which says, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

[Brittany Higgs]

This is what we are here for, is to be hope for the hopeless and to bring salvation to those that need it the most.

[Jim Kirkland]

The Higs serve in anti trafficking work to prepare a place where heaven can touch earth. They want the survivors of sexual abuse to find their freedom in Christ. If you've been listening and want to know more about placing your hope in Jesus Christ, would you go to find peace with God?

Once you're there, click where it says begin a relationship with Jesus. That's Find peace with God dot net. You can also find this link in our show notes. Stick around because in just a minute you're going to hear one significant way that God has worked in Brittany's life. You're listening to GPS God People Stories, a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

[Billy Graham]

700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah, the prophet said, with his stripes, we are healed. Billy Graham the stripes mean all the physical and spiritual sufferings of Christ. In him and him alone can we find the strength, the stability and the certainty for tomorrow? Christ alone can bring truth to the mind, cleansing to the heart and power to the will. Christ died as the representative of guilty men. It is in his death that we find the healing of the nations. By his stripes, all of our powers are brought to bear to resist the disease of sin. By his stripes, a man is restored to fellowship with God. By the stripes of Christ, there is power to overcome sin daily in your life. We proclaim that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he rose again according to the scriptures. This is the only way that any man can ever be saved. This is the only solution any man has for the burning problems and questions which face him today. Internally and externally, you can receive Christ as your Savior today. Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. By his stripes are we healed.

[Jim Kirkland]

You can find true spiritual healing today. In fact, right now. Remember the website we gave just a moment ago? It's findpeacewithgod.net and when you go there, look for begin a relationship with Jesus. The address once again is findpeacewithgod.net and if you aren't able to remember that or jot that down, no problem, go to our show notes. You'll always find the link there. Our guest on this episode of GPS is Brittany Higgs. She and her husband Sammy show survivors of abuse and human trafficking how to find complete healing through Jesus Christ on her path to helping and teaching others. God has worked powerfully in Brittany's own life.

[Brittany Higgs]

I think one significant way that God has worked in my life, and I see this in, in the lives of the women that we get to serve as well, is that wherever your greatest struggle and your greatest oppression is, is actually your greatest strength. The enemy is not creative. He actually can only morph what the Lord has set into existence before the beginning of time. The plans and purposes for each of us has been set into motion. The enemy tries to come in and to destroy that before it happens. And so I think for me, when you're looking at my past and the things that I have experienced, I know now that it is actually my greatest strength to and in my ministry is to help women step into freedom and, and to know that they are chosen daughters of the King of kings and to step into their full destiny no matter what they've gone through. And so I think, you know, one of the most beautiful things that we can do in this journey in life and, and with the Lord is just understanding that the things that we've gone through and what he has forgiven us for is actually what we have to give to other people.

[Jim Kirkland]

Brittany has had a powerful story and we are very thankful that she joined us on this episode. She is the CEO and founder of her campaign, an anti sex trafficking organization that provides healing between the gap of rescue and freedom. She's also a mom to four children and wife to Sammy. If you're ready to listen to more God stories, we have them. Simply subscribe to GPS on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. We post a new episode every two weeks. I'm Jim Kirkland. This is GPS God People Stories. That's an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Always good news.

Sam.