“It's more widespread than most people realize. It happens in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. But the encouraging part is that God is raising up his church everyday believers to answer this issue in their own communities.”
Britney Higgs is one determined woman, and a determined follower of Jesus Christ. On foot, she traveled nearly 600 miles from Billings, Montana, to Denver to raise awareness and support for the fight against human trafficking - and the important need to care for those who have been trafficked.
“Walking that route was significant on many levels. That interstate corridor is a well-known trafficking route. Traffickers exploit highways and transportation systems for controls, from recruitment to moving victims across state lines, especially in areas like Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, where remote roads and interstates access offer anonymity and opportunity for those who traffic people in darkness. And so, this walk for me wasn't just between two cities. It was to take back ground and prayerfully asking that the Lord would stop the trafficking that is happening between these two areas.”
Britney rates the severity of human trafficking in the U.S. as an eight-out-of-ten (Rather listen? Podcast)
“It's more widespread than most people realize. It happens in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. But the encouraging part is that God is raising up his church everyday believers to answer this issue in their own communities.”
She explains the route she walked and prayed over “is between our two HER Campaign locations, two sanctuaries of healing connected by a road that sadly sees human lives treated like commodities. So, we just made sure that we were walking and partnering with the Lord to say, ‘this will not happen here anymore!’”
Britney is deeply involved in the ‘take back’ process as founder of the HER Campaign, which has created two safe homes, one in Billings, the other in Denver, with plans for another location in the Nashville area. The non-profit provides a critical gap service: emergency stabilization programs that offer survivors immediate safety, medical care, counseling, and holistic support.
“The first thing a survivor experiences in one of our safe homes is safety. Imagine a woman stepping into a home where for the first time in a long time, she has a community that is working towards her safety in the mind, body and spirit to where she can truly rest for the first time… in usually, years. We meet her immediate needs. We provide food, clothing, medical care, and then we surround her with counseling, case management, full body health practices and prayer. We are at the cutting edge of a program that looks at survivors comprehensively providing those medical and clinical and spiritual aspects to really come alongside of her and help her to heal, grow, and find purpose.”
"HER Campaign is my ‘yes’ to him [God] that is creating safe places for women to experience his healing love," Britney explaining the origins and core mission of her organization as a response to a personal call from God.
HER Campaign Mission: Bridging the gap between rescue and freedom
"We do hear that there is an estimated 300,000 children that are trafficked every year in the United States and that is not even hitting the adults that are being trafficked. So, we know that this is a huge issue, but that is one that we are called to come alongside right now."
She highlighted a severe lack of resources in communities, noting there were only about 2,600 beds available nationwide specifically for trafficking survivors.
Combating human trafficking requires collective action and awareness from the entire community, particularly the church, explains Britney.
At HER Campaign safe homes there are numerous success stories. “One mom came to us broken, having been trafficked since she was a teenager. She went through her emergency stabilization program and a drug recovery program and today she's reunited with her children and has stepped into a job she loves. Another woman stabilized in our emergency shelter down in Denver, Colorado, and then she entered into a long-term program and is thriving as she works on healing. Through that continuum of care, we have seen so many women graduate our programs that get married, have children, and build careers they are passionate about. These stories remind us that these women are made in the image of God and that nothing is wasted and he is seeking after each and every one of them to remind them of who they truly are and to help them walk into the destiny that he set before them before the beginning of time.”
In our complete podcast interview with Britney Higgs, she responds to this question from K-LOVE's Richard Hunt:
How do girls and women become involved with trafficking? How does that happen?
“A lot of times it's not what you think it is...” (more in our podcast)
“I am a firm believer that God speaks to us today, whether that is through his word or the way that he speaks to us personally. And since the moment that we started on our own healing journey, God has shown up in the most miraculous ways to help us keep us on this path. And it is in the moments of turmoil when we ask the Lord and we start to doubt God, ‘Did you really ask me to do this?’ I can go back to those pillars of knowing that he spoke in that moment. And it was undeniable. We have seen God provide dollar for dollar what we needed exactly when we needed it. Miraculously, we've had people show up to our doors with checks who have never met us before that knew that because God told them we needed provision for something.
We've had divine appointments with just the right person at just the right moment, and at the very beginning of the HER Campaign, we were walking out in the hills in eastern Montana with our kiddos and out of nowhere I felt like I had this lightning strike in my heart and I got this vision of what a safe house would look like and I just knew that we needed to start it!”
(Richard asks) Going back to the very long walk, the 580 miles, I understand your husband was with you for protection with the RV, but you also had a 'friend' named Freedom?
(Britney) "Yes. Freedom is a miniature Nigerian goat. And when we were sitting down talking about this walk and how to really raise up a nationwide movement to get people's attention, somebody jokingly shot out, 'Hey Brit, I think you should carry a baby goat.' And we've had goats at our residential programs before. I absolutely love goats. We've raised them. And so what became a joke actually became reality or what was a joke became reality. And so yes, I had freedom walk with me. We took major precautions to make sure that she only walked what her little legs could handle during the day, but we trained her to follow me. And I can tell you that she is thriving, she's doing great. Now that the walk is over, she is just grazing and living her best life at her property in Denver."
