BRIDGETON – A girl rescued from human trafficking by the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home abandoned her belief in Wicca, a modern pagan religion that often practices witchcraft, and surrendered her life to Christ last month.
“A few weeks ago we admitted a girl into one of our human trafficking rescue units who stated she was Wiccan,” Russell Martin, president of the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, told The Pathway, Oct. 22. “Some of our staff were reluctant that we should bring her into our care, but thankfully we did.
“She would at times try to intimidate the staff with certain statements and actions,” he added, “but the staff prayed for guidance and continued to show her love and concern. Through the work of the Holy Spirit and the staff walking her through the Roman Road, she accepted Christ this past Sunday (Oct. 18).
“She said that it was like a weight had been lifted off her. She threw her ‘Book of Shadows’ in the trash and stated she was through with the life she used to live—the drugs, the violence, the worry.”
Martin also reported that the girl was soon sharing her new-found faith with joy.
“A state licensing worker was on the campus this week doing a routine visit and asked the girls how they were doing,” he said. “This particular child began to share with her by saying something like, ‘You can’t believe what happened to me this past Sunday,’ and began sharing her salvation experience.
“What joy to see the joy and enthusiasm of this new sister in Christ,” Martin added. “ … With all that is going on in the world – the pandemic, storms, the election, etc. – it is good to be reminded that God is still on the throne and is still at work to change the hearts and lives of men, women, boys, and girls and to give hope.”
The Missouri Baptist Children’s Home has three campuses (in Bridgeton, Peculiar, and Mount Vernon), as well as offices in Springfield and Joplin. Services are also provided in southeast Missouri. In addition to its human trafficking rescue program, Missouri Baptist Children’s Home through its affiliates, MBCH Children and Family Ministries and The LIGHT House, provides therapeutic group homes, transitional living services, family foster care, family resource development, treatment family care, pregnancy services, counseling services, women’s ministries, and services to the developmentally disabled.