Colorful History

Saved in America co-founder and current author, pastor and private investigator, Joseph Travers wears many hats in terms of his extension experience. This colorful history has made Travers who he is today and is vital to the ongoing work of our beloved organization Saved in America. Travers truly lives out the verse from Isaiah 6:8, which states “Whom shall I send, And Who will go for Us? Then I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.” This willingness to go where no one else wanted to go, to search in the darkest corners and the most dangerous pathways was what Saved in America was founded on and what it remains to this day, thanks in large part to Joseph Travers. 

It All Started With an Article

Pastor Joseph was reading an article from the Orange County Register on September 21, 2009. The article entitled “Retired Terror Hunters Hope to End Child Sex Slavery” (in foreign countries) brought to mind the recent news Travers had heard about the missing American girl, 17-year-old Brinttanee Drexel. At the time, Brinttanee had not been found but was labeled missing from a hotel in South Carolina where she was vacationing. It was later determined that she had been forcefully taken from the hotel by a gang member and stashed in a house in North Carolina where she was repeatedly, horrifically abused. She was eventually shot and then fed to alligators. 

The convergence of these two stories, the good that was being done overseas finding missing children, and the bad, what was going on here in the United States in his own country, led Travers to consider what he could do. How could he put his own personal history into action for the good? How could he use what was being successfully accomplished overseas to create a United States based organization that was committed to finding lost girls before they became victims of human trafficking? It was this thought process that led to the very beginnings of the now ultra-successful Saved in America.

It Took a Team

It wasn’t Travers alone, though, who was able to create such an organization. Instead, it took a whole team of private investigators who had varying past professional histories, including military specialist training, all to come together for one amazing cause: finding missing American girls before they are trafficked.