Pastor's Calling

Pastor Joseph Travers, founder and executive director of Saved in America, put his former law enforcement to work when fulfilling a new calling. Travers' nearly 40 years of experience in the criminal justice system, equipped him to handle the job of fighting back against the criminal network of human trafficking. His heart as a pastor enabled him to see this endeavor as a mission, or as a ministry calling on his life. Travers explains that founding Saved in America was the fulfillment of a ministry calling. 

Why There is a Need?

As with many men of God, there is often a very real need present that promotes the action or the formation of a worthy organization. It is the same with Saved in America as it was founded by Travers and others as a way to combat the horrendous growth of the human trafficking industry, a crime network that victimizes missing and exploited children, which incidentally number 300,000 at any given time within the United States. Of that 300,000, an estimated 40% will be trafficked, which is a deeply disturbing reality. 

Travers Advice to Parents

In addition to setting up a not-for-profit organization with the goal of tracking down and finding missing kids and rescuing them from human trafficking, Saved in America and Travers also want to educate parents on how to prevent such situations in the first place by being involved with their kids’ lives. Travers explains that many of today’s predators are using social media networks to lure their victims to them. In many cases, there is no true “snatching” or “kidnapping.” Instead, kids are coerced through the process of grooming, often via social media interactions, until they run away from home or their foster home on their own. Then, they are ripe for the picking and without any protection against the well-trained, extremely well-funded and highly skilled criminal networks that make up human trafficking rings. 

It’s Not Just One Evil

Today’s human trafficking rings are made up of a triad of evil. This group of three consists of prison gangs, street gangs, and drug cartels. This is the evil that makes up human trafficking. In fact, today’s human trafficking is very much tied to drug dealing. So much so that virtually any drug dealer is also a dealer of people, or a human trafficker.