#RuntoStopIt: How This Church Is Fighting Darkness in the Heartland

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It may seem hard to believe, but there are some 40 million victims of human trafficking in the world. An estimated 12 million of them are children.

It's a huge problem both overseas and in the United States. 

The harsh reality that trafficking happens in his home of Kansas City, Missouri, forced Pastor Phillip O'Reilly of the Rock of KC Church to take action.

O'Reilly's answer to the problem came in the form of a campaign called, "Run to Stop It."  The annual event encourages his church to use the city's 5K and half marathons as a way to spread awareness about sex trafficking and to raise money to help fight it.

"We've got people who were never runners before that are now running," he told CBN News. "We have one guy that didn't run and now he's doing, like, 30 mile runs and longer. It's pretty amazing."

Funding to Stop Human Trafficking

What is also impressive is the amount of money the church has been able to donate to the cause.

Last year it gave a check for $100,000 to Exodus Cry a non-profit organization committed to abolishing slavery through Christ-centered prevention, intervention, and holistic restoration.

"We used to say there's 27 million people in slavery today," Exodus Cry President Benjamin Nolot said. "A recent statistic came out and said well it's actually more like 46 million and so the numbers -- who can know? And so there's a cultural phenomenon."

Nolot said that traffickers use metro areas like Kansas City as major hubs for their operations.

"There was a trafficking ring busted right here in our backyard," he explained.

"Sixteen massage parlors were shut down because it was a Chinese trafficking ring bringing girls through. So there are all kinds of different expressions of trafficking happening right here in the midst of the Bible Belt, amongst the mega churches and everything else."

Exodus Cry also infiltrates sex clubs, massage parlors, and other places to find victims being held in bondage. 

Motivation to Run

That is the reason The Rock of KC and its members run the marathon.

"When I run I often think about what I'm running for," church member Jennifer Judd said. "It gives you motivation."

"It's not just, hey, let's stop it -- okay, now you're free. But it's stop it then, hey, let's work the inside issues out, let's restore you to your God-given gifts in life," curch member Dan Savage said.

Jessica Geran, also of the Rock of KC Church, said the race is "grueling."

"I've done the half marathon so the 13 miles and the training for it just is terrible when you're running down the road and you really want to stop," Geran said. "But that's what I think about, is I'm not going through half the amount of pain that these girls are probably going through right now."

'Not in Our City. Nation. World'

Meanwhile, Nolot is grateful for the support of O'Reilly and The Rock of KC. But he said that more than one church needs to join the fight. 

"I just thank God for the Rock of KC Church because they've been awakened to this," he said. "They see it and they're like, 'We can't just do nothing about this.'"

"And they really put all their chips in, so to speak, to really commit themselves to make a difference in this issue and that's so huge," he continued. "We need the local church to step (up) like that for us to be able to eradicate this injustice."

O'Reilly agreed.

"We've gotta put a stop to this, we've got to say enough," he said. "We've got to say not in our city, not in our nation, not in our world. We've got to stand up and tell the darkness, 'You aren't going to keep doing this without a fight.'"