Overcomers Series Episode 3 – One Starfish at a Time

“One day an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide.  As he walked, he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean one by one.  Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing.  Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, ‘I’m saving these starfish, sir.’  The old man chuckled aloud, ‘Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you.  What difference can you make?’ The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water, and turning to the man said, ‘It made a difference to that one!’ “

Doing research for this post was an oxymoron of heartbreak and elation. It’s a hard subject to write about and find a way to put a positive spin on it.  But I believe God sees and knows and sends light into the darkest of places on earth.  One such light is Tim Ballard. 

I first learned about human trafficking many years ago through my church.  We had a guest speaker that talked about how prevalent modern day slavery was becoming around the world and how our denomination was working abroad as well as at home in our own country to shed light on it and be part of a solution.  But even then, 20 some years ago, it was so big.  What our denomination was trying to do was just a drop in a giant ocean.  There were many new organizations cropping up to try to make a difference.  It was hard to feel like much could be done individually to help stem the tide and bring hope. That day my husband and I signed up to sponsor a five-year-old boy in India through our denomination’s worldwide child sponsorship program.  It wasn’t much, but it felt like something. 

Enter Tim Ballard.  To understand his passion and heart, you need to watch the documentary “Operation Toussaint” on YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q8dYM90PJA&t=10s  I was moved to tears more than once while watching this riveting story.  Tim is a former police officer who was working in Homeland Security here in the States.  The documentary tells how the work he did uncovering the sex trade industry fueled his passion to leave his job so he would not be caged by regulations and limitations of a government position.  He came to create Operation Underground Railroad, an organization whose sole purpose is to combat the evil of human trafficking wherever it is in the world. 

Tim is a naturally inspiring man.  When you listen to him speak, his passion as well as compassion are clearly visible.  He has a way of getting people on board with his mission, which is to rescue enslaved people, particularly children, and bring the traffickers to justice.  He and his team, which includes people from all walks of life, don’t sit in a board room trying to figure out how to make the mission work, they go on the front lines where the slave trade thrives.  They go to the darkest, ugliest, most horrific and dangerous places to liberate the innocents who are held against their will and forced to perform unspeakable acts.  They don’t consider one child at a time too few to rescue.

The documentary does an amazing job of confronting the vast human trafficking problem and helps us begin to understand the magnitude and what must be done to make inroads.  Tim Ballard is willing to tackle it one country, one city, one neighborhood, one child at a time. It feels so big. It feels so insurmountable.  But in this huge, dark hellhole that seems impossible to fill, there is Tim Ballard.  Tim inspires people to go with him to rescue one starfish at a time, and Tim Ballard inspires me.