“I hear their cries, and I need your life…”

Michael and Carol Hart first heard about human trafficking in 2002. “A visiting missionary spoke at our church and shared that people in Thailand are buying and selling children for sex and labor,” shared Carol Hart, ZOE Founder, and President. “We learned that day that a person can get a little boy and little girl MENU on the street corner and choose who they want for the night. I felt like I screamed out loud! I was so shocked, and I continued to scream inside as I heard that children were being enslaved in my generation. I couldn’t believe it!”

When Carol was a young child, her parents shared with her and her siblings about slavery happening in the U.S. “I remember watching the mini-series Roots and feeling crazy mad at that part of our history,” shared Carol. “I felt so frustrated, and I cried and cried in anguish wishing I could help rescue just ONE person – to cover them with my body so they wouldn’t feel the whip or give them relief from the cruelty and pure evil they were experiencing. Even if I died trying to help them, I meant it. I thought to myself, where are all the Christians? I went to God in prayer, and I remember hearing Him say, it wasn’t my generation, so it’s not my fight. You can’t do anything about the past but learn from it. So, with God’s help, I let it go.”

Later, Carol learned about the Holocaust from her parents as a young adult, and she felt the same fierce anger she experienced as a young child. “I was so angry to tears, and still today I cry about it,” said Carol. “I thought, where was everyone when this happened? And like before, I had to go to God to get relief from the pain and sorrow I felt because I would have given anything to save ONE innocent JEWISH man-woman-child. But like I heard God say before, there’s nothing you can do about the past – learn from it.”

Fast forward to that day at church when Mike and Carol heard what was happening to children who were enslaved in other countries. “I ran to my office at the church where I was working and fell on my knees in tears and cried out to God, ‘I am alive, and this is my generation, and so it’s my fight,'” said Carol. “I know you are doing something about it because you are a good God. So Father, please allow me to help. Anything, anything I have, anything you ask. When I shared my anguish with my husband Michael, he felt the same way, and we both knew we needed to act. Together we crawled up into God’s heart in prayer and waited for a response. Five days later, we heard God say, ‘I hear their cries, and I need your life. Don’t worry about money. I have people who have my heart that will help you.’ ”

“As we look back and reflect over the last 20 years, we are in awe at His promises and provision to us and all that God has done through ZOE,” shared Mike and Carol. “He has brought the people and provided the funding. We are indebted to our God who is FAITHFUL and REAL and TRUE.”