Breaking Chains: Becky Murray's Fight Against Human Trafficking

All around the world, modern-day slavery and human trafficking devastate millions of lives. After a shocking encounter in Africa, Becky Murray was driven to fight against these injustices.

On this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories., Becky talks about her journey to begin a ministry dedicated to rescuing and empowering some of the most vulnerable people across the globe.  

Connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Facebook at Billy Graham Radio.

If you’d like to know more about beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, or deepening the faith you already have, visit FindPeacewithGod.net. 

If you’d like to pray with someone, call our Billy Graham 24/7 Prayer Line at 855-255-7729. 

Transcript

**This episode of GPS contains accounts of events that some may find disturbing or inappropriate for children. Listener discretion is advised.**

MUSIC STARTS

Jim Kirkland: Human trafficking, exploitation, slavery … Becky Murray has seen it with her own two eyes.

Becky Murray:
00:00:17 As a Western white woman I was allowed to walk around these brick factories and meet with families trapped in slavery. 

Jim: That factory is in Pakistan, where children as young as 4 must make a certain number of bricks just to be allowed to eat that day … just to be allowed to eat.

Becky:
00:00:36 And so I walked around this brick factory and I remember just saying, God, where are You in this? This is so unjust. Where are You in this? And the response that I felt back in my heart is, Daughter, where are you in this? What are you going to do about this?

Jim: You’ll hear how Becky answered that challenge, and what compelled her to begin ministering to people who are bought and sold like property. 

It’s coming up on this episode of GPS: God. People Stories., an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland.

That challenge Becky felt in her heart is one that Billy Graham says comes straight from the pages of the Bible.

Billy Graham:
00:01:15 Now the Gospel of Christ has no meaning unless it is applied to our fellow man who hurts and is in need. When is the last time that you shared your life with another person or someone of another race or your material goods with the poor or your knowledge with those who crave knowledge?

Jim: You’ll hear more from Billy Graham about living out God’s love for others a little later in the episode, but if you’d like to know more about it right now—or at any time during the program, we’re here. Go to FindPeaceWithGod.net. That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net.

Intro: GPS: God. People. Stories.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Becky Murray grew up in a Christian family in northern England in the town of Rotherham.

Becky:
00:02:02 My mum and dad were always in church. We pretty much lived in church every day of the week. But my dad was a real great inspiration to me growing up. He just had a love for the Word of God. 

Jim: Even as a 4-year old, Becky’s heart was being shaped by God’s compassion. When she was 4, she saw on television an ad about fighting poverty and starvation. Immediately she wanted to help the malnourished girl on the screen. 

Becky:
00:02:28 And I put down my half-eaten chocolate bar and said to mum, No, send that to them, they need it more than me. And blessed as she tried to explain really why they probably wouldn’t want my half-eaten chocolate bar. But I think there was something in there, even as a tiny child that God had placed there.

Jim: As Becky was growing up, God continued to develop in her heart a love for others and for Himself. And when she was 9 years old, Becky gave her life to Jesus at the conclusion of a church service. Later as a teenager, her faith would begin a new phase of growth.

Becky:
00:03:03 I was about 18 where I really started to take it far more serious. And that’s when I went out on a mission trip with my local church and felt God speak to me for the first time in my life.

Jim: That happened in Romania, after her missions team had been working in the country for about a week. They’d gotten a day off and Becky went by herself to sit beside a lake. It was in the quiet stillness there that she sensed God speaking to her—and changing the plans she had for her life. 

Becky:
00:03:34 I knew it had to be God because my aspirations at the time was to go and study law. I’d always been really passionate about justice. Little did I know how that would unfold in my life, but back then as a teenager, I thought I would go and do law and fight for justice through the legal arm. But it was at that moment that God spoke to me about working with vulnerable children around the world.

Jim: When she got back home to England, Becky wanted to go on every short-term mission trip she could to help those in need. In May 2005, she headed to Africa, to attend a Bible school in Mozambique for three months. During that time, Becky grew closer to God, but something else happened there, too.

Becky:
00:04:14 I had a day off in Mozambique and I’d already been told the cultural norms there, and so I was fully aware that if you are revealing your knees, you’re seen as a prostitute. However, on this particular day, it was a day off, and I went into a Western mindset. And so I was thinking, Well, you know, I’m from England, we don’t get much sunshine. So I rolled up my skirt up to the knee and was just walking along the beach looking at starfish and was distracted by just the beauty of the different colors of starfish. 

Jim: That’s when a man approached Becky and assaulted her. She managed to run away to a beachfront restaurant. When the man saw that Becky was with other people, he left her alone … but the experience stayed with her. 

Becky:
00:04:59 For a while I struggled thinking that that was my fault, that I had caused that, and I really struggled with that for a long time. And then it wasn’t until years later an initiative called the Dignity Project where we help girls at risk of human trafficking, but within that, we target areas to do with abuse and shame.

And as I suddenly started counseling these girls who had been raped or had been abused in some ways, so many of them began to share how they felt like it was partly their fault. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time or they were wearing the wrong type of clothing. And as I began to counsel them that it’s never their fault, all of a sudden, I began to realize I’ve been carrying that exact same shame in my own life too.

Jim: Becky would use her own awful experience to help others. She left Mozambique more certain than ever of God’s calling on her life to help the vulnerable. She decided the best way to do that was studying pediatric nursing back in England at [Sheffield University]. She was convinced she was going to be a full-time, long-term missionary.
Becky:
00:06:08 By this point I knew that I would be doing more and more work in rural parts of either Africa or Asia and so I knew having a nursing background would really help equip me on a practical level to be able to be useful and helpful on the mission field.

Jim: The next year, Becky was invited to go on a short-term mission trip to Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. This would be the most pivotal moment in her life.

Becky:
00:06:33 And whilst I was there I met a little girl who was begging on the streets. She was called Felicity and she was just 9 years old.

Jim: Becky noticed that Felicity was walking barefoot. Kids being barefoot in rural Africa is not unusual, but nevertheless it touched Becky’s heart.

Becky:
00:06:53 I had the grand total of 50 pence with me. And so with my very feeble offering of 50 pence, I bought her a pair of pink flip-flops to match the pink T-shirt she was wearing. Well, I then turned to her and said, OK, come back this evening and hear all about this Jesus I’ve been telling you about. 

Jim: That evening, Felicity ran toward Becky with a huge smile on her face. For the first time in her life, she was wearing shoes! But Felicity didn’t believe the flip flops were simply a gift. She assumed they were payment for sexual favors. 

Becky:
00:07:28 And she turned to me and she said, should I wait in the hotel? So I said, no, we’re literally just about to go now. There’s space in the vehicles. You can travel with us, no problem. And she said, yes, but shouldn’t I wait in your bedroom? I think if this 9-year-old had looked at one of the men on the team and asked that question, I could have processed what she was asking. But as a young 20-something-year-old girl looking at a 9-year-old girl, I literally couldn’t process what this little girl was asking. I asked her a third time and sure enough, she thought I’d spent 50 pence on her so I could have her body. And in that moment, I was so broken. I remember looking her in her eyes but having a conversation with God. And I made a promise to God right there in that moment to say, I’ll give my whole life to this because no human should ever be bought or sold.

Jim: That night, Felicity got in the van with Becky and her team and went to the outreach to learn more about Jesus Christ. Felicity responded to the invitation to give her life to Jesus.

Another highlight of that mission trip to Sierra Leone for Becky was her getting to know her future husband. His name is Matthew and he was on the same mission trip as Becky.

Becky:
00:08:43 Matthew became a Christian in the church that I was already attending so I still remember the night that he came out to the front and gave his heart to Christ. But initially, Matthew and I didn’t get on very well. Matthew was a journalist by background and so he comes across very confident but I misinterpreted that as arrogant. Meanwhile I came off very standoffish to him because I thought he was arrogant. So then I was kind of projecting this whole, ‘don’t come and talk to me’ vibe. 

Jim: But the two had to break through their differences when they became prayer partners on the trip.

Becky:
00:09:18 I remember thinking, Oh my goodness, I don’t even like this guy and I’ve got to spend hours praying with him, are you joking? And so the second night of the Gospel campaign, myself and Matthew were prayer partners praying for the sick and my first positive thought about Matthew was when he was praying for someone and I remember thinking, Well, I guess it can’t be all that bad then if God’s just used him. And that was my first positive thought about this guy. But God definitely has a sense of humor because through that, because we started off as prayer partners, we very quickly developed a very strong friendship. And then lo and behold, turned out we wasn’t just friends at all, turns out the feelings ran far deeper than that. 

Jim: While they were dating, Becky’s commitment to help people like Felicity continued to deepen. She went on a return trip to Sierra Leone in 2007 to help with a mass feeding program.

Becky:
00:10:10 It started out very small. And so in Sierra Leone, there’s no welfare or benefit system. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. But for victims of being amputees from the war, many of them struggled to get jobs. And so all these families were now living in this derelict bush shelter. But when I arrived, I was told there’d be about 50 people there. And so I’m very much aware if you go promising hungry people that you’re going to feed them, if you then run out of food, you’re in trouble. 

Jim: Becky took out a little blue box of rice that was just big enough to feed 50 people … but there was a problem: There was already well more than 50 people at the site. 

Becky:
00:10:52 And so the whole time we’re sharing the Gospel, more and more people are joining. But by the end of it, we did the prayer of salvation. Many of them responded, which was incredible, but it came time to the food distribution and there was over 100 people gathered. So I’m freaking out. Anyway, we just start serving the food and in the busyness of the afternoon, we’re just serving, serving, serving, dishing out the rice. And I’d seen the rice starting to go down, but little did I realize everyone was starting to eat. And it wasn’t until the very end when I realized I’d done something because over 100 people ate out of my little blue box of food to feed 50. And then a lady approached me and she said, there’s a family in the bus shelter back here that weren’t able to come out. They’ve got TB. With any leftovers, can we give it for this family?

Jim: After already feeding 100 people, Becky was able to tip the leftovers of the rice into a huge washing bowl. She stared at a mound of rice that was larger than what she had even started with.  

Becky:
00:11:58 At this moment, I just cried because I realized just the type of God we serve, how powerful our God is. And I didn’t have anywhere near enough for the need, but I had Him. And the reality is, He cares far more about the hungry than I’m ever capable of. He cares far more about bringing children out of slavery than I am ever capable of. 

Jim: Becky carried that lesson with her as she took more and more steps of faith. In June 2008, she and Matthew got married. The following year, Becky went on a trip to Kenya to be part of another feeding program.

Becky:
00:12:35 But before going out, I began to pray and say, OK, God, what do You want on this particular trip? Is there something that You want to do to impact the place where we’re going to? And as clear as the day when I was 18, God spoke to me again and He said, Now is the time, look for land. And so at this point I was bursting with excitement because for a decade I’d been carrying a promise from God about doing some sort of work with vulnerable children, but I didn’t know the when, I didn’t know the where, and holding onto a promise and not seeing anything happen for a few years is really testing.

Jim: Becky says she was determined to wait patiently for God’s timing and not try to take things into her own hands. So, when God opened the door in Kenya for her to begin a ministry to vulnerable children, she was thrilled. She met with an African bishop who had helped a friend of hers coordinate a mass ministry outreach in the area. 

Becky:
00:13:32 I shared with him and I said, Look, I know you don’t know me. I could be some crazy person, but this is what I feel God has put on my heart. Well, as I began to share with him, his eyes began to fill up with tears. And he said, Becky, I’ve just been given a plot of land. It’s yours. And he took me to this tiny little village called [Bumalabi]. It’s in the rural part of Kenya; it’s about an hour or so from the Ugandan border. It was just a field at the time. 

Jim: Afterward, Becky went back home, all along the way, wondering how she was going to get a ministry off the ground with just 2,000 pounds in the bank. That’s the equivalent of 2,500 U.S. dollars. She named the ministry One By One because her life was changed by that one little girl on the streets on Sierra Leone.



Becky:
00:14:19 That one encounter changed my life, and all of a sudden, this little girl humanized a problem that was global. And, sometimes we’re so distracted by the sheer need. So there’s currently 50 million people trapped in slavery. That for me is overwhelming. Where do you even begin? And that’s our heart with One By One, that as we stop for the ones that God brings across our path day in, day out, if we would just have eyes to see. As we do that, we will impact villages and towns and nations with the love of Jesus Christ. 

Jim: Becky needed to see God answer prayers … both for the new ministry and in her personal life. 

Becky:
00:15:00 In 2011 I gave birth to my little boy and he was very ill. He was in and out of hospital that whole year. And so in a year that I felt so incredibly weak, I’m just nursing my own child and I remember thinking, this is just impossible. 

Jim: Becky was given a bill by the architects who would design the new ministry’s residential center: It was for more than 190,000 U.S. dollars. Becky began to have doubts … she was starting to feel foolish for telling everyone about her promise from God. 

Becky:
00:15:35 But I remember saying, OK, God, I cannot do this. You’re going to have to do this, just like You did with the rice back in Sierra Leone. Yet again, I’ve got nowhere near enough for the need. And in 2011, God brought in every single penny that we needed to pay for the builders and all the architects, designs, and everything that we needed for the property.

Jim: One By One officially opened its first residential center in Kenya in December 2012. It looks after children who’ve been orphaned, abandoned, or who are at high risk of exploitation. 

Becky:
00:16:08 Initially they came and lived on our site. Now over these last few years we’ve spent a lot of time with social workers, working with local families in the community, and so we’ve now managed to reintegrate every single child into a family center care which is incredible. But we run on our side a primary school, a secondary school, a church, a medical center, and then in the surrounding villages we’ve planted several more churches. So hundreds of kids have gone through our center in Kenya, many of whom are now studying at university.

Jim: Becky thinks of one girl in particular who went on to higher education: A little girl who was so sick when she came to the center that she wasn’t expected to live.


Becky:
00:16:49 This particular little girl, she is so passionate and so strong-willed, and she knows who she is in Christ. And so not only does she excel in elementary education, but then she went on to high school and was in the top of her class for that. Well, I’m delighted to say, fast forward to today, today she’s graduating as an accountant and just finished university. But to see this little girl who wasn’t even supposed to make it back in 2012, now she’s excelling and has got a whole life ahead of her.

Jim: But amid the joys of what was happening with her ministry, Becky was faced with a crisis in her family. In 2014, her husband, Matthew, contracted malaria after being at the center—and the malaria went cerebral.  

Becky:
00:17:36 I was taken into a side room and told that my 27-year-old husband at the time had got two hours left to live. His heart, his lungs, his liver, and his kidneys all went into organ failure and the malaria was multiplying at such a rapid rate. And so the doctors actually took him off all the malaria medications and had just placed him on pain relief. I remember just going into shock at the time thinking, not my husband. … And so I literally just picked up my phone and typed into social media, urgent, please pray for Matt. Well, I knew family and friends would pray, but what took me by surprise is that people around the world began to pray and intercede for my husband. People who had never met us, people who had no reason to pray for us, but through the kindness of God, they did.

Jim: As people around the world were praying, Becky received shocking news from the nurse. 

Becky:
00:18:28 She said, Mrs. Murray, I have no idea what’s going on because we stopped the medications hours ago, but I’ve just done another set of pathology on your husband and the malaria levels in his blood has just dropped, but we can’t explain why. And I remember at that point thinking, God’s doing something. 

Jim: And He was. While it took about three weeks, God did a miracle in Matthew’s body, and he made a full recovery. The following year, Becky once again visited their Kenya center. This time, she was approached with a different need.

Becky:
00:18:58 I had two mums approach me asking for help because their children had gone missing. I found out that human trafficking was happening right there in the village where our first ever residential center was based. And so I began to connect with a lot of the local schools to see is this a rare scenario? Is this a common trend? Like what’s happening? And I found out that sadly, that wasn’t rare, that many children go missing in villages like that, because in a village where children aren’t necessarily listed on a national register, and if their parents have passed away or if they’ve been kicked out or whatever’s happened, no one’s even necessarily looking for those children if they were to be taken. And so I found out trafficking was happening quite frequently. 

Jim: Becky also learned of something that traffickers used to their advantage. She calls it “period poverty.” Girls would drop out of school early due to missing a week of classes every single month. Although some girls would use techniques like old rags or grass to try and make it to school through the week, that would often lead to their getting infections and missing even more of their education.

Becky:
00:20:05 The traffickers were onto this and so they were targeting young girls who weren’t even going on to high school; they were dropping out after primary education. And so I thought, Well, what if we got to the children before the traffickers? Why don’t we go into school, provide girls with reusable sanitary products that they can stay in school every week of the month, but also address what human trafficking is, the tactics that traffickers use to try and entice children? Let’s get to them before. And so we started the Dignity Project thinking it was just for our little rural village in Kenya. 

Jim: Little did Becky know what God would do with the Dignity Project. It has since expanded to 10 countries and reached almost 45,000 children. The project also caused One By One to visit Pakistan in 2018, where they reached 1,100 girls. But once again, while doing that work, they realized there was another need to be met.

Becky:
00:20:59 On the last day of the trip there, they took me into a brick kiln. Now I’d seen slavery in terms of human trafficking. And in human trafficking, everything is covered up because everybody knows it’s wrong. But walking into a brick kiln where people are trapped in bonded labor, here was a form of slavery that was very blatant. 

As a Western white woman, I was allowed to walk around these brick factories and meet with families trapped in slavery. And they weren’t wearing chains or bound up in that way, but they were very much trapped. They took out a loan from a brick master, whether that was to pay for a surgery or pay for a dowry. But little did they know when they took the loan that the interest rates on the loan are greater than the daily wages.

Jim: Becky saw many people working in the brick factory who were second and third generation slaves. She even watched 4-year-olds make bricks for 14 hours a day. They had been born into this bonded labor and would never have the opportunity to attend school. 

Becky:
00:22:00 And by the age of 4, they have a quota that they have to make every day, not the family’s quota—mum and dad have got their own quota—but the 4-year-old is given a quota that they have to make “X” amount of bricks if they’re going to eat that day. And so I walked around this brick factory and I remember just saying, God, where are You in this? This is so unjust. And the response that I felt back in my heart is, Daughter, where are you in this? What are you going to do about this? And so we began to pray and seek God’s heart.

Jim: As a result, One By One built a safe house in Pakistan for children they managed to get out of the brick kilns. So far, over 80 children have been freed from slavery and are living in a safe house. There, they receive education, and love, and support for the trauma they’ve experienced.  

Becky:
00:22:51 This last year we actually saw an entire family set free. We’d had two of their daughters living in our safe house. And because of that, the parents had managed to get by quicker. And so, we’d managed to get the whole family out and have now set them up in a microbusiness where he now runs, it’s like a tuk-tuk business, so like a taxi of sorts. So, we paid for his driving lessons and his driving license and paid for the tuk-tuk as they call it, the little three-wheeler vehicle, so that now he can run his own microbusiness and continue to see his whole family set free from slavery.

Jim: That’s in Pakistan. One by One has expanded its mission to also help stop human trafficking in Uganda. It’s been working with the country’s local police over the last year.

Becky:
00:23:38 They got in touch with us and they said, we’re now starting to recognize these girls who are caught up in sex trafficking. We’re bringing them out, but we don’t know where to put them. They had one particular child who was a 6-year-old little girl who’d been caught up in sex trafficking for the last two years. She didn’t know the name of her village. She didn’t know the name of her family. She was so tiny when she’d been taken by the traffickers. And for two years had just gone through utter trauma and abuse. And so the police didn’t know where to put her. And the only place they had a safe bed was a prison cell. And so that’s where they had to put her because there was no shelter.

Jim: The Ugandan police asked One By One to build a shelter. They are, and it will be called The Mercy Center. It will serve as a safe place for girls who have been rescued out of human or sex trafficking. Those girls will be able to receive care from a team of counselors and trauma therapists at the center. All the work that God is doing through One By One to change girls’ lives goes back to that encounter Becky had with a little girl in Sierra Leone. 

Becky:
00:24:40 And now every time we’re taking another child, whether it be into our safe house in Pakistan or our center in Kenya or God willing, when we open The Mercy Center in Uganda, every time we’re taking a child in, it’s like I’m rescuing Felicity again and again and again.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Becky Murray has seen firsthand God’s remarkable work as she followed His leading, one step of faith at a time. What about you? Are you walking in that type of faith with Jesus Christ? If you haven’t yet begun a relationship with Jesus, that’s the first step … and we can help you, wherever you are in your faith journey. Visit us online at FindPeaceWithGod.net. That is FindPeaceWithGod.net. Or, if you’d rather, call us at the 24-hour Billy Graham prayer line. The number is 855-255-PRAY. 855-255-7729. If you didn’t catch the number or the website address, no worries. It’s also in our show notes.

In just a moment, you’re going to hear one more word from Becky, talking about how to trust God and take bold steps of faith.

Voice-over: You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories., a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

MUSIC STARTS

Billy Graham:
00:26:09 Now the Gospel of Christ has no meaning unless it is applied to our fellow man who hurts and is in need. 

Voice-over: Billy Graham …

Billy Graham:
00:26:17 When is the last time that you shared your life with another person or someone of another race or your material goods with the poor or your knowledge with those who crave knowledge or your skills with the untrained? You stopped to teach them what you know? And Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and … soul, and … strength, and … mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” And, “Greater love hath no man than this, [than he] lay down his life for his friends.” And the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and while He was on the cross, He was thinking about you because He was God. He could look down the centuries and call you by name on that cross and say, “I love you. I will forgive you if you will come to Me.”

Jim: Learn about God’s love for you and His offer to forgive your sins. Go to FindPeaceWithGod.net. That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net.

Our guest here on this episode of GPS is Becky Murray. She encourages you to make yourself available to God and watch how He might use you to tell others about His love for them.

Becky:
00:27:29 I think we need to learn how to trust God. I think sometimes we’re nervous to step out because we don’t know if we’ve got it all together. We don’t think we’ve got enough for the need. But time and time again, I’ve seen God take the little that’s in my hands, even when that hasn’t been enough and He’s brought it to pass. The type of God we serve helped a widow in 1 Kings 17 who was dying of starvation herself and just had a few sticks and a little bit of flour, but trusting in God, He brought about bread. And if we would just give God what is ever in our hands, we might just see a few loaves and fishes, but God sees a banquet for 5,000. And if we would just trust God with our yes, even if we don’t feel like we’ve got enough or we’re not enough. We don’t have the capabilities or we don’t have the gifting or we don’t have the finance. There’s so many times we hold back from stepping into what God wants for our lives because we’re nervous we’re just not enough. But every single time when we just say yes to God, it allows Him to do what we cannot do. And He’s faithful and He’s true. And thankfully for us, God’s not looking for the most intelligent person in the room or the most financially capable person in the room or the most talented person in the room, all that God is looking for is the most available. The ones who are willing to say, yes, here I am, send me.

Jim: That again is Becky Murray and we are very grateful for her joining us on this episode. She is making a difference in putting an end to all forms of trafficking. If you enjoyed listening to Becky’s story, consider telling your friends and family about GPS. We’re available wherever you listen to podcasts.

MUSIC STARTS

I’m Jim Kirkland, and this is GPS. God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—Always Good News.

CLOSING MUSIC
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