FOR SOME CHRISTIANS, illicit sex, adult entertainment, prostitutes, street corners, and nightclubs are things to recoil from. For Taffi Dollar (pastor and co-founder of World Changers Church International based in Fulton County, Georgia), these “abominable things” are the very heart of her ministry.
While attending a service in New York City, Taffi heard the Lord instruct her to launch Prestige — a team of evangelists who (alongside her) minister to prostitutes, exotic dancers, and women involved in the sex industry. “We are literally in the trenches of prostitution,” Taffi shares. “We walk street corners, enter hotel rooms, and go inside strip clubs to minister the Word of God. We meet these broken, abused, and lost women right where they are. We don’t judge them. We love them,” she continues.
Taffi Dollar was not sexually abused, nor was she personally entrapped in an illicit lifestyle prior to spearheading Prestige. Her heart was simply available for God’s use. “I continually stop and evaluate my motives,” she says. “I am constantly assessing if I’m doing the ‘right things’ for the ‘right reasons.’ If your motives are not right, your ministry won’t be effective.”
After qualifying for the assignment in the eyes of God, Taffi began to fervently study the insidious sex-trafficking industry that imperiled women all over the country – particularly Atlanta. “I just began to research and seek out people who had already made headway in this field,” Taffi says. “I spoke with a number of Christian professionals. I began to really study the issue from all angles: spirit, soul, and body ... socially, psychologically, and financially. I had people come in and train our team. I was also very prayerful about what to do first. The Lord needed to tell me what needed to happen. Ministry is about serving people and meeting their needs. Although it involves teaching, preaching, and exhorting, I really had to study and learn how to meet the practical (as well as spiritual) needs of these women,” Taffi shares.
As a major city that houses the busiest airport in the country (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport), Atlanta is one of the biggest hubs for sex trafficking in the United States. According to Teen Identity magazine, approximately 500 girls in Atlanta are trafficked for sex each month, servicing 7200 men. In addition, each weekend, between 100 and 150 girls are "raped for profit." Not only are girls violently raped, the magazine states, but money is exchanged for that rape to occur. To make matters worse, these statistics only include teenage girls – not women at large.
Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. As stated by the Council of Europe, the proliferation of sex trafficking has reached “epidemic proportions over the past decade.” The council estimates that revenue earned from the global annual market is approximately $42.5 billion. “This is a big money industry. When it comes to sex trafficking there is a lot at stake for the women involved,” says Taffi.
