Jesus4Real Ministries, one of our Faith Promise Partner Ministries, helps survivors of human trafficking. They run Our Home, a safe haven in Pretoria, where human trafficking survivors are restored and embraced as family members. This is the story of Ellen, one such survivor.
Ellen McColl grew up in a dysfunctional home. Her parents divorced and remarried, while she and her siblings felt rejected and alone. Ellen started smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol at 12 years old. She was also only 12 when a man first took advantage of her.
Heroin was the first drug she ever used. She was just 13 years old.
After using heroin for the first time, she craved more. She joined an escort agency to pay for this craving, and six years later, she was sold to a drug dealer and pimp who Ellen believed was the love of her life. For 17 years, she lived in the psychological hell of being pimped out by her own “boyfriend”, who paid her with heroin and crack.
“Imagine being 17 years old and standing on a street corner to sell your body for your next fix,” Ellen shares. “The fear of who was behind the steering wheel and what he wanted to do with me was nothing in comparison to the fear of not having a fix of heroin before withdrawals would hit me with full force.”
She was a prostitute for 23 years. At 36, she had had enough. After about 80 000 clients, 42 000 grams of heroin costing R17 million, two years in prison, one year in rehab, one abortion, one miscarriage, one adoption, and one child that she could not raise and was kept away from, she was not simply broken but shattered and barely alive.
Little did she know that Jesus was sending someone to change her life.
One night, when sitting against a lamp pole in the street, Mama V, from Jesus4Real, stopped by her and asked how she was. Mama V was known as “the church lady”, who walked the streets and handed out doughnuts to the ladies, the pimps, and even the clients. Ellen saw her as different from other people. Mama V didn’t want anything from any one of them. She was there to show them love. Ellen started crying when she saw Mama V looking into her eyes with so much understanding. Ellen told her she was scared and asked for help, so Mama V prayed with her and said she would try to help.
A month later, Mama V gave Ellen a box of doughnuts. Ellen asked her to wait, and she gave Mama V her methadone, which she describes as “A type of surety that I was serious about getting out.”
A few days later, she was trafficked to Johannesburg but managed to phone the police a month later. After talking to the police, her ex-pimp hailed her a ride back to him.
“That night, I sat on an electricity power box, waiting for a client so that I could stop the pain,” Ellen recalls. “I was terrified as I believed that the guy from Johannesburg was about to come back to kill me.
“Imagine being 17 years old and standing on a street corner to sell your body for your next fix,” Ellen shares.
“The next moment, a car stopped, and my heart started racing. When I looked up, it was Mama V, who had some ladies with her. I mustered up the courage to get into her car and started my journey of restoration.”
It is almost five years since, and God has given Ellen a place where she is loved at Our Home, run by Jesus4Real Ministries. She has also discovered the love of Jesus, surrendering her life to Him. The Lord has opened doors for her, too, to have a better relationship with her son.
“I am learning to love myself and others,” Ellen attests. “Jesus has been the major source of strength and healing in my life. Through this journey, the Lord changed my hard heart to a soft heart. I started forgiving myself and have also forgiven the many people who have hurt me in my life.
“I am no longer a girl on a programme in the home, but I am now a proud volunteer.”
Ellen advises those struggling with change: “Don’t wait for one day … make today your day one.”
