Former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager and vice president Kevin Malone has gone from fighting for wins on the baseball field to fighting for children's lives, working to rescue them from the sex trafficking industry.
Today, Malone sees himself as a modern abolitionist, fighting human trafficking in Jesus' name.
"We are a nonprofit, faith-based organization anointed by God to fight against human trafficking in America with truth and integrity, showing the love of Jesus Christ to all involved," his organization states.
Malone is now president and co-founder of the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking, and every day he works to raise awareness, rescue victims, and help them heal.
"I just believe God kind of called me. If you looked up and did some research on me, people think I like to fight," Malone told The Christian Post in a recent interview.
He says God is using all his Major League Baseball experience for the kingdom now. "God said, 'I want you to take all your experiences, all your talents, all your skills and your passion for Me and I want you to go and fight for kids and protect kids and make families and kids aware of the evils that are out there.'"
Malone joined the fight with the help of friend and minister Francis Chan. Malone spent some time helping those in need at the Dream Center. During that time, he attended Chan's former church and it wasn't long until the pair joined forces to fight modern slavery.
"God had already been stirring our hearts and Francis had already started talking a little bit, speaking on sex trafficking," Malone recalled. "God was pulling on my heartstrings too in different ways because I was involved with the L.A. Dream Center and doing ministry in Los Angeles. I was coming across this human trafficking and it seemed to be growing because I was hearing more about it."
"God was calling both of us to do what we could do in our spheres of influence," he added. Chan and Malone took a weeklong trip with the Children's Hunger Fund in 2009 to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand to visit a shelter housing at least 60 sex-trafficked kids. That's where God broke his heart in a big way.
"In this safe home, we were introduced to 5, 6, 7 and 8-year-old boys and girls who had been sold as sex slaves," Malone said. "You got to be careful when you pray to God to 'break my heart for what breaks yours.' I saw kids that had been sold as sex slaves, little kids."
Malone returned to the US and realized the problem wasn't just in northern Thailand, it was right here at home.
Fast-forward to today, Malone's organization helps finance safe homes for trafficked girls throughout the nation. He also launched the first safe home for trafficked boys in the state of Florida.
The United States Institute Against Human Trafficking also helped Congress pass a bill that cracks down on human trafficking online.
In Los Angeles, the organization partners with Inner City Vision to help at-risk youth, providing education and life skills training. "We have a lot of success there in working prevention and intervention in the gang communities with the girls that are high at risk to be trafficked by the gangs."
Malone says he's fighting a spiritual battle.
"A lot of it is spiritual warfare and the enemy has blinded the eyes of most people. If it is not in your own family or close enough with friends, you just block it out and ignore it because you don't want to know about it," he said.
"Where is the outrage? We can get outraged about every stinking thing on the planet. But what about kids that are being either abducted or lured and then sold, 15 to 20 times a day to disgusting, evil-pig men to be raped? It outrages me," he told the Christian Post.
"To every man who has kids, those could easily be yours. Some people feel like it is not going to touch them, but it is only a couple of degrees of separation from your kid and your grandchild being abducted or lured into this and being sold in the streets of America for sex."
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