Regent University Alumni Shine Light Into the Dark World of Trafficking

“What we started with, and where God has taken us are two different things,” Lori McKenna observes, “and that's frequently what God does.”

Pat and Lori McKenna met at Regent University. He was studying law and she, public policy. Lori remembers, “I chose Regent because it was making leaders to change the world, and that just really grabbed me.”

Pat recalls, “The professors really were more than just professors, they were really people who spoke into our lives – we started every class first looking what God's Word said, and then we would look at our case law and such like that.  And that was always infused throughout the discussions.”

The couple married, and Pat went to work for a local law firm.   As they started a family Lori decided to stay home and raise their children.  Then in 2008, they learned about the dark world of sex trafficking.  

Pat remembers, “I was so ignorant about the topic of human trafficking that I didn't know it was happening anywhere in the world, let along the United States.”

Lori recalls, “My world was really rocked when I learned about trafficking, because I couldn’t think of anything more horrific than being raped over and over and over and over.”

“These women are so psychologically broken that, you know, once they're involved—or the men for that matter, it could be a man too, it's very hard to, you know, reverse the process,” Pat says.  “And I found myself, you know, asking God, ‘Okay, what do you want me to do now?’”

Pat and Lori started the Virginia Beach Justice Initiative. Its purpose is to raise awareness and train people to fight sex trafficking in the Hampton Roads area.  

Lori says, “Part of the training we do is role playing so that they practice ahead of time for different scenarios and it never fully prepares you, but it's looking at different scenarios that they may face and so they're well prepared.”

They also help trafficking victims by working alongside local law enforcement. “As a police department we only have a certain amount of tools to address the problem,” Officer Michael Hudgins of the Newport News police department says. “And so what we want to do is offer them help with services such as dealing with trauma, dealing with addiction, find a place to live, employment, and as a police department we don’t have those assets so we bring in partners such as VBJI that help us bring those assets to bear to help these women get out of this lifestyle.”

Lori adds, “We’re that nonprofit in this area that helps walk along side the girls whether they need just emergency things right away or long term care, that’s where we step in. And they call us, sometimes they have us on-hand for the sting operation or we do ride alongs with them just seeing who might be on the street that might be a trafficking victim. We hand out little cards when we meet them and just let them know that there’s an organization, there’s people here that are ready to help them if they want to get out of that life.”

In addition to training advocates, they are building resources and services to meet the needs of trafficked victims.   Pat says, “We can kind of direct them to whether it's housing or counseling or, you know, many times they come out with nothing when we meet them, getting them clothing and food and just getting stabilized.”
The issue is too big for any one organization so to help in the battle, Pat and Lori returned to Regent.

Lori says, “Resources with faculty, resources with other graduates, people that graduated with us, colleagues, and students that are there now that will partner with us in our work. So Regent’s been just a huge blessing in my life and in our lives.”

Pat concludes, “Regent's not only top-notch in terms of the education that I received, cause I definitely felt like I was prepared to hold my own in the courtroom. But also just knowing that you can trust God because you know, it's in those places of our weakness that we learned at Regent, and continue to learn through this ministry, through the practice of law over the years, that when I'm weak, God is strong.”