Aaron and Amanda Florczykowski on Parenting Fiercely and Advocacy Against Child Sex Trafficking
Author of the book, Unraveled: Mothering Fiercely in a World Full of Fears, Amanda Florczykowski and her husband Aaron share with us how the Lord called their family into the fight against child sex trafficking.
Their family has faced some incredibly hard and very traumatic trials in their 16 years of marriage. The book and this episode focus on the day when Amanda and Aaron’s toddler was taken from Amanda’s arms in a thwarted sex trafficking abduction, beginning them on an unexpected journey.
They share the behind-the-scenes details of this incredible story, and the basic facts you must know to outsmart a trafficker, and the specific biblical truths that prevail when injustice, trauma, or fear leave you undone. Having fought fear and won, this couple is uniquely qualified to give unwavering advice and personal examples that will help you parent fiercely, equip you with resources to become more aware of this epidemic that’s plaguing not only our world but our nation and even small-town communities.
testimonies
Growing up, Aaron would attend a Wednesday night prayer meeting, Eager Beavers (LOL), at an old school Baptist church. When the lesson focused on a hill with three crosses, the sharing about the thieves on either side and Jesus coming to die for us, it hit him like waves, wave after wave of love. Aaron was saved at that point and fell in love with Jesus. “It was real. It always goes back to ‘I’m so loved’”. Amanda has a different story. She grew up in a house where she longed for God but she didn’t know she had to ask Him to be Lord of her life. “I loved the Lord, I just didn’t know the steps to tell Him. I didn’t know the steps to accept His love.” High school years were not without fault but in her senior year of high school, she recommitted her life to Jesus.
Aaron and Amanda met at a Christian school where Amanda was a missionary teacher and Aaron was the youth pastor. They had a speedy engagement, getting married within 6 weeks. “That click that you have just gets you through the harder times. Compatibility is what gets you through the struggling times, we all have them.” You must choose to rekindle, it’s a choice.
say “bye-bye to mommy”
Amanda begins to tell the detailed story that she tells in the pages of Unraveled…how a normal trip to the local grocery store changed the trajectory of their lives forever as their daughter became a thwarted sex trafficking abduction victim. She has since read how important it is to take in all the information about your surroundings, trusting that gut feeling and that’s exponentially multiplied for the woman who believes in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit. We oftentimes, for sake of not being offensive or losing our witness, ignore those feelings. In this case, Amanda says she did just that. She was polite as a woman at the check-out register took a strange interest in her 2-year-old daughter and began relaying information about her to a man standing with her. Then suddenly, this woman reached out and grabbed her daughter out of her arms.
It was coordinated like a symphony and Amanda later learned this friendly approach is what is called “grooming” or a “micro-grooming”, where the abductor makes nice with a child so that they’ll readily go with them. The woman took Amanda's daughter’s arm as if to wave and said, “Say bye-bye to mommy.” Amanda shares how she lunged forward, grabbed her daughter back out of this woman’s arms, and sent these two hightailing it out of the store.
She leaned over the cash register, the woman working asking if she was okay. For a woman who knew nothing about trafficking, it was the Holy Spirit that spoke when Amanda blurted out, “No, I think my daughter was the potential victim of a child trafficking attempt”.
the call to battle
Amanda shared on a social media post with her closest friends and family what had happened. Overnight, the post had been shared thousands of times. To date, it’s been shared all over the world and 170,000+ times (+probably way more, FaceBook stopped counting). Amanda initially took the post down. Aaron was the one who told Amanda to pursue this, as she shied away from wanting to be thrust into this arena. He had been her biggest advocate (although some ambivalence was inside of him). That post going viral was terrifying to her. She was afraid of how it might affect their livelihood, reputation, etc. This wasn’t something she signed up for. In sharing the post again, she’d have no control over her story’s reach, she wanted to protect her family’s and children’s safety. Aaron shares how his wife has the ability to lead and is a connector of people. “I know my wife. I said, ‘Go for it.’”
“God in His grace, in His wisdom, chose someone, chose a family who didn’t want to look the other direction.” — Amanda
Her confirmation verse came from Proverbs 24:11 —
“Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?”
free people, free people
Amanda shares, “This is an evil, evil spiritual issue. Even the johns who are buying this need rescuing. Anyone fighting against this, purchasing sex with children, it’s demonic. We’re fighting a spiritual battle. Marriages are falling apart, fathers who are addicted to pornography. We as believers are the peacemakers, we enter into the spiritual battle and say we are fighting on your behalf. Only free people can free people.”
“A lot of people ask, what can I do next?
Victims will tell you this — you have to stop the demand. Well, how do you do that? How do you fight an evil battle? You can’t throw money at it, politics at it, you can do that some but to fight a spiritual battle you must fight with spiritual weapons. You have to pray. And sharing the gospel, there has to be a conviction in the heart of the one victimizing a child. Jesus and jail, these are the two things.” To forgive or extend mercy to such perpetrators sounds unfathomable, but being the victim of this herself at a young age, Amanda shares it can be done. “The good news is forgiveness is for me to give.” She believes she’ll stand arm in arm with the man who was arrested who was a part of the child trafficking ring, who she shares was also at the grocery store that same day. She goes into that around minute 55:00.
“When demand decreases, this ends. By receiving the forgiveness Christ offers.” - Amanda
vigilant families and able moms
It takes less than 12 seconds for predators to find children in children-only games online. Vigilant Families exist to strengthen families to become more vigilant in this fight and to become more aware, less vulnerable to this relevant evil. Able Moms exists to be a biblically trusted brand for busy moms of younger kids 0-6th grade and to conveniently give access to life-giving online resources and relational communities. The heart behind their two ministries is, “If we want to stop the demand of trafficking, we must make kids less vulnerable. What we really have to do is introduce Jesus into the equation. We want to see families strengthened, mothers capable, unshakable in their faith, and memorable in their motherhood.”
A trafficker can determine in 8 mins whether a kid is vulnerable. The determining factor is the relationship with their family. If he knows there is weakness there, that’s the perfect candidate. This can even happen in upper-middle-class (dysfunction there too), wealthy families as well. It takes one statement to a girl whose dad is a work alcoholic to get her hooked, to send provocative photos, making it easier to blackmail her.
Human and child sex trafficking is happening all around us. This is happening in your community. The U.S. is the #1 for demand and leader in child porn. There’s so much that we don’t know but enough that we do know. A lot of advocates aren’t on the same page, all fighting the same fight but don’t give each other grace to fight in a different way. Amanda shares, we have to be okay saying it doesn’t only happen one way. Trafficking is a business, not just an atrocity. These people are business savvy and are always aspiring to new heights.. this rivals big oil.
conquering fear
The episode ends with the story of a second encounter at the store after the woman and man took off. There was another man just one cash register over. When Amanda uttered the words, “sex trafficking”, he glaringly stared back at her, his face etched in her mind’s eye for good.
Months into this raising awareness and sharing her story there was some pushback, what Amanda writes was “the darkest hour”. One evening Aaron questioned her; not her validity but the validity of the story. She writes in chapter 9, that Aaron said, “Well honey, maybe you are wrong. You really don’t know for sure if sex trafficking was the intent that day.”
It was a bigger deal than just her husband questioning her….it was more of questioning God. If Aaron was right, was what she heard God speak wrong? She began to doubt herself and thought, “What if I was wrong? What if I made all of Christendom look bad? What if I wasn’t really hearing God?” What bothered her more was thinking, “If I’m wrong, then can I trust God?” That was the question that burned in her heart.
She went in her closet, which had become her War Room. It was her lifeblood during this time in her life. She turned on worship, went to pray, and at that exact moment got a text message. What came up was a picture of a guy in a prison uniform. She knew exactly who it was. It was the man at the register. He had just been let out of prison two weeks earlier. The woman who sent it has been trafficked by that man, he was a serial rapist, in trouble with a renowned biker gang who sold child pornography to them…
That was all she needed to be all in. That was the final call from God that she needed. She took her phone out and showed Aaron. He was visibly upset that he had upset his wife. And he shares that was the first time it became really real for him too…he could imagine that day at the grocery store and he was all in with her.
This isn’t the only frightening incident this family has gone through — they’ve experienced a miscarriage, their dream home burning down, their son nearly drowning to death in a pool, a home birth turned into hospital transfer (6th baby)…. they’ve learned firsthand that trusting that God will come through for you, getting us through the fears. They desire to equip families, and mothers, to live and parent fiercely in a world full of fears. While living in this tension in a world full of fears, our response as believers and the temptation to fear should be held up to the reality of who God is.
“The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety.” — Aaron
Aaron encourages us to put up stones of remembrances to remember the faithfulness of God in the trials so when the next trial comes you can rely on Him all the more. And when you’re feeling unraveled, you’ll be left standing with an unmoveable faith in God.
get the book
Buy a copy of Unraveled and visit Vigilant Families and Able Moms today! And connect with Amanda on Instagram.
