A story I couldn't put down
Earlier this year, I came across a clip of Tim Tebow testifying before a U.S. Senate committee about the scale of child sexual exploitation happening online in this country right now: the sheer volume of material being produced and traded, and how far our investigative resources lag behind the technology we already have to stop it. It was the kind of thing that lodges itself in you and doesn't leave.
Not long after, I learned about Athena Strand, a seven-year-old girl in Texas, kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered by a delivery driver. I have children of my own. I couldn't shake it.
I looked for a way to get involved locally: some tangible, hands-on way to help where I live. I couldn't find one. What I found instead was a clear, ongoing need: funding for the investigators, technology, and survivor care this work requires. That was something I could do without stepping away from where I'm called to serve now: working for children who will lead this nation one day with the light of Jesus.
Around that same time, I had been teaching myself how to use AI to help local, service-based businesses grow their visibility: better search presence, better reputation, more customers walking through the door. I'd already put it to work for the company I work for. It felt worth sharpening into something that could do more.
Then a conversation brought this closer to home than I expected. Someone I know had reported her own husband for producing this kind of material. She was heartbroken. I was horrified, not because this happens somewhere in the world, but because it wasn't "somewhere." It was here. In my community. Near my own kids.
"This isn't an issue confined to other countries, or to 'bad neighborhoods.' It's here, possibly closer to you than you'd guess."
I can't investigate a case or prosecute an offender. But I can do this: use the skills I already have to help a local business grow, and ask that business, in return, to help fund the people who can.