Emily Graves spoke with Joy Farrington about the release of her book, human trafficking and working with people in the sex industries

Joy Farrington

From the red light district in Liverpool, to the crack dens in Brazil, the strip bars in LA and the notorious bars and brothels of Bangkok, Joy Farrington has reached out to those caught in sexual exploitation.

A contributor to the Cross Rhythms website, she has now also had her first book published, Broken By Beauty. Emily Graves spoke with Joy about her passion and pursuit of the restoration of sexual purity.

Emily: First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Joy: Ok, I am 24. I live in Liverpool, I've spent time in Ecuador and I'm going to be moving to the States this year. I've been working in a bar for the past five years and I'm going on to do things that I'm actually a lot more passionate about, such as working with women.

Emily: You have released a book called Broken By Beauty.

Joy: I have. It's my first book.

Emily: So what is it all about?

Joy: I've been thinking about how best to describe it and I think it's probably like two sections or two strands. Part of it is following my own personal journey of being a female growing up in western society and discovering God's heart for sexual purity and discovering what sexuality is and my journey of choosing sexual purity - but also encountering a lot of the messiness that there is, like sexual exploitation for example. So that's part of it and it's quite a personal insight into my life. Then the other half of it is kind of meeting other people's stories.

I've worked with women in different areas around the world: in Thailand and Brazil, here in the UK and over in LA as well. So you get to meet some of the people I've met and hear some of their stories. Some of them have worked in brothels, they've been trafficked there; some of them have been selling themselves on the street; some of them have been working in strip bars - so going to some very interesting places in the book and hearing them and hearing their story in God's heart.

Emily: One of the places that you speak about is a trip that you made to Thailand. So why were you in Thailand?

Joy: Thailand's actually somewhere that I've wanted to go for a long time. I think in about 2008 I first heard the phrase human trafficking and what that meant. I met a lady in 2008 who worked for an organisation who were based in Bangkok, in Thailand and they primarily work with women who are in the sex industry there, who've been trafficked from either within Thailand or outside of Thailand and been brought into that country. She was telling me all about the work that they were doing and about what human trafficking was. I was bowled over by it and so at that point I really wanted to go to help out with what they were doing and then in 2011 I got the opportunity to go out with the team from the States and we spent a few weeks in Bangkok in Thailand helping with this organisation called NightLight International - we worked with them and another organisation called Dton Naam as well, who primarily work with ladyboys in Bangkok.

Emily: So that for you was a real eye-opener?

Joy: Yes, it really was. I felt like I knew quite a bit of theory before I went, but going there was - I'd describe it as the Disneyland of sexual fantasy. It really is like the epicentre for the sex industry in a lot of ways - in a bad way by the way, not a good thing - but just the amount of trafficking that happens in that country and in particular areas, the amount of exploitation of men and women of all ages, from young girls, to - I met with men and women who are in their fifties, so people have been working in the industry for a long time.

Emily: What is the outlook on the world for a person that is involved in prostitution and sex trafficking?