Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 28 July 2024 and TSA Harvest Community in Burnaby, 27 September 2026 by Major Michael Ramsay
This is the abridged 2026 version to view the original, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2024/07/genesis-37-3941-beat-traffic.html
Genesis 37:14-36
14 So he [Jacob] said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
These and similar things still happen today here. Jun 26, 2024, 10:18pm, I had a text from a radio announcer in Port Alberni, where we lived at the time: "Are you aware of the Vietnamese men who are about to be made homeless by San Group?"
"No. Not at all...but we can help" I replied.
I immediately set to work to try to find out what was going on: It seemed they were trafficked. I then contacted my Area Commander, and the Modern Slavery and Anti-Human Trafficking departments of The Salvation Army. I received this reply:
Hello Michael, …I'm the Manager of Propel Anti-Human Trafficking Services…I was asked to help support the 16 [alleged] human trafficking survivors that I heard presented to your staff yesterday. … With the information I have received so far I have secured a Vietnamese translator/counsellor who is on standby, a shelter on the island that can house all 16 survivors (at least temporarily), and I have an HT specific budget to help with whatever their needs are including transit to the shelter and clothing. I would love to…support your team in whatever ways needed!
Our Member of Parliament then reached out to me. We went to the property. The conditions the workers were living in were deplorable. The men slept on mattresses side by side on a sewage-soaked carpet. The smell was terrible. There was no heat in the building. There was no running water. The people bathed and washed their dishes in a ditch with water from a pipe outside.
We spoke to the workers through a translator. They said they paid between $20 000.00 and $30 000.00 each to come here to work for a wage in excess of $30/hr. They said they never received that wage. They said they were subject to unsafe working conditions: working with toxic chemicals without proper protective gear, working long hours, many days in a row. They were afraid for themselves, and they were afraid for their family. They showed us where they lived. They explained to us how they lived. They asked us to help them flee. I told them we could get them out tomorrow.
On Saturday, June 29th, 15 of the 16 workers were taken out of town to a secure Salvation Army facility in Victoria where they could have their physical, emotional and spiritual care needs met and where they could get the legal and other counsel that they needed. I checked up on them. They were happy. They were free.
These sorts of things happen here today. The stories of Joseph and human trafficking and slavery are not just tales from a faraway place and a faraway time. Canada’s laws are seemingly favourable to human trafficking.
Canada’ closed work permit creates a dangerous state of dependency; as a closed work permit, versus an open permit, means the temporary worker’s visa is tied to a specific company. Closed permits make a worker much more vulnerable. For instance, the workers don’t qualify for MSP, so any injuries on the job are the employer’s responsibility to deal with. And we’ve got to be careful that we don’t slide or slip in that obligation
Canada’s reliance on temporary foreign workers is growing. This is scary. This creates an environment where this sort of thing can happen all the time. I have heard of domestic servants and human trafficking in Vancouver. I have spoken to my Member of Parliament with another TSA Officer about human trafficking of farm workers when I lived in Saskatchewan. We have worked with trafficked, prostituted people in various cities across this country.
This is real life. This is happening. Here in Canada. Here in BC. This is scary stuff. So, what do we do? Well, if you know anyone who needs help let The Salvation Army know! Also, write to your Member of Parliament: tell them to stop enabling human trafficking; tell them to end unsupervised, closed work permits where an employer has that much control over a person’s life. Make the government check in on people under their care (in their own language), make them protect those they are duty bound to protect.
Pray for people who are trafficked in this country, around the world, and here in this community. Pray for the underprivileged: the poor, the family-less, the immigrant. Help us help them.
And trust God. God was with Joseph when he was a trafficked domestic servant in Potipher’s household. God was with Joseph when he was sent to a prison in a foreign land. God was with Joseph in his hour of need and the scriptures say that in that he prospered. And then God used a cupbearer to the king to deliver him and God used Joseph to deliver many other people in turn. We remember that when Joseph was in the depths of prison, Pharoah’s cupbearer, encountered him, there and though for a long time he did nothing, eventually he did something – two full years later – Genesis 41, reading from verse 9:
Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. 10 Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. 11 Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. 12 Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. 13 And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.”14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.
Thanks to God! Through the cupbearer, Joseph was delivered from captivity as he was earlier delivered from slavery. May we each be like that cupbearer. Even if we have been slow to help those in need thus far, even if we have forgotten, even if it has been years. Even if we have delayed in helping those in need for both now and eternity, may we be encouraged, may we now be faithful. May we now be spurred to action; so that like those workers we can be saved in the here and now. And may we at the same time be faithful in sharing the Good News of Salvation so that we and all those we meet may be saved for now and for eternity as well.
Let us pray.
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