In a recent press conference, Tim Tebow revealed a stunning fact about his dad’s past.
You see, years ago, while in a remote country, his dad personally bought four slave girls.
“People buy groceries. Shoes. Annual passes to Disney World. They don’t buy other people,” Tim Tebow said.
Tim Tebow will never forget the day his dad called from that remote country and told him he had just bought four young girls out of slavery.
“He took out all the money out of his wallet … and he bought those four girls,” Tebow said.
Eight years later, the Christian philanthropist and former NFL quarterback is doing his part to fight what he calls “the greatest form of evil in the world.”
Tebow, a devout Christian, is still shocked and disturbed by that phone call from his father.
“My dad had opened up his wallet and bought as many girls as he could with the cash he had on hand.”
Bob Tebow, a pastor and missionary, had told his famous son over the phone, “I just bought four girls and I’m not really sure what to do now.”
His son’s response? “That’s okay, Dad, we’ve got your back.”
At the time, there was no safe home in the United States for girls rescued from slavery. So Tebow and his foundation built one.
“There’s a saying that evil triumphs when good men do nothing,” Tebow said in a recent op-ed for Fox News. “My dad was not going to be the man who did nothing.”
“Had he just stood there silently, who knows where these girls would have been taken and what would have been done to them. Had we not stepped in to build a safe home, who knows where these girls would be now.”
Tebow and his wife, Demi, are now heavily invested in anti-human trafficking through the Tim Tebow Foundation.
A missionary who has shared his faith all over the world, the former college football Heisman Trophy winner recently joined Attorney General William Barr in announcing that the Department of Justice would award more than $100 million to help combat human trafficking.
The grant money will go to task forces aimed at stopping human trafficking and to organizations that provide safe houses for victims. The money is in addition to $35 million the Trump administration had already set aside for safe houses.
The International Labor Organization estimates there are as many as 40 million victims of human trafficking around the world, most of them women and children.
The Tebow Foundation works with the federal government and organizations around the world to support rescue missions, the recovery of victims, and provide support for families in countries where trafficking is prevalent. It has raised more than $700,000 so far.
Tebow’s foundation helps build safe houses where victims receive comprehensive, holistic care. The recovery process, he says, is “often exceptionally challenging and sometimes a life-long process.”
Tebow, who is also a minor league baseball player and college football TV analyst, calls human trafficking the “greatest form of evil in the world today.”
At the recent roundtable with AG Barr, he called on law enforcement, politicians and other charity organizations to “push back this evil” and finally say “not on our watch.”
“It’s time for Christians around the world to take a stand, to raise our voices and say no more.”
“No more will we allow girls and boys, many of whom are just children, to be bought and sold as if they were just products for someone else’s personal gain.”
“Every person on this earth is created in the image of God — uniquely, beautifully, and perfectly. Their value is priceless, and they are not for sale.”
When Tebow thinks back to his father’s phone call and the mission he has undertaken, he admits he often gets overwhelmed.
“But then I remember that we serve a big God.”
“The God who created the universe, rose from the grave and defeated death once and for all is the same One who is fighting even now for the 40 million trapped in slavery around the world.”
“Nothing is too big for Him. Nothing. He doesn’t need us, but He chooses to use us.”
Please pray for Tebow’s mission and the efforts around the world to stop human trafficking. To support Tebow’s foundation, go to https://www.timtebowfoundation.org/
