Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Love Justice Podcast where.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: We hear from different voices who are.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Joining us in the fight against modern day slavery. Please welcome today's guest, Janelle Midkiff.
Welcome to the Love Justice Podcast. We are so grateful that you're here. Today's guest is Janelle Midkiff. Janelle brings years of experience in the banking industry to her role as an anti trafficking data entry auditor volunteer with Love Justice International. Driven by a deeply personal connection to the cause, her friend was tragically kidnapped in high school and remains missing to this day. Janelle's dedication to fighting human trafficking is profoundly personal. Her volunteer work helps ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of data that drives Love Justice's mission to serve the least of these. Janelle, we are so thankful and excited to have you here. How are you?
[00:00:57] Speaker B: I am doing well this morning. I am honored to be here with you guys.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm so excited for our listeners to hear your story. So maybe just as a start or an introduction, if you will, could you tell us what you do for a living, a little bit more about what your role is at Love justice and how long you've served with Love justice now?
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Well, I have been in the mortgage industry for about 20 years as a senior loan processor and I work hand to hand with people that are buying a home. So I answer a lot of their questions, deal with, you know, getting a lot of their documentation and why we need that. And then I have been with Love justice for about two years now.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: I know isn't that I was doing some research before our time together and it was a year ago or, sorry, two years ago this month that you started.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Yep. I think we. I was in training about two years ago or about finishing up the training and getting ready to actually start the auditing role in September about two years ago. So, yeah, we're close.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: That's a good segue. How did you, how did you find out about Love Justice? What drew you to Love Justice? Why did you want to come and volunteer for us?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Well, it's actually kind of a funny story, really. Kind of the way it happened. So I think it was the end of 2022 that I really started feeling this nagging feeling of I was put here on this earth to do more than just the 9 to 5 grind and, you know, go to work, come home, and then repeat. Right. So I ended up taking this career quiz and it was actually Ken Coleman's Get Clear career assessment. And the whole purpose of this assessment is to basically define what your purpose is. And so I take this Assessment. And it tells me that my number one talent is justice. I was like, okay, so I am definitely.
This is where I'm supposed to be, you know, so that was 2021. I think it was the end of 2021 because I found you guys in 2022. So then come April of the next year, I'm just scrolling through indeed and not really looking for anything in particular, just seeing what's out there. And for some reason I decided to search data entry. And so I'm again typed in data entry. I'm scrolling through and I see this posting and I'm like, this, this looks really interesting. You know, I'm not exactly sure what this is and I'm like, but this is right up my alley. You know, anti trafficking work, love justice. I have no idea who you guys are. So I'm going out to the web and I'm like, you know, looking at your website and I was like, okay, I'm applying for this. I don't know what it is or exactly what I'm going to be doing. And the funny thing was is I think indeed had actually put an hourly pay on it. And then the posting said volunteer. So my brain is thinking, I'm like, I don't know if I'm getting paid for this or not, but I'm applying for it.
This is exactly what it felt like it was being pointed to me. And of course the word justice is in your name is in the title of the organization. And so considering just a couple months back, justice was my number one talent according to this career quiz. I thought, okay, well, this is exactly where I need to be. So I spent the next three hours doing the application and doing the assessment and going through that and I was just like, you know, I have no idea if I'm even hear back from this. And then I think it was about two months after that I got an email from you and I think my heart just dropped, like, oh my gosh. Like, this is real.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
And little did you know, two years later you'd be knee deep and so much important admin.
But what I love about that story, Janelle, is one, it's so relatable. And two, your particular intern class, if you will, had so many similar stories of their heart being broken for human trafficking or justice. They wanted to get involved. They had such a unique skill set.
Like I remember there was someone who had studied or was a professor of compliance at a university and was like, this opportunity was perfect. Or someone who's like, I had a Lot of admin experience. I didn't know how I could use this for human trafficking. But then I found this post on your website and there was just story after story after story of ones just like yours where God was stirring up something in your guys hearts and leading you to the right posting. And what I think is particularly really touching and compelling about your story is maybe why you're so passionate about justice in the first place. Can you share a little bit more about that?
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I actually, I have always been interested in true crime, even as a young age. And so I was always, you know, watching the crime shows, reading the books. And for me that was all about, you know, catching the bad guy, figuring it out, putting the clues together. Because I'm very, you know, I want to investigate, I want to, you know, put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure out who done it kind of thing. And then about this, about this time in 2006, my best friend Brandy went to a nightclub one night and she actually never came home. And so we don't really have any more knowledge of what happened that night now than what we did back then. We have a few details, we know she went somewhere, but she just, she never came home. And so that played into the true crime that I'd always watched and read. And it became this like this thing that it was too real for me almost and that I had to kind of put some of that stuff aside because I was now in the middle of some stuff I had, you know, had watched or read. And, and so it was very hard to continue some of that in the beginning. And then as her story unfolded and we continue to learn, you know, nothing really more than what we know today, the, the question of what happened to her and the theories and the things and the questions that go through your mind, you just keep going through those scenarios over and over and over. And so at one point I actually had to shut off like that part of my brain to just deal with the situation that had just happened. Because I mean, I remember hearing about it and getting, and getting that call that she had disappeared because I had talked to her about two weeks before she disappeared. And I know she was upset over a breakup, but she didn't really.
She seemed all right, but she didn't seem like it was such a big deal.
And so come to find out years later, I mean, she was more upset about that than what she had let on initially. So when I first got that call, I just remember, like, this isn't real. Like this is not, you know, this is not really happening. And I tried calling her phone, I think, like three times, and it went straight to voicemail. And then I was just numb after that. Like, I just remember sitting on a sofa, staring out the window, thinking I just talked to her, you know, two weeks ago. Like, this can't be. This can't be happening. Like, this is just crazy. Like, this is just something you see on tv. This is something you read about and then it comes to you, real life, and then all of a sudden you're in the middle of it. And then.
So, yeah, for a while, I turned off some things. And then as I got closer to applying for this position with you guys, that was when it was really nagging at me, like, I'm here to do more than just go to work every day and come home and then, you know, repeat that cycle like there's something more that I should be doing. And so that kind of drives why I applied for, you know, the volunteer position with Love Justice.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Janelle. And what I hear you describing is what we talk at Love Justice a lot about, which is that broken hearted anointing. And it's out of that true brokenheartedness over the issue, like God, break my heart for what breaks yours, that somehow oftentimes there springs out this action from that brokenhearted anointing that positions you to be able to fight on behalf of the least of these in a way that wouldn't maybe be as effective or as committed or fill in the blank as not having that broken heart. And I think that, you know, your dedication and consistency and how long you've been involved with the ministry is such.
One, it's a huge blessing to Love Justice. Two, it's so connected to that brokenhearted anointing and that calling that I think a lot of people can really relate to in their own ways. Everyone has their personal connections with why they feel passionate about this work. And so I think our listeners will find your story one, really encouraging. Not what happened to your friend, but how you. How that's changed you and how that's led you to be a part of something, like you said, more meaningful and bigger than just yourself. So I really appreciate you sharing that, Janelle, and I think we'll probably tag some things in the show notes and in the episode description for people who want to learn more about Brandy's story too. I know that you're very passionate about just advocating for Brandi, advocating for other people who could learn from Brandi's story, and you'll never Stop. Yeah. Advocating for her and others who might be in her similar shoes moving forward. So thanks for sharing that, Janelle.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it actually, her story, I mean, I see parallels with her story in some of the audits that I do with Love Justice. And, you know, some of the. These kids or young adults, you know, they. They go off searching for a job and they're searching for something more. And that's kind of what she was doing that night. She was searching for happiness. You know, she wanted to go out and have a good time. And I think in both situations, with her situation, in the cases that we see at Love justice, someone took advantage of that broken spirit. And that's where, you know, that's also where the drive comes from, too. You know, I see, you know, I see these stories, I hear these stories, and it's like, you know, this isn't just something that I've read about. Like, this is. This is real people, real things that are happening across the country and not just, you know, here in the United States.
So it's. It definitely has a very different impact. And I just keep thinking, you know, I play a small role in the fight for injustice against, you know, human trafficking. But, you know, I'm grateful that I've had this experience and that I'm still here, but at the same time, I'm also, you know, I should do something more. I should be doing something more. But, you know, I still continue to, you know, do the data entry auditing for you guys. And. Yeah, and so it's. It's very. It's very humbling. It's a very humbling experience.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: I will say that, Janelle. I think that's a perfect segue into talking more about what exactly it is that you do in your volunteer position with Love Justice. So can you just tell us a little bit more about what does your. The time that you give to us, what does that look like? What are you doing? What do you enjoy most about it?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: So I am a data entry auditor with you guys. And so that looks like a lot of detailed, oriented work.
So I take a look at the forms that the monitors, you know, fill out in the field, and then I compare that with the system we have and make sure that everything is in line and make sure, you know, all our T's are crossed and I's are dot and make sure that, you know, the information is accurate. And then I note anything that is inaccurate. But in that comes the.
Comes the very detailed, oriented side of my personality, the very analytical side of my Personality and, and then of course in the background is reading the stories and remembering why I'm doing this and remembering that this is a real person, it's not just a name on a piece of paper. And so sometimes I do my work in little segments.
I jump in and I do little segments and I just, I try to, you know, I, I just try to keep in the back of my mind that it's important to, you know, it's a very important part of, you know, love justice and you know, knowing that you guys have to do something with this information. So yeah, I always keep that in the back of my mind. It's like, you know, this isn't just, it's not just something that you're just, you know, kind of doing on a whim. It's like there's actual people and data attached to what I'm looking at.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm going to, it's, I'm going to maybe share or fill in a few, not blanks, but just paint like the bigger picture of how you fit into that process.
Not just because I also like manage that process but because I think that can help like paint the bigger picture for our listeners about this very specific role which we have many roles which we'll talk about towards the end of the episode, but just to, just to demonstrate how one person can make a difference in the overall strategy of love justice that ultimately leads to impact. So for those of you who are listening, Janelle is a part of, like she mentioned the volunteer auditing team. And what we do, part of our transit monitoring strategy is we're collecting intelligence, real time intelligence on potential victims of trafficking and the suspects involved, the locations involved. We are collecting personal information, how they were recruited, how they were traveling, all sorts of data. And we do that through paper forms because a lot of the countries that we work in don't have the technical savvy or the capacity to do electronic data entry. It's just easier to do it pen and paper. We also have some translation logistics that we're navigating in that data collection process. The monitors then fill that out for every potential victim that they're intercepting. They'll fill out an intercept record form, a potential victim form and a suspect form. The irf. The intercept record form details the case, the potential victim form, the PDF details very victim specific information. And then the suspect form and location form are collecting intelligence on people and places associated with trafficking. So the monitors will send that to their data entry specialist in the country and that person's role is taking the information on the paper forms and putting it into our database called Searchlight. And so we came to realize very early on that even that process, as intuitive as it might be, especially for our listeners in the Western world, is not necessarily as intuitive in the developing countries that we're working in. And so we, we developed this auditing process where we would audit a random sample of forms entered into our database on an annual basis for each of our countries. And it was a lot of work. It was a lot of detailed admin work that took a lot of time that we didn't necessarily have staff capacity for. But it was so important that it then birthed this vision for a volunteer team of like, okay, this is a really easy way with a low barrier to entry for people to get involved in our work. We have a Google classroom where we train our volunteers for quality assurance and quality control and then let them basically compare source documents to what's in our database, which is where you then, Janelle, come in and help us with that process. And not only are you tracking errors from a data entry perspective, but you're also taking note of collection inconsistencies and potential collection issues and taking notes for our monitors as well. So Janelle and the team of volunteer auditors, they do the admin of that and then they're working with our team lead right now to finalize reports that are then sent out to the field to say this is the result of your audit.
And then our lead will schedule trainings to debrief the report and implement the corrections improvements that were identified in that audit, and then we do it again in a year. So it's. That's kind of the process in a nutshell, I will say, and I think this is really interesting for people particularly interested in stats. When you. So when we first started doing annual audits, our over this would have been in 20 man, 2016, 2017, our overall entry accuracy, meaning when you compared all of the indicators on the paper form to what was entered into Searchlight, that average across all countries, all forms, that accuracy rate was 59.8% two years ago. Janelle, when you came on the team, that overall entry accuracy rate was 96.87.
So we had like, in that timeframe, we realized, okay, this is really important because one, we identified a gap and we were working to fill the gap, but we were having a hard time keeping up with that gap. So at the beginning of your tenure, again, that overall entry accuracy rate across all forms, all countries, 96.8. And for the first time since we started this process, you know, eight years ago. We're at 98% average overall accuracy rate across all forms, across all countries, which is on par with industry standard, which is amazing. And I think that has a lot to do with our team. So that we can then say, you know, we have a lot of confidence in the quality of our data that we're using to analyze our work and to share that the statistics of stakeholders. And it's. It's. I can't begin to overstate how important you. What you do is in tandem with how insignificant it might feel, because you're literally comparing and contrasting. Okay, here's an error. Here's an error. It's all manual, you know, which is a little bit archaic in today's world, but it is so valuable when it comes to the integrity of our work. And I think that that probably keeps you motivated, Janelle, just to know, like, I know that this makes a difference. I know that I'm not just a cog in the wheel, but I know that I'm an important piece of the puzzle and of the story.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: And I think with the manual part of it, as you said, yes, it is manual. It's a little bit. You know, it's a little bit tedious at times, but. But when you're reading the information that you're looking at and you're realizing how this person was recruited and what they were recruited for, that's where it brings it back to, okay, this is why I'm doing this. This is why, you know, this is real. And again, it's not just, you know, a name on a paper. It's not just stats like. Like, these are real things that are happening. And of course, then I relay that back to the situation with Brandy, and, you know, how she just decided to go to a club one night and she had never been there, had never been to that location, and so she didn't know anybody. I mean, she was there by herself, and somebody took advantage of that. And then you see, you know, in another country where someone's basically, you know, they're trying to survive, they're trying to find a job, and they're just looking for anything, and someone has taken advantage of that spirit. So although the work is, you know, it's very, very detailed oriented and can be a little bit tedious sometimes, you know, it's also part of my personality, too. Yeah, I'm a very detailed, oriented person. And I like picking out, you know, those little differences. And then, you know, it's not always the black and white situation, you know, so it really, it kind of brings everything full circle.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: So I. One way that I like to think about it is it's such a sweet offering and oftentimes I think we can underestimate the value of our time and our talents that we can give and might think, oh, you know, giving money is the supreme way to support an ngo. And I think we've seen over time, like that's not entirely just true. Right. Like it can be that, but also the impact and the contribution that you and other volunteers have given to Love justice has been incredibly valuable. In fact, Janelle did not know I was going to do this, but I pulled some stats of just Janelle's time with Love justice to demonstrate just how incredible, incredible your contribution has been and how it's made such a significant impact.
So over the last two years, you've given approximately 500 hours of your time to this ministry, which is about the equivalent of a full time staff working for one year. Wild, Wild. Janelle, especially thinking about it, it doesn't.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Even feel like that, you know, I mean, I just. It does. It doesn't even feel like it's 500 hours. That. That's crazy.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: I know, it's amazing. And then in that time you've completed 15 audits, which might not sound like a lot, but those audits have consisted of easily over 500 forms. Easily. I didn't go and tally up how many forms are each in each one of those audits, but just taking an average. Yeah, you've looked at 500 forms and ensured the accuracy and quality of those forms for us. That is amazing. Amazing.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: That is. That definitely is amazing. Because like I said, it doesn't feel like it. I mean, because I enjoy the work that I'm doing and I enjoy, you know, being part of the Love justice team. And I mean, it's very much a humbling experience to see what you guys are doing. So, I mean, anything that I can do and anything that I can give, you know, that's outside of the money realm, you know, because like you said, you know, it's not always money. It's the talents that we have and how we use those talents. So I'm very much glad to be a part of this team and have had to have randomly found you guys.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Janelle, for all of your amazing hard work and dedication. And to listeners who might be interested in volunteering, what would you say to them and. Or how would you like to encourage them?
[00:27:06] Speaker B: I mean, I think I'll just kind of play off kind of how I was feeling, you know, I mean, if you think that you feel like you should be doing more and you want to play a part and play a role in an organization that is really doing truly amazing work and you really have the motivation and the dedication to support, support anti trafficking work. And I'd say, you know, volunteer, volunteer for Love Justice. I mean, these guys are, they're doing amazing things. I mean, I know, I know personally, my world has been turned upside down just knowing what you guys do. And I mean that in a positive impact. I mean, it really puts perspective, especially because you guys are very much international and I'm on the US side. And so how life is so much different for kids overseas versus kids here, but also everyone tends to struggle with the same things. So for me, it's been a very enlightening, very humbling experience. And that's what I would say to anyone that's feeling alike. They want to get involved and they want to do something and they have like this feeling of wanting to do more. I would say Love justice is the place to be.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you have that passion to do something, we have opportunities to turn that passion into action in really tangible, unique ways. So for listeners and for the people who are listening to this conversation and feeling even more stirred in their walk with justice and what their role might look like in that, we have a lot of opportunities for people to get involved volunteering for Love Justice. If you go to lovejusticecareers.com volunteer, we'll probably link that somewhere in the show descriptions that will give you. That's a direct link to all the volunteer opportunities that we currently have available. And I'll just quickly rattle off some that we currently are recruiting for at the moment. One is we're getting ready to recruit for an onboard a new team of data entry auditors. We're looking for volunteer research fellows, volunteer software developers, volunteer translators. We work in a number of different languages like French, Portuguese, Nepalese, Hindi, a lot of different languages. And we need to translate training document and training materials to be able to adequately convey those tools to our teams. And so we're always looking for volunteers who are gifted in speaking those languages, looking for some church relation and church mobilization volunteers, as well as a couple of volunteer positions helping to support our fundraising.
So if there's any part of you that is walking away from this conversation feeling like, man, I want to do something, please go check out the website, please go check out those opportunities and just be encouraged that whether it's, whether it's with Love justice or not, your time matters. And your time can make a difference. And your skills and your talents can also make a difference in the lives of the least of these. Janelle, thank you so much for joining us today and for being a part of this conversation.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Yes, thank you so very much for having me.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: We are grateful for the generous support of the Love justice community.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Please consider joining our family of donors. Learn more at lovejustice ngo.
