- My earliest memory that Ihave was being shown pornography

of me as toddler,

then also to being takento different brothels,

childhood sexual abuse, having buyers,

people who exchanged moneyto have time with my body,

individuals coming to myhome, into my house to use me.

- [Reporter] For as longas she could remember,

Jessa Dillow Crisp lived as a prisoner,

trafficked and abused by the very people

who were supposed toprotect her, her parents.

- You're too stupid to doanything but be a prostitute,

and that's why you can't go to school.

And so that really hit me as,

okay, this is the reasonwhy God created me.

- [Reporter] As membersof a religious cult,

her parents didn't allow Jessa

or her 10 brothers andsisters to go to school,

teaching that God created womento please and submit to men.

Failing would bring swift consequences.

- I was taught that Godwas an angry person.

I was afraid to get to know Him.

I was scared of Him in the sense of

if I don't do everythingperfect, if I am not perfect,

then I'm not gonna be okay.

I'm not gonna be able to getthrough this and to live.

- [Reporter] Yet somehow, Jessa knew

there was something better.

- I remember standing in my bedroom window

and looking out across the backyard

and seeing kids walking to school

and I'm like, what is that like?

What is it like to be able to go play

and kick a ball around?

I still knew that therewas something dark and evil

and that there was somethinglight and something good.

- [Reporter] As a teenager,Jessa dreamed of escape

and tried several times to run away.

- I tried to mentally escapewhen I could and that was hard.

I had a lot of daydreams that,like someday I'd be rescued

or someday that I would beable to live with freedom.

- [Reporter] She also began cutting

and entertained thoughtsof suicide for years.

Then, in 2007 at age20, Jessa was handpicked

by the cult's leader to attenda remote camp for girls.

She felt anything but special.

- I felt like I was worthless.

I didn't wanna live.

I hated who I was.

I hated the fact that I was a woman.

I hated the fact thatI had even been born.

And I was a complete wreck,

and I was in this dark place

of trying to figureout how to kill myself.

I literally could not do this anymore.

- [Reporter] One afternoonwhile out for a walk,

Jessa was planning her suicide when...

- The sky came completely black.

The loudest thunder thatI've ever heard in my life

took place right over my head

and out of the heavens camethis big huge lightning bolt

that touched the ground soclose to where I was standing.

And in that moment, I juststarted to call out like,

Jesus, if you're real, ifyou're real, save me, save me.

Out of the heavens I heardan audible voice saying,

"The enemy has not won.

"I have claimed the victory."

'Cause I knew without a shadow of a doubt

that that wasn't thisGod that I've been taught

but rather a God who cared about me

and a God who saw all of that dark evil

that took place in mylife, all of the trauma,

that He saw it all andthat He was the light

and that was so profound.

I also learned in thatmoment that, as a woman,

God can talk to me and thatI can communicate with Him

and that I don't haveto go through these men.

I don't have to go through a cult leader.

- [Reporter] Afterwards,Jessa was convinced

that God not only had the powerto help her, He wanted to.

She began reading the Bibleto learn more about God.

- I felt this little whisper inside,

and it was like, "I've forgiven you.

"I have forgiven you."

And it was in that moment that I was like,

"Okay, God, I accept yourforgiveness and I wanna know you."

- [Reporter] Still, whenshe came home days later,

Jessa remained a prisoner.

Then a year later, shewas at a Kansas City hotel

when a woman slipped her a phone number.

She knew the signs ofsomeone being trafficked.

Eventually, Jessa gotup the nerve to call,

and the woman helpedher buy a plane ticket

to Denver, Colorado.

She immediately drove her to a safe house

where Jessa began workingthrough her anger, her pain,

and discovering the truth about God.

- I started to find thatHe was completely opposite

of the God that I had been taught.

He cries with me, Hecares for me, He loves me

in that tender, intimate way,

and then realizing like He created me

and He didn't create me to have sex.

He created me to just be me

and He created me to worship Him.

- [Reporter] Whilethere, Jessa was taken in

and adopted by Jody and Linda Dillow.

She went on to earn her GED,

graduate college at the top of her class,

and get her master's in clinicalmental health counseling.

During that time, she also met

and married her husband, John.

Together, they founded BridgeHope,

a nonprofit to helpvictims of sex trafficking.

Jessa says her life is now filled

with all the promise she ever hoped for.

- No matter what one hasexperienced, there is hope.

Now I live life with freedom.

I have so much hope.

I have so much joy.

I have a reason to live.

I have a purpose.

I have the ability to experience emotions

and experience a God who loves me

and has changed my life completely.