Music student pens original song that takes a stand against human trafficking

“God’s children aren’t for sale.”

Those were the five words that God put on the heart of Liberty University senior songwriting student Halle Harper when a professor tasked her with writing a song that “takes a stand.”

The song, performed during a pro-life-themed Convocation on Jan. 22 and set to be recorded for streaming services next month, would turn out to be a powerful message that speaks out against the horrors of human trafficking and recognizes the value of every human life. (Watch the Convocation).

“Our desire in the Michael W. Smith Center for Commercial Music at Liberty University is to create music that speaks from a biblical worldview perspective touching all areas of life,” said Dr. David Hahn, chair of the Department of Commercial Music and associate professor of music and worship. “In our teaching and mentoring, we encourage students to create music that addresses subjects in current culture, standing against evil and the works of darkness. We encourage our creatives to not only speak against but also to fill those areas with light and life and the Truth that God gives us in his Word. Halle Harper’s song powerfully fulfills this very task, exposing the awful pain and suffering of child sex trafficking.”

Last year, Harper took MUSC376 Songwriting, where Hahn assigned a songwriting project that advocates for a cause. While he had a list of examples for them to choose from, such as abortion, human trafficking wasn’t on his list. But Harper said God spoke to her in the class.

“I always hear His voice as a still small whisper in my thoughts. I heard, ‘You’re going to write a chorus, and the five words are going to be: God’s children aren’t for sale.’ I am honored that God would choose me to partner with Him to share about something that burdens His heart.”

Harper wrote the song over the course of a few weeks, and she was encouraged and pushed by her professors and classmates every step of the way.

Though Harper knew God was calling her to write the song, she also knew she couldn’t carry the weight of it alone. She asked many of her loved ones and peers to support her in prayer, and she said her dad, who is very burdened by human trafficking, was a huge influence in the writing.

“He asked his whole men’s group at home to be praying over the song,” she said.

While she came up with the idea for her song prior to seeing the movie, she was inspired by her dad to watch the 2023 film “Sound of Freedom,” which became the foundation for some of her lyrics.

“When I finally saw the movie, I was able to finish the song,” she said. “Before I saw the movie, I had the verses and then the chorus about the children, but the Lord really helped me use the pictures and the imagery from ‘Sound of Freedom’ to finish the third verse, which is about the call to action.”

In her third verse, Harper evokes a response in listeners by drawing upon imagery, a literary device she learned in private lessons with Hahn, where the writer uses a picture or scene to communicate their message:

Girls and boys taken from their mammas and their homes

Can’t you see their daddy there he’s crying on the phone

His world falls apart as he screams

“Where’d my child go?”

“You want to captivate an audience by using imagery, and I think for this song specifically it served it so well,” Harper said. “Dr. Hahn always talks about ‘serving the song,’ and the imagery served it well because it helps people picture it, since sex trafficking is something that (people might feel) we’re distant from.”

Harper said the skills she has gained through the School of Music prepared her to write the song in a way that would be most impactful. Her private lessons with Hahn, which she has had since her sophomore year, were fundamental in developing her skills.

“I wanted to make the chorus longer, but it was Dr. Hahn who told me — and following what the Holy Spirit told me initially too — to repeat the line several times.”

She also learned from Hahn to go up an octave to emit more power, which resulted in the chilling first chorus that repeats the phrase “God’s children aren’t for sale” twice.

After Harper first performed the song at a Songwriter Café hosted by the School of Music in Fall 2023. Hahn arranged for it to be performed in front of thousands of people at the beginning of Convocation. Harper felt she wasn’t the only one meant to sing it, so she asked her friend, sophomore commercial music student Crissa Davis, to perform it alongside the School of Music’s modern worship band “Vessel.” Harper knew that Davis had the heart and passion to perform the song in a way that would honor God and the message.

Davis said she was incredibly humbled by Harper’s request and would sing it “anywhere, for anyone, and at any time” because she believes in the importance of its message.

“Before stepping on stage at Convocation, I asked God for two things: to help me forget about myself and be able to get this message, His message, across in a way that would glorify Him and Him alone, and that He would somehow send a moment of hope and comfort to those who are currently being held captive to human trafficking, so they would know that they are not forgotten,” Davis said.

After Davis performed at Convocation, Harper received positive feedback that pointed to the impact music can have in raising awareness and taking a stand for the truth.

“My (voice) professor and I were talking about it, and she said, ‘Halle, I just want to encourage you and remind you that songs like these, if they’re not sung in a place like Liberty, then where else?” Harper said. “If there are thousands of people in this body listening to this song, who else is going to declare it and pray it? If it’s not here, then where else?’ Liberty has really encouraged that and inspired me to partner with God’s heart, and then invite the people around me to do that as well.’”

Vessel will be recording “God’s Children Aren’t for Sale” next month, set to be released on all music streaming platforms shortly after.