How a Church Became a Hunting Ground
How a Church Became a Hunting Ground reveals how predators studied the worship habits of their targets, weaponized Christian language, and attempted to lure a former victim into a re-trafficking attempt inside one of Texas’s most trusted megachurches, using IHOPKC’s worship music as a entry point and grooming angle.
DALLAS, TX —Most people imagine predators lurking in back alleys, anonymous chat rooms, or shadowy criminal networks. Almost no one imagines them hiding inside churches — especially not inside a respected, conservative suburban megachurch with hymns, choirs, and a sterling reputation.
But that is exactly how a church became a hunting ground.
At the heart of this story is one woman’s spiritual journey — a journey that explains both why she was targeted and why she survived.
This article examines how members of Epstein’s network deliberately profiled victims through their religious affiliations and used those affiliations as grooming tools. Here, we focus on the experience of Victoria Cameron — a former victim of Epstein and Maxwell, and at the time, a Stonebriar Church choir member — who was targeted for retrafficking inside the church’s own lobby.
___
They didn’t walk into the church expecting to find a former victim, or if they did, they were discreet about it.
When members of Epstein’s trafficking network at Stonebriar noticed her, they recognized her. They appeared to assume she did not know who they were. During one of several encounters at the church, they approached her as ordinary churchgoers, casually striking up a conversation about Christian worship music. Beneath the pleasant façade was a group that had stalked her for years in repeated attempts to re-abduct her.
She had been nicknamed by them as “the one who got away,” because of how she had been rescued. Her knowledge of their operations from when she was child trafficked decades earlier was a threat. The question lurking in the back of their minds was always, “What does she remember?” and “Has she told anyone about it?”
They approached her at Stonebriar Church as if nothing was wrong. They immediately steered the conversation toward the worship music of The International House of Prayer in Kansas City, also known as IHOPKC— not because they cared about prayer, but because they knew from past surveillance that Victoria had once been very connected to IHOPKC’s 24/7 prayer room webstream, and had even attended its conferences, and visited its location.
IHOPKC is a charismatic 24-hour prayer and worship ministry based in Kansas City that draws participants from churches across denominations. The worship language and spiritual framing used during the approach mirrored that environment and felt deliberately familiar to Cameron.
That spiritual chapter in her life had caused her to withdraw from local congregations for a time, and the traffickers resented it: they couldn’t follow her into a livestream, couldn’t track her inside a congregation, and couldn’t monitor her movements. IHOPKC had disrupted their access.
Now that she had started attending a church again, they attempted to use that old connection as bait. They invited her — and a few other girls — to leave the building with them under the guise of, “Let’s go to lunch after church and talk more about IHOPKC’s worship music.” Had she agreed, she would not have returned.
She refused to leave the building. Their strategy collapsed.
The following week they returned and dropped the casual façade, moving straight into recruitment — pressuring her to sign up as an escort. When she refused, they exploded in anger and blamed IHOPKC, claiming it had “brainwashed” her against them and ruined their chance.
IHOPKC entered the conversation for two reasons, and neither had anything to do with theology — both had to do with surveillance.
___
1. Why the Traffickers Invoked IHOPKC
When the traffickers brought up IHOPKC, it wasn’t random, and it had nothing to do with theology.
It was about profiling her.
Even though Victoria had stopped following IHOPKC, the traffickers didn’t know that. They only saw what was directly in front of them:
- she knew Scripture
- she had strong discernment
- she responded with moral clarity
- she wasn’t susceptible to manipulation
To predators, people like that often come from:
- prayer movements
- holiness movements
- conservative or charismatic churches
- communities that emphasize purity
- ministries that teach moral resistance
And IHOPKC — regardless of controversies — is associated with all of those things.
So when the traffickers blamed IHOPKC for the reason they couldn’t get her to sign up to work as an escort, they weren’t commenting on IHOPKC’s program.
They were commenting on her:
— her purity
— her resistance
— her spiritual backbone
— her refusal to bend
This is the key distinction:
The traffickers were reacting to her character — not her theology.
She said “no,” and they needed someone to blame.
___
2. Her Spiritual History: The Source of Both Vulnerability and Strength
Victoria’s shift from IHOPKC to Stonebriar wasn’t random. It came from a deep spiritual crisis.
She had stopped following IHOPKC because of their “Awakening Services.”
According to what was reported online about the IHOPKC Awakening Services, it was common to see people shaking and convulsing during the services, allegedly because they were being touched by the Holy Spirit. Some were concerned that this activity was not the Holy Spirit manifesting in a tangible way as claimed, because some of it resembled the way demonic manifestations are described in the Bible, — and even kundalini awakening practices associated with witchcraft and the New Age movement.
The services caused mixed reactions within the IHOPKC community, were controversial and drew criticism. Some said these manifestations were people being filled with the Holy Spirit, others said they were the manifestations of demons rising to the surface so that the people afflicted could receive deliverance. Others were confused and didn’t know what to think about any of it.
The two men who led the services, Wes Hall and Alan Hood had the ability to lift their hands and make crowds fall to the ground involuntarily under what people claimed was “the power of the Holy Spirit.”
According to sources from the University of Cambridge that we spoke with who analyzed the videos from the Awakening Services, what Hall and Hood were doing also resembled druidic power rituals practiced in Scotland and the UK — rituals associated with witchcraft. They explained with Cameron’s background from Scotland, they can understand why those services alarmed her.
Because of the Awakening Services, when Cameron walked through the doors of Stonebriar Church, she had been keeping her distance from IHOPKC for while, and the traffickers didn’t know this.
At that time, she was:
- frightened by spiritual warfare
- frightened she had been deceived
- longing for safety
- longing for stability
- seeking something quiet, respectable, and grounded
- looking for a place that felt normal
- exhausted from surviving chaos
This combination — trauma + transition — is exactly what predators look for.
They hunt people who are:
- leaving a church
- rebuilding after spiritual injury
- searching for community
- craving safety
- isolated or disoriented
People in transition want:
— connection
— stability
— a fresh start
— emotional safety
But this is also where her spiritual strength operated.
Even in a disillusioned state, she recognized trafficking behavior instantly when it showed up at Stonebriar Church:
- she recognized the coded language
- she recognized the psychological tactics
- she recognized the danger
- and she recognized God’s warning
This tension — vulnerability and discernment at the same time — is one of the most important layers of her story.
___
3. She Went to Stonebriar Expecting Protection — and Instead Walked Into a Trap
Victoria believed Stonebriar Church was the opposite of the chaos at IHOPKC seen through their “Awakening services.”
She expected:
- safety
- stability
- tradition
- reverence
- trustworthy leadership
- a supportive choir community
She thought she had finally found a peaceful place to rest.
Instead, she walked directly into:
- a trafficking grooming network
- predators already operating inside the church
- members participating
- leadership blind, indifferent, or unwilling to see
- active recruitment happening in plain sight
- a system so brazen it didn’t bother hiding
The contrast is devastating:
She left what she feared was spiritual deception…
and walked into human trafficking in the lobby of a church.
She escaped what looked like demonic influence on a stage…
and found demons walking around the sanctuary of in human form.
This irony is central to the truth of the story:
Traffickers do not care about your theology — only about your vulnerability.
___
4. The Three Layers of the Traffickers’ Strategy
Layer 1: They Were Profiling Her Spiritually
The traffickers were not making small talk. They were performing psychological reconnaissance.
They wanted to know:
- What shaped her spiritually?
- What kind of worship environment felt familiar to her?
- What style of faith felt like “home”?
- What past wounds could they exploit?
- What religious language could they mimic to gain trust?
This is classic trafficking psychology:
“Understand her spiritual background so you can exploit it.”
___
Layer 2: They Thought It Gave Them Power to Reference Past Known Religious Affiliations
They did not know she had already left IHOPKC.
All they knew was:
- she once listened to IHOPKC worship
- she once valued intimate worship settings
- she once trusted charismatic community
To them, this meant:
“We know her type.
We know what language moves her.
We can use this.”
This is why they referenced:
- IHOPKC
- Upperroom
- 24/7 prayer
- worship music
- “radical devotion”
They believed they could create false spiritual familiarity.
But the tactic failed because her disillusionment had already taught her caution.
___
Layer 3: She Stopped Following IHOPKC Because of Disillusionment — and Fell Into Something Far Darker
The cruelest irony of her story is this:
- She fled what looked spiritually unsafe.
- She sought something traditional and grounded.
- She looked for conservative structure and reverence.
- She tried to avoid spiritual manipulation.
And she ended up in a place where trafficking operated openly, without fear.
A place people think is the safest environment of all:
a church.
___
5. Why IHOPKC Was Blamed — and What It Reveals
When one trafficker said IHOPKC was the problem they couldn’t recruit her to work for them as an escort, he wasn’t talking about theology.
He meant:
- girls with boundaries
- girls with discernment
- girls with convictions
- girls who didn’t fold under pressure
He assumed IHOPKC produced those things.
He assumed “IHOPKC girls” were harder to groom.
She resisted because of her values and her faith — not her past affiliation.
And ironically:
The very spiritual disillusionment she feared would weaken her is what protected her.
She wasn’t impressed.
She wasn’t naïve.
She wasn’t easily manipulated.
She wasn’t charmed by “religious language.”
She had already stared these traffickers in the face before — and survived.
That past gave her the clarity to see the danger at Stonebriar instantly.
___
Conclusion
This is how predators turned a church into a hunting ground:
- by scanning for vulnerability
- by weaponizing spiritual language
- by misreading her past
- by assuming she would be easy to groom
- by exploiting her search for stability
- by hiding behind the trust people place in religious communities
But they underestimated her.
Her discernment — born from spiritual crisis, not spiritual confidence — is what saved her life.
This is the paradox of her story:
She walked into Stonebriar looking for safety…
and her faith saved her instead.
How Readers Can Respond: Next Steps For Those Who Wish To Engage Thoughtfully 
Support Victoria’s Restoration Fund
Learn more about how you can stand with Victoria: Standing With Victoria
Read about The Trafficking Issue at Stonebriar Church
Stonebriar Church in Frisco, TX
Stonebriar Community Church is an Evangelical traditional style church located in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex at 4801 Legendary Dr, Frisco, TX 75034. The pastor of Stonebriar Church at the time of this incident was founding pastor Chuck Swindoll, who retired in October 2024. Chuck Swindoll is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, and is chancellor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary. Jonathan Murphy is the current senior pastor of Stonebriar Church. The church website is: https://www.stonebriar.org
The International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri
The International House of Prayer is a charismatic church located in Kansas City, Missouri at 3535 E Red Bridge Road, Kansas City, Missouri 64137, right on the edge of Grandview, Missouri. The pastor of The International House of Prayer at the time of this incident was founding pastor Mike Bickle. Mike Bickle is a charismatic pastor, most notably connected to the Vineyard worship movement. He was the pastor of Metro Christian Fellowship from 1982-1999. In 1999, he started The International House of Prayer, a 24/7 worship and prayer ministry known for its continuous harp and bowl prayer and worship sessions, and its theology of continuous worship based on The Tabernacle of David, and the heart behind Leviticus 6:13, “The fire on the altar shall never go out.” The 24/7 prayer room at The International House of Prayer fueled a global prayer movement to extend night and day prayer throughout the world to facilitate the mission of Jesus. It is also known for its conferences, which generated a unifying 24/7 prayer culture. The church website is: https://www.ihopkc.org
