Sometimes my mind has a hard time processing the bits and pieces of information I receive on a given day as I interact with those who are caught in a life of prostitution. A life that is light-years away from the world I was raised in. I never knew a world like this existed. I grew up in Small Town, Texas…a good little conservative, Baptist girl who never lacked love and acceptance, and who thought that getting drunk or taking drugs was the worst a person do. Prostitution & sex slavery was only a subject in movies…movies I never saw but knew existed.
Today one of the prostitutes that I am friends with (for her safety, I’ll call her “Fran”) told me the whole story of something that happened just one month ago. Through an interesting series of events, she became friends with three women from her home country of Romania. They had been beaten, starved and forced to prostitute themselves, sometimes locked in rooms for days at a time. In Romania they were told they had been given jobs in Belgium picking crops and working in fields. When they arrived here, they discovered that those jobs never existed. When Fran first saw them, one girl especially was skin and bones. You could see every bone in her body.
Fran realized what was happening to them and, to make a long story short, brought them up to the ministry center so we could help them get out of the country and escape their pimp. They had been trying to save money to buy airline tickets by holding back 5 or 10 Euros from every “client” and hiding it from their pimp. They hid the money in condoms in a particular body cavity until they could get by themselves to hide it in a better location. When I heard her say that today, I almost burst into tears, but held it back because I didn’t want her to stop talking. Those three young women wanted to be free of their pimp so badly that they were willing to do anything….whatever it took. (more…)
Those are the words that I heard yesterday while talking to a woman in her window in the red light district of a city near me. I have heard those words several times in the past year, and every time I feel so helpless and without concrete answers. Of course I say that God will give them strength, that He will direct their steps and that He loves them very much, but I have nothing to offer them that will give them rent money or food on their tables. We teach them how to make and sell jewelry, but it’s hard to make enough jewelry to pay your rent. It is such a conflicted feeling. My heart soars with the fact that “L” wants out. She is 50+ years old and has worked in prostitution for 33 years. She knows no other life. It’s the quickest way to get cash. She doesn’t want her children and grandchildren following in her footsteps, and she feels so much shame. She keeps saying, “Next week I’m leaving.” And next week never comes.
Although I’m thrilled that she wants out, I am clueless as to how to counsel her to do it. She was quick to show me her laptop and Psychology book for a college course she is taking. The laptop was opened on her chair in the window. I loved seeing the light in her eyes as she talked about this course. The book is written in Dutch, and she was having to use Google translator for the harder words. (She is from Dominican Republic and Spanish is her main language.) It makes her feel more like a normal person to be studying this. I’m happy for her.
If only we had a safe place nearby where we could take them to be cared for until they get established in a legitimate profession. A place that would put as much emphasis on their internal life before God as their outward, practical life. I desire to see these women come alive with the revelation of God’s fiery, intense love for them. To see life in their eyes and smiles on their faces. They need someone to constantly hold their hands for at least a few months, to continually say, “You can DO this!” They need someone to say every day, “Hey, let’s pray together. God has the answer.” They need someone to help them get visas and work permits, etc.. There is SO much need! (more…)
