I received these words of wisdom in an E-mail from a wonderful warrior named Sue Tandy.
“I remember sitting in a church in Wales, a congregation of about 400 were seated. As I looked around I could see this vast army all sitting there with their shiny armor on (like the knights of old) they had there shields and weapons. The Lord said to me “Look at my army, see how shiny their armor is” and I sat their suitably impressed by it all, then He said ” The reason why their armor is so shiny is because they will not fight”, no dirty marks on them, no dents, nothing! “No one has taught them how to fight and no one has led them to the battle field.”
Well here we are in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and we are in the midst of a battle. This battle “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. Our squad has been praying on the full armor of God everyday since before we arrived in Vietnam in expectation of the spiritual warfare ahead. (Ephesians 6:13-19)
Another thing that Sue Tandy taught me is that in wars prisoners are always held captive behind enemy lines. There are no prisoners in friendly territory. Our squad has come together in agreement and has decided to walk behind enemy lines and release the captives that the enemy has stolen (Isaiah 61). A battle has ensued and we are definitely getting our armor dirty.
The battle started the day I met Iris. (I don’t know her real name, but the Lord gave me a new name for her
and so I call her Iris) The night I saw her she walked down the dark corridor of the main floor of our hotel escorted by an older gentleman in red silk pajamas. As the man opened the door to room number 7 she looked back over her shoulder intently into my eyes with this look of desperation and emptiness. Her eyes told a story of innocence lost at the young age of around 15. She didn’t speak a word, but her eyes screamed in broken despair and hopelessness. At this one glance I broke inside. I felt a deep compassionate love for this girl and at the same time a holy anger for what the enemy had stolen from her. At that moment I intended to fight for her restoration.
Another crucial moment that wrecked me was witnessing the transaction between the hotel boss and the prostitutes. The boss returned the girls id and then pulled out a book that had a list of the 30 prostitutes that work for the hotel. The book kept track of their time in and out as the men are limited to an hour with each girl. The amount of time determined the amount of money the men had to pay. The hotel boss was paid 250,000 dong by the man and then after the money was distributed the girl was only paid 20,000 dong, which is equivalent to one cup of tea with milk; bubble tea, a typical Vietnamese drink. This is approximately $1.25. This assessment of value and exchange of money filled me with utter sadness. How is one girls’ innocence worth a cup of tea?
After this night of warring I knew that the battle had just begun. I began “Fire in the Night,” an all night prayer meeting where 2 people from our squad would sign up for each hour of the night to combat the spiritual warfare and prostitution in the rooms below. We have intercession meetings in the same place every morning at 6:30am. And, now we are currently preparing for an all night prayer and worship meeting with our whole squad. We are coming together on Sunday evening with a time of prayer, an hour of worship and different rooms with stations such as communion, meditation, creative worship, information on sex-trafficking and Buddhism. We are renting out a room on the main hallway, which is normally used for prostitution all night long and that room will be a prayer room with candles and prayer for the girls right outside those walls.
Please join us in prayer as we war together on Sunday from 12pm-4pm your time. We believe that we have seen some tremors and slight breakthroughs, but that an earthquake is coming. God is going to shake things up! Pray specifically for Iris and our friends on the hotel staff. I will not say names for their protection, but one staff member is planning on going to church with us tomorrow.
