Hey everyone.
I am currently in South Africa and things are going well her, but I will not be speaking about South Africa in this blog.
There are many stories that I just cant figure out how to type out, and I apologize for that. I am going to try my best to tell this story well.
about 2 months ago, my mom had the opportunity to come to the Philippines for a week and serve alongside me and the rest of my squad and some of their parents. We were told ahead of time what our ministry was going to be, but I avoided thinking about what it was because I was honestly scared about it.
Red Light District.
That may not hold very much weight for everyone, but my heart both breaks and jumps for joy when I hear those words.
We basically go into one of the worlds largest sex tourism areas in the world and we give girls hop to get out of this life style. We were working with an organization that took in girls who were working and dancing in the bars and we offer them a home, a bed, food, school, and community.
My mom and I were paired with my squad mate Sydney, her parents, and two Filipino girls who used to work in the bars but were pulled out and given a hope that they did not have to live in that anymore.
Ministry starts around 10 pm and we roll out to what they called Walking Street, which is where all the bars were. One of our Filipino girls told us to just point out the bar that we feel called to, and we will go there.
I’m looking around and the bar called “Champagne” stands out to me, so we go.
Let me first explain that we are a very weird looking group. Two young blonde white people, two mothers, a man, and two Filipino girls.
We walk through the front door (I was beyond nervous at this point, and let me add that I was doing this with my mother) and we see the scene.
A bar to sit at, and the girls are dancing on a stage right in front of the bar. they have numbers, and what you do is you call one over, buy them a drink, and they talk to you as long as they have a drink.
We sit down at the bar, and I am sitting next to Sydney. She tells me, “Lets call over the girl at the end”. We do, and she comes over. We will call her M. We order her a drink, and we start a conversation. We learn that its her first week working there, and she is doing it to support her daughter. She has a three year old daughter. We begin to ask about her daughter, and it was beautiful to see her face when she talked about her. Oh my goodness, if you could just see the way her face lit up when she was telling us how she gets to see her in the morning.
Conversation carries on, and a song Sydney loves comes on. I don’t remember the song, but she started dancing in her seat.
Normal, right?
M then asks if she wants to dance on stage with her. Sydney said yes and then dragged me with her.
You need to understand, this is my first time in any bar. Somehow I ended up on the bar stage dancing with a bunch of Filipina girls!
Oh my goodness, I cant tell you in words how the environment changed after that. I walked inside and saw hopelessness, but now I saw and was experiencing true Joy with these girls that the Lord loves dearly. They are his daughters, and he knows them well. He knows their hearts, and wants to spend time with them. They weren’t just dancers, they are daughters.
Absolutely Beautiful.
The song ended and we all went back down to our seats including M. She had a huge smile on her face, and we continued our conversation.
It was around this time that M asked us if we wanted to meet her daughter. We said yes, we would love to meet her sweetheart 3 year old daughter. So, we set up a lunch date for noon the next day at the Wendys in the mall across the street (malls were plentiful in the Phil).
She agreed, and we parted ways.
We go to a few more bars that night, and every girl we talk to we invite to this lunch. We ended up inviting 11 or 12 girls. We were expecting a few to show up, but I was praying that M would show up.
The next day comes around, and we show up to Wendys around 11:45am.
We are waiting, and one of our Filipino girls sends texts to all these girls, and only gets responses similar to “We cant because we will get fired if we show up”.
12:15 hits, and M walks through the front door of Wendys with a little girl in her arms.
So stoked at this point.
Her daughter was so shy. We bought her a Frosty, and she wouldn’t eat it unless we all looked away from her.
We continue to tell her about the opportunity that we can give her of a home for her and her daughter, food, a bed, and schooling.
I don’t know if she went. I really don’t, but what I do know, is that she cared enough and trusted us enough to show up for lunch so we could see her again and meet her daughter.
Now I see those bars for what they really are: a place for celebration and joy. I say this because it is true. The Lord wants us for who we are, and He meets us where we are at. He taught me to see these girls in the same light He does. The real change happened when we saw these girls for who they are: Loved Daughters.
Thank you for reading. I will update you all on what is happening here in South Africa soon.
PS: Those of you who know my mother, she danced on stage as well at a few bars. This was the craziest ministry I have every been a part of.
