Darkness:Possessing little or no light.
Heaviness:Of great weight, quantity, or size.
Spiritual Warfare:(as defined by Ephesians 6:12) For our struggle 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.
Basically the three components of the worst trifecta ever.
On Wednesday night, after a few days of shoveling dirt piles that could fill my bedroom twice over, the ladies of team Unsilenced and Sculptors Seven were able to participate in a prayer “walk” around the city of Jaco.
Walking in Jaco is like walking in any other beach town. The attitude of “Pura Vida” is undeniable. The people smile and wave to each other, the drivers honk (if not at you) at the bikers, and the dogs stroll merrily along. Walking in Jaco on a night when your only mission is to pray for women being purchased, well, that’s a whole other ball game.
The air is immediately thick. The people are instantaneously sketchy. The darkness is no longer a product of the night but instead a tangible, terrifying sheet that has been tossed on your shoulders.
As I walked with my team, my fear was evident. I had no idea what I was doing here. I didn’t belong talking to these women, and I sure as heck didn’t belong talking to the men. Satan was aiming hits at us left and right and some of them were sticking. We stepped off of a sidewalk and a teammate was injured when a piece of metal was jammed into her foot. At this point everything in me was yelling at me to go home. I couldn’t do this.
We made our way closer and closer to a well known prostitution site. The darkness was so heavy I thought it was going to take me physically to my knees. As we made our way deeper into the heaviness, we saw members of our team sitting outside of the building. They said that they had gone in for a bit but had decided to move outside to pray. As we sat and discussed our next move, some of the girls felt led to move inside to try to talk with some of the girls. I stayed outside to pray.
I moved to sit by myself across the driveway and as I sat, I watched. I watched men older than my father take young girls into hotel rooms and emerge to pick another. I saw an American man touch all over a young girl who clearly could not comprehend the language difference. I watched girl after girl walk past in heels 6-7 inches high and clothes barely able to cover anything. Each with a mission. Each with a determination.
I was broken. I wept on the sidewalk and cried out to God. Why were these girls so blind to see that they were made in His image? Why could they not see that they are worth so much more than the men who had purchased them? Why were these men here? Why were they wearing their wedding rings? Why were they not ashamed when we made eye contact?
As I wept, the breeze blew and the heaviness disappeared. God lifted the veil off of my eyes. The women were no longer women I had nothing in common with. Instead they were daughters. They were sisters. They were my sisters. Sisters that are loved dearly and deeply by their Father. Sisters who had been told by the enemy over and over that this was their only answer. That selling yourself is what you do to survive.
Even as I write this, I can’t get the image of the men out of my head. I can’t get the image of a girl my age being led into a room by a man my grandfathers age.
Our world is a dark world. Yes. But.
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
To understand the battle we must first acknowledge that we are in a war. Until Wednesday, I did not realize the war I was fighting. I entered into a battle I knew nothing about. But our God is mighty and in Him we are more than conquerors.
I know the things experienced on Wednesday will not soon be forgotten. I know now what war is being waged. I know now the battle that is already being fought. I will take up my weapons. And I will not be blind in the darkness.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:5
