A couple weeks ago I was blessed to have my parents come visit me at PVT (Parent Vision Trip) here in the Philippines for a week. During that week I was able to see my parents for the first time in 6 months and do ministry together. In this week we were able to help a man named Kenny and his organization Wipe Every Tear here in Manila. Here in the Philippines there is a town about 2 hours away from Manila called Angeles City. Angeles City is known for the gross amount of bars and sex trafficking concentrated on “walking street”. Walking street is a sectioned off part of the city where there are hundreds of bars. In each Bar there are anywhere from 50 to a couple hundred girls that work shifts each night. This means that there are thousands of girls working on walking street. These girls are taken from their homes in small provinces or told that there is a job in Angeles City such as a dish washer or a maid where they could work without a college education and send money back to their province to support their families. They are usually “sold” by a family member or friend because whoever tells them about the “job” Gets paid a reward. Once they get to the city they then tell them that the job was taken or that they were too late then toss them a bag with a bikini in it and say “put it on” and be on the stage in 10 minutes. Most of the girls spent all their money they had getting to the city so they have no choice but to work in the bars. For many girls this is the beginning of a nightmare that never ends.
Wipe Every Tear is an organization that have safe houses for these girls in Manila and also support their finances, utilities, as well as a college education for all the girls! And all of this is FREE! Here is their website if you want to know more about them: wipeeverytear.org .Our job was to go into the bars and tell these girls and ladyboys (men dressing and acting as women) that were being forced into prostitution about Wipe Every Tear and everything they can provide for the girls.
How the bars work: there can be anywhere from 50 to hundreds of girls working in the bars at any given time and how they make money is if a customer buys their time by buying a drink for them. This is how the bar makes money and the girl makes a certain percentage off that drink. So I would actually go into these bars as a 19 year old male with my Mom and Dad (lol) and we would call a girl or ladyboy down from the stage where they were dancing (here in the Philippines you motion someone to come to you with your hand pointed down because if you motion with your hand facing up you are calling them a dog or a whore) and buy their time with a drink, which would usually be some type of juice. At first some of them are confused at why you aren’t using them for their body and then got really confused when you told them you are a missionary from the United States. It was always funny when I would point to my Mom and Dad and say oh yeah and that right over there are my parents. Their faces would light up and they would think it was so funny that I came to the bar with my parents. Now most people would think it is not helpful for men to go into a bar and talk to the girls who are being trafficked or that as a young adult going into the bar with your parents would even be thought of, but there were a lot of things that Kenny did different in this ministry. As another example He would have us go into the bars all dressed up and look like we are going to a party. Kenny said He was worshipping with a group of volunteers one night before they went out to the bars a couple years ago and He said He got a vision of them “going out into the bars dressed to the nines and the girls had the brightest lipstick and nice dresses and everyone looked like they were partying.” So after that night they went out just as they did in the vision He got from God, all dressed up and celebrating. We were celebrating the freedom these girls could have, the freedom from the bars and freedom in christ. Another crazy thing that would happen is that the girls who have been rescued from the bars go back out to the bars to tell the other girls about Wipe Every Tear. And this is not at all a requirement for the girls to go back. The girls would be begging to be one of the few who gets to go back to Angeles city each trip.
So I would start talking to the girls about their dreams, goals, ambitions, how many kids they have, how long they have been in Angeles city and anything you can get them to talk about to get their mind out of the bar. And then I would usually ask them “If you could go to college for free what would you study?” Now these girls know what they would study but when asked this they usually do one of two things. Number one, they either stop and stare off into the distance like they are thinking about it because they don’t want to look too ambitious or number two, as soon as you ask the question they blurt it out as if they had never gotten the chance to say what it was. “I want to be a Chef”, “I want to study Business”, “ I want to become a flight attendant and travel the world”. And then I get to tell them that it is possible for them to study that for free, to tell them that they could become a those things for free! And that with this comes free housing, community with other girls, job opportunities and even an allowance to support their families back in their province. Most girls don’t really believe you when you say this. They think there is some sort of catch, that they have to pay the organization back in some way.
There were two girls that I talked to (actually the first two) that had only been in the bars 5 days. Lets say their names were Ruby and Sheila. Ruby (27) and Sheila (18) were sisters and Ruby left her province when Sheila was still very young and they just started working the bars so their hearts weren’t as hardened as some of the other girls. When I started talking to Sheila about what she wanted to study she pulled number one and looked off into the distance and didn’t say much. So I asked her what makes her heart happy. Still nothing. I told her that Loving on people makes my heart happy, that doing this right now makes my heart happy it brings me joy to talk to her. At this point she started to tear up and look away and then she looked back at me and said “I want to teach children in school. I want to be there for the kids in my province and be their helper, be their Mom because no one was there to help me as a child, no one was there to take care of me.” At this moment it was like we were in a coffee shop or on a porch having a conversation with a friend. But in a bar with music blaring and girls being prostituted on stage this girl was sharing her testimony with me and telling me that there was no one there to take care of her as a child. Ruby was listening to this and feeling very guilty that she wasn’t there to take care of her sister. Once I started talking to Ruby she said she wanted to study business and food so she could start her own restaurant.
It was so amazing to see these girls hearts being vulnerable in a very dark place and how they had never been asked what they wanted in life. Never been given the opportunity to succeed or excel. God did a great work in those bars in Angeles City and a great work in my heart through those girls.
