Wipe Every Tear is an organization that helps young women who are being trafficked in the bars. They welcome them to a safe house, provide a monthly allowance, provide meals and provide them with a paid education! It’s the truth, and many believe it too good to be true.
For ministry we go into the bars where only white foreigners are allowed access. On the Main Street there are over 15,000 women in a half mile radius . . . The bars are packed with women who are available for their time and bodies.
When going into the bars, we have a local volunteer who makes whom ever we talk to feel at ease, because often these volunteers have experienced life in these bars. They also are more qualified with the questions and services Wipe Every Tear can offer them.
When we are at the bar we invite a young women to come to our booth. We buy her a drink so the bar is happy, and we tell her about Wipe Every Tear and a safe house she can come too. These young women are relieved when they find out we just want to talk with them. And in disbelief of the news we share with them.
I will always remember the first night going into the bar in the light district. It was the most degrading place I could imagine. I wasn’t prepared what was past the black curtains of the bar. Coming into the bar to see hundreds of young women only wearing g-strings, duct tape over their breasts and numbers written on their lower backs. I felt like I was going to throw up. The atmosphere of the bar was surrounded by brokenness, promiscuity, fear, and addiction. We were now walking into a serious spiritual war zone.
The first night I saw a young woman wearing a red bow in her hair, but I didn’t have a chance to talk with her. Later that night, before I went to bed, I thought of the girl with the red bow, and knew I should have talked with her. Before going into the bars a world race alumni who was in my group kept seeing the number 5… 5… 5…
Our first day of ministry was the hardest and saddest. I didn’t feel like we had any clarity. I was confused and just sad. I cried in my room most of the next day, and almost decided not to go out that next night. But I felt like the spirit was filling me up with energy, and for something. So that night we made it back into the bar/club that we visited the night before.
I asked the volunteer if there was anyone she thought we should talk too? She pointed to a girl in a blue skirt and then I realized it was the same girl from the other night with the red bow! This bar had hundreds of young women …. so the fact that she pointed her out was totally God. I called her over, and my group all yelled out in excitement because they were just about to call her over!
We told her about the program, and she was very excited and ready to leave the bar. She had only been there for a month, and her family had no idea this was what she was doing. She then said she had 5 friends she was going to encourage to leave with her … (5…5…5…). She started talking more to the volunteer and I just really felt I needed to affirm her, so I told her she was a leader for caring for her friends and looking after them – she then looked at me in shock because she had just told the volunteer that she was a leader in Filipino.
I told her that God loves her, and there was a reason we were gathered. I explained all the ways God led us to her! She was very encouraged. In the same bar, I experienced the lowest point and one of my most fulfilled conversations on the race, just nights apart.
The next morning over breakfast many of the young women from the bars came to check out the safe houses and see for themselves – while finishing up my breakfast I looked out for my friend with the red bow, but I never saw her.
When we think to ourselves “this is my clarity! this is my comfort!” sometimes it just happens temporarily … but God has more story to tell! We can’t comprehend his ways or his goodness. I still wish I could end this one with a happy ending but real life doesn’t tie up in a bow, and the truth is there is a lot more work to be done.
