This blog actually makes no reference to the Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston film if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ve never even seen the movie. If you can believe it, I served as a bodyguard for ministry. I can’t say I imagined I would ever be doing that. With my body type, I don’t exactly fit the bill.
On one of our ministry nights, a small group of women were to venture into a part of town that would require them to have a male present for safety reasons. I just so happen to be a male, so I went with them. Usually all of our ministry is within walking distance, but not this time. So we crammed into the leader’s wife’s car and took a drive.
I’ve worked with children, visited ill people in the hospital, and feed the poor on the Race, but this is one ministry that I have NEVER been involved in before. Reaching out to prostitutes. How do you prepare for that, especially when you just found out you were going? You really don’t. The idea naturally made me uneasy. So I took assurance in my responsibility, to protect these women.
Please understand something. It has taken a lot of time invested by the current ministry to build any type of relationship with these ladies. We had to tread carefully. Even as we casually walked down this poorly lit alley, some of the women gave us cautious stares, questioning our presence.
Upon approaching our first lady, we all knelt down in the street giving warm smiles as the leader introduced each of us. She shyly smiled back at us only to be polite. You knew this was a place that none of them wanted to be. There was a painful shame that each of them seemed to carry due to lifestyle they would not choose for themselves.
They weren’t Julia Roberts in “Pretty Women”, quite the opposite. I don’t say this to disrespect them, but to shed a little light on their situation. You see, most them were older women. Several of them mothers with multiple children. None of this is ideal in their line of work. It’s a heartbreaking situation because they have to deal with a whole other level of rejection.
Even as the ladies ministered, I would occasionally shift my focus to our surrounding environment to make sure there was no threat or concern. Every couple of minutes another man would slowly drive down the alley on his motorbike. Sometimes they would even stop by us and stare. They would eventually leave because I stared back at them or because they lost interest. I’m not sure.
I partly wrote this to process my experience because it’s certainly was foreign to me, but also to share with you the reality of the trade from someone you know. It’s not just a statistic anymore to me. It’s not just the latest fad ‘cause’ for people to rally behind. It’s mothers and daughters just trying to make it by, that have little to no hope for a future. Lord help us, help them.
