Last week was perhaps the most heart wrenching week of my life.
I was in Angeles City with my parents. It’s the biggest hub for sex trafficking in the Philippines. There, I partnered with Wipe Every Tear in an effort to get girls out of the bars.
I want to do my best to explain to you what goes on and what Wipe Every Tear is doing to bring freedom.
Firstly, let me describe Angeles City. Being a city known for sex tourism, it is a very dark place. That is, spiritually. It’s as if a heavy and dark blanket covers the whole town. It’s like a 3rd world Las Vegas. In the day, the streets are filled with busy people and street vendors going about their business. But at night it turns into a fantasy land enticing people with lights and music and bar after bar after bar.
There is a main strip called “The Walking Street” with the biggest and most popular bars. Outside the bars stand scandalously dressed women calling for people to come inside. As you walk the strip you pass homeless children selling cigarettes and Viagra, you pass transgender males dressed as females, and you pass the men who are there for the girls. These men are mostly older and utterly lost, searching for acceptance and companionship in the wrong place. These poor men are slaves to their flesh and bound to their sin. My first instinct was to be disgusted at these men and what they do. But the Lord broke my heart for them, and told me that my sin looks no different to Him and I need grace just as badly as they do. They are men that God loves dearly and He told me that I must love them too.
The bars. When you walk into a bar you have to push through a dark curtain that keeps people from seeing in from the outside. The first thing you notice is the smell of cigarettes and the music pounding in your ears. The design and layout of each bar is different but concept is the same—chairs, booths and benches all surrounding a stage. And on that stage stand the girls. Your heart drops when you see these girls standing up their hardly dressed surrounded by staring men. They are portrayed like an item on the shelf at a store. Some are dancing, to make money, but most don’t hide the way the feel about being there. Their faces are filled with sadness and fear. They did their best not to express it, but you could see. How it works is a man will select the girl of his choosing and buy her a drink. (You have to buy a drink to talk to a girl and the girls get a small commission on those drinks.) At that point the men are on a sort of fake date with the girl and they can choose to purchase the girl for the night which costs about $60. (The girl makes 40-60% of that). That is how it works and is what normal life looks like for these girls. They go in around 7 p.m. dance in front of men all night and get off at 6a.m. Then sleep all day then go back to work at night.
Now these girls do NOT choose to be here. They are not under lock and key but they are financially bound to this work. Many of them have families in the province and without this work they would not eat. These girls provide for their whole family. You see, in the Philippines, it is almost impossible to find work without a college degree. I’m sitting at McDonald’s typing this and all the people who work here have college degrees. So these girls have no option for work except the bars.
But here’s the good news, Wipe Every Tear is making an impact. Freedom is being proclaimed in Angeles City. This organization, that was started 4 years ago, gets girls OUT of the bars. They offer girls a place to live, food, a daily allowance, a chance to finish high school and a full ride scholarship to college… For free! All that is required is for the girl to say yes.
So 40 of us, including the great people from Wipe Every Tear, spent three nights going into the bars and spreading the word about this opportunity.
We would call a girl down and start talking with them. We’d ask about their life, family, and dreams for the future. We’d buy them some juice or a chocolate milk and just love them (they love chocolate milk because they are very hungry.) Then we would tell them about Wipe Every Tear and their chance to get out of the bars. Many of the girls could not believe it. They were astounded. We would also have girls from Wipe Every Tear who used to be in the bars and they would tell their testimony to the girls in their native language. It’s beautiful and all you want is for them to just trust you and walk out right there. But it is not always simple. These girls want to trust us but are usually hesitant. They can’t risk missing a night of work, and you need to understand that the girl’s bosses warm them about us, they say we are liars and will traffic them to another country. Some even say that we will kill them.
We invite them to leave with us on our last day to see one of the girl’s houses and know that this opportunity is real.
So that’s what we did, we went from bar to bar as the Spirit led, talking to girl after girl and just showing them love and a chance to be free.
On Friday morning, our last day. We waited eagerly to see if any of the girls would show up to come see the house with us. And 8 girls showed up! 2 of them were “lady boys” (that’s what they call transgender men, they are in the same situation just on the street not in the bars.)
We were so excited that they trusted us enough to come with us and see for themselves what Wipe Every Tear is doing.
Wipe Every Tear has 5 houses right now, and 82 girls in those houses. But the needs are growing larger. They need another house soon and more people willing to help in this fight for freedom. If you are looking for some way to help I strongly suggest looking into Wipe Every Tear.
Go to http://wipeeverytear.org and join the fight.
