“The man sitting there at that table is not her husband, but one of her “friends”.” “Friends” is a code word for “client” or “customer”.
A couple of days ago I had the honor of visiting one of the smaller villages here. This particular town was destroyed by a natural disaster in the 1980’s but never truly rebuilt. Prior to devastation, this was known as an industrial town. There was a sports center for kids, there were jobs, and there were homes. After destruction swept through, this left thousands of people dead and the rest became homeless. This was a very traumatizing part in the history of the people in this village.
I wish I could tell you that they rebuilt, but they never fully came out of that. Their houses now consist of old donated metal storage units without central heating. The homes are dirty. It’s a village frozen in time.
It’s so hard for them. No work. The kids lack fathers and education isn’t a priority at all. From what we have been told, this village is “hopeless”. A common story is told, “my husband left me to find work in Russia. He never came back.” There are a lot of single moms.
But my, oh my, the people in this village have stolen my heart.
I spent the large portion of my evening there teaching about David and Goliath and the Full Armor of God to two groups of kids. A few had physical and mental handicaps but were extremely attentive to every word and even taught us this awesome song about David and Goliath that I wish I knew the words to because it was so funny! It was super fun to teach them all about the different parts of God’s armor because they hadn’t learned about them before!
Before our session with the disabled children was over, I left Maryah and Connie and walked with Sam over to the home where the moms who sell their bodies were meeting together for bible study. I shared my testimony with them. I made sure I emphasized that my God can turn any life circumstance into beauty, we just have to choose to follow him! He’s our great redeemer! So many of the women were encouraged. And I was overflowing with Gods love for them!
After that, we prayer walked. As our friend and head of this project was giving us a tour and led us into one of the homes. The table had dirty used food dishes as they just finished a meal. The mom of the house was one of the women from the bible study. She sells her body for money. One of the boys from my class was sitting at the table with a man. But this man was not his father. He was a client. My heart couldn’t help but hurt as I saw the older man talking with and putting his arm around the little boy. I felt queezy.
We prayed for one of the kids in the home who had an ear infection and fever that God would heal her. We then prayed over the mom that she would choose to follow our Lord and that she would stop inviting men into the home. That she would have a deep revelation of how valuable she is and how loved she is and that she would choose another way. This particular woman has many children, but each were from a different father.
We left that home and continued to prayer walk and go into a few more homes to pray for specific people and healing. As we moved from house to house, there was a woman from the study who walked with us the entire time. She was our fourth wheel.
I can’t tell you her name, but she is considered an outcast in this community. She’s all alone. Her kids were removed and placed into an orphanage because of how badly she would hurt them. She would bring clients into her home while the children watched. It’s hard to swallow. She’s this tough woman now with a broken spirit. She was beat down, and hungry for hope. Hungry for love.
We were told that she does a lot of these things without realizing she is doing them. We were told she has a demon because it’s as if something overtakes her and she doesn’t even remember things after they are done. We began to pray for her in an alley way.
I prayed that she would be loosed from whatever is binding her in Jesus’ name. As I said this, she began to weep. She can’t understand my prayers, but she feels the loving presence of our daddy over her. She wept. I cried. We all prayed for her and gave her hugs. She is so desperately hungry for hope. And she says she wants to follow our saviour. We told her to be strong and that God is redeeming her story and to turn away from selling herself. It’s hard. But we continue to pray.
I know this is kind of a lot, but my mind is literally blown and I haven’t felt so much in my element in such a long time. Getting to play with and teach disabled and broken children starving for love. Spending time loving and speaking freedom over women. Praying for healing. Prayer walking. I absolutely love this little village and I pray to never forget what God showed me here.
If you guys could keep me in prayer and also the people of the village, because we are going back this weekend! I am so excited to see them all again. My heart burns for them.
