Have any of you ever heard of a cabin restaurant? I hadn’t either until a few weeks ago. There aren’t any brothels in Nepal, but cabinet restaurants are not far off from this. Instead of open areas, these restaurants have plywood walls around each table and booth to create a sense of privacy for each customer. The customers may pay for food and drinks, but they are more interested in paying to satisfy their lustful desires.
The girls that work there seldom do it by choice, at least that’s how they feel. Many girls will be recruited to leave their villages with promises of finding a well paying job in Kathmandu, but once they arrive in the city they discover that they cannot find many jobs due to their lack of education. This is when they fall into the trap of working in cabin restaurants. More than 50,000 women work in these “restaurant,” with more that 3/5 of them being minors. They get paid an average of $50 a month.
Going to a cabin restaurant to speak with the girls that work there has become part of our ministry this month. In this blog I’m going to tell you about my team’s experiences over three different days of ministry with girls we met there, Pamela and Dawn. In order to give these girls privacy and safety I’m not using their real names to tell these stories.
Day 1
I remember the feeling I had before our first time of ministry in the cabin restaurant. I was nervous, but also had no idea what to expect. Our host, Ruth, gave us an orientation about what we could expect our experience to look like. She said that we were to call her by a different name while at the restaurant in order to protect the Agape ministry and team. She was to simply be described as our tour guide and translator. It felt like we were going under cover on a rescue mission, and it really was just that. Our goal was to shed light into the darkness in those restaurants.
We took a long bus ride until we found an area that was specifically populated by cabin restaurants. The cabin restaurants are very hard to notice from the outside because they just look like all the other stores around the area. They are well disguised in plain sight. Ruth was able to find a new one for us to enter, and I remember saying a quick prayer for peace and guidance while walking in. The restaurant was empty when we arrived, thankfully, so we went in and grabbed a seat in our own little room. We crammed 7 of us into the tiny room, and 4 young women joined us shortly after. We found out that the women ranged from 17 to 24. In the cabin restaurants you have to order food or drinks to allow the women to stay, so we ordered 5 milk teas and 2 sprites. They returned with 5 mountain dews and 2 milk teas (close enough). The conversations were very awkward at first. Not to mention, everything had to be translated by our host in order to have any sort of communication. We asked them basic questions about where they were from and life in Nepal, and they mostly replied with quick and short answers. After a while we jumped on the opportunity to change the conversation over to our faith. From there on out, we spent 2 hours talking and answering questions about what being a Christian looks like. We took turns telling them our stories and sharing the Gospel, and it was obvious that they were curious. Before we left that day we made sure to make plans to see them in the future, praying that they would follow through.
Inside the cabin restaurant
Day 2
When Ruth informed my team that we would get to spend time with the girls outside of the cabin restaurant we were SO excited! We had been praying all weekend for the opportunity to see them again, so we were thankful to see those prayers answered. Two of the girls, Pamela and Dawn, invited us to spend time at their house before they had to leave for work. When we arrived, we walked into their one-room house and sat on the floor. Their landlord stopped by to have a conversation with with us. She told us that she was a Christian and had been praying for the girls ever since they moved in. We chatted and had a good time while the girls made us tea and lunch. Pamela accidentally cut her finger while preparing the food, so she grabbed a black scarf off the bed and wrapped it around her hand. In that moment Ruth realized that the scarf had come from the Agape team. Dawn said that a group “very similar to you” came into the restaurant last year passing out Christmas gifts, and that’s how they received the scarf. How crazy is that?! It was so evident that God had been pursuing them and working in their hearts for quite some time. After eating lunch, we pulled out a Bible and began telling them the parables about the lost sheep and lost coin from the book of Matthew. Pamela kept saying that she needed to go to church, so we took this opportunity to tell her that she doesn’t have to be in a church to pray to God. After a few more questions, Pamela decided that she wanted to accept Jesus into her life as her Savior. PRAISE GOD! It didn’t take long for Dawn to follow her friend and decided to accept Jesus as well! I told them that just like in the parables, the angels in heaven were cheering with us as we welcomed two new sisters in Christ.
Dawn praying to accept Jesus into her life
The girls decided that they wanted to skip work that day so they could spend more time with us. They called the cabin restaurant owner and lied about why they were missing work. He went on to tell them that if they didn’t show up he would beat them up the next day. They weren’t phased by this, but instead they just laughed and said they would deal with it tomorrow. It was sobering for me to realize that getting beat up was a normal part of their job. When we asked them if they had considered finding a new job, Dawn said, “We know that this is a terrible job, so of course we would want to find something else. Since we don’t have any education this is just the only job we are qualified for.” We mentioned that we could possibly help them find another job, and they gladly took this offer. (Ruth and the Agape team have several connections with non profits that specifically focus on getting girls out of trafficking and into better jobs.)
We decided that it would be fun to take the girls to the city to visit a mall and see a movie. From the bright lights and pristine mall stores to the escalators, this was a brand new experience for them. They had to grab our arms as we approached the escalators because they had never seen one before. We all laughed as the hesitantly stepped on. We joked that it was just like the scene from the movie Elf.
Riding the escalator for the first time
It turned out that this mall had a bowling ally, so of course we had to them how to bowl. Pamela learned very quickly and was having the time of her life. Dawn, on the other hand, was getting quiet and you could tell she was upset. She had received probably 30 or so phone calls from her boss and customers at the restaurant, all very angry that she wasn’t their for work.
Pamela and I bowling
Pamela said that she hadn’t seen a movie since she was a little kid, and she really wanted to go. A half our later we found ourselves sitting in a 3 hour long Nepali comedy. We couldn’t understand a single thing that was going on, but it didn’t matter. That morning we were planning on talking with the girls for a few hours before work, but God had different plans. We got to spend the entire day with our 2 new sisters in Christ.
Day 3
We were told that we would get to spend time with Pamela and Dawn again, and it would probably be the last time before we left Nepal. We decided that we wanted to buy the girls jackets for Christmas as an opportunity to explain about the upcoming holiday. We met the girls at their house for a quick cup of tea, and they had invited one of their friends to join us. She used to work with them at the cabin restaurant, but had to leave because she was pregnant. The father left her to be with another woman. Everyone was telling her that she shouldn’t have the baby, but she is planning on keeping it. We got to pray for her and the baby before we left to go to the market. After buying the jackets for the girls we headed to a “tea hotel” to tell them more about Christmas. We shared the story of the birth of Jesus and exchanged a few more encouraging words before they had to go to work. Pamela said that she was going to miss us, and the feeling was definitely mutual. We told them that we might not get to see them again on earth, but we will definitely get to spend time with them in heaven. When that happens there won’t be any language barriers or limits to our conversations.
The girls in their new jackets with the store owner
It was hard to say goodbye to Pamela and Dawn, but we know that Ruth will keep in contact with them even after we are gone. She has been searching for new jobs for them so they can leave the cabin restaurant, and then she will eventually be able to abandon her identity as a “tour guide” and begin to mentor them.
Please pray that God provides new jobs for Pamela and Dawn soon, and pray for protection and safety over them as they are still in their current job. It has been clear that God is opening up doors for these girls, so I have full faith that He will provide a way for them to leave the cabin restaurant lifestyle.
This is a story that we don’t get to see the end of yet, but we know the end is in God’s hands. My teammate, Allison, put it perfectly in her blog by saying, “Two beautiful children thought they were enslaved to sex from strangers for the rest of their lives because they didn’t have any education. Two beautiful children received 50 dollars a month to have their body used day in and day out…but today, two beautiful children became daughters of the highest of high King. No matter what suffering they go through on this earth and no matter how much they may have been used, this isn’t their true home. Their eternal life has started today.”
Fundraising update!
I’m currently sitting right around 70% funded! I still have to raise another $1300 as soon as possible to be able to continue on the field with my squad. If you would like to donate please click the “support me” link on the left, all donations are tax deductible!
