“One quarter of all women trafficked GLOBALLY are trafficked out of Central & Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, totally 200,000 women each year. A majority of these women become enslaved prostitutes.”
It’s cheap.
They’re young, beautiful Russian and Latvian women,
Bachelor party?—why not. Plane tickets are affordable to Latvia.
What happens in Riga stays in Riga.
Now, I could attempt to write a blog on my personal thoughts of sex trafficking. Perhaps mention how the impact of porn has influenced the desensitization of individuals, often encouraging not only a need for increased exposure, but the desire to act out on their fantasies. I could write about the fact that men pay for an illusion, and every dollar that they shell out time and time again will never purchase an internal demand for intimacy and connection. That regardless of the amount you spend on a woman, it will never be enough.
Let’s be real, I could just rant. It’s EVIL. It’s wrong. It literally breaks my heart.
But instead, I’ll just give you my firsthand account of trafficking overseas and the reality of prostitution.
Last week, I suited up with my fellow squad mates. With our coats on and boots tied up, we set out to wreck kingdom havoc with a ministry we met from our unsung heroes month. Freedom 61 is an outreach that reaches out to the woman in prostitution here in Latvia. Lysette and her fellow coworkers started this ministry with the aspirations of giving women true love and serving their practical needs. It’s simple. They go out with cupcakes and coffee on the nights girls are in the streets. They find women and go and talk to them. They form relationships. Consistently visiting these women over and over again. Throughout the week, they’ve built a coffee shop specifically as a safe haven for these ladies to come throughout the day. They serve food to these individuals and listen to their stories. They wait, and they pray.
They also go out and scout bars. Brothels are underneath them, and at times you have to be the ‘stupid naive tourist,’ in order to seek out what bars have these brothels. This was our job, along with seeking out women and asking to pray for them. Going wherever the Spirit led.
It’s amazing what you see when you know what to look for.
Large groups of men, woman standing on the side of street corners. Bars with backdoors. Simply ask a bike taxi where to find the, ‘good girls,’ and they’ll show you. After all, they get commission for the amount of buyers they send to certain places.
I met multiple girls that night. Some busy, others annoyed that we’d bother them. Some dolled up and others wearing hand me downs. I met what felt like hordes of men, getting in and out of vans, entering ally bars, heading up to strip clubs. We prayed over bike taxi’s and bars.
It was overwhelming.
And it was easy to feel like this was nothing more than a futile effort. I had to shake the frustration off my shoulders that night as we left the streets. All you can do is lift fierce prayers up to God for eyes to be enlightened to truth and for renew passions of people to seek justice. I read once that both the faces of the users and the used display nothing but hopelessness.
It’s true.
The one that pays for the sin and sins for the pay make a leveled playing field of despair. I ask that you’ll join me in not just endless intersession, but to take action even locally if that’s something God lays upon your heart.
Be bold. Pray. Be aware.
