I bought a girl. I paid money to a lady pimp, used a laser pointer to pick a girl who was standing in a sea of close to 100 girls, and ordered her a drink. I bought a girl.
These women are not prostitutes; they have been trafficked. Theres a difference.
Human Trafficking: The exploitation of vulnerability
Angeles City. A city with a Walking Street of about 1.5 miles of bars holding 15,000+ women being trafficked every night.
Women end up here because recruiters have gone to the poorest provinces in the Philippines in search of vulnerable girls. They promise a job as a “bartender” with a weekly paycheck that is more than their families make in a month combined. They are promised a good life and they are promised they can send money home to their siblings who are in the clutches of starvation. So they go. They trust the recruiter. Their vulnerability for money and food for their family has been exploited. They have been trafficked.
They work shifts from 6pm-4am hoping to make a commission on the drinks tourists buy them, or commission on…more. Going into work for the night they don’t know wether they’ll go home, get purchased for the night or even get purchased for the month. Sex trafficking isn’t like what we think of back home, it is so much more unjust. There are no “set up packages” for tourist men to take part in. Anything goes. They are able to purchase women to be their girlfriends for months at a time and to do with them whatever they please.
I bought a girl. A doe eyed girl who is so much more than her circumstance. A beautifully bright girl who never stood a chance.
During our first night of ministry my anger took over. My anger for the men in this area, the bar owners, the lady pimps, the husbands/boyfriends dropping their girls off to work took over. I am an extremely passionate person and in this situation my anger, my flesh took over. I no longer wanted to “release the kingdom” or “bring the love of Christ” to these women; I wanted to use my fists to make these people sorry. I wanted to lock them all away on a secluded island with tons of deadly hungry lions and no defense mechanism and let them fend for themselves. I wanted to do this to them because this is, in my mind, what they did to these beautiful girls. They threw them into a pit of lions. I wanted revenge.
God works in mysterious ways. Thats about the corniest christian line ever spoken. However for me, in this ministry, it rang true. Looking back on the past three days I went into it looking for results, for rescues, for numbers. The first night I brought my anger and passion and tried to rescue girls. I was unsuccessful. The mystery about this ministry is God is using it to teach me about his power. He is opening my eyes to the idea that His words, not mine, are what set people free. His words, not mine, are what give people comfort in desperate situations. His blood, not mine, gives eternal forgiveness and life.
The second night of ministry was a blur of love, friendship, fun and Christ. There were times on the second night when after speaking to a girl I took a “whoa” moment. I knew the words that just came out of my mouth were not mine, they were the words of the Holy Spirit, trust me, theres no way I could have come up with half that stuff on my own. I let the Holy Spirit lead me to where I needed to go and let the Spirit say what it needed to. I left my anger at home and brought with me only love. God brought 7 women to the meeting spot the next morning to take a chance and change their life.
I didn’t buy a girl: God bought her with his sacrifice.
I bought her a chance to taste freedom.
Anger/hate/revenge=0
Love/God/Holy Spirit=7
Reaching back to my college game days, I want to scream to the devil and past angry self:
!!!!!!!!!!*********SCOREBOARD*************!!!!!!!!!!!
**If this injustice is also on your heart and you want to get involved, Click Here to Support Me on this Journey! Thank you for your prayers and continued support. It means everything.
