(note: Asha Nepal exists to break the cycle of sex-trafficking in Nepal. I’m living at a home that aims to bring restoration and rehabilitation for women and their children who have been sexually abused and exploited.)
Sometimes I forget what this place is.
When I look at these ladies it’s hard to imagine what they’ve come from.
Partly because I’m missing the part of my brain that understands how human beings could possibly treat each other the way these women have been treated.
And partly because I’m missing the part of my brain that understands how anyone could go through what these women have been through and still be here. Still be living. How they didn’t just shrivel up and die. How anyone could possibly survive and still be smiling, still be laughing.
Sometimes I forget what this place is.
But the reality is that some of these women were sold by people who should have loved them. (How can human beings be sold? My brain again can’t comprehend this.) They were RAPED multiple times a day for five YEARS. Then they were spit back out and rejected by their families and society.
The reality is that some of the children here were born in brothels and came here with their mothers. Some children have mothers who are still working in the brothels. Some of their mothers died of HIV. Some of the children have HIV themselves.
Sometimes I forget what this place is.
But maybe that’s okay. Because that stuff I just said, where these women and children came from, that is NO LONGER WHO THEY ARE.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he (she) is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
-2nd Corinthians 5:17
These women are not former prostitutes. They are daughters of the Most High God. They are beautiful, funny, spunky, and smart. They are skilled at embroidery and jewelry making and other things. They are so much better in the kitchen than I could ever be and laugh at ever attempt I make. It’s hilarious. They are smart and capable and good mothers. And I am so excited to keep learning about the many other things that they are.
These children are not orphans. They have a Father who loves them more than they could ever imagine, who spares nothing to show that love. These children are smart and talented and are so full of value and worth, and have a future and a hope.
This is what this place is:
You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give You thanks forever.
-Psalm 30:11-12
