Just a heads up: I know a few classes of young students follow my blog. Please read this before sharing anything with kids… this blog is definitely not meant for young readers. Thanks.
Last weekend, I walked into a red light district for the first time.
Red Light Districts… Areas where prostitution and sex related business is everywhere.
As you walk past the bars, all of the girls are smiling and welcoming to those passing by. They are all dressed up in little dresses, makeup on, ready for the night. They look happy. Smiling. Laughing.
But are they really that happy?
No… deep down they are not happy. They give themselves to men night after night because they have to.
Some of these women are said to be here by “choice.” By that I mean they were not forced into this kind of work by people… but maybe circumstances. They don’t have an education or the skills needed for other work. So, this is what they can do.
But, some women, and even children, do not have the “choice” to work like this. They are forced to. It’s the nasty reality called Human Trafficking. The thought of this disgusts me, angers me, and saddens me.
People being kidnapped and forced to be used by men. Little kids whose parents cannot take care of them so they hand them over to people they don’t even know who are promising work and a better life for the child…
Children who are innocent. Children who are no longer able to just be children.
Watch the video at the end of the blog… it will help you understand. This are the kinds of stories we pray aren't true.
I once read a book called Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers… stirred my heart. Made something I had only heard a about a little more real to me.
I started looking into organizations who worked to end human trafficking like the International Justice Mission and Love146.
But still, I was not prepared for actually being in a red light district.
As we walked through, just looking in the bars, observing what was going on, and praying, what I saw just made me really sad.
Just a few days before this, Stacey (who has been a squad leader for the first 4 months of our race and who I have had the privilege to spend this last month training with) shared with us about her time in the Philippines. About her anger towards the men and how God changed her heart to one that broke for these men and how lost they were. God has given her a passion to fight this.
There are white men all over this country… and many of them are older men walking around with young Thai girls that they can “buy” during their stay. You see them walking through the markets and in restaurants everywhere.
At dinner one night not long after Stacey had shared her experience with us, from where I was sitting, there was an older white man with a young Thai girl sitting directly in my vision. And as Mike prayed over our meal, my mind was focused on them… So I just prayed for them. For the girl… and for the man.
But still, this was all nothing compared to being there.
Honestly, I didn’t even plan to stay. I was just going to do a walk through with the team we were with and then head back to our hostel. But as we were on our way back, we passed a bar that caught my attention. Four white men were sitting near the entrance with girls sitting all around them. There was something about this group that struck me.
One of the girls mentioned that she wanted to go back to that bar, so I decided to stay and go with her.
In going there, we simply hoped our presence would make the men uncomfortable. That they would be convicted. That something would click in their brains and they would really think about what they were doing. Some of these men probably have wives and children back home who have no idea that they are sitting in a bar in Thailand with women on their laps.
I think our presence did stir them at first… We went in and sat down at the bar only a few feet away from their table and ordered a couple fruit juices. They kept looking over at us.
One of the girls came over and visited with us. She would talk for a few minutes and then head back to the table… then come back to talk. Over the course of a few conversations (she spoke enough English to carry on a convo) she made some observations and asked us if we were Christians. She said she could tell because we were not drinking.
We continued to sit there, praying for the girls and these men. Just having small conversations with the girls that would come over by us. Telling them they were beautiful and learning a little about them. At one point I even had some small talk with some of the men.
It didn’t take long for the men to get used to our presence. They were drunk, which only added to their actions. We were completely disgusted as we sat there and watched the men touch these girls inappropriately… hands up their dresses right in front of us. This is when the anger came even stronger. But, as I sat there, I remembered what Stacey had talked about and I tried to see these men through the eyes of Jesus… they are hurting. I was disgusted. If this was how the men behaved in plain sight… imagine what these poor girls have to put up with behind closed doors.
We sat there until after closing. We were hoping to wait out the men leaving so we could spend more time with the girls and all… but 12:40 am quickly came and we decided to leave as it didn’t seem like the men would be leaving anytime soon. The bar had technically closed at midnight.
As hard as it was to sit there and witness such behavior, I am so glad I made the decision to stay that night. God wanted to show me some things… teach me some things that night.
There are other places where girls are not working in the bars. They are locked up and forced to have sex with man after man each night. Even children are forced to do this. These are someone’s daughters.
Human trafficking is a sad reality… But it is reality. And it happens everywhere… even in our back yards in the United States.
Stacey is starting an organization that is focused on fighting human trafficking called The 27 Project. Here is a little about it…
“The World Race led me to many different continents and countries, but pieces of my heart were left specifically in the countries of Haiti, Moldova, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The poverty level and high demand for commercial sex in these countries makes them a breeding ground for human trafficking. Ironically, the vision for the27project was born after watching the movie Taken in a shack in Moldova. What started as a simple idea was soon fueled by reality during my time in the Philippines. Each day that I innocently played duck duck goose and patty cake with the children in Puerto Galera, I thought of the young girls being sold into brothels by their families. As I said good-bye to them at the end of my time there, I vowed to commit my life to stopping the injustice of human trafficking.
The27project is an organization that will organize a nation-wide running event called 27K for 27Million, which will provide funding for organizations on the forefront of change, as well as inspire participants to use their voice to take a stand against human trafficking. My heart is to raise awareness, raise funding, and create a ripple of change in the nations.”
B Squad has the honor of participating in her first running event… 10K for Cambodia.
We will be running it Monday in Bangkok Thailand. All of the money raised in this event is going to be given to orphanages that help keep kids from being trafficked.
I will be participating in this event. If you are interested in sponsoring our run by donating toward the cause, you can do so at The 27 Project website… http://speaktothehope.blogspot.com/
Also, please check out Stacey’s blog… http://staceycompton.theworldrace.org/?filename=my-heart-in-words
See her heart… her passion… her vision.
And take action to fight human trafficking.
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