A few nights ago my team was able to minister to some of the prostitutes in the local red light district here in Puerto Barrios. We spent the whole day getting ready for the evening- going to the market to buy flowers, and attaching scripture verses to the flowers. Because of all the effort put into preparation, I don’t think any of us really had time to think about what we were actually about to do until we met to pray. I think it sort of hit us all at the same time, and you could really feel the anxiety and fear in the room. We were all nervous and fairly scared. I, personally, have been on a good amount of mission trips in the past. And I have participated in a lot of different ministries. But this was different. I had no idea how I would ever be able to talk to these women, because how could I EVER understand what they have been through? It seemed almost corny- me, the good little church girl, going up to one of these women and handing them a flower. Like that is going to solve all their problems.
We prayed together for a while as a team, and I began to feel slightly more confident. When we arrived at the red light district, we had an hour or so to pray before the girls would actually be out. As we were walking down the street, it all felt very surreal to me. I wasn’t sure what to expect. After we got done prayer walking, we met back together as a group. There was a homeless woman sitting on the other side of the road. Kristin suggested that we go and give her a flower, so we walked across the street.
We walked over to where she was standing, but before we could talk to her, another woman started to talking to us in English. We started talking to her and gave her a flower. Her name was Jacqueline. She asked us if we were Christians, and we said yes. She said that she wasn’t a Christian because of the way she lived her life. But as she started to read the Bible verse, tears filled her eyes. We told her that God loved her. “You think God loves ME?” she asked. We told her God loved her very much and we prayed for her. There was a Christian concert across the street that was set to begin in 30 minutes. She said she wanted to go, and we told her we would meet up with her again then. She told us she would stay right there.
