Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins…
I told a prostitute I loved her.
I looked into the eyes of a Lady boy and told her she was beautiful.
Recently our entire squad was located in Seim Reap for debrief, where all teams come together to talk about our past few months and connect with each other. Towards the end of our stay a group of us we went out one night to Pub Street. A strip lined with restaurants, bars, and shops aimed at tourists. I didn’t make it into any of them, because my team mate Shannon and I stopped in the street and started conversation with a few of the many prostitutes pacing pub street.
Some were in skin tight dresses, others in tiny shorts and heels.
All of their faces were caked with thick make up,
bright lipstick, and
fluttering fake eyelashes.
Every single one of the girls were crying for attention…
It made me sick to watch the men and their eyes feasting on the girls.
And even more sick to see the girls slathering themselves over any man that walked down the street.
Music pounded into my eardrums from the nearby bar as I introduced myself over and over to each girl that we talked to. Eventually we had a small gather of 5 or 6 talking to us. The girls started to talk about more personal things, started to open up, to talk about their lives, to ask questions and to laugh. One girl in particular told me if she could have any job in the world she would want to be a painter. My heart wanted to beat out of my chest. I love painting. I can paint whenever I want…and that is all this young girl desired.
My chest caved in and I felt nauseous.
Anger swept over me. There was nothing I could do for any of these young ladies.
This was their job.
Anger was felt towards the evil eating away their lives.
Anger at the men, who use these girls to fufill their desires.
Anger that I make more in a hour waitressing then these girls make in an hour selling their body to a man.
Rightous anger to bring justice to these woman. To show them what love really feels like. What true love is. I felt anger that these lady boys know of nothing else but the small world they’re stuck in. I looked up and down the street pulsing with people, and bright signs, lights and laughter. It was just a flimsy disguise for the hurt that really goes deep in Seim Reap. Just a taste of the rising prostitution. Just a glimpse into their lives.
They’re not bodies. They’re girls.
I continuously prayed over the girls, their families, and their lives for hours after I got home. Come to find out the majority of the girls we talked to weren’t girls that night, they were ladyboys…
God has continued to remind me to pray for these enslaved girls. I ask that you join me in praying with everything in you that these women find a way out.
Pray that they find Jesus and that his love radiates through us and into their lives.
We were called to love the sick. To bring the kingdom to earth .To love those who don’t know or remember what it feels like to be profusely and unconditionally loved. Next month in Thailand we will be working with prostitutes everyday.
I ask that you begin to pray now that God will begin to mold and heal their hearts so that we may have an open door to their lives to introduce Jesus Christ and his true, pure, unfailing, and endless love.
Dear Children , let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. John 3:18
