For more blogs on human sex trafficking look below. (Reading these first may help you understand different aspects of human sex trafficking, how it works in the Philippines, and so on.)
7 Things I Learned about Human Sex Trafficking (Thailand)
3 More Things I Learned about Human Sex Trafficking (Philippines)
Taking my Parents to the Bars (Philippines)
It was night two of bar ministry in Angeles City in the Philippines. My mom had badly hurt her ankle so she couldn’t come with us that night, and dad decided to stay back and take care of her. They told me that they would spend some time in prayer over the rest of us as we went out. Which is boss. I can’t tell you how badly prayer is needed before entering a heavy environment like the infamous Walking Street of Angeles City.
After the worship night with some of my squad I spent some time in prayer and got ready to head out to the bars–to one of the most overlooked human sex trafficking destinations out there. I ended up teamed with Jillian, Gracie, and Sarah W. and their parents for the night. And I just want to quickly mention that I was so so lucky to be teamed up with these girls. They were very bold wasted no time trying to connect with the girls…like I couldn’t have been teamed up with better people. We also had two Filipino girls with us–girls who had once been victims of this industry and since had joined with Wipe Every Tear.
I have so many little stories from those two nights, so I’m going to share a few. The second bar I ever went to had this girl sort of hiding in the corner. She was skinnier than ever, looked like she could be sixteen, with a terrified look on her face. I waved her over to my table, bought her a drink, and started talking. I would ask questions and she would tell me that she was twenty years old, she had finished high school (but had no prospects for college), that she had no children, and that she had worked there for three days. As I explained who I was and what I had come to do, one of the Filipino girls came alongside me and shared her own story. She also re-asked some of the exact same questions and got different answers (like that she was nineteen, and that she had one baby boy, and her real name was actually different.) At a certain point you can’t really be offended that these girls will lie to you so often. They’re doing what they can to protect their identity since they often get stalked by customers.
The head of Wipe Every Tear had told us about their first year of ministry and how they had done outreach much like every other human trafficking ministry–sitting in the corner pulling one or two girls aside, being very serious. They only managed to get four girls to join their program that year. Then through much prayer and discussion they decided to take a completely different approach. They would enter celebrating, dancing, worshiping in spirit, and praying against the enemy, declaring those territories (the bars) for the Lord. At one of the next bars we decided to do this. That was when everything drastically changed and women started leaving the bars easily.
We entered a massive bar that was two stories high, a full sized stage with tons of girls, a singer, and a pole dancer (who was really just a girl that can do crazy stunts), and lights everywhere. We went up there and danced like crazy, trying to get all the girls to join in. The funny thing is, it seemed like they were more shy about being up there than we were. We talked with a few girls and went on our way.
We walked into another bar and we were literally the only people there. Probably about twenty five girls were dancing super unenthusiastically. Someone noticed that there was a TV screen displaying a group of people doing all these ridiculous dance moves. So Gracie, Jillian, and I jumped up and started copying these dance moves. This time the majority of the other girls joined in! We were goofing around and laughing, and I started scoping the scene a little bit more. I was trying to decide who I would pull aside, buy a drink, get to know, and literally offer an opportunity for freedom.
At this point, I was really frustrated because it’s so hard to look at a large group of girls and just pick one to say that to. What made it harder was the fact that it was easier to connect with this group of girls. I mean, I felt this way pretty much every time I walked into a bar, but I could only afford so many drinks, and I could only spread the news so far. You don’t want to get too much attention from the Mama-san or bar mom. A couple bars have banned Wipe Every Tear before. I pulled aside one girl with razor cut hair, over the top makeup, and henna all over her arms. Her style kind of reminded me of myself when I was in high school. She was more relaxed than most of the other girls I met. I was even asked me a lot about myself, where I was from, and what my life was like. Most girls don’t ask about you, they usually sit there giving short simple answers, attempting to laugh and be agreeable enough.
When I asked her if I could look at the henna on her arms I noticed that there was a small tattoo artistically woven into the artwork. It was her boyfriend’s name. I asked her how long she had been with her boyfriend. Just three months. I asked her where she met him. “Here.” He was a former customer from South Korea. She was convinced one day they would get married.
That’s the unfortunate thing with these girls. They get convinced that there is no way out of their position. They’re convinced the only thing they can possibly do is meet someone to marry someone who will support them. When they meet their boyfriend “from work,” many times the guys will just use her for free sex the next few times he decides to come. On occasion they’ll actually get married, but that’s super rare. So even though I offered her a way out, told her where to meet, and she agreed to come, I had a feeling she wouldn’t. First, because it’s rude to say no at all ever in Filipino culture (even if you’re straight up lying.) And second, because she still had hope in her mind for a way out. I prayed that she would connect with Wipe Every Tear anyway, even if it’s further down along the road. As we left I high fived several cheering girls as we left and headed onto the next bar.
To be continued…
