This is probably one of those stories that I should be careful telling…. but God’s too cool for that. At the beginning of Janurary, we had our midrace debrief and during this debrief we were taught to pray bold prayers. Expect big things of our big God. I had a one on one with my coach in which he prayed a bold prayer on my behalf. He asked God to give me women’s ministry during my time in Guatemala. After recieving my ministry placement as an english teacher I was a little dissapointed.
About 80 days ago, my team and I were on our way home from ministry in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. We had gotten on the wrong bus and ended up a little lost. Don’t laugh, but I am the team navigator because I have somehow gained the superpower of dirction since leaving home. I mentioned that I knew where to go if we walked and we got off. The walk was about 10min to our next bus stop so not too bad.
However, while walking down the street we all got a strange feeling. We walked fast and made it to our next bus. Once home I told our adventurous story to our host. She proceeded to drop her jaw and widen her eyes far past what I thought possible. She then told me we had walked our way down the most dangerous street in the area and right through the drug cartel’s territory. Basically, we should have been kidnapped and taken for trafficking. BUT, we weren’t.
The next day on the way back to ministry I looked at the street again but this time through a bus window. It was lined with 15 brothels. All with curtains for doors and women waiting just behind. My heart was wrecked. God has given me a heart for womem trapped in the sex industry and this was just that on a huge scale.
I watched that street every day to and from ministry wishing there was something I could do. Some way I could help.
Well, God knew that too. 1 week after our little misshap, we had a night time session in which one of our hosts gave a talk on intercession. This was honestly a very new idea to me. Not sure why but I’d just never thought about or talked about it. Basically she showed us a bunch of biblical examples of people interceding and taught us how to do it too. How we could stand in the gap for people. How we could pray bold prayers and make things happen without actually needing to lay hands on the situation.
As we worshiped to a close, God gave me an assignment. He told me that I was going to pray for curtain street for 70 days. And on the 70th day, He would bring it to an end.
A little frightened and very excited I told my team. They were all on board and we took to praying for the street every single night before we went to sleep.
Before long, we started making some important realizations. 70 days from that night was Easter Monday. On Easter, Jesus tore the veil that seperated us from Him. On Easter Monday, He was going to tear the curtains that kept the women trapped inside.
As time went on we noticed some changes. For one, the street became more empty than usual. The doors stayed locked until later in the day. Less women stood in the shadows of the curtains. Eventually we noticed more police presence. Finally a week before we left Guatemala, we noticed the final brothel on the street, the most busy, had a growing tear right in the center of it’s curtain.
This past week I prayed my final nightly prayers for curtain street. I talked to Jesus about bringing them home to the palace. I cried tears of joy knowing the freedom they were about to recieve.
And the best part is, He didn’t need me for any of it. He was bringing the street down whether I prayed for it nightly or not. It didn’t matter if I missed a night or didn’t even bother to begin with. This was something He had planned for a very long time. He just chose me to be a part of it. He invited me to remind Him daily to go take back His little girls. To talk to Him about His princesses. To be a part of their lives and His great plans.
I could have easily decided that it was far too big an ask and not worth it. But it was worth it. Every second every moment every prayer every tear. It was worth their freedom. It was worth it to be with my Father and get to know my new sisters. To Him this was nothing at all. To Him who created light and formed each hair on their head, taking them out of those brothels was not a hard task. And I’m so glad I got to be a part of it.
Just as He did so many years ago, my God tore the veil and brought His children home.
