Just as it seems like The World Race is coming to an end, my eyes are opened yet again…for quite possibly the hardest part of the trip so far. I’ve been through a lot this year…being on a bus attacked by angry people in Peru, held up at gunpoint in South Africa, crossing the insane traffic in Vietnam…yet tonight was the hardest to swallow.
We went to Nana.
A place where prostitution is everywhere.
A place where Human Trafficking is at it’s worst.
A place where people’s hurt is everywhere.
A place that NEEDS JESUS NOW.
As men, Matt and I walked the streets, praying over everything we were seeing. We went up an escalator in the worst place I have ever been…and I felt trapped…the escalator only went up…there was no way down in my sight. The girls wore numbers, to make it easier to order. I couldn’t take it. It didn’t last long before we both needed to go a few blocks away to get away from it all. We sat on the steps outside of some fancy hotel a few blocks away and tried to explain our emotions…truth is we didn’t say much at all.
The hurt that goes into this place is undescribable. At one point I wrote off the night as useless…I said there was no use to us being there at all…but our God reconsiles us all the time. A beggar came up to Matt and I at one point with one leg…we prayed over him and struck up a short conversation before realizing that the guy spoke extremely little english, and he went on his way. His name is Wood. He came back to us at the end of the night smiling. He tried his best to describe how he lost his leg in 1996 to a land mine in Cambodia…describing it as the day it went boom. The man was happy to see us, and stayed with us smiling. It really did redeem the night for me.
We officially ended the night when Caroline, Gretchen, and I had a conversation with a man who described how most of the girls got into prostitution. Most are either trafficked into it buy kidnapping, or by “choice” to go there to help support their family in the poorest of farming communities. Imagine it…your 12-14 year old daughter leaving to support you by selling herself every night. On average 450,000 guys in Thailand hire a prostitute. Sickening, isn’t it?
It’s time to stop it.
Please join me in this.
As this week continues, I will be fighting the front lines of this in any way possible.
We need you to join us in prayer as to how we can make an eternal difference in these people’s lives.
Human Trafficking is evil.
I’m committed to doing something about it.
