During Easter weekend and the week following, I had the opportunity to do ministry in the Philippines with my dad. He came out to Manila in a trip known as the Parent Vision Trip (PVT). The trip allows Racers to give their parents insight and perspective on how they have grown and what they have really been doing these past seven months. The Parent Vision Trip was a blessing, and I cherished the time I got to spend with my dad on the field.
During PVT, we were partnered with an organization called Wipe Every Tear. Wipe Every Tear takes in girls that have been sexually trafficked, provides a home and food, pays for an education for them, and provides for their children. The organization is absolutely incredible, an organization I would be very interested in partnering with in the future. The vision is amazing and the man running it, Kenny or Coach, chases that vision with such passion and vigor. They are trying to make major change in an epidemic that often goes unnoticed. They are trying to make major change in an epidemic that makes people uncomfortable. They are making waves, changing lives, and, in effect, changing the world, piece by piece.
Kenny came in the conference room the first night burning with passion. He was ecstatic to have us World Racers and parents there to take part in this ministry assignment. I was excited because he was excited! I was ready to make some change, to do the work of the Lord in such an amazing way! I wanted to change lives! My heart was in it, one hundred percent. And then he told us that, during ministry, we would be going into the bars and clubs that the girls dance in and are often prostituted out of. At that, my heart sank, my passion faded and fear and shame set in.
Kenny proceeded to explain to us that he, and the girls that are going through, and assist in, his ministry, needs us in order to get into the bars. You see, these bars are not just local bars that any local person can walk into for a night of lustful encounters. These bars are made strictly for tourists. The only way a local Filipino could get in is if they had someone that could be seen as a tourist with them. Seeing as everyone at PVT could be seen as a tourist, we fit the part. Kenny needed us to get into the bars so that we could talk to the girls in them about Wipe Every Tear. We needed to get into the bars and act as customers, buying the girls drinks and sitting down with them, so that we could attempt to free them. Our mission was to provide the girls with the information needed for them to come to Wipe Every Tear and get out of the awful cycle of Sex Trafficking.
The first night of ministry we gathered for dinner and worship, and then prepared to head out. I was so apprehensive about going. I had almost no idea of what I was walking into, and was scared about what I was about to see.
Around 9:30pm, we walked into our first bar. Members of my group began to enter, but I stood there for a second, trying to figure out what the heck I was about to do. What do I do when I’m in there? How do I approach one of the girls? What do I say to them? All these things were going through my mind in such a small period of time; my mind was scrambling! But I eventually moved forward, pushed away the heavy curtain in the doorway, and walked into the bar.
I looked up, and the first thing I saw were the girls dancing on stage, rather inappropriately, to vulgar music. The bar was a place of such discomfort. I sat down in a booth, directed my eyes to the table or floor and sat in silence. I was angry that this was happening to these girls and was infuriated by the men I saw sitting with one or two of the performers. It was disgusting and I absolutely hated it. I was ready for ministry to end for the day, and it had not even been twenty minutes.
Eventually people in my group started discussing which girl we should call down to talk to. They were surveying the stage looking for a girl they felt called to go up and get. My teammate, Zach, and his mother were the first to go up; they called a girl down and then went to another table to talk. Then someone asked me to go up to get a girl towards the edge of the stage. I looked up and saw her immediately; she was barely dancing and had absolutely no expression of happiness on her face. She looked miserable. After willing myself to do so for a second, I got up with my dad to go call the girl. We walked down to the front of the stage, pointed at her and motioned for her to come down to us. I do not think I can ever forget the look of shock and horror that was on her face when she saw us. I mean, think about it, we looked like the average customer; there was reason to fear us. The frown that was on her face before deepened. She stayed put for a second and then slowly moved down the stairs to where we were standing. Her demeanor was one of utter defeat.
We brought her over to the table, bought her a drink, and began to talk to her. What’s your name? or How are you? All the topics of small talk were used. She was reserved, gave short answers, and kept a somewhat sad expression on her face. We had a girl with us from Wipe Every Tear, someone that is going through and has benefited from the ministry, with us. It turned out that her and the girl we called down spoke in the same dialect. So they began to talk, and they talked for quite a while. Soon the girl’s demeanor had changed; instead of frowning she was smiling, giggling, and fully engaging in conversation. It was an amazing switch in her, and it did something to me as well. It completely changed my outlook for this ministry and got me excited for the work that we were doing. In the two nights of doing ministry, we made it to so many bars and got to talk to so many women, showing them the opportunity that they have to escape this awful trap! Each and every moment of it was amazing! By the end, the PVT participant group had gotten 22 girls to come visit the Wipe Every Tear sites so that they too could escape the bars and benefit from the program!
I went into this ministry with fear and shame. The fear stemmed from the fact that I did not know what to expect. All of this was completely new to me, and I did not know how to approach it. I feared being approached by someone not fond of our mission, and I was at a loss as to how to handle confrontation. The shame stemmed from the fact that I looked like the average customer. My motives for being in that area were probably assumed, and I can promise you the assumptions were not flattering. But I soon realized that it did not matter that I LOOKED LIKE the average customer. It mattered that I did not ACT LIKE the average customer.
Some may attempt to show these girls their twisted perception of what “love” is. But our mission was to show these girls what true love is – the radical Love of Christ! We were able to care for these girls and show them love in a way they could not even imagine. We were there to give them everything without taking anything from them in return. We were there to tell them that they are Daughters of the King, and to love them as Daughters of the King.
In those two nights, I saw so many frowns turn to smiles, I saw tears turn to laughter, and I saw despair turn into hope. All of this is because the Love of Christ was shown to these girls, a love they may not have experienced ever before. Through Christ, the average customers became the change.
