Walking down the street one night with one purpose, one motive, focusing on the reason we are here, refusing to put a title on people, refusing to judge.
Smiling, saying hello to the women sitting outside their shops, back and forth we roam the street. Carrying the light of salvation inside of us, carrying love, and grace.
Underneath the lights calling out to soul searching travelers and locals, “Massages, Bar, Food and Drinks” and so on and so forth.
Walking down the street so called, The Red Light District.
Sent out for one reason, to pray, we call out to God silently, asking Him to come onto this street and be with us.
Praying that He would restore this place to what He designed it for, praying that this city will turn around and give God glory.
Praying that this city will recognize it’s worth.
Everywhere we stepped we declared holy ground.
To the souls of everyone we made eye contact with, we prayed for redemption.
We prayed for peace.
Love.
Hope.
Freedom.
We declared value and worth over their lives.
To the women and the men, bound in this lie.
They are more than their past, the present, and they have a future.
They are seen.
They are worth dying for.
Walking by a girl as young as my sister, being loved on by a man 3 times her age, her face telling the entire story, my heart broke.
We prayed against the idea of this being a job and a way to feed a family.
We prayed that the men would not receive what they were looking for this night.
We prayed for rest.
We prayed for release.
We prayed over the strip club, the bars, the massage parlors.
We prayed for health and safety.
We stared the enemy down and pleaded the blood of Jesus over the street.
Feeling an overwhelming desire to do more, to rescue these women, not understanding why this has to be their story, I felt like we weren’t doing much.
But God has placed several Godly women in their life to get to know them for who they are and listen to their story.
Our job was to intercede with prayer, the most powerful weapon our Abba gives us.
We made ourselves vulnerable to what we were going to see.
We let our hearts feel.
We let our mind have questions.
We stood our ground in who we are, and Who sent us.
Dark skies, dim and smokey bars, when I would just not know what to pray for anymore, I look to my teammate and see the Light that’s in both of us.
The assurance in her steps.
The freedom she walks out.
The liberty to pray bold prayers.
I see her holding onto our Father’s hand as we walk.
And we walk, we pray, we smile, we sing hallelujah because our God is the God of this city, the King of these people, the Lord of this nation, the Light in this darkness, the hope to the hopeless, and the peace to the restless.
He is just ready to wrap each and every soul up in His arms and welcome them home.
That’s why we walked.
