I have finally made it to Swaziland! I am in month 5 of this crazy thing called The World Race and I’m finally in the country that drew me to the Race to begin with. I’ve spent many holidays away from home at this point, so Valentine’s Day didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. I had no idea that this would be the most amazing Valentine’s Day of my life to date. What did I do that made it so special? I spent the evening on Valentine’s Day hanging out with prostitutes.
Part of my ministry this month is helping with an event called Street Night. This event is designed to get women that are in prostitution off the streets at night and give them an alternative. They are given a meal and there’s even a dance party. There is also an opportunity to share Christ with these women and create relationships with them. It’s a small step towards creating a community for these women that they desperately need.
Our job on Valentine’s Day was to go out and find the women and personally invite them to the event happening on Saturday night. That is how my night started. Within a 2-minute drive from the front door of the house we are living in this month, we had found 3 women. While talking to them inviting them to the event, a man walks up to try and purchase them. My heart broke. I have never experienced visually seeing prostitution happening before. I asked God that night to break my heart for what breaks his and he did. All I wanted to do was carry those women away from this life they are living, but all I could do in that moment was pray as we drove off in search of another corner.
It took maybe a couple of blocks before we found more. We pull up and a group of about 12 women are sitting around talking and drinking. You might think it looked like they were looking to have a good time, but what’s more likely is that they were numbing themselves from the pain of what was to come. One women was bold enough to say, “Can you get us a job? None of us want to be out here.” This became a common theme of the night. This isn’t a life they want. It is something that is a last resort and as we drive off to the next corner I wonder if I will ever get to have a chance to speak to one of these women about Christ.
The next corner holds around 8-10 women. We do the same thing; offer invitation, ask if they will come, offer a Valentine of chocolate and chips, drive away. As we drive away, we talk about how we were all struck by one woman in particular, I’ll call her Mary. She looked so sad. Like she was stuck and there was no hope. Brittine, our home host, said that she wanted to hear her story. We turned back around and pulled up beside her again. We told her that we had come back for her. As we are talking with her, another woman joins the conversation, I’ll call her Sara. After a few minutes, both women agree to get into the van with us so that we can pray for them. We drive off to get away from watching eyes and begin to talk with these women.
As we are rounding the block, Sara looks at me and asks, “Why are you in Swazi? Why are you out here talking to us who are on the streets? You know what we are out here doing.” I told her that I was here in Swazi because of God. That God loves me so much and it changed my life. I told her that all I wanted to do was come to Swazi and let her know that she deserves to know and feel that exact same way too. That God loves her so much and that her story is amazing and she is seen, heard, and loved so much! I got to share on Valentine’s Day about the love that changed my life forever with someone who so desperately needs to feel that love. I cannot tell you what I felt while looking into her eyes and telling her how much not only I but God cared for her. I will forever hold this moment close.
We parked in front of a grocery store and the stories began to flow out of Mary and Sara like water. Mary has 3 kids; twins and a younger son. We saw the sadness in her eyes on the street but as she sat and spoke with us that sadness seemed to fade some. Mary was the quieter of the two but she spoke with such heart and wisdom. She told us that she didn’t drink or smoke. That the only reason she was out there was to get money to provide food for her children. She said, “I can go without food, but what do I tell my children when they are hungry and I have nothing to feed them and no money to get food?” She was doing the only thing she could think of to feed her babies. She has dreams to never be on the streets again, but she needs help figuring out how to start that plan. She agreed to come on Saturday to the event and the staff has offered to help her with that plan.
Sara is a mother too. She has 2 kids, one is an 18-month-old little boy. Sara was a fireball. She was blunt and said exactly what was on her mind. She had so many questions for us, most of them being why. Why is my life like this when I pray to God? Why do men leave? Why does it have to be so hard if God loves me? Why does it seem like God leaves me? I wish I could have answered her questions, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have answers. I didn’t dare speak into something that I knew so little about. Sara had such a wealth of knowledge about the Bible. She could quote scripture, recount Bible stories, and even said she could feel the Holy Spirit. I’m sure she could have taught me a thing or two about the Bible. The staff offered to meet with her weekly to start answering all the questions that she has.
We sat outside that grocery store and talked for over 2 hours with these women. We heard their stories. We heard about their relationships and their kids. We heard about the struggles that they are going through. We got a glimpse into their lives that night. It is against their policy to give money to the women, but these women gave up their whole night to sit with us. They were out there to be able to feed their children, so the staff decided to give them some money and take them home.
Then, we got the opportunity to pray over these women. We laid hands on them and prayed over their lives and their children. I felt the Spirit so strongly in that van outside of the grocery store at midnight in Manzini, Swaziland. As we finish praying, I open my eyes and meet Sara’s gaze and see the tears in her eyes. God did so much more for those women that night than I had even realized.
As we go to turn the car back on to take these women home, we realize the battery is now dead. Just as we think we are going to have to run and go get the other car across town, a car pulls in and gives us a jump. God’s timing in that could not have been better. We go back to the corner so that the women can pick up their things and we can take them home. As they grab their things and hop back in the van, we hear the other women on the corner joking with the women. Mary said they were telling her not to come back because we had prayed for them, but when Mary said it she said it with a spirit of pride. The sadness we had seen earlier that night had faded and was replaced with pride and hope.
We drive off to take them to their homes, and as we do Sara makes a phone call to the person watching her son. She hangs up and immediately starts to cry. She tells us that the person just told her that they didn’t feed her son and that he hadn’t eaten all day. As I lay a hand on her shoulder to comfort her she begins to sob. She says if it weren’t for her kids she would have killed herself long ago. I told her that it sounds like God had given her those babies to save her life.
We pick up her son, who is sleeping and drop her off at her home. Then we go to Mary’s house to drop her off. As Mary gets out she says that she will definitely be there on Saturday and thanks us for the ride home.
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love and this year I was able to share that there is no greater love than that of the Father. I pray that those women felt that love. I pray they felt heard and important. That they see that night and remember how God provided for them. How by trusting in him and getting in the van with a bunch of crazy Americans their night was completely changed. I pray that they see the money that was given to them as an answer from God to the prayers they were praying. I pray that that night was a start to a change in their lives forever. I pray for community for each of these women. That they no longer feel like they must go through life alone. That they find a Christian support system that will encourage them when times get tough. I pray for their children to always have food to eat. I pray that they both show up on Saturday night.
Valentine’s Day looked a lot different this year, but I can say with confidence that I would spend every Valentine’s Day the exact same way for the rest of my life if I could. If you were to ask me my favorite Valentine’s Day story, it would be the time I spent Valentine’s Day in Manzini with 2 of the most amazing women I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.
