This last week Brynley and my morning ministry has been prayer ministry. During this ministry we have worked closely with our host and she has taught us so much about Cambodia and the town we are living in Battambang. I have learned so much this last week. Here is a little about all that I have learned.
Within four blocks from where I’ve been living in Battambang for the last month and a half there are six different places where women are sold for their bodies every single night. There are four KTVs which advertise as karaoke bars, but are really just glorified brothels. Every night when I bike past I see girls sitting out in front wearing next to nothing just waiting for a man to come and choose them. To pick them for the night. On the front of one KTV there is an advertisement for the rates for a room. One room is 10,000 riel. A slightly nicer room costs 12,000 riel and a VIP room cost 20,000 riel. To put this into perspective 4,000 riel is equivalent to one dollar. That means the cheapest a room costs is two dollars and fifty cents. And the most expensive room cost a mere five dollars. Every night women are being sold for five dollars or less.
Then there’s a hotel that offers ”Karaoke, a Sauna, a Massage, and a Jaccuzi” but is really just offering women.
Lastly, there is a beer garden where you get to choose your beer and your women. The other day after Brynley and I had prayed over the beer garden we decided to go in. It was around 10 in the morning and we went in under the guise that we are just silly Americans thinking it is a restaurant. We came across a man who worked there who spoke good English and we asked if we could take a look at the menu. He handed us the menu and the first pages were food that you would expect: fried rice, Khmer noodles, vegetables, but then the back two pages were different. They were charts. On one side were names of girls and on the other side was their rates. Most rates were under 50 dollars.
This is crazy.
This is horrible.
This is unreal.
Everynight these women’s bodies are being sold for less than 50 dollars. Every night they are being told this is all that they are worth. Their love, their affection, who they are is only worth a few dollars and a couple hours. They are being told that they don’t deserve more.
Most of these women are sixteen or seventeen years old.
Why? Why are the girls willingly signing up to do this? Why is this their job? Some women do this because they can provide for their families with this money. Some women have been in the sex industry for a long time and it’s the only way they know how to make money. Some of these women have been sex trafficked from a young age.
Sex trafficking is very real and very prevalent. Before the race I had a lot of misconceptions of what sex trafficking really was and what it practically looks like. I can’t speak on sex trafficking around the world because I don’t know the details of what that looks like, but I can speak about what I know about sex trafficking here in Cambodia. This is an example of what typical sex trafficking looks like where I am living. Obviously no two stories are the same and sex trafficking isn’t going to look the same everywhere, but here is an example in Battambang, Cambodia
There is a family of four. A mom, a dad, a boy and a girl. The parents aren’t making enough money to provide for all the needs in the family. The parents and the boy move to a bigger city in hopes of finding more and better work. They take the boy with the intention of him finding a job and being able to bring in money. They leave the girl with a relative, an uncle or a grandparent. The relative can’t provide for the young girls needs so she is sold in order to bring in more money. The girl will still live with the relative, she will still go to school and lead a seemingly normal life, but at night her body will be sold. Her body will be sold for no more then 4 dollars at most.
This is very much a street business. Men will walk around the streets at night approaching random people and offering these young girls.
Some of these girls will end up working at the KTV’s later when they get a little older. They are told from such a young age that they are worthless, that all their good for is a few dollars. That the only thing that they can do to provide for their family, to bring in money, is to sell themselves.
This is heartbreaking.
I feel helpless.
In the afternoon I get to teach English at a school that offers free English classes to 200 young amazing, adorable Khmer children. Recently I found out that some of my students have been or are being sex trafficked. That some of my students work at the KTVs.
I want to rescue these girls. I want to grab them and pull them away so they never have to sell themselves again. I want them to feel loved, to feel worthy, to feel that they are loved as who they are and not for their bodies. But what can I do?
I personally do not have the money to buy these girls a new life, I do not have the power to enforce the destruction of the KTV’s, I do not have the power to abolish the sex trafficking industry,
But
God does.
And I believe with my whole heart that he will do all these things.
That he will rescue these girls. That he will show them how much they are loved. How they are worthy of so much because they are children of the one true king. I believe that He will tear down the KTVs and Beer Gardens, that He will demolish the sex trafficking industry. I believe that He can and He will because even the impossible is His reality. He created us. He created the women and the men involved in the sex industry and He loves them so much. He doesn’t want to see them in pain, lost, hurting. He wants them to know how loved they are. He wants them to know that they are worth a kingdom because their father is a King.
Learning English is a way for these women to stay out of this industry because it means that they will have more job opportunities. In the afternoon the ministry we partner with offers free English classes. This means anyone can come and learn English for free. This is incredibly pertinent and valuable in Cambodia. Also the ministry is not affiliated with the government which means that we can freely introduce and discuss the Bible and Jesus. I feel incredibly humbled that God gave me the opportunity to come here. That He gave me the opportunity to help people learn English. That He gave me the opportunity to share just a small piece of His unmeasurable love with Cambodians.
Every night at around 8 pm Brynley and I go to one of the bigger KTVs and we pray. We pray for the women that they come to know God. That they come to know that they are wholly and completely loved. That they are worthy of so much. That this life of selling their bodies doesn’t have to be theirs. We pray for the men running the KTV. That they come to know the Lord. That they also know that they are loved. That they don’t have to be burdened with having to provide financially. That they can lean on God and His strength and His provision.
Please join us in prayer. In prayer that God can and will tear down the KTVs and Beer Gardens. That God will abolish the sex industry. Pray expectant that God will do big things. That God will move mountains. Pray knowing that the seemingly impossible is God’s reality.
