There are two women sitting at the table in front of me. They are not even six feet away. Yet I feel like they are millions of miles away. I think that they are Uzbek women. I am pretty positive, but can not say without a doubt. I can not prove anything. I would say that I am about 95% sure that they are trafficked women from Uzbekistan.
I feel like an undercover agent. I feel the frustration. This operation is very tricky to prove ‘without a doubt’. It is visible, yet seems so far beyond my grasp. My passion is to see these women free. Not only free from physical harm, but free in Christ. Not only free from physical slavery, but spiritual bondage. This is the first time that I have seriously considered law school. Compassion for the women; Passion for their freedom. Not for my sake, but for those without a voice.
I am sipping on an iced latte, sitting at a coffee shop inside a hotel in the red light district. I can feel eyes on me. Eyes that I do not necessarily want. I want to understand the girls’ pleas for help – however silent they may be. I want to understand the circumstance they find themselves in and the emotions that arise within their soul and spirit. I want to see the big picture so I can zero in. Ironically, the big picture is coming alive by studying the one.
She is puffing away on her cigarette. It’s her second one in less than 15 minutes. She pours an alcohol shot into her cappuccino and takes a gulp. Her face is painted on…Is she still alive under that mask? She is conversing with another women. Sounds kind of like Russian, but I am not for sure. Her phone rings…
Who is calling her tonight? It is known that Uzbek women are trafficked to this hotel. According to a recent newspaper article, surrounding areas have recently been busted, so the operation digs even deeper underground. Some men prefer women other than Thai women. Supply and demand. I have been told that women sit around in the lobby…or coffee shop waiting for a call. Upon receiving a call, they head up to the room that requested her “presence”.
And her phone just rang…
Some women are trafficked. Others, out of desperation, move into the city to sell themselves. They (their bodies)are all they have. So instead of ‘selling out’ for the kingdom, they sell themselves to man. One falls prey to ignorance, the other to poverty. In both cases, the trap has been set and ‘the predator’ is waiting to devour them whole.
Unless Jesus – through the Body – gets to them first…
“Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn’t as bright as it could be.” Rob Bell in
Velvet Elvis
Tonight I am heading up to a remote village a few hours outside of Chaing Mai – a city in Northern Thailand. We are working alongside locals – sharing our hands and hearts with the village folk. I hope to meet the very girls (in their ‘natural’ setting) whom I have met this past week in the bars. Please pray for us.
