Into The Heart of Darknessby Christie Weehunt, 23
India Office Liaison for Sower of Seeds International
In the summer of 2009, a group from SOS dressed in Indian attire and entered Asia’s largest red light district to pray for the prostitutes working inside. Guiding us were several Indian women who minister daily to these forgotten daughters. What we saw on the streets and in the brothels was dark and horrible, but deeper still were the seeds of Christ, shining like lamps of hope.
His eyes are on His precious ones, and He is hungry for their redemption.
The DarknessA few facts…
• Human trafficking: The act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receipt of persons by use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving of payments to a person in control of the victim. Victims are purposed for sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, or removal of organs.
• In India, there are over 3 million sex trafficking victims, 1.2 million of them are children. Girls between 10 and 12 fetch the highest price. They are thrown in cages for up to 3 years while they are repeatedly raped, beaten, and tortured until they lose all of their will. Then they are sent out on the streets as prostitutes, making money for their captors.
I was told we were dressing up in Indian outfits to minister in the darkest, dirtiest corner of Asia: the largest red light district. I had no idea what it would be like, but I knew I would never forget the day.
As we walked down the crowded, narrow lanes, we had to step carefully over the heaping piles of trash and sewage at our feet. Rats scurried everywhere. It was late morning and the district was slowly waking up after a night’s work. Women were playing with their children and doing each other’s hair. Street vendors were making breakfast and selling tea. Tables full of pimps were out playing cards and relaxing.
Walking into that first brothel was like walking into a slum house. There were probably twelve women my age crowded around our team as we entered. We squeezed into the front room–as many women as could fit. A curtain blocked the entrance to their “rooms.” Small children mingled all around. An occasional customer came by, but the madam turned them away at the door. Her girls had special visitors.
I was mesmerized by the place, the faces. I looked at each of the women present, captured by what I saw in their eyes. Some blankly stared outside, others cried. I wanted to know each woman’s story, where she was from, how she ended up here.
But for a little geography, it could have been me.
The VictimsTrapped in the darkness…• In Asia’s largest red light district, three square kilometers are home to an estimated 40,000 women working its 24 lanes, earning at least $200 million a year in revenue for their traffickers. They service up to 25 clients a day and make around $1.50.
Although young, the women carried ancient heaviness. As we prayed, each face expressed something different. The girl to my left was dressed in the classic skirt and tank top that many of the young prostitutes wear. She was from east India, maybe Nagaland or Shilong and looked to be around twenty-two. She cried the entire time we were there, but when we prayed for her, she sobbed. Looking into her eyes I could see both desperation and hope.
I thought about some of the stories I heard before we came—a girl with a large scar on her forearm where a client had paid to cut the skin off with a razor. Another whose pimp sent man after man to rape her until she gave in to his demand of walking the street for him. Girls kept in secret cages, beaten, starved, abandoned. The poverty in India is horrendous. Most of these women were from the poorest, most desolate slums where their families could not imagine a worse fate for them than the one they were born into. And yet, here they were…
One woman really caught my attention. She was about nineteen and had a black scarf with brightly colored stripes pinned tightly along her hairline, covering her hair. As she gazed, her eyes, lined with thick black cagel (coal eyeliner), revealed years of abuse and neglect. There was openness about her, but also the oppression of a seductive spirit. I could feel the spiritual battle going on for her soul.
I thought of the woman with the Alabaster jar–how overcome she must have felt when Jesus looked at her with love. In the midst of this brothel, with its curtained “rooms” and hollow inhabitants, I have never before felt a more real, tangible presence of Jesus. Even in the dark-stained eyes of this forgotten daughter, He was with her, like a warm, bright light. It was like He was physically standing next to her saying “This is my daughter. The world has forgotten about her, but I haven’t forgotten. I’m right here with her, right here as everyday she is mistreated. I see it all and I don’t leave for one second.”
Born Into DarknessSexual slavery: a legacy none want to leave…Ninety-five percent of children of prostituted women will become prostitutes themselves.
–Sheela Remedios, Project Child (via Robert I. Freedman, “India’s Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political Corruption are Leading to an AIDS Catastrophe,” The Nation, 8 April 1996
On our way to the next brothel, there was a prostitute lying on a cot under a tent with her pimp at a table next to her. She had white medicine covering the open wounds all over her face. We couldn’t get details, but apparently something happened the night before. She lay in the fetal position while her child crawled around next to her.
In another brothel, a woman sat next to me on the floor, wearing a beautiful blue-flowered sari. This woman had sent her daughter to a home for children because she didn’t want her to grow up as a prostitute. When we prayed for her, one of our team (a mother too) hugged her and began wailing as the woman cried. They grieved together for her deep loss, one mother to another.
Children are everywhere in the district. I learned from our guides that the mothers often hide them under the bed or drug them to keep them quiet and safe during “work”. If not given to a home, most of the children will end up sexually abused themselves or trafficked into another brothel. The mothers are forced to raise their children in depravity, or give them to a home. For most of the women, their children are the only ones who have ever truly loved them. It is a painful dilemma.
Hope for the DarknessHe will help the oppressed, who have none to defend them…• “73.7% of all girls trapped inside the brothel system must be rescued if they are to ever reach the outside world again.” –Kamala Sarup, Nepal correspondent with Lys Anzia, Women News Network
If the story were to end when we walked out of the district, I would be hopeless. I don’t want to see a need just to be better informed. I don’t want God to break my heart just for the sake of breaking it. I believe that there is a bigger purpose–that God allows us to see things not only for awareness, but because He invites us to be the solution.
God is moving in the red light district. He is rescuing, saving, healing and transforming. He will redeem the helpless. One way or another, His justice will cover them. He is already raising an army:
Former prostitutes.Former madams.Former pimps.And you.Vast darkness may seem overwhelming, but He is a very Big God. When His beloved shields the powerless, even nations quake with His glory.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To learn more about
Red Light Rescue visit www.sowerofseeds.org/rescue.
Sign a pledge to help the forgotten daughters here: http://sowerofseeds.org/project.php?id=25&tab=16
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