A few hours after the party at Rahab, we walked through the night market and heard someone call out to us. We turned, and there were two of the women who’d been at the party! (In addition, the rest of the team ran into all of the other women who’d been at the party, not only that night, but one more as well!) One of the women, who we’d found out had accepted Christ a few weeks before, was GLOWING. There’s no other word to describe her other than full of light. When I went back to view photos later that night, what I saw first wasn’t the beautiful faces of my teammates and their new friends…. No, do you see her?
There, in the corner. Peeking out.
Her face is blurred to protect her identity (so are all of the others). But she’s standing right there… looking for the same hope, the same love and acceptance these other women have found. This particular bar has a curtain in front, and women stand both outside and right inside the entrance, wrapped in the curtain to protect their modesty, calling out to passersby. Trying to bring customers in. And there we were on the stoop, celebrating with our new friends… she’s there, looking out, looking for the same thing.
She is the thousands more who work on that street who need to know Him – workers and customers alike.
Those so desperate for transformation.
The below was written by my teammate, Tameka Rish, on our team blog and her own. It is so powerful that I wanted to share it with you. Note- the first photo on the right is advertising dancing positions at a bar called, Lust, starting at almost $15/night + tips.
Broken – By Tameka Rish
She pulls on the few clothes she’s provided.
Applies her make up to cover all she is hiding.
Like Cinderella in her fancy glass slippers.
Adorned to attract a man who she hopes will tip her.
She walks out of her dressing room into the dark.
Hoping for some man she will ignite a spark.
She puts one foot in front of the other as she climbs on the stage.
Praying tonight she doesn’t get a man with rage.
As she enters the light and the music is bumping,
She knows she’s alive only because her heart is thumping.
She grabs the pole and looks empty into the mirror.
She stares off looking for the little girl that was once in her.
She sways with the music from side to side.
Here on this stage her past and future collide.
Her innocence was taken when she was small.
There are now no boundaries to her at all.
*photos by Connie Rock.
Why should there be and who would care?
Would anyone really know if she wasn’t there?
She’s been touched and grabbed in every way it seemed.
This was not the life she had so often dreamed.
Her mom and dad were supposed to love and protect.
But all they provided was fear and neglect.
If she had a child she would never send it away.
If she had a child, “I love you,” she would say.
“The ends justify the means” is her life’s song.
If this was done to me, how could I be wrong?
A heavy man in red waves her over.
She gives him a smile and caresses his shoulder.
He pays the bar her asking price.
Tells her he will give her more if she’ll be nice.
Her body is a transaction that is numb to the core.
He grabs her hand and proudly walks out the door.
She does all of this in her mind to survive,
But it is a life that allows no one to thrive.
She puts herself in danger every night.
Just to buy food and turn on the lights.
She longs for security in a place so scary
She was just abused by a man who’s married.
The self worth and addiction is at an all time low.
She doesn’t know how much farther she can go.
She walks away from any safe harbor she had,
Off into the darkness with someone’s dad.
If she could only know this one thing:
God heals the broken and allows them to sing.
