High Heels and Red Lights

January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, where those on the frontlines share more in-depth stories from the field. Adventures partners with key organizations throughout the world working to not only end sexual exploitation but who are also committed to the aftercare and rehabilitation of survivors.

High heels and red lights; bare feet, pre-pubescent bodies. Blaring music and metal poles; cages, ping pong games, virgin fees for pink rooms. Dirty alleys, trash, and sweat. Pimps and parents, pornography and ex-pats. Bachelor parties, businessmen, and beer-stained breath.

Going, going, sold.

27 million* who can’t escape the dark.

The modern day sex industry operates on six continents and dates as far back into history as we can see. It seems to increase in presence even as raids close brothels, new laws bring johns to accountability, and pedophiles are arrested. Like the mythological many-headed dragons of old – cut off one neck and another seems to grow in its place. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.

In Amsterdam, where prostitution is legal, women dance half naked along the canal in front of glass doors, in a macabre display of possibility. They tap their nails on the glass and call out to customers. Men negotiate a price and the door opens; the curtain closes as they step inside to the bed three feet away.

In Cambodia, parents sell their children- boys on the riverfront hawking books, little girls running barefooted through the streets. 

In Thailand, women dance on tables and in shows, staring blankly into mirrors as they try to bury their soul. The pressure is on them to support their families, as women are the breadwinners in Buddhist culture.

Not to mention those kidnapped across borders. Or the ones locked in cages. Those imported to international sporting events like exotic animals or cigars.

Or the young men with long hair and painted nails, hormone shots and cosmetic surgery; female from the waist up, male from the waist down, never to be altogether either one or the other ever again.

Body parts without faces. Pain soul deep.

Stories as old as Rahab, memories as fresh as last night.

It can be easy to be overwhelmed at the expanse and breadth of trafficking. It is specific to country and culture, stretches across the globe, yet can be underground, even invisible at times. It would be easy to say, “It’s too much. I can’t make a difference.”

But if this were Narnia’s story, this would be when the snow melts and the animals whisper, “Aslan is on the move.”

Because there is no place in the Kingdom of God for slavery. Our King came to set the captives free. He is on the move.

Shutting down the sex trade isn’t our job. Our job is simply to follow Christ.

Even if it means to the Red Light District.

Adventures partners with key organizations throughout the world working to not only end sexual exploitation but who are also committed to the aftercare and rehabilitation of the children, teens, men, and women survivors. World Race Squads, Short Term, and Passport teams to Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines all focus heavily on being the presence of Christ in areas of high sexual tourism through bar ministry, working with our on-ground partners, and supporting the long term workers on the field. Our staff missionaries in Southeast Asia currently are working to establish a long term presence in those cities.

Over the next three weeks, we will highlight specific ministries in Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines where God is working through Adventures – and how you can be a part of the restoration story he is writing there.

It’s not just in fairy tales where monsters walk by day and nightmares play in the dark.

But our King is on the move.

And no dragon, giant, or centuries-old slave trade can withstand the light of his power.

*as estimated by the US State Department, 2011.

**Photos by Kristen.

Is your heart broken for the vulnerable and sexually exploited? Do you feel called to go on a Short Term or Passport trip to a location working with anti-trafficking ministries? Click here for adult trips and here for college aged trips.