February 18, 2014 | Human Trafficking

Not OK: When Love Walks In, A Sex Slave Walks Out

This year, we’ve focused on stories inspired by our We Are the World Race Campaign. This month, we’re sharing stories inspired by women on the mission field. (Don’t worry guys, your turn is coming next month!) Our experiences with women worldwide have taught us what womanhood really means. Women are wired for intimate relationships and deep, abiding love. And even when that “love” is used to take advantage of them—things like human trafficking, prostitution, and exploitation, to name a few—women teach us about beauty, femininity, joy, and God’s love for each one of his daughters. This month we want to celebrate all things women-in-missions related, and give you a chance to share your story as well.

This week we hear from Passport Thailand participant Sarah Arant. She and her team spent two months in Phuket, Thailand with SHE Ministries befriending women in sex slavery and offering them a way out. On days like this one, they got to see the beautiful hope and freedom God’s love offers.

Last week my teammate and I went on a lunch date with two people we’ve built a relationship with on Bangla Road. They are a couple in their early twenties who work on two of the streets. He is a bar tender in a tiny bar, and she is a bar girl at one of the bars. They came to tour SHE Ministries and see what they had to offer, then we went to eat at a place down the road.

Our goal was to love them and let them see that there are other options besides selling themselves and others. The whole afternoon was really fun, and once they left we were excited to go visit them next time we go out to Bangla Road.

A few days later, our group headed to Bangla Road for another night of ministry. Music blaring, tourists staring, and crowded streets – another normal night.

We began to walk down the street, praying about which bar to go to. After a few minutes we decided to check out a place we had visited once before. At the entrance, we saw our friend preparing for another night of bar tending. On our way past, we stopped and had a short conversation. As we prepared to leave, we asked him if his girlfriend was working that night.

He told us yes, she was working that night. We asked which bar she was working in and made a mental note to stop by later to check to see how she was doing.

A huge smile broke across his face as he told us where she was working: 7 Eleven. Not a bar on Bangla Road, but the 7 Eleven store down the road from our house.

She quit. She walked out.

I could write you a novel describing the incredible joy we all felt upon hearing this news, but I’ll put it in a short and simple way: God is good, all the time. He is moving and working in the hearts of the people on Bangla Road – not just the women in the bars, but the tourists and bar owners and lady boys and bartenders.

There is a change in this place that’s slowly occurring with each day. Chains are breaking away and bonds are being shattered; hope is being restored and life is being renewed. There is a revival coming, and Satan is being constantly pushed out of every bar, every closed club, and every street in Patong. Christ is here and active, and he is pouring out his love in this place and bringing abundant and redeemed life.

How do I know this? How can I claim this is happening amidst such darkness and despair?

Because she walked out.

She felt the love and saw the light and is walking in it. She no longer has to sell her body night after night or dance on a table for desperate men or take her clothes off to feel like she is worth something.

She is free. Her chains are broken. She is no longer captive.

She walked out.

We know these things break God’s heart, and they break ours too. In sharing these stories, we want to bring awareness to the reality of life for 27 million men, women, and children around the world. We believe in faith together that we can end this thing. While we know simple awareness will never end these issues, we also know they’ll never end without it.

You could be the one to answer the Lord’s call to be a voice for the voiceless. Your hands could hold the hurting. Your voice could spread the name of Jesus. Will you go? Click here see all the places you could go this year!

*Photos by Robin Brooks