HOPE in the middle

In the middle of the night it’s DARK

In the middle of a fight with one you love it’s TOUGH

In the middle of giving birth it’s EXCRUCIATING

In the middle of a storm it's FIERCE

In the middle

In the middle is not always
a happy or easy place to be

Hope is in the middle right now
--and I’m there with her--
and it hurts.
It is not easy for me at all.
It is really hard.

I met Hope on her 3rd or 4th night of prostituting after she’d been trafficked into Germany by her ‘boyfriend.’ She was ashamed, broken and horrified at what she was doing. She wanted to stop, but she feared for her life and her family’s life. Days later her boyfriend came and took her to another city. I hadn’t heard from her until this week, 5 months later.

What had happened to Hope in the past 5 months?

It wasn’t what I had expected.

I thought that she would have been pushed around by her boyfriend. Or I thought that he would have sold her to another trafficker. Before I saw her last night I expected for her to tell me horror stories.  Not so.

Instead, she looked good. Really good.
She smiled and acted confident
(except when we were praying).
She and her boyfriend broke up after one month.
He didn’t threaten her life or her family’s.
He didn’t chase her down.
He left her in peace.
(and she says she’s wondered
 if he let go of her so easily
because of our prayers for her)

So after one month
of being taken from Hamburg,
she was FREE.

Free to go home.
Free to return to the respectable job she’d had.
Free to no longer be forced
to do the unmentionable.
But guess what she’s been doing the past 4 months?
Yep.
On her own.
Her choice.

WHY?
Does she actually like it?
No
She's doing it for the money

I think for the first time in her life
She has a little pride
A little feeling of self-respect
She has her own apartment
(and it’s big, too)
She just bought a laptop
(a nice one)
She sends money back to her family
(even though they don’t really need it)
She’s paying for her brother to fly out
(so he can join her on a vacation)

She is proud
Not of what she does
But of financially providing
for herself and those she loves

And for now
she wants to keep doing what she’s doing

This was hard for me
To hear
To digest
To accept
To understand
I still don’t fully get it
But then knowing the reasons
Why most women ‘choose’ prostitution,
I do
But it doesn’t make it any easier for me

I am in the middle of it with her, and it’s
DARK
TOUGH
EXCRUCIATING

What I mean by Hope being
in the middle of it is this--

I don’t believe this is where she’ll be her whole life
She told me that in the city where she’s now working,
She’s met a woman ‘just like me’
A Christian woman who has reached out to her
She’s gone to church with her
This woman spends time with her
Prays for her
Loves her
(Praise God for this woman!)

In the middle
of Hope’s DARK NIGHT
The Light is pursuing her with
Unbridled passion
He is not done with her yet
He knows HOPE will, in time, win out

Maybe not in the present but in the future
Maybe not in the middle but in the end

He who has begun the good work in Hope
Will be
FAITHFUL
To complete it
To see her through the end of it

She may choose to work another
2 months
2 years or
20 years

Her middle may be long
or it may be short

But I believe her DARK NIGHT will end
It’s during the darkest point of the night,
you know,
-in the middle-
when the Morning Star begins to arise

And that is what He will continue to do
On her behalf
Because He loves her

It is in Him
And on this promise
That I place my
HOPE