please PRAY for Hope

That is what I’m going to call her, Hope. Without the true hope of God, I would have to call her Shattered, as that would be fitting. But in the midst of her tradgedy, she has a light still flickering.

HOPE

As I write this my heart is so tender and broken. I have tears.

HOPE

I met Hope on Wednesday night in one of the brothels. I usually go into the 2 smaller brothels but one of the team members was sick this week so I got to go into the biggest one. Hope and I bonded first because we both speak English. She doesn’t speak German yet.

It was clear that Hope wasn’t happy as she was sitting waiting for customers. We started to talk. She said her work is awful. I said, “Of course, it must be. Awful.” I asked her how her English was so good (she is from an eastern block country) and she said she studied it and that she had just spent 3 months in London with her boyfriend. I asked her how long she’d been here in Hamburg. 2 weeks. 2 weeks? So I was trying to figure out in my mind what it all meant. I asked her why she came here and why she didn’t stay in London with her boyfriend. I was wondering if her boyfriend wasn’t such a great guy if you know what I mean. She said something like

I’m here because of a really stupid decision I made. After London I went back home. I met some people there and had a lot of fun with them and then I made a really stupid decision. I made it too quickly. Now I’m here.

I was still trying to decipher what she was saying.

If I didn’t make that one decision, I would have still have a normal life. But now I do this. I hate it. The first few days I couldn’t stop crying. All of my make-up kept coming off and then I’d put it on again and then I wouldn’t be able to stop from crying and it'd come off again. I am stuck. And what will my parents think if they knew what I was doing? I can't even imagine. I never want my daughter doing this. Never.

She had just been trafficked.


I said, “You know there are profesional organizations that can help you."

And she looked at me with dead certainty in her eyes and said,

No, you don’t understand. They KNOW my family. They know where they live. I have to stay here until I get to go home to my country again. Hopefully then I can escape.

She was wiping tears from her face. But trying to smile. She said she wasn’t even desperate for money. She had a good job back home that paid well. “I had people working for me,” she said. “Now I’m here.”

Shattered. Broken.

Ashamed that she made a stupid decision.
Who does she have to blame but herself?

SHATTERED

But then to my surprise she said,

Do you know of a protestant church around here? I can hear church bells ringing from my room. I went to try and see where they were coming from but all I could find was a Catholic church. I want to find a protestant church.

I told her, Yes, and that she could come with me to church. It is only 2 stops on the subway from the brothel. And it’s an English speaking church so she would understand everything. She said,

I’m coming this Sunday.

So I gave her directions and we are meeting at 12:15pm.

HOPE

In her deepest darkness, in her current nightmare, she is reaching for the Light. She is not giving up.

HOPE

However, please pray for her. This is serious stuff she is involved in. There is a battle for her soul right now. It is common when we have an ‘appointment’ outside of the brothel that the women don’t show up. She told me with that same, dead certainty, a few times, I am coming this Sunday. I will be there. And I believe her resolve. However, there is an enemy of her soul that may very well put up a fight...who is trying to break her down in every possible way. She may wake up Sunday morning not feeling so good…with a headache…or she may start having doubts…like “What will I say to people if I meet them, if they ask what I do?” We need to battle in prayer on her behalf.


Please pray.

As I began to type this, there was a song playing in the background. I couldn’t help but hear these words of the chorus that seemed so fitting for this post:

Oh my Lord
Oh my God
What an honor to love One as high as You
I’m restored
I am transformed
By the strength of Your love
Oh my Lord
Oh my God
I am changed by Your love as I worship You
There is life
There is hope in the light of Your love
In the light of Your love

HOPE!

postscript: just as i finished writing this buddy and i were on our way to meet with a real estate agent. you see, we have found a store front location dead center in the middle of the most popular area of the reeperbahn (the red light district). we were to meet the agent at 12noon. she was a few minutes late. as we were standing outside on the reeperbahn waiting, guess who 'just happened' to walk by? uh huh. yep. HOPE. as i was looking at her thinking, "Is that Hope?" she took off her sunglasses and came right up to me with a big smile. i gave her a hug and told her I'd been thinking of her. she said, "Ya, yesterday I was thinking, Only 2 more days until Sunday! I am going for sure." She had to hurry off and run her errand and then get back to work (sigh) but i mean, come on, what are the chances of that happening? for those of us that may doubt, maybe there is HOPE after all...

*** if you want to read what happened next in Hope's story, click here, and then here and finally here