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On the Streets

Joel Schmidgall

I don’t think we realized what we were getting into.  Tonight, we had our first outreach at the bars.  There were hundreds of scantily clad girls lining the streets, beckoning their next customer.  There were many eager western men, happy to participate. 

One teammate shared that everything became real tonight. “We went from talking about it in the U.S., to hearing someone tell us about it here, to seeing it with our own eyes tonight.  It became real in a frightening way.”

Here’s some other reactions from a very emotionally heavy day:

”The only financial safety net for single moms is prostitution.” —Missionary, Jim Larson

”I learned to stop trying to do it my way and let God work things out His way.” —Former Prostitute, Now in The Well Ministry

”Tonight made me angry.  All those men taking advantage of the situation.” —NCCer

Here was my range of emotions:  anger, rage, disgust, sadness, heaviness.  I was praying tonight and Jesus at the well came to mind.  The woman kept going to guys to solve her problems.  And somehow Jesus looked through her problems.  And he shared hope in the midst of desperation and worthlessness.  To a woman who couldn’t quench her desires, he offered water that would never leave her wanting.  He offered new life.  I am praying that somehow in the midst of so much despair and lifelessness, Jesus would bring a “spring within, gushing fountains of endless life” (John 4) for these women. Pray with us!

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