Go Beyond

Kolkata en route to Dubai

Kolkata is a sprawling city that almost sixteen-million people call home and that has become something of a second home for me. One reason I like Kolkata is that it is the place where Mother Teresa demonstrated the meaning of selfless service by caring for the multitudes of broken people that struggle hard to survive from day to day. This little woman with a big heart for God took seriously the words of Jesus that what we do for the least of these we do for Him (Matt. 25:40). She distilled the message of Jesus to care for the least of these into a simple charge: look for Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor and, when you find Him, do for that individual what Jesus Himself would do. And that is exactly what Mother Teresa did and what the Missionaries of Charity continue to do in Kolkata and in all of the places where they serve around the world.

This past week in Kolkata, our team spent time with several people who serve one of the most abused and vulnerable segments of Kolkata’s population — young girls and women in prostitution. As I noted in a previous post, these are women who have ended up in brothels because it’s the only way they can support their families or because it is the family business or because they were trafficked and sold to brothel owners. However, regardless of the reason why they ended up in brothels, these unfortunate individuals are part of the rank and file of the least of these in Kolkata. And, were it not for those compassionate individuals who look for Jesus in the distressing disguises of the women who work in the brothels, many of these women might never know what it means to be truly loved.

As we make our way back to our homes in suburbia, we do so with greater understanding of the magnitude of the challenge of rescuing or helping young women to escape life in Kolkata’s brothels. And we do so with deeper appreciation for the women and men we have met — selfless individuals who have chosen to enter into and to live incarnationally in Kolkata’s sex districts. Their service is not unlike that of Jesus who “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7) in order to live among us. Because of the incarnation, Jesus was able to rescue us from the “domain of darkness” and transfer us to His own kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). And because we have walked slowly among the women in these areas we are returning home with a renewed commitment to champion their rescue. The women in the world’s brothels are an unreached people group and deserving of the opportunity to know the love of God. They are worthy of rescue.

Sonagacchi is the largest sex district in Kolkata. An estimated 10,000 women are available to service the sexual appetites of the thousands of men who visit this infamous area daily. The women who live and work in Sonagacchi are there for at least one of three reasons. Some were conscripted into the ranks of sexual workers by poverty. Left without options, these women choose to sell themselves into order to help their families survive. Others girls work in Sonagacchi because it’s what their mothers and grandmothers before them have done. These young girls are trapped in a generational cycle of prostitution. Finally, some of the girls were trafficked to Sonagacchi from neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal as well as from some of India’s poor rural villages. These young girls are trapped in a hell they did not choose for themselves.

Sonagacchi is a dark and sad place, even in the full light of day. The winding streets and narrow alleys of the district are polluted with sin and despair. And, regardless of why the area’s sex workers are there, they deserve better. They deserve a way out. They deserve options. They deserve freedom. Today, we visited two organizations that offer the women of Sonagacchi a path to a better life. Both of these organizations hire and train women in prostitution to make products that enable them to support themselves without having to sell themselves. They empower women with basic job skills that help them to rebuild their damaged self-esteem and to believe in their potential to become what God created them to be. The founders of both of these businesses understand the power of offering women honest employment. I was impressed by the women I met and by the quality of the products they make. Not only are they sewing beautiful products that are sold around the world, they are unwittingly mending their own lives one stitch at a time.

At the end of the day I thought about the women of Sonagacchi and the hope that is available to them because of Christ-followers who are willing to live among them in order to demonstrate God’s love in practical ways. Mother Teresa was committed to looking for Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor. The people we met today are committed to doing the same. One young lady from America said that she cannot imagine doing anything other than serving the women of Sonagacchi. “Even on the worst days,” she said, “I can’t see myself doing anything else or being anywhere else.” Her smile revealed a joy that comes from the assurance of knowing she is where Christ wants her to be, doing what He would do to care for the least of these. This young woman and the others we met have options to live more comfortable lives. They have chosen instead to serve in a hard place in order to make a difference in the lives of others that cannot be measured by earthly standards.

Kolkata, India

Trauma is only one of several things that the young girls in aftercare homes share in common. Each of the girls have similar stories in regard to the abuse they suffered at the hands of their traffickers and the customers they were forced to service in the brothels. In additional to physical trauma the girls also suffer from related emotional trauma. The aftercare homes we have visited provide the resources these young victims need in order to heal and to begin to rebuild their damaged lives. I have great respect and admiration for those we have met who serve the girls in aftercare. These compassionate individuals play a key role in the healing process.

In addition to trauma, a lack of education is another common denominator among the girls in aftercare. Almost without exception, every girl is from a poor background and had little or no education when they were betrayed, kidnapped, or sold to sex traffickers. When a poor family is faced with the costs of education, a son generally takes priority over a daughter. That’s one reason why most of the girls in aftercare have had only the minimum of education. Providing an education is another of the priorities of the aftercare homes we visited. The homes provide tutors as well as make arrangements for the girls to attend classes in a secure environment. One young girl I met in an aftercare home last year made it a point to show me her school work and to tell me how much she enjoyed going to school.

Shopping for books and school supplies.

Our team came to India prepared to start a library in one of the aftercare homes. A couple of months ago we received a financial gift in memory of a woman named Lotus Avery, the grandmother of Vicki, one of our team members. Lotus loved tutoring young people and inspired a love of reading in those she served. So, our team decided to use this gift to purchase school supplies and to start a library in an aftercare home. I especially like that we are doing this in Lotus’ memory because the lotus is the national flower of India. Purchasing books and school supplies in Kolkata is a time-consuming experience. We spent the day shopping in a sprawling market that specializes in education supplies. We negotiated the price of notebook paper with one vendor, shopped for pencils and protractors at another kiosk, waded into a crowded and dingy room to find maps and globes, and walked narrow aisles between hills of books stacked as high as the ceiling. But, after hours of diligent work, we purchased and filled a van with books and supplies.

Tomorrow morning we will visit New Hope School in in the village of Udayan Pally. Last year, our missions ministry provided the resources to help complete construction of this school. I want for our team to see the kind of poverty that deprives many children, especially young girls, of an education and to see the difference that my friend Pastor Rudra is making. In the afternoon we will return to one of the aftercare homes to start assembling their new library. It will provide another slice of the resources that the girls in aftercare need in order to get a better education and to become empowered to begin new lives. Our prayer is that God will use this practical demonstration of love and concern to help young girls heal and to discover the kind of new hope that Pastor Rudra is bringing to the children he serves. The young girls in aftercare are filled with untapped potential. We want to do all that we can to ensure that they have the opportunity to blossom like a beautiful lotus flower.

Kolkata, India

Throughout this week, our team will meet with different ministries and organizations that assist young girls rescued from the commercial sex trade. The vast majority of these girls were sold to or kidnapped by sex traffickers. Some of these girls were sold or betrayed by close family members, including parents. It’s hard to imagine how family members could do such a thing, but the story is all too common among the girls who end up in a world they never imagined existed. Some of the girls that end up in India’s brothels were duped to leave their homes by individuals who promised to find them honest employment that would enable them to help their poor families. However, once they had left homes, they were instead sold to work in brothels.

There is no way for us to imagine the mixture of fear, disappointment, and anger that these young victims feel when they realize that they have been caught in a trafficker’s net. The psalmist described the modus operandi of the wicked in this way, “He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; he lurks in ambush like a lion in a thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net” (Ps. 10:8-9). And then, the real horror begins for these girls. They are repeatedly raped in their first hours in captivity until all vestiges of their self-esteem have been destroyed. They are also beaten, verbally abused, warned that their families will be harmed if they refuse to cooperate, and even drugged into compliance. In the words of the Psalmist, “The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might” (Ps. 10:10).

It is not long before these young victims are smothered by despair and resign themselves to living in hell. Often kept in small and crowded rooms with other victims, they service the sexual appetites of as many as twenty customers per night — repeatedly raped and abused in every way. They are not offered any protection against carriers of sexually transmitted infections and must do whatever they are told to do, however foul or disgusting. The customers they are forced to service, like those who hold them captive, have no regard for the welfare of these young girls. They are closely guarded, beaten if they complain, and killed if they fail to comply. One young girl said that there were only two ways to leave the brothel where she was forced to work — by being sold to work in another brothel or by being killed. Life in the brothel or death were the only options on her horizon.

I cannot begin to imagine a life where my only options would be to continue to suffer abuse at the hands of those who entered through my door or to escape through death’s door. That is a chilling description of despair. Soon, even weeping is whipped into submission and there are no more tears left to cry. This is the world of those who see only two ways out. But, thankfully, the girls we are meeting this week can all testify to a third way out — rescue at the hands of champions of justice whom God uses to “break the arm of the wicked and evildoer” and also to “call his wickedness to account” (Ps. 10:15). God hears the cries of the afflicted and works through those who are committed “to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more” (Ps. 10:18). We must allow God to use us to champion His passion for justice so that those living in darkness will always have a way out.

Houston en route to Dubai

This past week I visited with a friend who spent a year working for an organization that champions the rights of those trapped in the dark world of human slavery. We first met in South Asia where he was working to help effect the rescue of young girls living in a hell created by evil individuals motivated by greed. He shared an amazing story with me that reminded me of how the power of love can trump the of hand of evil. What follows is the gist of his story.

During his initial months on the field he took part in an operation to rescue some girls from a brothel outside a large city. This initial operation was unsuccessful because the brothel owners were tipped off by corrupt individuals within the police department that was assisting with the rescue operation. So, they planned another rescue attempt several weeks later and, once again, someone tipped off the brothel owner. A third rescue attempt weeks after that also failed for the same reason. My friend shared with me how demoralized he was after the third failed rescue attempt. It seemed that everything was working against them, including individuals in the police department who were in cahoots with the brothel owners.

Sometime after the third failed rescue attempt, my friend saw a photo of the brothel on the front page of the newspaper. The related story was about a girl who had been trafficked to work at that brothel. The young girl said that a man from her distant village had come to the brothel for sexual services. She recognized the man and asked him if he would carry a note to her grandfather explaining what had happened to her and that she needed help. The man agreed. When the grandfather received the note he sold all that he had in order to travel to the place where his granddaughter was enslaved. He posed as a customer and later escaped with his granddaughter in the night. He then went to the police station and reported to them all that had happened to his granddaughter. The police had no choice but to arrest the brothel owners and shut down the operation. And, the police department came under investigation in an attempt to find the individuals responsible for having foiled the previous rescue attempts.

My friend said that he learned an important lesson. He had traveled to South Asia to be a champion for the oppressed. But, when all three attempts to rescue the girls at the brothel had failed, God raised up an unlikely champion — the grandfather of one of the girls who had been trafficked. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Indeed, it does. Those who trafficked the young girl never counted on the surpassing power of a grandfather’s love, a love that was willing to sell everything in order to redeem something of infinitely greater value — a granddaughter. Those of us who live in comfort and security must do no less on behalf of those living in bondage. May each of us be willing to become God’s unlikely champions to at least one of the twenty-seven million individuals on the planet today who live in some form of slavery.