Saving the Girls

Posted on April 17, 2014 by opendooreurope

Part Two

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, and poverty means vulnerability. Sometimes, as noted in yesterday’s post, a family will either abort or abandon children that they can’t afford to keep. So Moldova’s orphanages are filled with children who are not truly orphans, but are simply abandoned. Being the poorest country in Europe, and having the responsibility for so many orphans means that the orphanages cannot do more than simply keep their little charges alive. When an orphan reaches the age of eighteen, they are given a small amount of money and a bus ticket to the nearest city. Traffickers know this and often cruise the bus stops by the orphanages looking for young girls to whisk away into a life of prostitution. And, having no other life skills, they really have no other alternative.

Sometimes, in exchange for money, the orphanage directors will cooperate with the traffickers by letting them know when girls will be released. And sometimes, the orphanage directors, themselves, become traffickers, opening the orphanage as a child brothel, and selling the girls into a life of prostitution when they are released.

Rescuing these girls from prostitution is the focus of several ministries here in Moldova. In Trans Istria we saw the construction site of a church that wants to house girls, teach them life skills and job skills, and help get them started into a better life. The church doesn’t currently have enough money to finish the building project, so they are using the help of missionaries who come as volunteer help. Even if you are not skilled in construction, but you want to help, any extra pair of hands is very gratefully put to work in various ways, and for whatever length of time you can come. You can contact us through the GoMissions website for more information.

Our visit yesterday to Irena and Olga, the mother and daughter team that works in the Pregnancy Crisis Center in Chisinau is another organization that helps these at-risk girls. Orphans and the rescue of prostitutes is not the primary focus.

Stella’s Voice is a ministry based in the UK that also rescues at-risk girls. You can contact them on their website for ways that you can help their ministry help these girls.

Traditionally, law enforcement (worldwide) has jailed and prosecuted the prostitutes, themselves. But the fact is that few prostitutes choose that lifestyle. The ones who do choose to go into prostitution have all been molested as children, so that they have come to believe that it is only through sex that they have value. Therefore, it is not only wrong to jail prostitutes, but also a waste of resources, since it only effects the supply in a very small way without diminishing the demand at all.

The only country in the world that has been able to drastically reduce prostitution (by 80 percent) is Sweden. Instead of prosecuting the prostitutes, Sweden prosecutes the johns—and does so publicly. In fact, anyone traveling to, from, or through Sweden for the purpose of buying the services of prostitutes (sex tourism) is jailed and denounced in the Swedish media.

Unfortunately, Moldova is far too poor to address the problem of prostitution at all. But the western countries to which these girls are trafficked do have the resources. Any country that really wants to help these girls, or at the very least to stop prostitution within their borders, should follow the Swedish model. I suspect that the problem is that most politicians don’t care about prostitutes and/or the police are in some way involved (financially or by receiving favors). My criticism is not limited to the countries of Western Europe, but worldwide, including my own. It is within the power of our government to stop prostitution. But do they want to. America, do you want to stop prostitution?

Speaking at Church

Posted on November 1, 2013 by opendooreurope

My gut clenches, sweat beads on my upper lip, my mind races is twelve different directions, my mouth goes dry, and my hands shake—why? Because I’m speaking at my church this evening. And it’s not because anybody has twisted my arm—I want to do this. When I’m in the US, I want to speak as often as possible to anyone who will listen about Europe as a mission field. But I’ve always had a fear of public speaking, and even though it usually goes really well, and the audience is very sympathetic and supportive, that fear is lurking just out of sight, ready to make my voice crack or make me forget what I was going to say.

Fear of speaking in public is one of the most common fears around. Most of us would rather face a roaring lion, armed with nothing but a Twinkie than speak in front of an audience. But like I said, I want to do this. Facing-down this fear is the measure of how strong my calling is for Europe. If I didn’t do this, I would feel like I had abandoned my calling.

Europe is the forgotten mission field. A professor of foreign missions at Abilene Christian University told me that he asks his students at the beginning of the semester what is the mission field with the most need. They invariably answer Africa. Then after he has demonstrated to them that Africa is far more Christian than Europe, he will ask them again, and many times the answer is still Africa. The economic need tugs at their heartstrings, even though Europe is in far worse need spiritually. Operation World calls Europe by far the “most secular, least Christian” continent on earth (pg. 79). Europe also has the most un-reached people groups of any region in the whole world—including the Middle East. Africa is now sending missionaries to Europe.

Slavery – Human trafficking is epidemic in Europe because the relaxed borders have made it easier to transport people from Eastern Europe (primarily Ukraine, Czech Republic, Moldova, and Romania) to Western Europe (Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany).
Poverty – People think of Europe as a rich peoples’ playground. And it’s true that rich people do vacation in Europe, but the average European makes far less money than the average American, and lives a simpler life. Furthermore, the third world exists throughout Europe at the edge of every city: in gypsy camps of staggering poverty. The gypsy children live in shockingly unsanitary conditions. Many gypsy children are denied an education due to their nomadic family life. Gypsy children are expected to bring money back to the patriarchs, the grandparents. They beg, steal, or work as prostitutes to bring money back to the family, and if they fail to bring back money or to bring back enough money, they are beaten. Sometimes their legs are broken and set in crazy ways that will turn your stomach. Sometimes their legs are cut off—giving them more sympathetic appeal. Many gypsy children are sold to sex traffickers or organ traffickers.
Homelessness – Homelessness is a huge problem. Budapest has an estimated 30,000 homeless people. I saw lots of homeless people when I was there, and the homeless of Budapest are unlike homeless people I’ve ever seen anywhere else. There are so many of them that they have simply lost all hope. They don’t even ask for money, they just curl up in doorways and in the subway entrances. (This is all recounted in my book, Look, Listen, Love.)
Suicide – Suicide is rampant throughout Europe, especially in the current economic climate. Fourteen of the top twenty countries with the highest suicide rates are in Europe. Switzerland legalized suicide in 1941, and under Swiss law, you do not have to have a lethal diagnosis to ask for physician-assisted suicide; you don’t even have to be Swiss! That means that if someone is depressed and wants to end their life, they can go to Switzerland, which is conveniently in the middle of the continent, and pay a doctor to help them kill themselves, and they don’t have to get any kind of counseling. In fact, the doctors would be against counseling because they make money on each suicide. Now suicide is also legal in the Netherlands. In Milan, where suicide is still illegal, and Switzerland is only an hour away, about once a month or so, somebody jumps in front of a speeding subway train. In fact, it is such a common occurrence that people have lost all sympathy for the victim and his or her family, instead they just become annoyed at the inconvenience that the suicide has caused them as they rush through their day.
Drugs – The city of Amsterdam is uniquely problematic because they have de-criminalized both prostitution and marijuana. Legalizing pot use has been discussed from time to time here in the US. The arguments for legalization seem very logical and reasonable, particularly when it comes to saving taxpayer money and law enforcement manpower. But before getting onto the bandwagon, you should take a trip to Amsterdam to see what legalized pot use looks like. Marijuana is only legal in the marijuana coffeehouses, but it doesn’t stay in the coffeehouses. And because pot is legal, tourists think that other drugs are also legal—they are not. No matter how harmless you may think it is, the fact is that marijuana is a gateway drug. The dealers of illegal drugs situate themselves along the canal in the Red Light district (more about that in a moment) and peddle their drugs to passers-by. They don’t stand around looking villainous, but instead they are very friendly. The dealers speak English and often the major European languages. Amsterdam is the number one partying destination in Europe, possibly in the world. So lots of young men travel to Amsterdam for legal sex with prostitutes and legal marijuana use. Many of them are lured into trying the harder drugs as well. The result is that the streets of Amsterdam are filthy with trash and vomit and people that are either homeless or too high to remember how to get back to where they are staying. The streets are also very loud all night long, with the sounds of hell-raising. There are so many people who are addicted to heroin that the city has started giving out free needles to try and keep the risk of HIV transmission low. So the parks are full of addicts that are shooting-up. And the free needle program has done nothing to stop the spread of HIV. Prostitution – Legalized prostitution in Amsterdam was supposed to help prevent the spread of HIV by having the Dutch Minister of Health responsible for making sure that all the window girls stayed healthy and conducted business in ways that reduced the possibility of transmission (i.e. washing the customers and using condoms). However, that has turned out to be impossible to enforce. Plus, the presence of legal prostitutes has not stopped or even slowed down illegal prostitution in the Netherlands. Let’s face it, supply follows demand.
The idea behind legalizing prostitution seemed like a good idea, but prostitution plays a part in all the above behaviors, like a European version of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” but worse because of the whole drug issue discussed above. People believe that the window girls are independent businesswomen—they are not—at least not all of them. Many of the window girls come from other countries, mostly Eastern Europe and Africa. Those girls got there because they answered ads for jobs, and some even paid intermediaries who turned out to be traffickers to get them illegally into Europe. Few, if any, of them set out to work in prostitution. Like I said, the relaxation of borders within the European Union has actually worked to the traffickers’ advantage. And even if some of the women are voluntarily working in the windows of the Red Light district, they have invariably been sexually abused as children. As a woman, I can tell you that no little girl dreams of having dozens of sweaty, smelly men use and use and use her all day and all night long. Prostitutes use the same survival strategy that victims of physical abuse use: they have learned how to zone-out and not be in their bodies while it is happening. Despite the lies that the johns tell themselves, that doesn’t sound like it’s something they enjoy, does it? All of this means that Amsterdam, an otherwise lovely city, has become a haven for potheads, traffickers, drug dealers, and drug addicts.
Cynicism – The young people of Europe are among the most hopeless and cynical in the world. They go to university only to find that they are still unemployed and unemployable. East European youth are leaving their homelands in droves, seeking employment in the west. The employers take advantage of that desperation and pay them lower wages, and giving them the jobs that West Europeans don’t want. Most of the janitors in Italy are Romanian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, or Polish. Because they feel powerless, the youth are drawn into witchcraft and satanism. They recognize that there is genuine spiritual power therein, but don’t have the discernment to know the good from the evil. Turin, Italy is the European capital for satanism. Every so often, there is a ritually sacrificed body (either human or animal) found in the woods near Turin. It has become such a common occurrence that the news agencies have stopped reporting these findings. Many of these young people consider traditional religion a waste of time, and they don’t want to hear about anything of a religious nature. For this reason, missionaries in Europe have had to be very creative in sharing the Gospel.

I could continue, but I think this post is long enough. So, I take a deep breath, pray for at least an hour, and go pour my heart out for an hour or so about Europe. Suddenly, I understand exactly what Jeremiah meant when he said that if he tries to keep silent, God’s Word is like a fire shut up in his bones. God is good, and I want more missionaries to share His goodness with this lost and dying continent.

Europe’s Most Hopeless People

Posted on July 6, 2013 by opendooreurope

Europe is a hopeless place, filled with hopeless people. That’s something that most tourists have no clue about. They come from places where there are jobs and plenty of money. They see the majestic Eiffel Tower, the famous tower of Big Ben, the historical Colosseum in Rome, and the romantic canals of Venice. They take pictures and go home thinking that they have seen Europe.

Trivia: Few have actually seen Big Ben because it’s the name of the clock’s bell

Trivia: Christians were fed to the lions in the Circus Maximus, not the Colosseum because it was a bigger venue and open to all, so it served as a warning not to join the Christians. The Colosseum was only open to the nobility and was where the Gladiators fought to the death.

The tourists might have had their pockets picked or seen (or most likely tried not to see) beggars in these beautiful places. If they were brave enough to ride the buses, trains, trams, or subway, they may have smelled someone near them who doesn’t use deodorant. These tourists go home thinking that they have seen Europe, too.

But the reality of Europe (or any place for that matter) can only be truly known by living here. Life in Europe is hard, and it’s hardest on immigrants. Americans must learn how to navigate ancient bureaucracies that are full of rules that make no sense—that’s just the way it’s done.

The Europeans have a love/hate relationship with America. They love our movies and TV shows, and the fact that we come in and spend money here, which boosts the economy. But they hate our loud and often obnoxious presence. America is the land of comfort and convenience, the land of efficiency and practicality. Most of Europe is none of those things. So when Americans come and complain loudly about the realities of Europe, it angers Europeans, who may wish that you would just quietly spend your money and go back to America.

The biggest difference between America and Europe is that Americans are an optimistic bunch. Even the most pessimistic and negative American is more optimistic than the average European. In a word, Americans have hope. Europeans have mostly given up hope. This hopelessness is what makes Europe “by far the most secular, least Christian” continent on earth, (Operation World, page 79). Europeans love our optimism, love the fact that we smile a lot, but they consider Americans naïve.

Here are some of the most hopeless groups of people in Europe (and probably in the world):

The Roma

There are Roma (gypsies) throughout Europe, and they are the most universally hated group of people by far. The Roma are not all lazy beggars and thieves, as most people think. In fact, they are quite industrious. However, because the majority of them have no legal documents, they cannot materially participate in European society. They can’t get jobs, so they create their own work. Some Roma are business owners, employing their family members. Others pick and sell flowers, wash windshields at traffic lights, or play music on the subway—all of which are forms of begging. Some of the gypsy girls visit the alley door of restaurants and shops, begging for food or money in exchange for sex. Some sit outside of churches, grocery stores, and cafes, begging. Some have broken and set their legs in crazy ways or amputated their legs, giving themselves a “beggar’s pay raise.” And, yes, some of them break into houses and steal whatever they can carry away.

Most of the Roma could not integrate into the rest of European society even if they wanted to. Their lack of legal documents also means that even if they have the money, they can’t buy or rent property. So they live in camps at the edge of town. Some camps are worse than others, but none of the camps are a place you would want to go, much less to live. Roma hygiene is practically nonexistent, even if the facilities are available to them—and often they are not available. Every Roma camp is the third world. Just outside the beautiful European cities that attract so many tourists are Roma camps: Paris, London, Rome, and Venice all have their Roma camps.

But the biggest barrier to integration is the Roma family, itself. At the head of every Roma family are the patriarchs, the grandparents. All family issues are decided by the patriarchs, and all money is brought to the patriarchs to administer. Roma family values are so foreign to the rest of us that it makes them a frightening mystery to most people. Understanding Roma family values will help you understand the Roma. In a nutshell, the family is everything to the Roma, and you serve the family, the patriarchs, by bringing them money. You might think, well my family is important to me, too. But here’s some examples of Roma family values at work:

Sending your daughter (or son or wife) out to sell herself as a prostitute brings money to the family, so that’s a good thing.
Paying to ride the bus, train, or subway takes money away from the family, so that’s a bad thing.
Passing your children around among the adults of the family to be used like sex toys trains them for prostitution, which will bring in money, so that’s a good thing.
Passing up an opportunity to steal something when no one is looking won’t bring money to help the family, so that’s a bad thing.
Selling your child either to traffickers or to black market human organ dealers brings money to the family, so that’s a good thing.

On that last point, the Roma are always happy with pregnancies because one way or another, they will find a way to bring money in to the family through that child. Do they love their children? Love doesn’t really enter into Roma family values. Money is really everything for them.

The Homeless of Budapest

When I was in Budapest, I wrote about the homeless in my book Look, Listen, Love. Budapest has an estimated 30,000 homeless people (Operation World, page 403). The homeless people that I saw didn’t beg for money. All over Europe, and indeed the world, homeless people beg for money. But not the homeless of Budapest. They have lost hope. They sleep in doorways and in the entrances to the subway. There are so many of them that the city seems to have given up hope of helping them. So the police don’t chase them away when they camp in a doorway, in the park, or in the subway entrance. I guess that’s help of some sort, but not much.

The Orphans

But the Roma and the homeless of Budapest, although hopeless, are not the most hopeless group of people in Europe. The most hopeless people are the orphans of formerly Communist Central and Eastern Europe. I met 1 just this week.

Mary came with a missionary family from Romania that stayed with me. She is the nanny to their 4 children. They are discipling her even though she hasn’t yet made a decision for Christ. They had to be very careful talking about her because although Mary doesn’t understand English, the children are bilingual. Little pitchers have big ears, and they also have big mouths!

What I understood between the lines is that Mary grew up in an orphanage. Most orphanages in the formerly Communist countries keep the children under very tight control. So they grow up sheltered, but not loved. Mary had never seen an elevator before. She had no idea how the thing worked, and preferred to take the stairs instead. When I was introduced to Mary, I did as with any introduction: I smiled and offered my hand to shake. Mary turned her gaze from my smiling face and reluctantly took the hand.

Mary clearly loves the children, especially the oldest, Sally, who is 7. She told the mother that Sally loved and accepted her when nobody else would. I suspect that Mary feels safer with someone who is younger and still quite small. Because she had never experienced love, she found it very hard to believe that anybody, the family, me, or even God could love her, only Sally. It is very much an issue of trust.

What I know about orphanages in the formerly Communist countries is what I learned from Stella’s Voice, a missions organization that goes to Moldova and rescues orphans, and Nefarious, a documentary about human trafficking, and from talking with missionaries who work with prostitutes. Orphans, particularly girls, need rescuing because when they reach their 18^th birthday, the orphanage gives them a bus ticket and a little money, and they are left on a bench at the bus stop. The traffickers know this and come by to take the girls and set them up into a life of prostitution, usually in Western Europe. Since they have no skills and no life experience, the girls go along without a thought. Sometimes the orphanage directors will encourage the girls to “be friendly” with the traffickers even before they must leave the orphanage. In this way they learn that their only value is sexual.

With the ever-present children, I never was able to learn very much specifically about Mary’s life. All I know is that she is 29 years old, though emotionally I would put her more at 12. She has been with the family for 4 years. She has heard the Gospel and attends church with the family, but has never made a declaration of faith. The mother, who is also Romanian, told me that Mary’s inability to trust has at times made her so difficult to live with that she almost gave up on her. But the Lord told her that he put Mary into her home for a reason.

When you think of Europe, please remember that the beautiful places you’ve seen in pictures are only a small part of the reality. Europe is desperately in need of missionaries. There are some countries with almost no Christian presence—and that presence is hardly Christian, being either steeped in worship of the Madonna or loaded up with traditions that include curses for sale from the priest. Please pray for missionaries to answer the call to serve in Europe. Pray for the missionaries and pastors of Europe who have been laboring for years to bring in the final harvest. And if the Lord is calling you to come serve Him in Europe, please be obedient and answer that call! God is good, but there is no time to waste. The Day of the Lord is upon us.

An Emotional Day

Posted on May 2, 2013 by opendooreurope

We met at the church to hear about the history of the Jewish people of Vienna. A brief overview shows that the Jews were welcome in Vienna, then persecuted and either killed or driven out (whenever they needed a scapegoat), then they were welcomed again and the cycle repeated.

Yesterday was rather like that for me: emotions up and down and up again. After the teaching we went to the city center and divided into 2 groups: prayer for the churches and prayer for the Jews. It was so hard to decide because I really wanted to go with both groups—and I was not the only one. So I put off the decision until the moment came to decide. The church group had far fewer members, so I went with them. And that was a good decision because my calling is for the church (missionaries), even though I do have a strong love for Israel.

We went into St. Stephan’s Cathedral there in the center. One teammate said that there was a chapel with Israeli etchings or something. I didn’t really catch exactly what it was, but we found a chapel that was set apart from the rest of the cathedral and had a glass door. The door was shut, but not locked, so we went inside. I don’t think that was the place we were looking for, but it was a perfect place to pray, with stools set in a circle around the room. To my delight, I found a kneeler, so I knelt to pray. Our prayers were full of emotion, which is not unusual, but the intensity and range of emotions was very unusual: one teammate lay on the floor weeping, then another started a battle prayer and we all roared (in our spirits), then spontaneous laughter as the Sweet Holy Spirit fell upon us. It was powerful. We had intended to pray there for 20 minutes, but in the end, we were there 40 instead. I had not been aware of the passage of time, nor had the others.

We moved on to the “New City” area near the Danube River. This was a whole area of new apartment buildings near a bridge. A prophet had recently prophesied that Jesus would enter the city of Vienna by crossing this bridge. The place where we had wanted to pray was closed off for construction, and although this was Labor Day for Austria, there was a workman there who let us into the construction area. We began searching for a good place to pray. First we found too much sun, then a shady area near the workman, but he had just turned on a noisy machine. Finally we found a small sandbox play area in the shade. There we prayed, proclaimed, and welcomed Jesus to enter Vienna.

I kicked off my sandals and enjoyed the cool sand on my feet. After prayers one of the teammates (a man from Slovakia) and I danced and sang a joyful song, waving flags. Then we went back to the center and got Italian gelatos while we waited for the other prayer team to arrive.

From there we went to a prayer meeting where several churches attend together. We prayed for the sick and there were many miraculous healings. Then we broke into groups of 3-4 and prayed a few minutes for the topics given to us. When we were told to pray for trafficked people the mood changed from joyful and triumphant prayers to brokenhearted prayers. I was reminded of the girls that Clara (the pastor’s wife from Romania) had told me about.

I also thought about a friend from Eastern Europe who had recently told me that she had been a prostitute. You would never imagine it. She’s a sweet twenty-something Christian girl, who had thought that she had no future. But she met Jesus and found that she is worth so much more than all the money that men had paid to use her body.

Thinking about these girls broke my heart, and I cried my heart out for them and for all their sisters. I was not the only one to weep for them. Tears are prayers, too.

When we returned to the church, I flopped down on the floor, kicked off my sandals, and put my feet up. It felt good to rest. After dinner we laughed, but not with our usual hilarity. I think we were all just so tired. It had been a good, but emotionally draining day. God is good!

Nefarious – Merchant of Souls

Posted on March 20, 2013 by opendooreurope

Day Four

Greetings from Bologna!

I came here to see the screening of Nefarious. Nefarious is a film about human trafficking (modern slavery), the vast majority of which is for purposes of prostitution. The film is a deeply disturbing documentary which chronicles the lives of prostitutes in Europe, Thailand, and the US. The organization that produced the film is Exodus Cry (http://exoduscry.com/).

The word nefarious means extremely wicked or villainous, and that describes the traffickers and also the men who frequent prostitutes.

The girls in the film had been rescued from prostitution. Some described how they were tricked into prostitution by boyfriends who turned out to be traffickers. Others told how they had been kidnapped. Both of these went through a process of breaking-down their will and their resistance. This process involves isolation, humiliation, drugging, severe beatings, and repeated rape until all the fight has gone out of them—along with any self-esteem or human dignity.

Some girls were made to strip naked and walk in line across a stage in a slave auction for buyers to bid on. These buyers were the owners of brothels and massage parlors throughout Europe. Often the buyers would manhandle them, forcing them to open their mouth and show their teeth, checking them over like merchandise. Some buyers asked to “try the product” before they buy.

Some of the girls had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents in Eastern Europe. One described how the orphanage director had encouraged the girls to “go off with the boys and have some fun.” They were prostituting them. Then when they reached 18 years of age, the traffickers came to pick them up from the orphanage and they were never heard from again. East European girls have been trafficked into prostitution all around the world. Their passports have been stolen by their captors. They are invisible because they have no family, and usually they have no knowledge of the language in the place where they end up, except for what they need to know for working in prostitution. The traffickers prey upon the most vulnerable: orphans and children.

Anywhere there is prostitution, there is trafficking. The legalization of prostitution only helps the traffickers by giving them a “legitimate” market. But legalization in no way means that the girls are working as prostitutes by choice. The only girls in the film who had entered prostitution voluntarily had been lured by the glamour of becoming a high-priced Las Vegas call girl. They dreamed of meeting and marrying a high-roller who could give them a luxurious lifestyle. They were each disillusioned by the realities of prostitution. Part of that reality is that some of the clients are men who hate women with a murderous passion. All of the women had suffered beatings and strangling. The thing that each of the voluntary prostitutes had in common was a history of sexual abuse as children, and the low self-esteem that comes with being the victim of abuse.

The purpose of the film is to educate the public about this extreme evil that exists all over the world. The film also shows the only country in the world in which prostitution has virtually ended: Sweden. Sweden’s approach is simple and effective: severely punish the clients and the traffickers. In effect: stop the demand and prostitution stops.

Exodus Cry works on a 3 point attack: Prevention, Intervention, and Restoration. The ultimate goal is to have people who are healed: physically, emotionally, and spiritually—and not only the girls, but also the clients and traffickers, whenever possible.

So what does all this have to do with my fasting and prayer for understanding of the things to come? I believe that it is just a confirmation of darkness of these End Times days. It’s confirmation that I am on the right track by fasting and praying for understanding. Most of these girls were deceived in one way or another. When the Antichrist comes upon the world stage, he will come with such great deception that even the elect, God’s chosen ones, will be in grave danger of falling for his lies. This calls for us to be alert—super-alert! We cannot afford to coast through these days on auto-pilot.

You can get involved with Exodus Cry through: Prayer, Awareness, Reform, and Donation. Exodus Cry is above all a prayer movement. They wisely recognize that none of this will change without prayer. They also realize that nothing will change without laws that punish the men who exploit women and children. I want to encourage each of you to support Exodus Cry with your prayers and finances. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Now that you know, you have the obligation to help the “least of these.” God is good! Go do good, too!

Hey American Girl, Lighten Up!

Posted on March 17, 2013 by opendooreurope

Note: I started writing this on Friday, but got busy and didn’t finish it until today.

Yesterday I learned that there would be the screening of a documentary about human trafficking in Bologna: Nefarious. Human trafficking is an issue that I have been intensely interested in ever since attending an International Justice Mission informational event at the University of Texas.

I was an usher with the Texas Performing Arts Center. I had become an usher because a dear friend is an usher at the San Francisco Opera House. About 6 months after my divorce, I went to visit her, and she arranged for me to work as a guest usher. I handed out programs at one of the main doors, and got to watch La Traviata for free. I was hooked. Since I don’t own a television, it was a good way to get out among people and see some entertainment for free. TPA, which is on the campus of the University of Texas, hosts operas, ballets, plays, musicals, concerts, etc. They required that all ushers work a variety of events, and not only “entertainments.” These included student events like commencements, workshops, and informational events like IJM, all of which we are free to choose.

When I learned that IJM was a Christian event, I signed up, even though I didn’t know what it was. The auditorium was packed out, so I stood at the back, fascinated and horrified, and heard story after story of women kidnapped and put to work in brothels far from their homes; men who had been tricked into working off bogus debts while living captive in squalor; and even children sold into the sex trade. There were success stories of people liberated, but clearly the vast majority had not been affected yet. The most encouraging thing about that evening was seeing the response of the students. I realized that only young, idealistic, committed people could ever make an impact on the trade in human trafficking. Most people my age feel bad about the situation, but never do anything, having had our idealism beaten out of us by life.

It was only after returning to Europe as a missionary that I became aware of the prevalence of human trafficking here. I started educating myself on the subject, reading as many books about human trafficking as I could get my hands on. Over time, I started to notice just how many people in my city, and even in my own neighborhood, have probably been trafficked here. It’s shocking. A few times I have had the opportunity to talk frankly with these trafficked people, but mostly it’s not possible because they speak neither English nor Italian. Here are a few of the different slaves I have seen:

The girl from China who cuts hair 15 hours a day in a busy salon that charges prices so low they can’t possibly pay her a living wage
The man from Sri Lanka who goes from restaurant to restaurant selling flowers, bringing all the proceeds back to his “boss”
The teenaged girl from Romania standing on the street corner waiting for a man to pick her up in his car and take her away for sex
The man from Vietnam who washes dishes in a restaurant for 12 hours a day, every day, with no day off
The woman from Thailand who works all day sewing, weaving, and mending in the dingy room in the back of the tailor shop

If any of these people sound familiar to you, understand that their fellow slaves are in your town, too—yes, even in the United States. Check out the Slavery Map: www.notforsalecampaign.org/slavery-map

So that is how I became interested in human trafficking, and why I’m going to Bologna to see the screening of Nefarious. The friend who told me about the screening is Annie, a missionary from the US. In fact, we decided to go together. So I booked us a hotel room because our friends there all have full houses because of the screening. In trying once again to buy train tickets on the internet, I found that the website still didn’t work right. I don’t live terribly far from the train station, but I am busy enough that I wasn’t happy about having to go down there to do something that, in theory, I should be able to do online.

At the first opportunity, I went to buy train tickets. Usually I buy train tickets from the machine so that I don’t have to stand in the long line. The machine also wasn’t working, so I went into the ticket office. One big improvement is that there is no line now, but a machine that gives you a number instead. That’s nice. Now if they would just give us some chairs, things would be even better. When my number came up I went to the window and asked for my trains. I found that the price was slightly higher than the internet price, which might be due to being closer to the date of travel or the special priced tickets having been sold out. Still, it wasn’t much higher than expected.

As we finished the transaction, I asked the ticket seller why the train company’s website never seems to work when it comes to buying tickets online. He said, “If everything worked as expected, then there would be no surprises. We Italians have learned to live with these inefficiencies.” I replied, “I’m American, and we expect things to work as they should.” He just smiled and said, “That’s your problem. When things don’t work as they should, it’s trouble and chaos for you.” That’s when I realized that God was speaking to me through this man. It’s the same lesson He’s been teaching me since I began the Faith Trip almost 2 years ago: relax, don’t worry, and remember that God is in control of it all.

How embarrassing to have to keep learning the same lesson again and again! I was so sure that I knew it! In fact, I have written about not being worried about missing trains, buses, or planes: A-DivineAppointment and I-missed-the-train-but-made-it-to-the-divine-appointment, and older posts. But I do intend to make it to the train (and the film) on time.

Thank God that He’s so patient with me! God is good!

The Light Shines in the Darkness

Posted on February 20, 2013 by opendooreurope

I have written a few stories of actual people who have been trafficked (in both “Look, Listen, Love” and “Laughing in My Dreams”). Those were people that my friend, Clara, the pastor’s wife in Romania told me about. Buck and Nadia work with women in prostitution, and they have been telling me about the women they know.

The first time the issue of human trafficking came to their attention was in the small town three hours from Sofia, where they were pastoring a church. The head of the children’s program at their church came to them with the desire to tell her story. She had gone with a friend to Macedonia because of the promise of a job, and their documents were confiscated and they were told that they would be prostitutes. She was a virgin and lost her virginity to a stranger in his car. Her friend ran away, but was caught, and as the other girls watched, they broke both her legs. Amazingly, the girl did eventually manage to get away, but now, years later, she still struggles with her past.

They said that they tried not to look shocked, but they were. They had never heard of such a thing. But little by little they became aware of the magnitude of the problem. Often, even if the girl manages to get away, the police are reluctant to do anything about the trafficking. The police and local officials are often involved either financially or as non-paying customers. And the girls are mostly foreign and without legal identity documents—they are essentially non-persons. So even non-corrupt police would rather ignore their complaints than get into the massive legal hassles required to help undocumented persons.

When they began working with prostitutes these stories of trafficking became more and more common. One girl told how she had been living with her grandmother and helping her, but she needed to return to her own home about an hour away. She ran into an old friend who invited her to have coffee. Over coffee she told him that she needed to go back to their town, and he offered her a ride. On the way they stopped at a coffee shop, and she didn’t think anything unusual about it except that her brought her a soda that was already opened. Back on the road, she began to feel strange and physically paralyzed. He had slipped her the date rape drug. They went to her house, got her identity card, and he took her to Macedonia. Because of the relaxed borders of the European Union, all he had to do was show both their identity cards to the border guard. Then she saw him receive money for her, and she was put into a brothel and told that this would be her work from now on. She became pregnant in the line of her work and was severely beaten for refusing to have an abortion. Somehow she got away and into a halfway house for girls coming out of prostitution. She said that whenever she looks at her baby, she tries not to remember how he was conceived.

The stories go on and on about husbands who send their wives out to work as prostitutes, and husbands who don’t like for their wives to work as prostitutes, but tolerate it because they like the money. Many of the girls cope by pretending that they are a different person when they are working, and trying not to be present in their bodies during the act. But these are only temporary and imperfect fixes. There is nothing in the world like becoming a truly new creation in Christ Jesus.

No matter where you live, there is human trafficking going on in your country, and probably in your state, and possibly in your own town. Check out the slavery map: http://www.slaverymap.org/.

God is good. God is love. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love for humankind. Love cannot allow this evil and injustice to continue against approximately 30 million people worldwide. Love demands a response. What are you going to do about it?

Rebel No More

Posted on July 19, 2012 by opendooreurope

Greetings from southern Italy!

Last night I was walking past a shop selling tourist stuff and they had a Confederate Rebel flag (Dixie) out there for sale. So I went in and talked to the owners of the shop. I told them about the hateful symbol that it is for Americans, especially for black Americans. I told them that I know it is not part of their culture, and that is why I had stopped to explain to them what it means to Americans. They said that they just liked the way the flag looked.

I find the Dixie flag offensive because it is a symbol of the enslavement of an entire race of people—people who were kidnapped from their homelands. Slavery is wrong, and I believe that it is demonic. Take human trafficking, for example. How is the historic enslavement of the African people any different from human trafficking today? I believe that the answer is that it is not. Yes, human trafficking involves prostitution, but African women were also frequently used for sex by their white masters. Besides, prostitution is by no means the only form that human trafficking takes. There are people working in slavery all around the world that you never see because the majority of them are kept hidden.

The facts of the American Civil War are history—ancient history to this generation of Americans. Many people wonder why that flag is so controversial, and say that we should simply get over it because it is an historical fact. I think that the people who don’t have a problem with the Dixie flag need to ask themselves if they also have no problem with the Nazi flag. If they also see nothing wrong with the Nazi flag, then they are clearly racists who are more interested in spreading hatred than understanding.

Obviously, we all need to get past old offenses and get on with the business of life in the 22^nd century. But some wounds run very deep. They need the patient understanding and need a sensitive and considered approach. The government has debated making reparations and apologizing for slavery. I don’t know how you can possibly repay for such a terrible offense, but something would be better than nothing. Did they ever do anything in the end? I don’t know.

But here’s what I do know: today I walked past that same shop, and in place of the Rebel flag was an American flag. I turned to my friends and said, “Now these are good people here!” I knew all along that they probably just didn’t know what the flag symbolized. God is good, and He puts good people in my path.

A Heartbreakingly Beautiful Girl

Posted on July 13, 2012 by opendooreurope

When Clara (the pastor’s wife and my hostess) tells me the ugly truths about life in Romania her voice and face are drained of all emotion, while mine are breaking up from emotions that can’t be contained. That is how she told me about Sandy. Clara and Leo have four children, and care for two other girls. I had met one of them, Ruth, last year. Ruth’s parents left her with her grandmother while they were divorcing. When each parent re-married, neither wanted Ruth, so she stayed with her grandmother until the grandmother’s death. At the time of the grandmother’s death, Ruth was six years old, and both parents had children with their new spouses. Clara and Leo took her in. The parents visit Ruth periodically, but Clara and Leo have legal guardianship of her.

When I heard Ruth’s story last year, I wondered how heartless people could be toward their own child—until this morning when I heard Sandy’s story. Clara and Leo took Sandy into their home on weekends two years ago after her mother died and her father left her with her grandmother. Clara asked about the mother’s death and learned that she had been forced into prostitution by her husband, and had died after a few years. She didn’t say what she had died of, but considering all the risks of prostitution it could be anything: AIDS or another STD, a drug overdose, murder, or suicide. Clara didn’t say, but it really doesn’t matter, it was a result of prostitution.

When she saw the look on my face, Clara said, “I don’t know if he tried to get work or just wanted the easy way.” I marveled at her refusal to judge a man who had prostituted the mother of his children. She went on to tell me that the grandmother is in poor health, and that Sandy has a handicapped brother, so she helps them after school, but stays with Clara and Leo on the weekends so that she can go to church and have a chance to be a kid. Knowing Clara the way I do, she probably also gives the grandmother money to help buy groceries and pay the bills.

But I wasn’t prepared for what came next. Clara told me that she worries about Sandy’s dad returning to take her and sell her into prostitution because she’s tall and pretty like her mother was. Sandy is twelve years old.

Again my face betrayed me. Clara shrugged and said, “This is a common story in Romania.” She said that some of the older girls from church send her notes, asking her and Leo to pray for them. They respond to advertisements for well-paying summer jobs in Budapest, and go with their parents’ blessing. Then when they arrive they learn that the work is prostitution. Too ashamed to tell their parents, they work as prostitutes for the summer, then come back home with much-needed money for the family, and resume normal life as a student. The notes always end the same way: begging Clara and Leo not to tell their parents.

Last year I had asked Clara about the issue of human trafficking. I had heard that Romania is one of the places where the women enslaved into prostitution come from. She told me about a little girl from their little city, Biberon: Christina was a pretty little blonde with blue eyes who her daughter, Elizabeth, knew from school. One day Christina was walking home from school with a friend. Just two blocks from home a man in a car pulled up to the curb and with urgency in his voice said to Christina, “Hurry! Get in the car! Your mother sent me to get you!” She got into the car and has never been seen or heard from again. Christina’s friend hadn’t thought to notice anything about the man or his car because she had also believed his story. This happened two years ago, when Christina was only ten years old. Most likely Christina has been raped, beaten, and trafficked to a country in Western Europe because she doesn’t need a passport to move about within the European Union.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, and slavery is illegal in virtually every country in the world. There are estimated to be more slaves today than in all the years of human history added together. And if you think it’s not happening where you live, think again. Check out your hometown on the slavery map: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/. To read more about human trafficking, see: http://humantrafficking.org/.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke

The Scars of Communism Part Two

Posted on July 11, 2012 by opendooreurope

As I wrote in The Scars of Communism (https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/the-scars-of-communism/), just before coming on this trip to Hungary and Romania, I opened the box of books that I had gotten out of storage after a year, and the book at the very top was “Tortured for Christ” by Richard Wurmbrand. The things suffered by Pastor Wurmbrand and the rest of the Underground Church really moved me. After all, I could have been born in a Communist country, and had to suffer for my faith, too.

And in The Wild Life (https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/the-wild-life/) I wrote:

Today there was a conference for the seniors of the church, at which Pastor H. Koraćs Gėza spoke. I was told that I would have about five minutes to speak to them. So of course I prayed about it, and here’s what I said:

Looking out here at all the gray hair, I am aware that many of you and your parents kept your faith in Christ under the oppressive rule of the atheistic Communists. I have two things to say to you: First, I am deeply sorry that my country believed the lies of the Communists and did nothing to help you. Secondly, I know that someday you will trade your silver crowns for gold crowns. I am here to honor you for your faithful service to your Lord and mine.

To the young people here I say: learn from these elders, and share the love of Christ with everyone you know.

And finally, I would like to thank Pastor Gėza for coming. It is an honor to meet you.

When Pastor Gėza returned to the platform, he observed that Christianity had actually flourished and grown under Communist oppression. He said that Christianity now faces a far more dangerous enemy in the form of complacency. I believe he’s right.

It is the danger of complacency in Eastern Europe is that it is following the same pattern that makes Western Europe such a difficult mission field. Complacency has caused Western Europe to evolve from nominal Christianity through religious disconnection, cynicism, and xenophobia to become the secular, materialistic, humanistic, hedonistic, nihilistic, hopeless, suicidal people they’ve become, seeking answers in drugs and alcohol, Eastern Philosophies, Witchcraft, and Satanism. Is it any wonder that abortion and human trafficking thrives in such an environment? In Switzerland it is now possible to request physician-assisted suicide without any physical illness.

The most frightening thing of all is that the United States is following the unfortunate pattern of Europe.

What does complacency look like? Complacency looks like Christianity, but lacks the power of the Holy Spirit, or as the Apostle Paul put it: “having a form of godliness but denying its power,” (2 Timothy 3:5). Complacency seeks answers and help through human means instead of looking to God as the Source of all things. Complacency seeks its own comfort instead of God’s way.

When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” Complacency answers, “But I have family responsibilities,” (Matthew 8:21).

When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” Complacency answers, “OK, but let me say goodbye to my family,” (Luke 9:61).

When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” Complacency answers, “But it’s dangerous,” (John 12:25-26).

When Jesus says, “Follow Me” Complacency answers, “But the food there is gross! I can’t sleep on the floor! There’s no electricity! No internet! No phone signal!” (Matthew 8:19-20).

Complacency makes all sorts of excuses for not following Jesus, and some of them seem appropriate and valid. But there are missionaries all around the world who have said yes to Jesus even though it meant leaving family responsibilities, saying goodbye to family, going into danger, eating disgusting food, sleeping on the floor, without electricity, internet or phone.

But Complacency is worse than that. Complacency doesn’t want to rock the boat by bringing Jesus into the school or the workplace. Complacency believes in the separation of church and state. Complacency won’t even talk about Jesus at parties with friends, for fear of offending someone.

Because of these attitudes, Jesus is no longer welcome in our schools or workplaces; Biblical Christianity has no say in lawmaking; and political correctness has become more important in American society than the salvation of souls. Those people that you’re so worried about offending need to hear the Good News that Jesus died for them. And the person you know with the hardest heart is someone who desperately needs Jesus.

Jesus was meek and gentle, and offensive to the people who rejected Him and His free offer of salvation. He never backed down from telling the truth. He is our Perfect Example, and like Him, we need to be ready to “offend” people with the truth. But to do that, we’ve got to step out of our comfort zone. We’ve got to give up comfortable Complacency. We’ve got to pick up our cross and follow Him, even when that leads us away from family and friends. And to do that we’ve got to trust God.

Here’s one last thought: Have you ever read the list of the people who are going to hell in Revelation 21:8? “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars —they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” Look who leads the list: not the murderers, not idolaters, but the cowardly! Many times throughout the Bible we are encouraged to be strong, bold, and courageous. Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels,” (Mark 8:38).

Walking By Faith in Europe

Tag Archives: human trafficking