Not Prostitutes, Children of God

One of my favorite ministries so far from our time in Costa Rica has been working in the red light district with Casa Esperanza, a ministry located in downtown San José. For those of you who don’t know what the red light district is, it is an area in the city where homelessness, drug use and prostitution is most prevalent. In Casa Esperanza we were working with women working in prostitution, serving them a breakfast of gallo pinto (a classic Costa Rican dish), bread and coffee, and talking to them, with the ocasional teaching or worship mixed in. I want to show you all what a day working with this ministry looks like, the exceedingly beautiful and the desperately saddening aspects of reaching those in un reached places. I hope you’ll understand a little more about why I am doing this work, why I chose to do this work when I could be working in research or going to grad school or pretty much anything else that the world deems as successful. I want to invite you all into my heart for ministry and for the work God has us doing here.

I woke up this specific morning to God telling me to go on the walk today. The “walk” is a time during our ministry where Michelle (the leader of the program) and one or two other girls go walk around the red zone by all the popular brothels and collect the women on the street, telling them we have free food and a safe place to be. “Okay, I will God”. During our daily prayer time I ask God what else He has for us during our ministry time and He shows me an image of a woman twirling around happily in a dress. Honestly, I’m a little confused by the nonsensical image and think “hey, maybe one of the women will be wearing a dress today and I’m supposed to go and talk to her”. I pray again, asking God for one woman that He has on His heart for me to pray for out loud today. We finish up our daily routine and then head out to our morning ministry for the day.

We start off the day by taking the bus from our host into San José, then walking through the busy streets, past tons of tourists, locals and busy stores. People are exploring and talking enthusiastically, every person needing to get somewhere in a hurry. We walk down until we get to the end of the street and then we turn right and suddenly the atmosphere changes. We are told to keep our heads down, to not look anyone in the eyes unless we see one of the women and then we’re allowed to greet them and give a traditional Latin American kiss on the left cheek. The streets are quiet save for the occasional cat-calling from men on the street. One of our team members has two guys closing in on her from both sides and is forced to run between their arms in order to get by, another one sees a man shove a 10-inch knife into his pants, women are being handled and sold to men on every side. We see a few women we know and greet them enthusiastically, hugging them, saying hello and telling them we will see them soon. One of the women says she can’t come because she’s working. We tell her we would love to see her in there and keep walking until we get to Casa Esperanza, closed in by a locked gate. We signal Michelle (the leader here) and she unlocks the door for us to come in.

We head in and start getting coffee and food ready while we wait for the girls to come in. Michelle lets us know that we are doing a clothes drive today which we had never done before and suddenly it hits me! The image God showed me while I was praying was a women twirling in a dress, and multiple women would be receiving new clothes today! As I unpacked 10 dresses I knew at least one of these women would be overjoyed by a new dress, something small but so meaningful for them. The girls start to come in and most of them greet me with a smile and we exchange the usual Spanish greetings. We start serving breakfast and after passing out the food and coffee I sit down and talk to a few of the women. Andrea, a young girl who is pregnant with two twin girls is sitting on the couch and I go over to her and sit down, asking her how she is and just talking about life. I was here the very first time Andrea came in last week, she was badly beaten and extremely high, just looking for a bathroom. Michelle told her she could come in and stay but she refused, Michelle continued to tell her that this was a safe place for her to come if ever she needed help. This is an answered prayer for us all that she has come back! She looks a lot better today as she sits in jeans and a nice flower shirt, telling us about her babies and introducing us to her “street mom” who came with her because her real mom is dead. Michelle interrupts me to let me know that the walk is starting and I say a quick “see you later” to Andrea and head out with Michelle and Sabrina, another girl on my team.

We start walking down the street, greeting woman and Michelle tells them that the food is all ready inside and to go in and get some. They all respond enthusiastically, hugging her as she calls them “mi amor” and they respond in kind and I think how special this ministry is that these women are so loved by Michelle and God in a place where real love seems so scarce. I see one of the women who I talk to every day during our ministry here and when she sees me she screams “mi amor!”, grabs my face and kisses my head multiple times. I hug her back and tell her I’m so happy to see her and smiles. I know I’ll see her in back at Casa Esperanza today. We continue walking as Michelle tells us about a thieving operation that she witnessed earlier that day, calling women to go to Casa Esperanza the whole way. We get to the street where all the brothels are, 5 right in a row, with men walking out of each one. All we can see is rows of woman’s feet lined up on the wall as we walk past. We walk down another street and see a small woman huddled on the ground on the opposite side of the street. Michelle says her name is Liz and that she’s one of her favorites but that she doesn’t come in very often. “Let’s go over and talk to her today”, she says and we walk across the street and say Hi. Michelle greets her and asks her how she is and immediately she starts crying. Michelle sits down on the street with her and Sabrina and I join her. We lay hands on her and start praying for healing over her mind, body and spirit. Liz continues crying and starts talking about how she knows God is good but she’s so hungry and sad. We stay with her while she continues to cry and talk and when she seems a little better we leave to go back to the house. Michelle tells her that she’ll bring her some food and come back to chat. Back at the ministry we join the others. I keep talking to the women as they shop for clothes and sooner than we’d like the day is over and the women leave to go back onto the streets, and us back to our ministry host for lunch.

I wanted to share this day, even though I know it’s a lot, because it really does give a beautiful picture of this ministry and of the ministry that God calls us all into each day. Meeting people where they are, even if that means traveling into a dangerous place, and loving on them. Meeting their physical needs of food and clothes and a safe place to be but also meeting their emotional and spiritual needs, loving them and just talking to them as real, loved children of God. Each day here is hard, it’s sad, but it’s real and God is bringing His real love and real spirit into these women’s lives. They have a place to be just themselves, not prostitutes or women addicted to drugs, not victims or impoverished or mentally ill. At Casa Esperanza these women get to be just incredibly loved children of God, and that is such an amazingly beautiful thing. It means so much to them, even if they have to go back out onto the streets afterward, they have a safe place to be who they really are, not what the world has made of them. This day also shows the faithfulness of God in answering prayers. I got my woman to pray for, I heard His voice true and you know what? God answered that prayer before I even prayed it because when I first woke up He told me to go on the walk, and that’s where I met Liz, whom He called me to pray over. That’s so beautiful and He does it everyday! That is why I’m doing this crazy thing called the world race, to love those who think they are unloved, to reach those who are considered unreachable and to do Gods will in sharing the gospel to those who are already searching for the light.

I hope you understand a little more about what I’m doing this year and why I’m doing it and please if you feel called, I still have just under $3,000 left to fundraise so if you want to be a part of what I’m doing this year you can visit the donate button on my homepage and submit a donation there! Thank you so much for hanging in and reading about the work God is doing here in Costa Rica!