Hippies, Protests, and Prostitutes

As I sit here I am sad to think this is our last day in Belo.  Man time flies when you're having fun!  We will be having a big Brazilian BBQ tonight with our fabulous staff here in the Rescue House.  I knew coming here that we would be involved in some great ministry opportunities, but was pleasantly surprised that we also were incredibly blessed to get to know the staff of this house to the point where we are all pretty gutted to have to leave.  

But!  There's lots to tell you before we leave!! (*please keep in mind I am sick as I am writing this, so it's not near as creatively written as I would like.)

Yesterday was our last day of ministry, and we spent it downtown participating in a protest put on by a local church to bring awareness to the area of sexual abuse to children.  We had large (and I do mean large!) banners we walked around with, and handed out pamphlets to anyone who would take them.  Funny thing was - they took them!!  I was shocked at how easily people grabbed one as I offered them to flood of individuals whipping past us in rush hour traffic.  THAT would never happen at home!  But then again - very little, if any, of what we have done here would happen at home.  hmm.  What's so different about this place…?

Bringing awareness to the issue of child sexual abuse

Along with passing out stuff, we had to wear medical masks (like a doctor wears sort of) to indicate we are silently protesting this horrible tragedy.  We had black balloons, and of course, the silent part was pretty easy for us, since we don't speak the language anyway!  ha.  When they blew their whistles we had to all freeze - for like 5 minutes!  Have you ever tried to freeze for 5 minutes?  Yeah.  Not the easiest task, but we denied the odds, and did not break our pose until the whistle blew once again!  Success.  Now we have to hope and pray that all those who took the brochures actually read them!

Before the protest started we walked up and down the little courtyard looking at all the wares people were selling.  It was like a gypsy explosion happened right there on that street.  How I wish I could have actually talked to them!!!  That would have been awesome!!  They were selling jewelry mostly, but also offered henna tattoos - tempting - and dream catchers, and all kinds of stuff along those lines.  One guy had a very cool looking… pipe??  Not sure what it was exactly, but I am pretty sure it was for smoking something illegal.

When we finished with the protest, we headed out to the red light district once again for our final time.  I was sad, because this was probably one of my favorite parts of our outreach so far.  I loved that we were able to actually go into the brothels and share the love of Jesus to the women right in the middle "the house of Satan" as it is referred to by one of the prostitutes working there. 

The YWAM ministry who has worked in that area for 10 years had baked a couple of cakes for two of the girls who were having birthdays that month.  Another DTS outreach team from Los Angeles was also there that night, and we each took a cake and went with our respective leaders back into the brothels to sing happy birthday to the girls and pray for them.  I had no idea where our team would go - there are 22 brothels on that street, so it could have been any one of them.  When we entered though, it looked very familiar, and when we got to the top of the stairs, I was so excited to see that it was the same one we had been in before!!  I looked around for Andrea, the girl I had talked to on our previous visit - and there she was!  She saw me, and came over and gave me a big hug!  I had wanted to meet up with her again, because the Lord had really put her on my heart.  

We sang to the birthday girl and prayed for her… and she cried. No one had ever acknowledged her birthday, and certainly no one before had ever made the effort to bake her a cake and sing to her!  It was a special moment for us all I think.  We sang worship songs in that hallway… hoping that the truth of the words we were singing would pierce through the darkness in that place.  The oppression and heaviness we felt in there that night was almost tangible.  

One of the girls asked if we could go upstairs and pray for her mother who was sick.  When we entered the upper level we found out this is where a lot of the prostitutes live when they aren't working.  At the far end of the hallway two men were spread eagle up against the wall and the police were frisking them.  More police entered the level as we were there to deal with these two guys. We began to sing worship songs and as I looked around… seeing the prostitutes there with us, eyes closed, and hands raised… singing songs they obviously knew in their language… it struck me that this whole situation is, as I mentioned before, messy to say the least.  

After praying for this woman who was sick with high blood pressure… the leader of the ministry began talking to her, and then they prayed again, and she gave her heart to Jesus!!  We prayed for a few more of the women before we left.  Outside, the ministry leader was so excited!  She told us that God had done some huge miracles that night -- after 10 years of ministering in that area, they had never had break-through like that!  They had never been allowed to go upstairs, the girls had never been so receptive to talking and asking for prayer!!  She said what happened that night was just as significant as the woman accepting Jesus!  She was soooo excited, as were we that God would use us to be a part of that kind of breakthrough in such a dark and needy place.  The enemy definitely lost some significant ground there that night.  

Next stop for us:  Rio de Janeiro!!