psalm 34 vs 7

The street was busy as usual, girls we knew had no time to talk as they hurried from the restaurants to start work.  We went on undeterred and prayer walked, we read scripture, sang songs both songs we knew and spiritual songs.  We supplicated for the land Jeremiah 3.2.  The land having behind polluted by prostitution. 

The mafia boss that owned 2 brothels and was running other illegal businesses in the area, watched us, amused and puzzled by this band of western housewives wandering around with strange books in their hands.  He watched as they greeted him and continued around the block for about the 4th time that night.  He asked a question in his heart.  "Why are these women not afraid to come here?" just that simple question, then customers arrived and he became busy and forgot all about we had been there.

In the early hours of the morning around 4 am he finally went to sleep.  Sleep was often a problem for him, he was tormented with insomnia and slept often with one eye open in case of raids by the police or other mafia gangs, but that night was different he went to sleep quickly and soon began to dream.....

The next week he saw us coming from a distance and came out of his brothel to greet us and asked for an appointment with us.  We went to a local tea shop and sat drinking tea as he secured the place that no one was listening.  He told us about the question he had asked last week and he then told us about his dream...

"  I saw the 3 of you walking down the street with boldness then I saw walking behind you was a creature or man I don't know, he was head and shoulders taller that everyone else around and was very strong.  But the strange thing was he had wings and his wing span was so wide it touched either side of the street and the ends of his wings where around you 3, who and what is that?" he asked.

Being a man in the mafia he understood all about protection and wanted to know who this was that we had as our protector, with tears in my eyes I showed him Psalm 34 and told him about The Angel of the Lord, without anyone else knowing, God had answered the question in his heart of why we were not afraid and God had singlehandedly won this man with a personal revelation of His Glory.  He received the Lord right there in the tea shop and over the next few months we watched him slowly close one brothel and then the other and return to his home town to start a new life. 

I told him before he left that God had spoken to us through his dream and it would be something we would remember wherever we went in the future.  His dream became a springboard for future boldness to go into new areas and even darker passageways,  because of this confidence "The angel of the Lord encamps around those that fear him and delivers them"  Glory to God.

Attention all intercessors

There are 2 cities, for security reasons  I cannot give you their names but please pray into the descriptions below as God lays on your heart.

The outreach teams most of all need Psalm 91 and Psalm 34 speaking over them.  Pray for favour, favour with the mafia bosses and all those in authority in those dark places that we may bring the light of Gods presence and that the spirit of suspicion, and the spirit of violence would be bound.  Please pray for protection upon our families, our children and our husbands that the enemy would have no power to bring a backlash against us, our families or the seeds we sew in the area.

Pray for the angel of the Lord to encamp around us and deliver us, that we would be able to be ambassadors of the love and mercy of God.  Pray that we may be carriers of a power encounter with God to these people, pray that we will have a word in season.


City 1.

We have been ministering in this city for more than 7 years, we have seen 2 major red light areas close down, we believe as a direct result of prayer and intercession.  The world of prostitution now is very much hidden in this city now, you have to know where to find it.  Still is is a resource area for gathering girls to be trafficked to the bigger cities.

Cloud Area - Lots of lion gates and dragon gates in this area.  We   need  to break into the lion gate

place    many girls are held captive, in just one area, more than 400 girls. 

Here there are also many pimps who are backslidden and who have heard the word in their childhood but are in deception that Father will not take them back, please pray for these young men who are being ensnared in this dark world.  Brother Z, all his family are serving the Lord and he is running the biggest operation on the street.  Brother L is the pimp whose 3 year old daughter we took into our shelter.  He so wants to leave but the bondage's are so strong, pray for his freedom and for God to open doors of a new life to him. Pray against the ancient links to the silk road and the generations of selling women in that area.

2 bridges Area -  Here is a mish mash of crime, mafia, poverty, trafficking and prostitution.  We have seen girls locked in rooms on the 3rd and 4 th floors of the buildings as we prayer walk, please pray that we can break into this area and understand more about it both in the natural and in the spiritual.  It is a new area and we have only been praying there for several weeks.  Already one of our team has had her phone stolen and another has been overcome with fear and feels she cant go back.  Pray against the spirit of fear and intimidation in this area, pray against the ancient covenants with the first settlers there.  We need help with revelation, there are many gambling places in the area, more than I have ever seen before.  Its very poor and at night there are girls everywhere but when we have tried to approach  them the men holding  them soon reveal themselves.  It was here that we met Trafficker W, he has been trafficking girls from city 1 to city 2.  He has a whole network of girls from different places.  He is open to meet with us and that we pray for him.  We pray that God will open his eyes to the darkness he is in and he will long for a different life.  He carries an authority probably gained from years of working with the demonic forces that drive this work. 

City 2.

We have only been ministering in this city for a few months, gathering information about different areas, of which there are many, it is much more brazen here.  Like it has gone unhindered for some time.  From high class to the poor areas the girls are openly displayed as for sale.

The walls of Jericho area

As mentioned in the previous post.  Please pray for the team that their prayers will influence neighbours in the area to rise up for the sake of their children that daily see these images of half naked women sitting in the windows.  Please pray for the brothel owner Mrs Y who welcomed us the first time and agreed for us to have a class with her girls.  Please pray for the gospel to go forth in her brothel and for the team to have confidence and boldness.

The fish tank area

Many small brothels with about 15 girls in each one.  It was here we met Mrs L who welcomed the team and agreed for them to have classes with her girls.  Her current boyfriend eyes the team suspiciously but knows they are Christian and has great respect for that, Mrs L told the team he was miraculously healed as a child when his mother took him to church so there is a seed there.
Pray for the team to have wisdom to reach Mrs L and her boyfriend and that they would minister the love and forgiveness our our Father to them.

In both areas we have not had any girls yet wanting to leave, the stronghold of money is what binds them, suddenly they are earning more money than they have ever dreamed of and are somewhat blinded to the consequences of this work, both physically and spiritually.  Many girls tell us after they have been trafficked here they just give themselves over to this work to earn as much as possible.  Ask the Lord of the harvest to give us a harvest amongst the girls and brothel owners for His glory.

The walls of Jericho

Walking the streets of another city we found a new area. It took a while to really take in the scene before us.  Instead of this place being hidden from sight, it was in the middle of a residential area.  Very scantily dressed young girls sat in the windows.  They wore the shortest skirts and the lowest tops.  In between the brothels where scattered convenience stores, clothing stores and electrical shops.
We felt from the Lord to walk up and down this street and pray for 7 times, just like the Israelites at Jericho.   The scene reminded me of how the streets in the red light district in Amsterdam used to be, with girls for sale in the windows, so blatant, so gaudy.
It was 5 pm in the afternoon  and the local middle school rang their bell for the end of the day and hundreds of school children aged between 10 and 15 poured out onto that street.  As the young boys walked in front of us our hearts where grieved to see so many of them looking into those brothels, before our eyes the devil was at work corrupting the next generation of this land with this "eye candy".  It used to be that kids this age would press their noses against the sweet shop window or the toy shop window in hope and wonder at the tempting things inside.  We thought about Timothy 3 1-2, where it talks about in the last days how people will be.  It was so disturbing to us so that this whole neighbourhood was tolerant or numb to what was going on right next door.  We prayed for the neighbours, for the blindness to be lifted and for them to rise up for the sake of righteousness.  For the sake of their children, and for the sake of their marriages. Proverbs 14.34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

We prayed with greater fervour for the young people of this land, the young girl students walked by hanging their heads as their fellow kind was displayed like produce.  It was a tough area to break into, when we looked into the girls eyes they seemed glazed over and the bosses cold and hard.  "Lord show us the way!" We completed the 7th time walking and praying and began to worship God.  One of the team saw a picture of 2 girls and their specific clothing.  Another of the team saw a picture of steps leading into a wider brothel than the others.  As we walked back we found the stairs going down and in faith we pushed open the glass door and entered.  "Is the boss here?"  We asked and the girls that we had seen in the picture with the same clothing called for a plump older lady who seemed to welcome us with curiosity.  With faith rising that this was the place Father had led us to begin we began to build relationship with her and arranged a visit with her and her girls for the week after.

The line up

Every night these girls face the same humiliation.  They are just a few of millions that face this sad line up.  They are paraded in front of perspective buyers who will buy their time and attention for the evening.  Behind the scenes are cruel and abusive bosses who tell the girls they must satisfy the customers in all areas or they will not get paid.  The bosses teach the girls how to dance, how to act seductively, how to touch a man right and how to get him to buy more drinks and keep coming back for more. 
The girls tell us how they endure, abusive language, being punched, kicked and sometimes burned with cigarettes for fun.  They have to drink with their customers many times until they are sick. The customers take pornographic pictures of the girls and send them to all their freinds.  All the time they are scared if they don't perform well the boss will not give them the money due to them and all that they endured will have been for nothing.
Its one of the saddest parades I have ever seen.  These girls are the ones we meet in the make up salon prior to them going to work, its a window of opportunity to reach them with care and love and concern.  A very high percentage are orphaned or from divorced families, no one cares about them.  They wear their smiles like a mask and as we watch them paint their faces we see the emptiness fill their eyes.  Like machines they instantly "perform"  when the customers come in and like thrown away garbage they cry in the bathrooms and even burn themselves with cigarettes to endure the nightly abuse.  Their bodies are prodded, poked, slapped, mocked, and assaulted all for 20 pounds an evening.  If the customer is pleased and wants to hire them for the night they go with the customer to a hotel the customer chooses, with no safety, no support and some of them are never seen again.
Please pray for us to have favour with these girls that we can break through the numbness and touch their hearts with Gods love. 

bible study with the pimps

Saturday, 24 September 2011 at 14:15

As we gathered for prayer we felt to follow up on the make up lady we met last week and continue to build relationship with her.  She is a key to reaching many girls in the future.  We bought gifts for her daughter and went ahead. She welcomed us again and at that time her shop was empty so she took the time to talk with us.  She has been working with the girls doing make up for 2 years so she hears a lot from them about the system.  She told us things we had not known before which will be very helpful.  She told us about the place that has the 400 girls working inside, she told us how every day she sees bruises on the girls and how the girls talk about customers being violent, she also told us the abuses of the management how they take money from the girls.  We hung out with her for an hour and then took to the street.  There where so many young men out touting for customers.  It greived our hearts to know there are so many young men being drawn into this work and so few young men in the churches here.  We prayed for them and for brother Z again, we parked the car opposite where he has his operation and watched as he met with customers and leads them to vehicles where he has girls.  In a way its like a mobile brothel, the girls wait in the cars to be chosen and are then driven to the place the customer will meet them.  If the police come the cars will drive away quickly.  We then drove to the other end of the street where we saw a guy we have witnessed to and prayed for numerous times.  He laughed as we pulled up and said"I thought you where around here praying, there are no customers".  It was encouraging to us that he related our prayers as making a difference.  "But Im hungry" he said.  Many of these guys who work the street get paid for each customer they connect with the boss to get a girl.  Its really such a small amount they get for the risks they take, its about 70 cents for each customer.  They live hand to mouth.  We invited him in to sit in the car with us for a while, we talked about how God promises to take care of our needs and showed him Gods promises in the bible.  He was encouraged and called over 4 other pimps to join us.  They all stuffed into the back of the car and we had a bible study right there on the street.  5 pimps in our mobile ministry vehicle, discussing Gods word, feeding on the bread of life.  These are men who would never walk into a church, so God takes the church to them.  We prayed for them all and the peace of God filled the car.  2 of them wiped tears from their eyes.  We said goodbye and went home rejoicing to have the privilidge to be ambassadors of love.

New doors opening

Last night we took to the streets again.  One of the team had the impression to go back to the area where there are the
Lion gates at the entrance.  We found a new make up place.  This is a place where the girls come to get ready, its an amazing opportunity to minister to the girls without their pimps or brothel owners there.  The lady who owned the make up store was very open and friendly and obviously ready to build relationship with us.  There where 2 girls in her shop, they where 15 and 16 years old, one of them asked for the "barbie look"  We watched as she was transformed from a countryside girl to a sophisticated shell.  I noticed on her arms many many cigarette burns.  Sometimes the customers burn the girls with cigarettes, or the girls say they feel so numb inside they burn themselves with cigarettes in order to just let out a scream.  I reached out and touched her wounds and she was surprised that anyone cared at all about her, about her pain, about her life.  It was a special moment as God touched her life with His concern for her, her eyes filled with tears behind the make up and the huge false eyelashes, God broke in with His love.  We got their phone numbers and will follow up tomorrow to invite them to the workshop.
We then went to the Lion gates and felt to worship, so we began to sing songs of praise, on the other side of the street was a pimp and brothel owner we know.   Brother Z. He has told us beofre that his whole family is serving the Lord and only he is on this dark path.  He knows very well we are there to pray and worship and he does not say anything.  I believe we are there as a result of his families prayers for him, he cannot escape the love of God (psalm 139.8) " If I make my bed in the depths you are there. "
I have often thought what an encouragement it is to people with unsaved relatives that God hears their prayers.  God gave us a prophetic word for him that he hates women and thats what keeps him in that work, it satifies his hatred.  As we where leaving he came over to the car and put his head inside the window.  The car is our mobile ministry unit filled with prayers and worship music, he relaxed instantly and I shared with him the prophetic word and he opened up totally, he shared how his wife had left him in his most vunerable time, after an accident where he couldnt walk and his son was very small, his wife took all his money and left.  Then with tears in his eyes he told us about his mother who had waited for him and prayed for him daily when he started on this wild path, before he could see his mother she died and his sisters blamed him for the mothers death.  We told us many times he crieswhen he is walking home at night alone.  He thanked us for praying for him, we blessed him and then after our team debrief and prayer we went home.

from violence on the street to dinner with traffickers, outreach update

Wednesday, 07 September 2011

From violence on the street to dinner with a trafficking ring, that was last nights outreach.  We were prayer walking through the area when we came upon 2 guys dragging and beating a girl in the street.  We went to get the police and they did nothing.  So we prayed, then more guys came to back up the others and they where 5 guys to one little girl who was crying out "i dont want to do it"  she managed to run to a more public place and sat on the ground, they surrounded her and continued threatening her.  The outreach team moved closer to where they where and started to sing.  "Demonstrate my love" said the Lord, the song that came to us was, "Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the earth is filled with His glory...". As we sang His presence came and God told us to buy drinks for everyone, there was a convenience store just there so it was refreshment for all.  The guys had seen us following and had been hostile but when I gave them the drinks and started to talk with them, softly in the name of the Lord, the atmosphere changed, the leader told me about his stress and his anger problems and I taked to Him about it in a caring way.  The area was suddenly filled with children and old ladies, Father was changing the spiritual atmosphere, the violence had left the eyes of all the guys and they let the girl go.  We began to walk away and the leader invited us for dinner, where he told us he had seen the Jesus film before, so he knew who we represented.  The seed was there in his heart and Father was watering it.  In the natural we wanted to rescue the girl, hate the guys and be female vigilantes, never did we expect to be praying with the abuser, speaking the Fathers love to him.  What great justice this is that God uses us, a team of women themselves who have experienced abuse to reach the abusers, thats the true justice of God to overcome our natual instinct to hate and avenge the abuser, and reach them with the limitless love of God for the lost.  At dinner he began to share with us his involvement in a huge traficking ring, involving 5 other major cities, he also told us he had not seen daylight for a long time as he worked in the night.  We invited him to the park next week, all of those guys and some girls too if they wanted we would go to a beautiful place and have fellowship, this suggestion made him very happy.  We prayed with them and peace came all around.  Please continue to pray for them and for our outreach team.