Today Rachel, my friend and director of Remba here in Rwanda, introduced me to a woman who used to sell her body to multiple men a night.  I got the amazing privilege to interview her and ask her personal questions about what that part of her life was like. This woman’s name is Devotta. As you can imagine, a number of hard-hitting things were spoken by her throughout the hour of film the tape held. In answer to my questions, she would say things like, “I would make a couple of dollars per client”, “The average was about 3 to 4 men a night” and “For four years that was my life.”

  She then explained how she grew up never knowing what it felt like to be loved.  From an early age her parents left her alone in this world.  What seemed to be nothing but a bleak existence one day somehow turned around.  During one of those dark nights on the streets, a pastor’s wife showed up and told her about the love Christ has for her.  As they got to know each other eventually the woman said words that Devotta had never heard before, “I love you.” Devotta found this Being, who placed the love that she was now feeling through this woman, worthy of her life. “Now my heart always feels happy, and I have people whom I can call my friends.  I realized that all I really wanted my whole life was just to be loved.”  Toward the end of our conversation, she told Rachel and I that we should come with her tonight. You see, instead of getting as far away from that dark part of her life as possible, Devotta chooses to walk night after night, up and down the same streets she used to work on.  Her hope is that the same love that once changed her life would be felt by those still out there.  Accepting the invitation, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. 

 We met at Devotta’s house later that evening and headed out.  As we were approaching one of the spots where a group of the woman congregates, we noticed a ton of commotion.  Two women went running past us. Devotta told us that the police had showed up and to my amazement they did not come to arrest the clients, but rather the woman.  The entire group of woman fled by the time we got up to where the police were standing alone.  We walked past them and took the next right down the main street.  Within a few minutes we came across another group of woman in front of a bar and we took a seat outside. 

 After a few minutes, I allowed my gaze to wander over to them. Almost right away I noticed a very young girl who had to be around 14 and she was talking with a man.  I asked Devotta if she would go and bring her over to our table.  “Tell her that I will pay her to come and talk with us,” I said hoping to protect her, at least this once, from losing a part of her innocence to a stranger.  She left the man and followed Devotta to our table.  She told us that she was 18 years old and wanted us to buy her a beer, but then settled for water when she saw that we weren’t having it :]  She sat with us for close to an hour and we asked question after question. 

 Her name is Minyoni. She had to drop out of school at primary 4 (4^th grade) because her mother didn’t have the school fees.  On top of that, 2 ½ years ago she had a baby making her a child mother at most likely the age of 12 or 13.  I can only imagine this being a result of rape that then propelled her into this lifestyle that perpetuated the degradation of her self-worth.  “I had to start coming here to do this in order to feed my baby,” she said. It truly appears as though she has no other option.  Her dream to one day find liberation in starting her own business of selling shoes has yet to be touched.   The hardest thing for me was the way she spoke with us.  Rarely if ever would she make eye contact with us while talking.  This surely being the result of a combination of shattered self-confidence and mounted shame.  I told her through our interpreter, “No matter what, Jesus Christ will always love you very much.”  Rachel and I decided to give her 3x’s what she would make from one client as long as she promised to go home and spend the rest of the night with her child, again in hopes to at least rescue her temporarily. 

 I will guarantee you one thing.  There is not a little girl in this world that grows up thinking, “I can’t wait to be a prostitute and have a bunch of men pay me to have sex with them night after night.”  Those girls are strictly there out of desperation.  This decision that they make may appear to be stupid and immoral when in reality I believe it is anything but.  This noble decision  to sacrifice yourself over and over again to allow another to have life comes close to the love that I see in Jesus. To me, this act of prostitution is one of the most courageous and self-sacrificial choices I’ve ever seen a person make.  I now know why Jesus hung out with prostitutes.

 So, here is the thing that I don’t want this blog to be.  Something that makes you feel sorry for these woman.  For all you to have left in your mind is “that’s terrible…”I’m not sure what emotion I want you to have in reading this, just please don’t let it be pity.  If anything let it lead you into reverence so that you can respect these women and show them the only thing they really want, love.

 John 8:10-11 = “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her…” Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said.  “Then neither do I condemn you” Jesus declared.

Thomas Merton = Love demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice.

8 million children between 5 and 17 are engaged in either: prostitution, slavery, debt bondage, or armed conflict.