Hope Shifts

Here is what Beth shared at church on July 20.

Each morning I prayed for God to break my heart that day. I was afraid that I would try and separate myself from the reality of what we were seeing and hearing and didn’t want that to happen. On the first full day that we were down there we went on a tour of the Red Light District. I had been there a couple of times before, but it had always been at night and we drove quickly down a few streets and we weren’t allowed to make eye contact with anyone. On this day, it was 1:00 in the afternoon and Horacio, the youth minister that was driving, seemed to drive 10 mph and went down every street 3 times each. I could tell my mind was starting to dehumanize what we were seeing by saying that the girls seemed ok. They were standing up nice and straight, they didn’t seem distraught, terrified, or like they were high on drugs. As soon as that thought came to mind my eyes fell on a girl that was probably 17 or 18 years old. She was standing next to an open doorway and she was wiping tears off her cheeks. She was standing there in the open for all to see…crying. I looked back one last time and saw a man walk up, give her money and they walked into the hotel together. Her cheeks had to still be damp from her tears. I don’t know what brought the tears – feeling abandoned, hopelessness, despair…This is a story of redemption yet to come. My hope and prayer is that someone will be placed in her life that will walk her through the process of realizing she has a Savior that will reach down and pull her out of this pit, will restore her, make her new, and bring her into full redemption.