Another Saturday Night

OM International

We offer them a sweet and a book. The girls smile warmly and thank us. One asks who is paying us to come out here and why are we doing it. When Elke gives them a flower and tells them that today is international women’s day more than one woman gives a loud belly laugh and gratefully takes the flower. - As one lady tells us, to be out here and doing what they are doing means that they truly are second class citizens. They gratefully receive a book, one lady says she can’t take a gospel because it would hurt her heart too much. At this stage the ladies I am with are living gospels to these girls, building trusting relationships, showing the love and respect that Christ has for them.

We had just come from the Nigerian “turf”. Young girls who came to Europe thinking they were going to be waitresses or house maids, but were brutally forced into the sex trade by beatings and repeated rape, now they are broken and can’t find a way out. Many of them are our sisters in Christ. We even prayed with them. Some will be in church the following day - but lying to others, as they do to their families back home about what they are really doing.

The ministry is run by a handful of ladies from local churches -including two OM East ladies, Margrit and Ulla. Elke, the third lady we are with tonight, spent a couple of weeks ministering to sex workers on the streets of Pretoria (S. Africa). That showed her that this was her calling. When she returned to Austria she looked for opportunities to be involved and learn more, pursuing studies in sexual abuse alongside her regular employment.

We all look out of place and very overdressed, but the three ladies I am with are relaxed and move easily amongst the sex workers who seem to accept and appreciate their presence, but it takes time to build relationships of trust with these broken women. Margrit, Ulla and Elke have been out there almost every week for the past year and it is only now that the sex workers are beginning to share their stories.

They have seen a few girls get out, but it’s complicated. Very complicated. Each of them has been sold. They are working to buy themselves back, and it is a lot of money, E80,000 or so. They live in fear with limited choices, if they refuse to work they will be beaten and raped, if they run away then retribution will be taken against their families back home, and that is more than an idle threat.

They are illegal immigrants in Austria, so they can’t just go out and get another job. The work they do is however legal, and they all carry papers to say they are disease free. It’s a catch 22. Sex work is the only way they can pay back the pimps. There is no easy answer.

As you think of these ladies or maybe see others like them on the street of your city offer up a prayer and remember that some of them are probably your sisters in Christ, and all of them are special ladies created in the image of God for a purpose that is, thus far, unfulfilled.

Credit: OM International
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