Normal.
Let that word roll around in your brain for a minute. Normal. What is your normal?
I kept reminding myself of this question as I looked at children who, born into brothels, are exposed since birth to the dark evil of prostitution. This life is “normal” to them. They don’t know any other existence.
This morning, our ministry’s team toured the Red Light District in Mumbai, India. Under the guidance of locals, we walked through the narrow alleyways composed of ancient bricks and wooden shanties and walked up cramped and darkened staircases to view the “cells” where the women are kept in rooms barely large enough for an army cot.
How did they get here? Most were sold into slavery by their parents or husbands. With a promise of fortune to the families, their daughters are handed over to agents who then sell them to owners. From that point on, they are gone. This is their new normal. Now imagine a child born into this scene. What hope does this child have for the future? Pretty grim. Here the demand for young girls is insatiable and the “owners” expect the mothers to enlist her girl in the “family business.” She is after all simply a commodity in the hands of a broker.
The darkness can just about overwhelm you. Satan’s agenda to “kill, steal, and destroy” is clear. Hopeless is the word one wants to use….except for the one who knows Jesus. One bright spot in our morning was meeting the moms who've entrusted their babies with the ministry that we are working with. These mothers remember a life before their cell and want the same for their children. The contrast between their faces and the faces of the other women that we encountered was dramatic.
Hopelessness is unmistakable. It weighs heavy upon the face. Yet, the mothers who lovingly asked about their children bore a different countenance…hope. Hope that their girls would be spared a life of slavery. Hope that their girls would be educated. Hope that their girls would have a voice.
There is a Redeemer,
Jesus God’s Own Son.
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah
Holy One.
This chorus played through my head as we wove our way through the dark alleys back to our awaiting cars. Everything we witnessed today is an affront to the God who made each of us in His own image. The abuse is a sin against His holy name. I firmly believe any act of justice and any work of freedom is an act of worship to the One who spoke each life into existence.
When confronted with depravity of this nature, it makes you love Jesus all the more. Please pray for the women enslaved here and throughout the world.
