Mumbai!!

We have had quite the adventure here so far: our housing plans fell through the night before we flew out and so we arrived in Mumbai, driving through the city during sunrise, to stay at a cheap hotel until we found more permanent housing. We found an apartment to rent, spent an afternoon cleaning it (and it was filthy!), only to have our plans thwarted once more and we were back to the hotel for another night. So, on what was Thanksgiving day for those in the US, I was lugging a 38lb backpack, coat, fur boots and wearing a punjabi on a train in 90 degree heat with our team to stay in a Salvation Army hostel. We were quite the spectacle for all the locals. Needless to say, those first couple days were crazy, trying to figure out housing and just get settled somewhere. We are finding this saying quite true: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken." The ten of us are now settled in a 10-bunk room with one bathroom...and I thought our living quarters on family vacations was small. It's actually quite fun and cozy and I like staying in a hostel better than in an apartment; there are so many interesting people to meet here. We're staying in the more touristy part of Mumbai on the coast with beautiful English architecture; this is one of the nicest areas in the city.

India is hot, humid, and I've felt many a time that I'm about to meet Jesus when crossing the streets here due to the absolutely insane driving. Everyone is alive and doing well, minus a couple bugs bites and heat rash. India smells like incense, body odor, garlic, putrid trash, spicy soap, smog, rotten fish, and other smells I can't quite identify nor do I wish to know. The city is so busy: we were in a mall a couple days ago and I realized that despite the masses of people there on a weekend afternoon, that environment was peaceful compared to the streets. Never before have I thought I would consider weekend holiday shopping madness as peaceful. Ha.  Some staple items don't seem to be as valued here as they do in the US; the most valuable items in my purse right now are bottled water, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer.

We prayer-walked through Kmathi Pura, Asia's largest red light district, this weekend and on Sunday we visited/spoke at two churches, one Nepalese, and spent the afternoon with a lovely family in their home. Yesterday we went to one of Mother Teresa's homes for the sick and disabled. Yes, it is distressing to see so many suffering and dying people, but it was equally heartwarming as it was hard to be there. Many of them seemed so happy and loved that we were there. It was easier to be with the special needs children since they were young and smiling and we could interact more and play with them. I just keep telling myself that my faith is based on who I know, and not what I see around me. My faith is based on a relationship, and not circumstances.

Today most of our team went to a daycare in an incredibly poor neighborhood, a slum. Like typical children, they loved songs, coloring, and particularly loved us to take pictures of them. I was filthy by the time we left, but my goodness, the love I gave and also received from them was worth it. They called us "deedee,"older sister, and gave so many hugs and kisses to us all, that it was difficult to leave them. I told every girl I could that she was lovely and pretty, and how precious and special she is. These kids are beautiful and I only wonder what their future will be. Loving these kids is the best form of trafficking prevention.

I'm sorry this post is short, contains choppy thoughts and is sporadic, but my time here on the internet is limited. I will try to post again before we leave for Nepal on Monday.

Here we go!

Our room looks like a bomb went off. (That's me and my roommates: Hope, Abbey, me, and Cathy.) With a smokey haze from incense and our belongings thrown about the room on the floor, in piles, and halfway in suitcases,  it truly does look like someone threw a bomb in and ran from the imminent disaster. Trying to fit my life for 50 days of both sticky hot and frigid cold all into a trekking backpack seems close to impossible, but it's forcing me to learn the essential life skill of packing lightly. Very lightly. (Dad, you'd be quite proud.) :)

I'd like to say I'm still in denial of leaving, but that packing mess tells me otherwise. We fly out tomorrow morning for Mumbai, leaving our base around 7am. With the time changes, it will feel as though we've traveled two solid days before we land in India. I'm not really nervous; I'm just excited and expectant. Leaving this base is going to be incredibly hard. Granted, we'll be back for a week to debrief in January, but it won't be the same. I'm actually going to miss some aspects of living in this neighborhood. Yes, it is full of drugs, violence, and prostitution--it's earned its label of the 3rd worst neighborhood in the US--but God is here and pockets of His light are present. I'm going to dearly miss the staff here at YWAM. I'm going to miss The Beat, our "second home," the coffeeshop on Fremont that we haunted every weekend. I will miss the Dream Center, the church one block from the YWAM base that most of us attended every Sunday. Today was especially meaningful since not only was it our day there, but Cathy--one of the students--danced and the entire church prayed over us, sending us out.  That church is seriously anointed.

So, on our last day together as one big happy dysfunctional family, Sean makes funnel cakes, laundry is washing, rooms look like they exploded, last dance parties occur, and we cook stir fry for a "family dinner." All of us have grown and learned so much these last 4 months, but we're ready to put into practice all that we've learned. We've found true love here in Las Vegas in a neighborhood full of desperation and poverty. We're finding love in hopeless places.  This is love:

 

Do It Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” 

Joshua 1:8-9

Love recklessly.

We're back from California! After stopping at 6 churches and 3 colleges in 5 days, we arrived back to Las Vegas Friday evening. Each student spoke at least once or twice on their personal testimony, DTS experience, or on human trafficking. I spoke on the latter two.  On Thursday, the last day of our tour, I had been awake since 5am, was sick with a cold, energy levels were low, and I had to speak that night on human trafficking to a church college group. As much as I love public speaking, right before our presentation began I would have just rather crawled in a corner and slept than have to get up in front of a crowd and speak. However, my talk went just fine and I didn't have a sneezing fit. I think my message is one that everyone should hear so I'm including it below. By no means am I boasting. I definitely believe it was God that gave me this message. I know it's rather long, but I encourage you to read it in its entirety.

I spoke off an outline so I don't have the exact transcript, but this is quite similar to my presentation:

"Just what is human trafficking? It is modern-day slavery. When you hear of human trafficking, you only need to remember one word: slavery. There are two types: sex and labor. Sex trafficking is rather obvious: exploiting a person for their use as a sex object and is the type I will focus on tonight. Labor trafficking can occur in a private home or could be the use of someone for agricultural labor. Human trafficking is the fastest growing form of organized crime, and it is not an issue that just occurs in an obscure African nation or in a popular sex tourism country such as Thailand. It happens in your own town, whether you see it or not. 

To give an image of the depth of this problem, here are some statistics: 400 minors were rescued from prostitution in Las Vegas last year, and though that sounds like a high number, there are so many more children that are still trafficked. The average age into prostitution is 13-14 years old, and if that sounds young, which it is, there have been documented cases of  kids young as 3 year old trafficked in the US.

So who are the most vulnerable to the traffickers and pimps? Runaways, those from broken an abusive homes, backgrounds of poverty, and kids with extremely low self-esteem are most at risk. The pimp controls the girls he prostitutes psychologically and physically through beatings, rape, starvation and sleep deprivation. He controls everything in her life. A pimp will often lure a young girl through the "boyfriend" set up: he lavishes her with attention and affection that she is not receiving at home, luring her farther into the relationship through emotional control and then prostituting her out, first to his friends and then to anyone who will pay.

Why is sexual exploitation still such a problem? If I were to ask any of you, or if we were to go on the street and ask anyone we passed if they thought human trafficking is a good thing, I can almost guarantee you that they will all respond that it is horrific and is indeed a problem. So why is there still a demand for prostitutes; why is sex tourism so profitable? The United States, out of almost 200 countries, drives 25%, one-fourth, of the entire world's sex tourism. We could give the nice Sunday-school answer and say sin is the reason for this issue. Though that is completely true, let's break it down and look closer at specific reasons.  Let's look at our culture and see what is our image of women: are women not often portrayed as mere sex objects? Women are degraded through media: music, TV and pornography. So much popular music cheapens sex and relationships, glamorizes the pimp culture, and encourages sex before marriage, which is clearly wrong. Porn is almost always the beginning of this issue: a man does not randomly decide to purchase sexual services from a prostitute. No, it begins in his thought life. All of us, both men and women, have to examine our thoughts and strive for pure hearts. God commands us to be holy because He is holy. We should strive towards this not because of fear, but out of love for Him. Thoughts lead to actions. The London School of Economics estimates that 9 out of 10 kids aged 8-16 have viewed porn at least once online, intentionally or not. Just how many of these kids are going to become addicted and continue to view porn for years to come? How is this going to affect their spouses, kids, and society as a whole? Porn cannot be a separate issue from sex trafficking. Many of the girls and women in porn are themselves trafficked. To address human trafficking, Christians have to quit being part of the demand.

Besides our society's views of women, there is another root cause of human trafficking, and that is a love deficit. Everyone involved, the prostitute, pimp, and john are searching for love and this is how they are dealing with their hurts. They all hold broken images of relationships. The ultimate source of love is, of course, Jesus. He is the only one that can fill that love deficit and change hearts. We cannot come down with a case of the "Messiah complex" and think that we can change the world and stop trafficking on our own. It's an easy mentality to fall into because we're young and I know that every one of you has an issue you're passionate about, and you just want to finish school and get out in the world to just do something about it. We have to love not just the prostituted woman, but also her pimp and the man who buys her for a half-hour of pleasure. If these men do not receive love, they will continue seeking it through sex and so sex trafficking will continue to thrive. Why should we love these men? They don't deserve God, His love, or eternal life. But, we have to remember that God deserves him. The man who travels to Thailand to have sex with a five year old may not be worthy of God, but God is worthy of him. Jesus died for every single pimp and every single john. Jesus said that He came for the sick and the lost, the desperate. If we don't love these men with God's love, we aren't stopping the demand for sex trafficking.

The only way to love like this is from an overflow of God's love. You need to know that you are unconditionally loved by God. He is pursuing your heart. Each of you were made for an intimate relationship with God. If you don't believe me, go pick up a Bible and read Isaiah, the Gospels, or Hosea: His love is evident in every book of the Bible.  No amount of money can buy any of you. Each of you are priceless, and each of you are loved. Every one of you are beautiful because you were created by God and in His image. If anyone--guy or girl--tells you otherwise, they lie. God wants all of you and He is not going to relent until He has your whole heart.

One last thought before I end: though intimacy with God is the answer and Jesus' love is the only love that fills the void, we are also called to act on behalf of the fatherless, the needy, and the oppressed. We tend to be content in our Christian subculture of church, Bible study, small groups and Christian friends. All of these are good and are necessary, but we cannot always remain within this bubble. True worship means getting our hands dirty. If Jesus hung out with prostitutes, we certainly can, too. Love those who are inconvenient to love. Intentionally find ways to love those who are hurting, need a friend, or are lonely. Love recklessly! Don't underestimate the power of God's love: it will change the world.

Pursue God. Love Him, love others, and keep it in that order."

Road Trippin'

 The team is California-bound tomorrow morning!

We are traveling to several cities in CA to promote YWAM Las Vegas, next year's Abolitionist DTS, and to educate churches and universities about human trafficking. All of the students will make presentations on their personal testimony, human trafficking, and their DTS experience. I will be speaking on the latter two. We will not have internet access during our trip, but I will post an update when we return next weekend.

So...please pray for our trip, for safe travels for all of us and patience with each other as we will be riding in two fifteen-passenger vans and living in even smaller quarters than we do now. Pray we remain unified and don't allow petty arguments to erupt, especially since we leave for outreach in just 2 weeks.