lightbulbs

You’ll walk right by them without even noticing if you’re not looking for them. There’s no signs or business hours posted but the light bulbs indicating the brothels are a familiar sight to the people living in the red light district of Athens. More than familiar, those light bulbs have a meaning that can be so accepted and nonchalant. But to me, the meaning of those 60 watt yellow bulbs is daunting- it’s sickening, it’s heinous. 

We walked to the building of the Nea Zoi (New Life) ministry not knowing what to expect. I had started to get nervous as soon as we got off the metro--my angst must have been written all over my face as Stephanie asked me if I was alright. 

Across the street from us was a skinny blonde in a short pink dress. She paced back and forth within a 5 foot radius at the intersection. The 3 of us exchanged glances...is she...? Outside the office building, what I encountered today is something I will never forget. I didn’t even notice until later the frail body and skimpy clothes that accompanied the pair of eyes that is already engrained into my memory. I don’t know how to explain what I saw- hollowed eyes surrounded by bloodshot veins...but somehow they had an amber color that wrapped around her black lifeless pupils. It wasn’t disturbing because of the fact that her eyes were bloodshot from being addicted to drugs- it was the emptiness and pain behind them that made my stomach feel like I had a whole grapefruit sitting in it. 

But those girls standing on the corners are somewhat independent of the brothels and aren’t necessarily under a pimp’s ownership-at this point they’re so addicted to drugs that that’s what keeps them captive and the only way to feed their addiction is to sell their bodies.

This is hard to write and hard to explain when it’s not something common or on any comprehensible level if you haven’t seen it. I wouldn’t understand the heaviness [I didn’t understand this heaviness before today] if I had never been right there among this darkness. But I know that God hears us and knows our hearts, so I will ask for prayer..

-for the women in the brothels with no concept of love or trust

-that the men entering these brothels as customers would feel conviction and find another way to fill the emptiness and void (which can only be satisfied by God)

-for the people doing ministry (such as Nea Zoi): that opportunities would arise for them to share Christ’s love and that they would be received in the brothels

That is a quick, broad overview of the prayer needed for this problem. It’s more than a problem but I’m too tired to try to think of a better way to put it. Mollie, Stephanie and I will be going into the brothels to talk with the women within the next week.