Revival in the Sex Trade
Having just returned from my third trip to the underbelly of the sex trade, I can confidently report: There is revival happening in the sex trade!
This was the most beautiful, ultra-powerful, and wonder-filled trip to the Philippines I have experienced yet. But be assured; to behold up close the sights, sounds, and smells of sex trafficking is no casual excursion for the curious tourist.
But also be assured; once God hails your attention to these dearly beloved daughters and calls you to be as Jesus to them — It is an invitation into the deepest chambers of Our Father’s heart.
As I contemplate which details to share, I am suddenly struck by how easy it is for us missionary sojourners to share highlights that paint the best possible picture of the trip’s brave, sacrificing hero. Me.
I contritely confess: No mere mortal on a mission like this can change a single evil thing within the hellish engine room of sex trafficking. That is unless God Himself walks the streets with you. And in you.
So my goal is this: That your reading of this piece will be obscured from any limited role I may have played and instead — Unveil the Master’s portrait of the only One who eternally declares:
Look! I am making all things new!
~ Revelation, Chapter 21
Jesus.
Who We Are and What We Do
I have the unequaled honor of working with Wipe Every Tear, an astounding organization based in Boise, Idaho, with multiple locations in Quezon City and Angeles City, Philippines. WET not only rescues girls from the terrifying shackles of the sex slave trade but welcomes them into the abundant life of healing, restoration, education, and financial independence that Jesus promises:
I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”
~ Jesus in John’s Gospel, Chapter 10
While it is a true statement that sex trafficking is Hell’s twisted idea of a supply and demand market, the demand side of the equation is not simply comprised of lost, sexually broken men bereft of conscience. Paying men may fund the day-to-day tortures, but it is the unrelenting bondage of abject poverty that sustains trafficking as the Luciferian empire it is today in the third world.
This is why education and career placement are indispensable benefits Wipe Every Tear offers. When a girl enters our program, they come to live in a safe home where most of the staff have previously been set free and restored from the same trap. Clean bedding, clothing, counseling, sponsorship for any vulnerable children, Christian discipleship, high school and college education, job training, placement, and transition to independence — all at no cost to the girls.
If it sounds too good to be true, then it must be Heaven’s idea.
On this trip, we partnered with an international team of mostly twenty-somethings from the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, CA. The mention of Bethel in Christian circles rarely evokes a lukewarm response. As for me and my home, we have richly feasted on Bethel’s offerings of teaching and worship for many years.
And to those who have concerns, I say this: I wish you were there to have watched this team love, serve, pray, and worship like no group I’ve ever seen before. Only a good tree can produce such lush, ripened, life-giving fruit.
We focus our efforts on a single strip of bars just north of Manila in Angeles City named Walking Street. Current estimates indicate nearly 12,000 girls are trafficked on this one strip. Most of the girls trapped here are originally from remote provinces where they were promised the dream of a good job in a hotel or restaurant.
For these innocent girls, the dream quickly becomes a nightmare.
After traveling by busses and boats to Angeles and racking up debt to their would-be employers, they are greeted at Hell’s front door and told their dream job is no longer available. Next, they are handed a string bikini and demanded to dance that night.
This is the nightmare of the more fortunate girls. For others, it is unthinkably worse.
Just weeks before we arrived, a young girl we’ll call J made the same hope-filled journey to Angeles. However, when she arrived, she was not simply handed a bikini.
She was unimaginably raped by her captors and held against her will. By the grace of God, she happened upon one of our cards, managed to escape, and messaged a staff member.
After hiding for two days, we were able to rescue her and she is now safely in our program beginning her journey of healing and restoration.
The card she found was handed out during our daily feeding program. Wipe Every Tear partners with Church So Blessed, Angeles City. CSB cooks, packages, and distributes 600 meals a day to hungry girls working in the bars. This ministry has proven to not only be deeply beneficial to the girls but highly effective for the mission of WET.
Delivering meals directly to the girls in the bars six days a week gives WET a presence on the strip and name recognition that no PR firm ever could have devised. The traffickers tell the girls that WET is a dangerous, international organ-harvesting organization. But through our daily presence in the bars, that deception is waning fast.
But more importantly, it’s another way to love these girls and meet their needs.
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?’ I tell you truly, just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.
~ Jesus, Matthew 10
Paint the Portrait
The most demanding work is when we go into the bars at night when drunken men are the predators, scared girls are the prey, and a veil of darkness emboldens sin to reign. Having first worshipped for hours, our teams walk into the bars brimming with love, abounding in joy, and piercing the darkness with our light. And we have only one thing in mind:
Who do you want to rescue tonight, Lord?
One team was drawn to invite a young girl down from the stage to learn it was only her second night “working” in the bar. We’ll call her D. When she expressed interest to come to Wipe Every Tear, the team agreed to come back to the bar to walk her home when she was off work at 3:00 a.m. By God’s amazing grace, D was preserved and protected from sexual exploitation, and a day later, she was on the bus with us.
Can you see the feet of Jesus? They will walk anywhere to reach you.
Even though we invited hundreds, only 18 brave girls trusted us enough to come to an extravagant four-day, three-night Girl’s Getaway at a beautiful beachside resort. While on the bus and the ferry to get there, I could see how nervous and closed the girls were. They had been in this exact position before.
But with the Wipe Every Tear staff, the Bethel team, and pastors from Church So Blessed, it would not be long until the love of God softened their pedals and opened their hearts.
The purpose of these getaways is not just to bless the girls with rest, good food, and fun. The Girls Getaway is aimed at supremely loving these cherished daughters of Our Father as honored guests. It was remarkable to see how quickly they opened their hands and souls in worship.
A couple from Bethel who have been married 37 years renewed their vows in a gorgeously appointed ceremony on the beach. The girls were escorted one by one as noble gentlemen seated them in the front rows. It was from this vantage they powerfully experienced the pursuing devotion of a man for his wife. Or better said: The Bridegroom for His Bride.
After the couple washed one another’s feet, they turned and washed the feet of the 18 girls. As healing tears streamed from the eyes of these precious ladies, they were being invited to dare to dream of love again. As they returned to their seats, they were met by the arms of the Wipe Every Tear and Bethel ladies who washed/rinsed/repeated each one in prophetic love.
Can you see the hands of Jesus? They will lovingly wash you and endlessly hold you close without measure.
Among these 18 beloved ladies were two mamasans. A mamasan in a Walking Street bar is normally a woman who is too old to dance or wait tables. Instead, she plays the role of a pimp and sells the girls to paying men.
When the invitation for baptism was given on the beach, eight felt the pull of The Holy Spirit to drown their old nature in the depths of the sea and dare to emerge as a new creation. While minimal instructions were given by our beloved Pastor Jenner, no one could have anticipated the biblical happenings that transpired next.
One of the mamasans came up from the ocean’s wash wailing, “I’m forgiven! All my sins have been forgiven!” Another girl arose from the clear blue tide speaking loudly in a gift of tongues so robust, the angels scrambled trying to interpret it.
Behold the sound of Christ. He is not only the God who sits in the heavens but is the same Spirit who dwells closer than the breath on our lips.
Some of the most enthralling scenes were watching tormented souls screech as demons were forced to evacuate their long-held homes. In Biblical terms, we call this deliverance. As demons rushed out and heaven rushed in, the girls crumpled to the sand as they were once again enveloped in the embracing arms of those who loved them.
Can you hear Kingdom authority emanating from His mouth?
All of this begins to paint a glorious portrait of Christ. But is this revival? Or, might there be a testimony behind the testimony? A miracle behind the miracle? Is it possible that revival not only changes a life but also can change an entire city?
Revival in the Sex Trade
Wipe Every Tear and Church So Blessed have been serving Angeles City consistently for years. Teams from around the world have come and worshipped in this city, warring to loosen the grip of trafficking on the strip.
On my first trip in 2018, I could barely walk down the street as it was teeming with people. It was hard to find a seat in a bar and the hotels were sadly overbooked with men on extended “Sex-cations.”
But this trip was different. Even on Saturday night, the strip was not packed with partiers. Inside the bars, we saw more girls on the stage than men in the seats. And the hotel’s rooftop breakfast buffet, which used to be filled with hungover men, was now a welcoming space filled with peace.
The first morning we went to the rooftop restaurant, not only were there no men — there was worship music playing! And it had nothing to do with our team being there. I asked the waitress, “What is this music?” She said, “This is my playlist.” Dumbfounded, I asked, “Do you love Jesus?” She exclaimed, “Yes, I do!”
Though darkness covers the land and deep darkness covers the people, Yahweh shines upon you and the glory of Yahweh rises upon you. And nations will come to your great light.
~ The Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 60
Too often, our ideas of revival are limited to getting covered in goosebumps at a well-produced church service. May Adonai refine our vision to see the revival within the revival.
When a cake is baking in the oven we say, “The cake smells delicious.” But did you know dogs can’t smell cake? We smell the whole but a dog’s superior sense of smell can only detect the parts. We smell cake but a dog smells milk and baking soda and flour and eggs.
In the Great Welsh Revival at the turn of the 20th century, Evan Roberts reported that the pubs emptied, crime fled, and the horses no longer responded to vocal commands because the men stopped swearing.
When we look for revival, too often we short-sightedly settle for the cake. But the dimensions of the Kingdom always transcend the ordinary and permeate the unseen. There is always a story behind the story and a purpose beyond the purpose. If the glory of the Lord is rising upon you, rest assured that nations will come to your great light.
When you see the newly baptized speak in tongues and have demons cast out, stop long enough to realize the city itself may also be fundamentally changing.
By revival.
If you would like to sow into Wipe Every Tear’s mission of rescuing and feeding trafficked girls, please visit:
https://www.wipeeverytear.org/donate
May God bless you richly for doing so!
