29 Jun

Wings Needed

A typical scene at night along the streets of many cities in Southeast Asia

Wings Needed

How one partner is providing a way of escape

Dear Friends,

It’s not easy to change the way we think, or how we respond to the conditioning we’ve received since childhood. The photo above, taken at the entrance of one of the thousands of beer gardens and karaoke halls that operate throughout Southeast Asia, may spur several thoughts—but many of them might be wrong.

If words such as trapped, deceived, lied to, coerced, extorted, guilted into, drugged, beaten, obligated or enslaved come to mind, you understand what the battle to free women (and often men) like these is about.

That’s why Heaven’s Family is working so hard to rescue those caught up in the web of sex tourism, and why we are partnering with front-line friends like Solida Seng who passionately runs Precious Women, the organization she started in Phnom Penh. Part of Precious Women’s strategy is Voice of Hope Radio, a weekly program that reaches right to where desperate women like those above live and work.

Pka heard that program recently, and called for help. Currently 22 years old, she never attended school and used to collect garbage on the street to survive when she was 14. At 15 she was raped by a stranger, then by her drunken father not long after. Eventually she moved to the capital city to find work so that she could send money home to support her mother and siblings—a deep cultural pressure that gets many unskilled young people into trouble.

One day Pka took the advice of a friend who said she knew of a “good job” that payed well. That job turned out to be prostitution, and Pka learned that she must serve at least 3 customers each night to earn her $150 monthly salary (that’s less than $1.75 per customer). She often receives “additional” abuse from customers. She had been trapped in this work for 3 months by the time she heard the radio program, which offered hope, vocational training and a place to live so that she, along with others like her, can break free and take flight to become the women God created them to be.

Precious Women opened the Butterfly Home several years ago for women like Pka, and we’ve seen lives being transformed by the love of Jesus displayed by the PW staff during our visits (see photos below). Unfortunately, there are more young women who are calling for help than they have capacity for. As of this writing, Pka is one of them. Please join us in praying for the additional space and funding they need (if you’d like to know more about this need, please email Karin at [email protected]).

Thanks so much for your wonderful partnership with us through the Human Trafficking/Slavery Fund. We just want to remind you once again that you are making a difference!