A few of us got the opportunity to go to Mumbai last weekend and after a 12 hour train, sight seeing at 4:30 a.m., and joining a senior citizen’s laughing club on the street , i was finally in the place i have been praying for. I came on this trip prepared to be with commercial sex workers in the red light districts. But for the past 6 weeks i have been a preschool teacher and have been hangin in the slums every day. When we began working in Mumbai, i was face to face with the human trafficking business just as i had hoped for. I was walking down a street full of women who were waiting in their doorways for business. I played with children who were dropped of at a center when their mothers were preparing for their night. I was literally steps away from the injustice that brought me to this place we like to call India. I was in a shelter full of girls who have been handed over by their mothers because they are incapable to take care of them while taking part in prostitution. And as i found myself in the midst of this enviornment, there was nothing i could do about the things going on around me. I was there for a short three days and could not begin relationships with any of the prostitutes or with their kids. It would cause more harm than good for me to drag the women out of their situation and begin aplace of refuge for them. I could not destroy the entire business of human trafficking in one swipe simply because it angered me. And so the world continued to spin in the same way it always has. The men were still indulging in the desires of their flesh and fueling this business. The women still feel powerless and are bound to the commands of their madames and pimps. There are still children who are headed for a dingy future and have no promise for a way out of their parents’ lives. But the problem is that i raised $5000.00 to be here and take part in God’s destructon of this evil. I have come halfway around the world in order for things to change here. And i have been praying for the moments when i would be able to use my hands and feet for the sake of the love of God reaching these people. But faithfulness is not found in my own desires, but in the moments where i find myself in the midst of the will of God. And regardless of everything that needs to be done in Mumbai and besides all the pain and affliction going on in my heart by being in that place, God has shown me one immovable hope: himself. God sees all the darkness in that place 24/7 and stil has the whole world in his hands.
