God At Work
Laila and I arrived at the Bombay (Mumbai), India airport at one AM. It was 70 degrees. To our amazement security guards had little fires built in the parking lot and were wrapped up in winter coats. Laila and I were perfectly comfortable in our summer attire.
Raji met us. Raji is a friend to so many of great stature that with humility I use the word friendship. A few hours of rest and we were on our way to ministry. A mission trip is a working trip. Sightseeing is for another time.
Over the course of several days, Raji involved Laila and me in various aspects of the Mumbai Teen Challenge ministry which he founded and directs. Children barely old enough to walk are used by their parents/owners to beg. They will run out to cars at intersections and with dirty faces and hands plead for coins. Any money they receive is taken directly to some adult hidden from view. The children are victims...in more ways than can be described in this article.
Raji and his team have picked up children abandoned to the streets by their parents. They have established homes with loving care of Christian foster parents. Some of these children have grown up and become missionaries. A beautiful center has been established for children with AIDS. Every child in the home has a death sentence by medical standards. However, children—sometimes given to Raji by their parent(s)—are given healthy food, a clean atmosphere, and lots of love. Amazingly, and often, they come back from the precipice of death. God gives them added years. Sometimes there is a total healing from AIDS. Laila and I saw this home. We saw the joy. We saw the miracle of hope and help and love.
On we traveled to homes for older children of good health in terms of their bodies. However, these children are orphans or abandoned in a society that puts serious social limitations on such children. School records sometimes have to be worded to make sure that bright minds of rejected children are given opportunity for academic and athletic possibilities. These homes are a natural incubator for developing missionaries. "We have a mid-day service," Raji said. "You speak, Pastor Bare. Be mindful that while you are speaking the women who come in to listen will be prostitutes. They want a word from God. They are ashamed of what they do to make money. They know that disease and death awaits them. They need a word from the Lord. Some of them will come to Christ and leave their profession."
I do not remember what my brief message was about that day. I do know that the Lord taught me new lessons about brokenness and humility. Later Raji took us to a children's center in the middle of the brothel community. Prostitutes bring their children for Christian care while they go to service clients.
With lots of instructions Raji drove us through a part of the largest red-light district in the world. Estimates are that 250,000 prostitutes are in that community. Girls are kidnapped in other countries, drugged and raped until they are broken and put into sexual bondage. Some have been kept caged. Too often the damage is so intense there seems no way out. Average life span is possibly less than 40 because of disease.
Children of prostitutes are often kept in the brothels. Too often they, too, become sexual victims.
Raji and his team pray and fast, contact brothel owners, and ask to visit and pray with them. On occasions brothel owners cooperate, make all customers leave, and Raji's team will hold a time of sharing scripture and worship with the prostitutes. By record, Raji's team has witnessed to more than 10,000 prostitutes.
The good news: Jesus has saved hundreds from these places! Jesus has used Raji and his team to bring out scores of children. More than once Raji and his team have gone in to pick up the body of a prostitute dead from AIDS and give respectful burial. This has won great admiration for the ministry from people inside the brothel community and from city leaders. Hindu leaders have helped to provide additional properties. The United Nations made a gift of $300,000 for the Teen Challenge work.
About 40 miles out of Bombay, Raji has established a compound that houses women and men. Their personal stories are too painful to share in this writing. They have known nightmares. They have lived terror. They have had done to them the most abominable acts of indecency and cruelty...sometimes by their own families.
Yet, in the compound we saw some of the most modest, discreet ladies of gentle spirit one could ever hope to meet. Peace has come to them through Christ. They know forgiveness. They have found hope. They do not live in yesterday...but are excited about new life in Christ. Some of the former prostitutes—men and women—are now married and serving as missionary couples.
This Sunday, eight ladies from Teen Challenge Ministry and their leader, a former brothel owner and operator, will be at Covenant Church. You will be privileged to witness the power of God's grace and redemption. You will experience seeing miracles and know that only the God of Heaven has such power to forgive and restore. We are honored. God is awesome!
See you Sunday
Pastor Bare
Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus.