On The Line

So a couple of weeks back now, I took a trip to 'La Linea'/'The Line' which is a place in Zone One of Guatemala city where a railway line used to be. Now its abandoned, along with all the trains, and filled with dirt, just some metal in the road. The purpose of La Linea is no longer trains, but prostitution. I went with 3 others who run a small ministry there for the women, who I was put in contact with through one of the board members at El Refugio. They go there every Tuesday and put on a short bible study. So not to get all confusing, I'm just going to talk through the day for you.

After being picked up, we made our way through all the morning traffic and to Zone One and eventually to La Linea. The first part of the road was practically empty and I was looking around for where everyone was meant to be. Then in one big rush it came. Suddenly we were passing door after door after door, all open, and the majority with a woman stood in the doorway or laid on the bed in sight. We parked up and without getting killed by the passing traffic in the very narrow road, managed to get into the small house that they rent to base the ministry in. It is the only house on the whole road that isn't used for prostitution. And that really is shocking baring in mind how many houses there are. We set everything up, and then me and the man of the group went out onto the street with a big pot of chewing gum. We stopped by every open door, to give those inside a pack of gum and to invite them to the bible study starting at one. The group have been coming for 6 years now so are well known 'gringos' (americans/white foreigners) and so we were received well by all of the women we stopped by, a lot of whom we had small conversations with aside from our invitation. There were of course many rooms however that we had to go past as the door was closed. One of the women I spoke with told me that the average rate for a customer is about Q25 which is about £2... For that reason I guess it was no surprise that on our way round, we passed many groups of lingering men. All there for one reason. No exceptions. As I said, every house is used for prostitution so they have no other business than indulging themselves in just that. There are no shops or nothing. A few people told me, including the group I was with, that the estimated number of women working on La Linea is about 300, but also that that's an underestimation and there are likely to be a lot more behind the scenes working too. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go round the whole of La Linea as we had to be back for one in order to start the study as it happens during the womens lunch break. And they therefore need to be back straight away so not to miss customers.

Walking up and down the street was a lot different to driving down it. It was right there in my face. I was literally stood in the rooms where 'it' happens. Where the devil resides and thrives. All the women are pretty much naked. I mean, all had underwear on, but that was pretty much it. Some had netted tops over the top, or a mini skirt or something a long those lines. But sexy(,dirty and torn) underwear with high heels and lots of make-up was the general attire. It was the first time in my life that I was actually right where God has called me to be. As much as I love working in the Refuge and am never ever going to saying that abused women are any less important than prostitutes, I know that working with prostitutes is the call that God has put on my life and most definitely on my heart. I have such love and passion for those women. And that became so clear and reconfirmed when I was there, in the midst of it all. I wasn't reading a book, or looking over statistics or supporting a campaign or all the stuff I’ve done before. I was actually there. In it. And it was intense. Amazing. But intense... And yeah, just a whopper of confirmation for me that its in these broken places with these broken women that God has given me passion to replace the devils presence with his.

Anyway, come 1.15 and we have a small room filled with about 14 women. Baring in mind we must've visited about 70 you could see that number as a bit depressing, but its actually pretty amazing. They left their room, locked their door and left their lifestyle for an hour to hear about some Jesus guy. They came, did some colouring (they all apparently love it?!) making sure to stay in the lines and colour the characters faces in the most ridiculous colours possible, ate the cake and drank the fizzy grape juice we served them and acted like normal girls and women for once. They had all changed clothes, and although some still had heavy make-up on, you wouldn't even have known they were selling their bodies for sex as they were sat around tables, giggling and later on singing along to the few Christian songs we sung and then listening intently to the short devotional that one of the group I was with led.

It was short, a little too short for my liking, as I'd have liked more time to actually chat properly with some of the women, but practically they had to return to work, so all headed off pronto.

Something that surprised me was the nugget of info that pretty much all the women who work on La Linea don't actually live there. They work all through the day, other than their hour lunch break, and in the evening lock up and go back home after 'a working day' to their children, families and lives which don't know about what they really do at work. A lot of them don't even live near in the city, but in various villages around the south of Guatemala, some hours away. I guess that just shows you how desperate these women are for work that they have to travel all the way into the city every day to abuse themselves and sell themselves.

And so, that was it. We cleared up, got into the car and left.

The experience has certainly stayed with me and I don't think I'll ever forget it. We didn't do anything specifically amazing or radical. But just meeting and interacting with those women made it. I have such love for them and my heart truly breaks for them and whether I return to Guatemala in the future to help them specifically or end up in another country helping women just like them I know that that's where God has planned for me to be and I honestly cant wait.

Summary of the day, as I've already said, really just has to be: Intense... Amazing, but intense.

(I didn't take these photos, they're off the web, but this is exactly what it all looks like so I could indeed have taken them. This is what my eyes saw literally.)

Since being in Guatemala I have tried to take all opportunities to visit other ministries, mainly those that in some way line up with the future Gods leading me to. This is because I want to experience as many ministries as possible so that I can learn from them in the way they run themselves as well as how they go about their work. Also because I want to gather as many experiences in lots of types of work so that when it comes to it in my future I have more of an idea of what kind of work God wants me doing exactly. Whether that be relaxed and peaceful work in a refuge, or intense work on the streets or whatever it may be. I'll have already experienced those different types of work and so would hopefully therefore be drawn to certain ones where my passions lie. So yeah. Maybe that doesn't make sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me haha. I know God wants me to work with prostitutes and women in general, but I have no idea yet in what context. I know he's led me onto the path of studying Social Work at university but I have no idea how he wants to use that. I'm just trying to prepare myself for whatever future he has planned for me. Which in many ways I'll never be able to do fully. But I can try ;)

That brings me to tonight. Literally a few hours ago. Its currently 12.30am and I should really go to bed but I'm on such a Jesus high right now that I need to just word vomit all that happened tonight out! So tonight, I went out with a ministry that is a mixture of YWAM, and a load of Guatemalans really passionate about seeing Jesus work miracles in the streets of Guatemala city. I had been meaning to go out with them for ages, but lots of obstacles kept getting in the way. But finally, I went! And it was... just... awesome. My friend José picked me up and we went to the YWAM base and I met the team I'd be going out with. There was 6 of us in total. We had some coffee to get our energy up and then spent a load of time praying for those we were about to spend time with and for the right words and for the spirit to be present and just for Gods will to be done in it all. Then we got into a mini bus and headed to Zone One. Not near La Linea though, Zone Ones a pretty big place!

When we got there, we pulled up and as we offloaded a huge dispenser full of attol (a drink normally made from rice or corn) onto the side of the street, we got surrounded by tons of homeless guys. The youngest probably being about 10 and the oldest about 80. They were all excited to see us and were (apparently) their normal cheeky selves as they asked for more and more sweet bread from me. As the only girl around for a few blocks, and a white one at that, it was a little bit intimidating at first. A lot of the guys around my age were being a little … um … inappropriate to me. But once they actually realised I spoke Spanish we just ended up having a bit of a joke around and it ended up being quite nice. Although that didn’t stop a guy called Christian, who seemed to like to wiggle his eyebrows at me a lot, hugging me for an uncomfortable amount of time when we left as well as asking for my number (which for the record, I didn't give him)!

Like with La Linea, I was right there in it. And it was intense. But not quite so intense, I guess maybe cause its not where my passions lie as much. But still intense, haha!

All the guys were bone thin, hairy and dirty. The clothes they were wearing were pretty much all they own and therefore also dirty, ripped and battered. Fair to say about 99% of them were drunk or high. Most of them had a scrunched up tissue in hand which was soaked in pure alcohol which you are meant to buy to use for medical reasons. All night they all would be constantly inhaling from it, just to keep them on a fuzzy note. As if Spanish isn’t already a task, it was certainly a big challenge trying to understand teeth-less, drunk, street talking men! But I made the best of it, and followed what I could. Only really struggled when play fights started and I couldn’t work out if it was just in jest or serious! :/ One thing that really humbled me was that so many of them were asking for extra bread and attol so that they could give it to the stray dogs that are their neighbours on the streets as such. Its the kind of act you hear of a lot, but when you actually see it, you suddenly see the act of kindness in a whole new light. They are sacrificing that food, which they could hold onto for tomorrow, preventing hunger for another day, and instead giving it to the stray dogs?! Its mad when you think about it. But also puts things into perspective. If they can so willingly give their opportunity of food to dogs, what is their in our privileged lives that we too can easily give up? Or rather, what should be able to give up easily for the survival of others?

So after snacks and a chance for me to get to know some of the guys (the team I went with already know them all after many years of coming every Wednesday night) we went around the corner, and played a 4 against 4 football game by street light, quickly getting out of the way any time a car passed. Not knowing we were going to be playing I had put on flip flops for ease, but they definitely hindered my playing... and I'm not exactly a good player anyway! But I did on one occasion neaaaaarly score a goal. And by that I mean that the ball unluckily decided to go on the other side of the bin bag goal post... :( Made the guys take me a bit more seriously though, haha. Afterwards we sat down on the pavement, about 15 guys left at this point, and a guy from the team called Carlos preached for a few minutes about the lost sheep and at the end did the weekly routine of asking who was ready to leave the streets. What was heart breaking was that so many of the guys have accepted Christ into their lives and want to leave but don't believe its possible and don't believe Gods big enough to make it happen. Bare in mind that the majority of the guys have lived all their lives on the streets, or like 47 year old Juan I met, most of his life at 36 years. They've all been through horrible things as they've suffered violence, near death, hunger, witnessed friends be murdered or had to be violent themselves. Juan for example was slurring a story about 3 years ago about how he got the scar that runs from his left ear to right cheek, right across his face, as well as the scar running down from the middle of his chest to his belly button. Both caused by the machetti of a guy accusing him of stealing from him which moments later murdered his best friend, who im told had much potential for leaving the streets and making something truly great out of his life.

After the message and as we were praying for them all I looked up a moment and saw that all of the guys were really into it. Even without them saying it you can see that they desire nothing more than to leave. They were praying hard, willing for their lives to take a turn. After the prayer, a guy called Manuel who was sat next to me looked up to me, with such hurt in his eyes and asked me if id pray specifically for him. He put one of my hands in one of his and my other on the top and his other over his eyes as he tried not to cry. I happily prayed for him. But afterwards chatted to him to. I explained to him that things are never gonna change until he actually believes that God is able to free him from this life and that when he does believe that he has to let him do that to! I am fully aware he was high and I know that that will have influenced his behaviour. But it didn't change his genuine desperation to change and for a new god filled life.

As it came to the time for us to head off I felt so blessed to have so many of the guys asking if id be coming back, saying they hope I would and all wanting to hug me goodbye. Just in one night Id built relationships with these guys. And sure, they're not prostitutes and not exactly where my passions and life call lies, but I seriously loved tonight and its been opened my eyes to street work.

As I said before, they're all experiences I'm adding up to form an idea of what Gods got in store for me. Hopefully I'm going to be returning every week until I leave as I really did love it and felt like God was really working in me and through me. Maybe its cause I'm not doing it in my own language, maybe it was because they were all high, but it just felt so easy and great to chat to them about Jesus and be honest with them about the fact they need him. Its so hard back home to do just that with friends and although I haven't ever tried for fear, I imagine it would be just as hard if not harder to talk to strangers about Jesus too. But I think in reality it was the simple fact that I had the holy spirit working within me tonight and he was the one doing the talking. That fact is something I definitely want to take back with me to England.

Anyway, its now 1.20am, and I haven't even spell checked this yet so Id better leave it there! I just wanted to share those two experiences with you and hopefully I haven't word vomited too much all over the place! I just needed to get it out! Haha.

Things to be thankful for:

• For these two opportunities along with the ones I haven't mentioned, to go out and experience new ministries and new ways God is working and can work in me.
• For the ways he has opened my eyes and taught me through these experiences
• For the way he is using this year as a tool to prepare me for my future

Things to be praying for:

• For the women on La Linea. That they would come to know Jesus and his healing and his freedom. They they would accept him into their lives and let him save them from their current situations. Also that they would be able to learn their worth as women and children of God and know that they are so much more than an objectified body.
• For the men that I met tonight on the streets. That God would move in their hearts to lead them to finally making the decision to leave their past lives behind them and enter into new lives of freedom in Jesus.
• Especially be praying for the man I prayed for, Manuel.
• For all the ministries I have been lucky to go out with. That God would continue to bless and guide their work and that the Holy Spirit would fill all that they do.
• That God would use my last month in Guatemala as well as my time in Canada and back in England to teach me more and prepare me for my future, whenever that's due to begin!