Rahab

I started to write this blog this morning, but it has been very intermittent inbetween seeing patients. However, my perspective on what I'm about to talk about has been broadened since this morning when I initially sat down to write.

Yesterday I went out with a group called Rahab (named after the harlot in Joshua 2 who hid the Israelites from the King of Jericho as they spied out the land....The Lord blessed her and her name is actually in the genealogy of Jesus- this is very abbreviated- for the whole story see Joshua 2). This group meets every week to go around to the prostitutes in Macau to basically share the love of Jesus. They also work to encourage the girls to go for medical check-ups that the group provides. It's an outreach that is very different from any outreach I've done before. Because of the nature of these girls jobs, it was more just going in and saying hello, giving them a gift with some information, and getting out of their way if clients came in. We weren't there to stop what they were doing (although we may want to inside), we were there just to show them that Someone cares about them.

My eyes were really opened to how common prostitution is here- but my heart was breaking for these girls as we were stopping by each of the hostels. These girls live this way to make a living. A lot of these girls are not from Macau, but from China or surrounding locations. It changed my perspective of these girls because many of them are not there because they want to be, they are there because they see it as the only way for them to make a sufficient income to put food on the table. These girls may not know what love is. They probably have never experienced unconditional love. They just are constantly having one-night-stand after one-night-stand.

Most people know that China has the 1 child policy. Because of this, many of the Chinese want boys so they get rid of the girls. So many of the girls end up in the orphanages (if they're lucky) or on the streets. Once they are too old to be in the orphanage, they are sent out on the streets, basically destined to a life of prostitution. To think that this could have been the life that my little sister Hannah could have ended up with just breaks my heart.

However, today my perspective was broadened even more. These girls have been abused by men, but also feeling a sense of control over men. They know how to play "the game." They that men are visual creatures, and they know how to get a man's attention. But since they don't know what unconditional love is, what faithfulness in a marriage is, or what true happiness is, they have no idea what damage they are causing. Today a patient came in and shared how her husband of 20 years had an affair with one of these girls last year. This woman was broken. There was such a deep deep hurt going on inside of her that doesn't just go away with a bandaid, a surgery or medication. She shared about how she can't even look at these girls who walk the streets and give little winks to the men or act all flirty (even when the man is with his wife by his side). She said she has such a deep hatred for these girls, though she knows it's not right to hate them, she just does. Her story just brought me to tears- it is true how we can carry each others burdens, because I just felt this heaviness by hearing her talk.

These scenarios got me thinking deeper about both sides of the story. God loves both women in this situation. He loves the married woman and he loves the girl who is a prostitute. However, His heart breaks every time the prostitute girl gives herself to another man. He has seen what has happened in the past and just yearns for this girl to turn to Him and see that His love for her has never changed. It has been the same since the beginning. However, He loves the married woman too and it hurts Him to see her in so much pain. He wants to heal her pain and He is, but it is a slow process. The married woman could pray against the prostitute girl, but God doesn't hold grudges...he slowly works to win the hearts of the ones He loves...and He loves everyone. The problem lies within our sinful nature and within our individual decisions. The fact of the matter is decisions have consequences. We may think that choices ends with us, only effects us as an individual, but that is just a lie from the enemy. I don't know the story of the prostitute girl in that situation or of how the marriage was before this affair....I have just witnessed the pain on both ends. Pain that no one should ever have to deal with, but at the same time pain that is very real. Yes, there is a third party in this whole situation who made a decision too and with whom a lot of the "blame" can be placed. But I don't want to get into that.

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So those are my thoughts for today. I don't know if that is completely clear, but that's just what I'm "chewing on" I suppose.