Jesus, Prostitues and Us!

Prostitution and Jesus

On our recent trip to Romania, one of the many incredible ways that God worked was in a prostitution operation several buildings down the street from our hostel.

Situation-

In the heart of Bucharest, we found ourselves with the issue of prostitution and slave trafficking heavy on our heart.

“Ok God, we’re here. What do you want to do?” We prayed. “Please do something that only You can do. Accomplish something that is only possible with You.”

And how He did!

There are several situations that I could write about that were incredible. All of these situations created a common thread that ran through out our trip.

But for now I will only write about one, and an incredible one at that.

Just a few buildings down from where we were staying God decided to move in a way that could have only been orchestrated by Him. What took place, involved elements that ranged from a church service, pimps, a woman’s cry for help and people on the other side of the world; All progressing in an beautiful order that would eventually lead to the restoration of souls precious in His sight.

Story

On our way back from a Gypsy church service, Caleb and I were offered a prostitute just a few buildings down from our hostel. With the hope of tackling this issue while there, yet a little taken aback, we told them that we would maybe come back.

We walked away as the adrenaline started to set in; thoughts beginning to fill our heads. “Ok, what do we do? This is the very reason we are spending these last few days here in Bucharest.”

After praying for wisdom and discussing the situation among ourselves we decided that we would go and buy ourselves a prostitute with the intent of purchasing her time. Our hope was to get her perspective and share the gospel with her.

“Ok, here we go! This is my first time buying a prostitute. I have no idea what we are doing, but let’s do this.”

The initial engagement was awkward to say the least. Not being a pro at this, we walked up to them and said hello.

The group dynamic had now changed and there were several people there, all part of the “group”. Several women and a few men gathered around a car, smoking and trying to stay warm by taking turns sitting in the car.

Immediately the woman closest to us engaged us in English and asked us if we wanted a prostitute. The conversation progressed for a few moments as the group became more and more confused with what we wanted to do.

“You just want to talk?” Turning to the others to translate what we were saying.

After explaining a few times what we wanted and working out a price, the prostitutes got out of the car. At that point we began to realize that the amount of English that these prostitutes could speak was minimal and that it was going to be extremely hard to communicate anything with these women. Details. Quite a few people in Romania speak English well.

This is the point that became the most awkward.

They were confused with what we wanted and Caleb and I were looking at each other wondering what to do since communication was limited with the prostitutes.

At that point there was thorough awkwardness and I decided to explain to the woman interpreting the reason why we were there.

“The real reason why we are here is because we believe there is a better way than this. Life doesn’t have to be like this and we want to share with you the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. We want to share His love for you and that He has a better way of life for you than this.”

(We shared along those lines)

As the woman translated, everyone standing around listened intently. We continued to share and the woman continued to translate.

After a few moments, one of the men decided that we weren’t good for business and began to herd the prostitutes back into the car.

           

But the woman who was translating remained interested and listened carefully to everything I shared.

As the car drove off we found ourselves with this woman and a man that had stayed behind. (Who later, we found out was the father of her children.) Her name was Kati and his was George.

“I prayed to God today to give me help” the woman said. “I am in a very bad situation and I do not know what to do.”

I began to get excited, knowing that God was up to something.

As we continued to talk we came to find out that we were just outside this woman’s home and that her role in this prostitution outfit was the renting out of her home in order for the women to service their clients. She also translated as well as.

We found out that this was her family’s only source of income and that she and her four children relied on the income to eat.

She invited us into her home to talk more and explain why we had come to her talking about God.

God’s amazing work

Come to find out, the woman we were now talking with had cried out to God for help earlier that day. Her husband George, was cheating on her with another woman, she had four children and was pregnant with her fifth. They barely had enough money to survive and everyday prostitutes were using her home for their clients while her children played in the next room over.

She needed out. She just wanted to leave. But there didn’t seem to be a way out. Kati also told us that she wanted an abortion because she couldn’t afford another child. She didn’t know what to do.

What Kati didn’t know, but was coming to find out, was that God had been orchestrating this day in order for her to come to Him and find hope.

We shared the gospel with her and urged her not to abort her baby. We talked with her about the possibility of her going to her mother’s home just outside the city in order to get away from her situation.

She was open to much of what we shared, but things still seemed hopeless.

Because of the late hour we decided to pray with her and leave the situation until the next day. She and her husband (who ironically was there but did not understand English) invited us back to talk further.

As we walked home our hearts hurt with the dilemma. “Do we help this woman leave her husband? … How do we do this? We would so much rather God restore them.”

Before heading to bed we prayed for the situation and looked to the morning to come.

The next day, God moved powerfully.

In the morning Caleb and Josh headed strait over to the couple’s house. Brooke and I followed shortly after.

As we walked in, Caleb was sharing with George about why he could no long treat his wife the way he was.

Come to find out, the man had recently accepted Christ but had apparently not been taught much in the way of how to leave his former life. He was searching for life but in all the wrong ways.

Caleb shared from the Bible, as the man seemed to absorb everything he was saying. 

“Christ is the only way that you can find the true and lasting peace you are looking for.”

When Brooke arrived, we began talking about the baby and encouraging Kati to keep her baby.

There are many details that took place; so many of which were amazing evidence of God’s handiwork. One of those amazing things was George’s cousin who arrived that morning. He and his wife had committed to follow Christ not long before. In fact, they had been in the same situation that George and Kati now found themselves in; renting their home out for prostitution and in a desperate situation.

Eventually, after much sharing and encouraging George and Kati made reconciliation. George decided that he wanted to be a ‘one woman man’, committed to his family. God brought them forgiveness for each other and they decided they wanted to follow God and trust Him for their provision.

After confessing to each other and forgiving one another, we prayed together for God’s restoration.

I cannot say that I have ever felt God’s power in my hands physically before this time.

But, as we prayed, I had one hand on George and one on Kati. It felt like electricity was flowing from my hands onto them. All of us felt the power in that room.

I also noticed that their bodies twitched as if little electric currents were running through them. To say the least, God was there.

After praying, George said that he felt like it was all gone. All that had been happening.

“I feel like everything is gone”, he said, referring to the situation they were in. Kati confirmed as well that she felt so different, that all of the hurt and the negative thoughts that had been in her were gone.

It was an amazing experience!

So full of God’s hope and love and peace. How good He is!

Before leaving, we commissioned George’s cousin and his wife to disciple them and to walk with them the journey of relying on God for their provision. Having been established in this, they could now walk with George and Kati and encourage them to follow God as they did now.

God answered our prayer. He did what was only possible with Him.           

What we did not know until later was that all the way on the other side of the world God had been working as well.

We came to find out that, during those crucial hours of encouragement and commissioning of George and Kati, God had burdened a group of believers from our church at those very moments to pray for us.

He was not only working there and in the physical, He was working in the spiritual in places around the world; all for one very important issue on His heart!

What an amazing testament to the incredible intricate work that God does! He had orchestrated such an amazing event that would have been impossible to arrange any other way.

There is no way we could have come up with such a wonderful plan as this one.

It is so good to walk with Him and be in awe of all the wonderful things He does!