Footsteps sound on hard pavement.
The sounds of car horns fill the air.
Women stand on the streets selling grilled cow heart and potatoes.
We hold hands and pray.
A circle of 12.
The disciples were only 12 and we are usually 12
who meet together on Friday nights and hold hands and pray before we go out.
We walk past infants sitting on cardboard scraps
their mothers selling boiled eggs out of her cart
we walk past men sleeping in doorsteps
no shoes to cover their feet
homeless
we walk past kids dancing in the streets
boom box on their shoulders
we walk past two boys drawing Pinocchio on the sidewalk for change
to buy their next meal with
a few blocks later we are there.
The neighborhood people run out and greet us, calling us by name.
They are sitting on the sidewalks, in the doorsteps.
It’s almost midnight.
Young kids play in the streets and taxi cabs stop to see what we are doing.
We play the cowhide drum and dance with the children.
New people come and ask what we are doing, curious.
We come because we love you, Jesus loves you, we tell them.
Truth.
Behind us are the rooms where you can pay 2 dollars a night to sleep
and a few more dollars for a girl to sleep with.
We talk to the people, making relationships and friendships
with the ones who have no hope because we carry hope in Jesus
and we give it to them, freely.
We say goodbye and walk the blocks that take us to the girls.
Beautiful girls.
Brown skin and straight black hair.
They stand in the shadows, bought and sold.
They recognize us and we share food together, breaking bread.
We talk about life, about dreams and hopes and religion.
They ask us why we would even come.
We tell them it’s all because of love. Jesus’ love.
I hate it sometimes
the times when we are talking to a girl and a man buys her right in front of us
and she has to leave. Eyes downcast.
Two days later, early Sunday morning, we go and pick them up.
Ten of them, waiting for us to come.
We come together to the Church and sit in the front row.
They listen to the truth words.
The truth about love.
Sometimes, in the midst of so much darkness it is hard to see.
But they are coming and they are listening and tears spill, hot on my cheeks when the pastor asks who wants to be saved and their hands are raised and these beautiful ones trade their hopelessness for the most beautiful hope.
Lives are being changed and hearts are being healed and we are here.
We are here because how can you send a sister back home to be sold?
We are here because how can you send these beautiful ones back into the darkness?
We are here because we are their voice.
We are here because they have never been heard.
We are here because the Freedom House is a dream that God gave us to save these beautiful ones.
To bring restoration to lives that have been ripped apart.
To bring healing to the broken.
We are here because we need help. We need people to support Freedom House. We need a miracle. We need you.
I said it before and I will continue to say it, a mantra.
I stand for FREEDOM.
Stand with me.
