Before this trip, whenever I would hear about human trafficking, I always imagined the problem to be in some faraway land I couldn’t quite grasp. When we watched the movie “Trade,” it hit me pretty hard. The movie opened with a bunch of scenes of Mexico – your typical skyscrapers, tourist attractions, the Metrobus, people driving in their orderly chaos, street vendors, graffiti-covered walls… Even though I had only been in Mexico a few days by that time, those scenes seemed so familiar, and I was kind of excited that the movie takes place  exactly where I was. My excitement quickly turned somber as I got a glimpse of what was really going on underneath it all – women and children are being kidnapped, duped, and exploited for labor or sex… and it was all happening so close to me. Just an hour’s bus ride away was La Merced, where sex workers line the streets and the rest of the community just carries on indifferently. During our prayer walk, my prayers became more and more desperate as I began to realize how real it all is…

The more I learned about human trafficking, I realized what a complex problem it is and how many obstacles must be overcome… people’s indifference, the corrupt/cowardly government officials, the low success rate of prosecutions, the impact of human trafficking crossing international borders… I felt so small as I realized all I could do was some manual labor to prepare a shelter for the victims. I was so encouraged and inspired by Pastor Benny, Janice, and the other missionaries/staff members who are doing so much more and have made so many sacrifices  for this effort.

I think my team members covered the details of our trip pretty well (sorry for not blogging during the trip), so I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance.”
~Robert F. Kennedy

Even though it seems like an uphill battle, I can’t help but think this is the beginning of something great…

Michelle

El Pozo has been transformed to become a place that looks and feels like a safe haven. When I am there, I feel so safe, at peace, and full of hope. I am so glad that we were able to put in the finishing touches to make it a home for the girls. But as Brian mentioned in the previous post, La Merced (where we had our prayer walk) was a stark contrast. I just couldn’t believe how blatantly the girls were standing around and how everyone else seemed to be fine with this. The more we walked, the more furiously I prayed because every girl out there is somebody’s daughter, friend, sister, and possibly even mother. I could literally feel my heart breaking and felt sick to my stomach. Then I realized, if seeing these girls breaks my heart this much, I can’t even begin to imagine how much it breaks God’s heart to see His beloved children like that. It was my first time visiting a red light district, and after seeing it, the issue of human/sex trafficking  started to feel like the insurmountable Goliath again.

But last night, at the NEO service at Pastor Benny & Janice’s place, I was reminded that we simply need to show radical and furious love, and God will do the rest. Because there is no way we can attack and resolve this issue by our power alone. And since last night was our final night in Mexico City, we went shopping at a local bazaar/marketplace, hung out with some NEO members at Cafe Ocho, and went for one last late night taco run! Definitely going to miss this place..

Parting is such sweet sorrow, but Janice has invited us to come back once El Pozo is up and running, so we’ll definitely be on the look out for that. Once again, thanks so much for all your support, prayers, and comments! We’re leaving on a jet plane, but we’ll be back again.

God Bless,
Sarah

With a (now) alert mind, we boarded the Metro Bus and headed back to El Pozo for the final touches.  This mostly entailed some handy work, like fixing the couches for the common space area and nailing in some closet panels.

But we also had to clean the place up and do a final “quality assurance” test, which Khai so gladly did:

The place is really coming together.  There are a few things that need to be done that our team can’t quite do (mainly electrical work), but it is just a few steps away from becoming a haven to victims in need of some love and peace.

We then headed to “Perisur” for lunch.  As we stepped into this mall, it felt like we were magically teleported to a Westfield shopping center in America.  It was gigantic!  It even had those little stands in the middle that would sell random things like cell phone gadgets, baby/pet clothing, and even a hair straightener/curler complete with a slick sales rep that would demonstrate the product on you.  It was a bit surreal.

What came next is probably the most depressing part of the trip so far for me: La Merced.  La Merced is a very busy place with people-filled sidewalks and streets.  It is sprawled with people selling anything and everything, from music to trinkets to clothing.  Unfortunately, this also included people selling themselves.  In less than 20 steps, I would pass by a booth selling children’s clothing, followed by a booth selling pornographic media, followed by a jewelry booth, followed by a sex worker.  Mind you, this was in the middle of the day in broad daylight.  Both young and old were roaming through the markets, each of them having easy access to all of these things.  Something is clearly wrong with this picture.

It turns out that, as night falls, the shops close and sex is literally what sells.  As you make your way deeper and deeper into the back streets, what gets sold crosses the borders from wrong to bad to vile to evil.  It’s as if the heart of La Merced is a deep darkness.  This is the sad reality of La Merced.  This is the sad reality of the victims in La Merced.  This is the sad reality to millions each year.  Many would like to turn a blind eye.  The sadness is even deeper for those who do.  But just as the hearts of many have been purified and redeemed by Jesus Christ, so too can La Merced be transformed.

I had prayed the entire time while walking the streets of La Merced.  Every pair of eyes I looked at told me the same thing: “This is what I have to do to get by.”  From the salesman trying to make a few pesos from pirated DVDs, to the sex worker standing at the street corner who sees the judgment in everyone’s eyes, to the child staring blankly next to his begging mother.  The emptiness of La Merced has become their accepted reality.  So much emptiness.  So much room for God’s abundant joy.

A person’s struggle is not what defines him or her, and the sorrow of La Merced isn’t what defines all of Mexico City.  So we then ventured off to Zocalo and the Mercado Ciudadela to appreciate the rich history of Mexico City and the creative artistry that its people have to offer.  All what we saw were external manifestations, but it was a reminder of the inner beauty that God has created in all of us.

Our time here in Mexico City is nearly over, but that doesn’t mean that God’s work here is over.  All of what we saw and experienced today served as a clear message that God has big restorative plans for Mexico City and He is only just beginning.

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:4-6

“El Pozo” was named after Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4).  The verse above was taken from that account and –  courtesy of Sarah — was painted on the well at El Pozo (yes, there is an actual well at El Pozo!).

Meanwhile, Khai made a painting of Marianne Williamson’s poem, “Our Deepest Fear”, translated into Spanish.  Our team added our hand prints to it.  My (Brian) hand print is the the one in blue!

The arts and crafts continued with making some sparkly welcome cards for the girls, as well as some cards to hand out to people that simply tells them that Jesus loves them.

While Khai, Laura, Michelle, and Sarah were having fun with ensuring a warm and peaceful ambiance for El Pozo, Daniel and I took down measurements for some wood panels that we needed to repair some furniture.  We texted the numbers to Thad, Bonnie, and Janice, who were walking the aisles of Home Depot to buy some additional supplies.  When they finally arrived with some supplies, we fueled up with some Subway sandwiches for lunch, then got down to business.  We moved the final pieces of furniture into the rooms, made the needed repairs to the closets, fixed an end table, and cleaned up the pantry.  However, the most difficult job had to have been removing the residual concrete from the floor of one of the bedrooms!  It was a tag team effort, but significant progress was made.

I took a moment to look around me, and I realized that El Pozo is being filled with so much life.  Everyone was passionately working hard to prepare the place for girls we haven’t even met or known!  All that we know is that God loves them and they are in need.  The thought of preparing the place for some very special people is a life-giving blessing from God.  Preparing El Pozo for the victims made me think about how God is preparing a place for each one of us.  We’ve only spent three days preparing El Pozo and it has literally been transformed.  God, on the other hand, is taking our entire lifetime to prepare our  place for us, so imagine how crazy amazing it must be!  However, what is even more amazing is that the living water that will fill our heavenly place is the same living water that is filling El Pozo right now.

After wrapping up the work at El Pozo, our team had the typical “date night” at Pastor Benny and Janice’s place: dinner and a movie.  The delicious Korean food concocted by Chef Janice was more than enough to woo us over, but the movie was quite sobering.  We watched “Trade”, which is based on a true story of a Texas cop who helps a Mexican teenager find his younger sister who has been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring.  After hearing everyone’s personal accounts of fighting human trafficking and working at El Pozo, the movie proved to be difficult to watch.  It hit too close to home.  It was too personal for us now.  In a sentence, it hit our hearts.

The story of “Trade” — the global injustice of human trafficking — can instill a strong sense of hopelessness.  And following that hopelessness comes acceptance.  What are people to do when an atrocity is so rampant, so widespread, that it feels as though it has moved on from a “problem” to a destructive state of being?  How is one to respond to an individual that has accepted that hope no longer exists?  How is one to respond to an entire society that has accepted that hope no longer exists?

The answer is tough, yet singular: you show them hope.  That is exactly what God did.  He showed the world His only son, Jesus Christ.  And through Jesus Christ, He showed the world His love, and in that love He revealed the one true hope.  We must do the same.  We are called to do the same.

In fact, we were designed to do the same.

We also pounded away at some concrete on the ground in one of the bedrooms so there would be less dust for the girls who will live there.  It was a LOT of work but we know its worth it.

Afterwards we watched the movie “Trade” which is based on a true story about a girl who is kidnapped and sold in human trafficking and although it was raw and not easy to watch it helped us see what is going on around us.

More to come…

Pastor Benny talked to us about how he wants to use this poem to bless the girls at El Pozo. Please take a few moments to watch the video.

Bonnie’s been saying that the entire trip (she got it from her dad) and, today, I think we finally learned how to do that. Not so much R&R type relaxation, but more having the ability to go with the flow and not spaz out when the agenda suddenly shifts (something our team has been struggling with). Allow me to recap.

Originally, we were supposed to spend a few hours working at El Pozo and then head down to the red light district for the much anticipated prayer walk. Things didn’t quite happen that way, but it was still a blessing. We ventured out to the El Pozo and worked a good 6 hours or so. We got a loooooooooot of work done, and I mean A LOT. About 50% of our team lost a few hundred brain cells from sniffing too much paint thinner BUT the glass panels on the doors look AMAZING (stella that was for you). We did a lot of touch ups and personalizing (e.g. adding mirrors and shower caddys to the rooms). We painstakingly chipped paint of the doors and door frames so that they would shut. Totally lost that battle -__-. Some of us went to the fabric store to pick out the curtain material. That was a 2 hour adventure that should only taken 30-40 min, but hey, its cool, we’re rollin with the punches. So, ya, by the time we wrapped things up at ze Well it was about 5pm and raining cats and dogs (which I LOVED woot woot). And thus, the prayer walk was postponed.

I think the schedule changes are truly helping us adapt to the culture. Most of us are very much schedule people and changes make us go “AAAAAAHHHHHHH,” but today was different. We pretty much coasted along. It was good. I’m proud of us.

For the rest of the evening we hung out with our host family. I/we really enjoy the time we get to spend with them and learn more about their vision for NEO and El Pozo, as well as just getting to know them better.

It’s been a really good trip so far, everyday we get closer and closer to day the girls get to move in. God has truly been blessing our labor and our budding relationships.

Khai

P.S. Some of our team members are experiencing digestion issues, so please keep that in prayer. Over and out.

We have an array of exciting things going down today and we’d like you to join us in submitting it to the man upstairs.

• Pastor Benny is going to a congressional meeting to propose new legislation that will enforce stricter laws against Human Trafficking. He doesn’t actually have to talk (his congress woman friend will be doing all the talking), but in the case that they do call on him to say something pray that  God will provide him with the words and keep him. Down in Mexico the state laws override the federal laws, but this new legislation (if approved) will be uniform across all Mexican states (which would be very beneficial in the fight against Human Trafficking). So pray that they will find favor in the governments eyes.
• Our team is participating in a prayer walk down at the red light district. Most of us (with the exception of Thad and Laura) have never done a prayer walk, so pray that we will be spiritually prepared and ready to take on whatever might come our way. I’m personally kind of excited, as it feels like we’re part of the Israelite army marching around Jericho, but I’m also kind of terrified. Please pray against any spiritual attacks that I know the enemy will try to launch against us tomorrow. Please also pray for our safety while we’re down there.

Gracias por todo! Te amo mucho!!!!! Mas updates later.

This morning the group brainstormed ideas on how to interact and share the gospel with the community during our frequent traveling around the city between meals, el Pozo, and NEO.  One of the ideas that the group came up with was to pay for people’s fare on the MetroBus, and hand them a card with some words in Spanish, like Jesus loves you! and a couple verses about the gospel, like Romans 10, 9. The cards would also have the address for NEO and some information.  These acts of kindness would allow the team to get around the language barrier, are and easy and cheap way to stimulate interest in the gospel, and would also potentially put people in touch with the local NEO community.  The team is really excited to pass these out and see how the Lord works!  We will try to post pictures of some of the cards before we pass them out.