Praying for the Rescued

Often we hear about the physical rescue of a woman or child from the horrors of the red light districts, and we rejoice, and we should; however, that physical rescue is the first of many other “rescues” that have to take place in these women.  BTC works tirelessly to win the physical freedom of  women and children caught in the chains of human trafficking.  And many of us cannot join the staff as they walk through the lanes of Kamathipura, but we can join them before the throne of God as we intercede for the mental, emotional, and spiritual healing of these women who have been tortured on a level that is difficult for us to even imagine.    Only the Messiah can handle their pain; only the Messiah can heal their wounds, but we are called to go before the Messiah on their behalf.   The ministry of prayer holds a power that we cannot truly understand.As you pray, please pray specifically that these precious sisters will begin to see themselves as God sees them.  They have been treated as commodities for so long; a physical rescue does not immediately free them to think of themselves and others in any other way.  Having been violated on so many levels, the idea that they are sacred, spiritual beings is difficult for them to comprehend and accept.  Outsiders are often shocked by the fact that some rescued women choose to go back to the brothels.  We find it difficult to understand why anyone would want to return to hell.  We cannot fully grasp the reasoning of a broken heart and a broken mind.  Some want to return to the only norm they have never known.  The prison they know is safer than the freedom they have never known.   Some seek to return because they have finally worked their way to becoming owners of other young girls.  After having been so powerless for so long, they were finally going to experience a perverse form of power.  They want to practice that power; they want to feel that control, and so they return.  Others return because despite the many men who have used them and disposed of them, they continue to dream of that one perfect man who can save them.  The reasons that women want to leave the rehabilitation homes are many and often beyond explanation. The lure of sin is deceptive, destructive, and tempting all at the same time.  Unfortunately, we are all creatures who often return to our prisons; we return to anger, and jealousy, and cruel judgments even though we know they are prisons.  The return of these broken women to the brothels is just a more visual return to sin in comparison to ours. We are all beings in desperate need of a Savior who can save us from ourselves and our sins.Please pray Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians for our dear sisters who have suffered deeply and who while physically free in BTC’s homes remain in spiritual chains.  Please pray that they “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that [they] may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:16-17By Jooly Philip