Outreach Occasions
No matter what time of year it is, there is always a holiday just around the corner—a time of celebration and delightful company. For one of our teams, these special occasions open great opportunities for outreach.
Invitations and Breakthrough
One way they get the word out is by visiting a special nightclub. The lady who runs the club allows our team to come during opening hours. We distribute gifts and flyers to the women we find, whether it is Easter cards or postcard calendars with Bible verses. Alongside handing out gifts, the ladies receive cards with our office address and phone numbers of people who speak their native language.
Our teams hear a knock on their door, and a lady steps into their office in great distress. Her name is Alina, and she shares her story. Alina ended up in another country after being lured by false pretenses and forced to work at the nightclub. This nightclub heavily monitored the women and made it difficult for women like Alina to escape. She managed to get out as an escort for one of her coworkers.
Now, she is in a shelter and testifying against her traffickers. In order to conceal herself from them, she wears a chador like a Muslim. At the same time, Alina takes local language lessons to help her find a job and support herself.
Around the same time, our team meets Erin, who cleans the office. As they get ready for another outreach, she opens up about her upbringing. She grew up in an abusive home and was beaten. Her family was dirt-poor and went many nights hungry and freezing in the winter. She became an easy target of a lover-boy, a trafficker who uses a methodical, manipulative approach to lure vulnerable young women into prostitution. It is how she ends up in a brothel in Austria. There, in the most unexpected place, she found hope.
“You came to my brothel. I loved you from the start and trusted you. I was illiterate and so ashamed. But with your help, I could come here, learn to read and write, study the new language, and leave my horrible past behind,” she declared and repeated over and over again, “I am so thankful.”
Erin’s story and gratitude were the motivation our team needed to pack up more calendars, flyers, address cards, Christmas cookies, and visit more clubs and brothels. The rest of the day they spend walking, riding buses, knocking on doors, and dragging their bags of goodies behind them wherever they go.
As Alina and Erin encounter breakthroughs, join us to pray that many more chains will break in Jesus’ name for women like Alina and Erin around the world.
One way you can make this possible is by partnering with our mission through a donation to help break the cycle of human trafficking.