The Christmas dinner for the prostitutes looked like it would go over like a lead balloon...at first. Three hundred dollars had been raised for the dinner and then was stolen out of the office of one of the pastors. The crime remains a mystery...no one knows who did it or how. More money was raised and the dinner went on anyway.
We passed out 79 invitations in the weeks leading up to the dinner. Thirty minutes after we were supposed to begin, only six had showed up. We shouldn't have been overly disappointed; the fact that six prostitutes would darken the doors of our church offices was still pretty good. But we were hoping for more--honestly, a lot more. Undaunted by the relatively low attendance, the director of the program and another person went out to the streets and invited folks once again to take a break from their work and come join us for dinner. 45 minutes later, twenty more prostitutes filed in in their "work clothes."
Before we ate, the prostitutes heard a message on God's purpose for our lives. An invitation was given for folks to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. One person accepted. Afterwards we passed out gift-wrapped copies of the book Una Vida con Proposito, a.k.a. The Purpose Driven Life.
About two thirds of the guests were men, most of whom were transvestites (don't ask me why this form of prostitution is so popular here; I'll never understand it). Martha and I sat at a table with a woman named Nuria from our church and four female prostitutes. Two were from Costa Rica and two from Nicaragua.
One of them, a young lady named Veronica, mentioned that she'd like to find other work, mainly because it keeps her out all night and she has several children. (The fact is that prostitution is a trap that snares many folks who are poor and lack job skills. It pays very well, is legal, and it's only way these folks know how make a decent living. To put it plainly, they get dependent on, if not addicted to, the money. So once you're in, it's next to impossible to get out. Understanding this, the Nexus program provides the funding for folks to live on so they can leave prostitution immediately and go get job training in another field. As you can imagine, this can take several years.)
I mentioned to Veronica that the church provides material support to folks who want to leave prostitution. She wanted to know more, so we introduced her to the directors of the program. Please pray that she'll take the next step.
After the dinner, they all filed out and, I presume, went to work. Pray that the message from the dinner and the book will take root and result in changed lives. I'll keep you posted...
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