Justice Friday in TJ

by philter

I am posting Justice Friday today (Thursday) as tomorrow I am driving to Vegas to scalp for free (hopefully) into the U2 gig. Anyway, so yesterday my friend Ingvar and I went down to TJ, Mexico to teach on their secondary school on starting an international ministry. It went good, lots of questions, feedback and stories. I like when teaching goes that way, when it turns into a discussion.

Afterwords when we were about to leave for home we found out that some of the staff were going down to the red light district of TJ. A part of me was thinking “no way am I going, I have kids and a wife at home that I want to cuddle, and TJ is dangerous, I could get stabbed.” The other part of me was saying “if you don’t go then all the stuff you say about justice is just a load of shit that makes you sound like you care.” So I went.

We got down town and grabbed the igloos of soup and hot chocolate and headed for the red light district. Some people were in charge of the hot chocolate and others went walking and praying. I went with the group that walked. We headed into an open area and spent some time praying. Ingvar suggested that we pray and ask God what TJ will look like when Jesus comes back. The picture I got was of a park. A park where kids love to play, people are laying on the grass resting or playing Frisbee and flowers and beauty are all around. A place where people want to come and find rest and peace. The thing is that TJ is the total opposite of a park, it is more of a crack house.

After praying we walked around as some of the girls wanted to find some friends that they had run into the previous week. We walked by girl after girl after girl standing outside ready to give themselves to any man who would pay for their services. A few years ago I would have just assumed that these girls love their job and the money, but the more that I read and become aware of the issues of prostitution the more that I realize that the majority of these girls, most likely all of them hate what they do and are either forced to do it, or are so addicted to dope that they see it as the only way to get the money to stay on the stuff.

After a bit of walking we ran into the friends that the girls on the team were looking for. It was a mom and dad with their 3 little girls (6, 7, and 8 years old). The seven and eight year old were already doing services for men on the street and the six year old, named Guadalupe was close to being pimped out by her parents into the sex trade. The parents did this as they felt it was the only way they could make money to provide for their family, they were very straight up about it. We hung out with the girls and then gave them treats and walked on. While walking we passed another man standing on the street with a girl, no older than 12 who he was selling off to men so that he could make money. We stopped to offer him hot chocolate, but he just nervously motioned us on.

Even as I write this I am numb. I have not cried over this, nor have I thought about it much. I think I am afraid to let myself go to that place, although I believe I need to let myself go there, to get the heart of Jesus for this little girls, girls the same age as my Emma. These girls should be running around in a park, but instead they are prancing around at the will of their parents at all hours of the night being forced to give their innocent bodies away.

I will continue to go to TJ, as it is in my own backyard and I can not ignore it. I pray for these girls and pray for me that I would never grow numb to the things that break the heart of Jesus.