- Philippines Recap 1. - Better Late Than Never
I had the privilege of travelling to the Philippines last July with a wonderful organization: Wipe Every Tear. So many people have asked about my trip and I have tried to put my experience into words but feel like I fall short every time of accurately getting across what Wipe Every Tear does, and what my experiences were like.
So here I am, after 3 months of trying to process everything, attempting to collect my thoughts and share some information about W.E.T. and to just share what the Lord did in my heart during this trip. It's too much for just one post, so this will be the first of a few.
First: some background. Here is a brief description of what Wipe Every Tear does from their website:
"Wipe Every Tear’s dedicated staff and volunteers seek out miserable bars masquerading as joy filled places to provide women with real hope for a better future and a helping hand to leave their current circumstances. Through genuine relationships and the building of trust we help facilitate their transition from the sex trade to a new life of freedom."
One thing I personally didn't understand going into this was how so many girls get into this situation. On one street alone, "Walking Street" there are approximately 1,500 women being trafficked every day. How does this happen?! A lot of the girls that are trafficked in the bars are tricked into working there. They were promised a job as a waitress and instead they wound up somewhere completely different. They rarely try to leave, because of the poverty level and having a job means they can send money back to their families, and to most of them, being able to support their family is worth doing anything.
The ones who voluntarily work in the bars do so out of desperation. If a girl cannot afford to go to college, it is nearly impossible to find any other line of work. Fun fact: even working at the gas station or at McDonald's requires a college degree in certain areas of the Philippines.
I can't even explain how needed a ministry like Wipe Every Tear is in a place like this. A movement offering these beautiful women an alternative and hope in their future. How they offer this hope is by providing safe homes for the girls to live in rent-free and college tuition paid in full. As they go to school they also have meals and therapy provided for. On top of all of this, W.E.T. also offers each girl an allowance to send back to their family so that they aren't burdened with guilt about not helping provide for their family any more. (Again, family means everything.)
How we get the girls to the safe homes is by going right into the bars and inviting them to leave their current occupation and invest in their dreams. It seems so easy, but often times they don't believe us because it all sounds too good to be true, especially after all the lies and manipulation they've already been put through.
If a foreigner walked up to you at work and said, "If you quit your job, I will take you to a house where you can live rent-free, we'll pay for your college tuition so you can pursue the career you actually want and also give you money to send back to your family each month," would you believe them? Often it takes going back to a girl at the bar multiple times and having several conversations to build trust before she will decide to leave.
Now I'll just take you straight to my journal about my team's first night of bar outreach:
07.12.2017
Last night was our first of 3 nights doing bar outreach in the Red Light District. I really didn't know what to expect, and now I don't know what to say. It's overwhelming.
The first bar we went into was small and so filled with smoke it made my eyes burn. It didn't take long for one of our trip leaders to hone in on one girl and call her down from the stage. But before that, she and another girl on our team went up and joined the girls onstage to dance to the overpoweringly loud music.
I knew this was something most of these bars allowed, and in our orientation we were told that we were welcome to do that because we were there to make connection with the girls and we can't go in and just stare at them with pity - no matter how badly our hearts hurt.
They told us to remember these girls are at work - they are there to do their thing and make money and they usually won't respond well if you show or act like you feel sorry for them. It blew my mind when the W.E.T. staff told us that,
"We don't go to the bars to read the Bible to them. We don't go to stand up and yell "Stop doing this with your life! Turn to God!" (We're not trying to get kicked out!) We go to the bars to party. We go to be their friend and to celebrate. We go to show and tell them that they can have a better life, and we invite them to meet with us later when we can talk more freely. We go to offer them an education and a home. We go to give them hope. We go to just love."
The part that really stuck out to me was, "We go to celebrate," All I could think was, celebrate what? My stomach turned at the thought of trying to look happy and act like I'm enjoying myself when I really want to cry.
But earlier in the day I gained some peace about this by spending time with some of the girls who are already in Wipe Every Tear's care. They are opening up a coffee shop and some of the girls are training as baristas (which is super awesome!) and we got to go visit them and try their coffee.
While we were there, some of the girls randomly started singing and then handed one of our team members a guitar and it turned into a giant impromptu worship session! All of the sudden we were all singing "King of my Heart" at the top of our lungs! And then another, and another, and another...the joy in the room was tangible!
In that time I thought to myself, "When we go into the bars tonight, this is what I'm celebrating. That these girls made it here and now they have such a passionate heart for Jesus. I'll celebrate in hope that the girls who are still in the bar will be in this place singing too someday soon. I'll celebrate because victory belongs to Jesus!"
If I hadn't experienced the pure joy and worship of the girls in Wipe Every Tear's care, I don't think I could have handled the bar. Praise Jesus for giving me exactly what I needed! So because of that, I was able to walk down "Walking Street" with a peace that was definitely not my own!
Back to the first bar we went to: I was pretty overwhelmed so I don't call a girl down at first. One of the amazing Filipino ladies on our team who came into W.E.T's care and now goes back into the bars to get her sisters out, asked me if anyone stood out to that I wanted to talk to and I said, "How do you choose?!" Because really, how can you pick one girl you want to "rescue" when you want to take them all home?
So I stayed seated as the other girls danced - just praying and taking it all in. When we left and went to the next bar, a woman caught my eye. She stared at me as we found a seat. I told our waitress that I wanted to speak with that woman and so she came down from the stage to sit with me and we ordered her the obligatory drink. (Remember these girls are at work at the have to make money - they get a commission on every drink that is purchased for them. This is our way of buying their time)
I tried to strike up a conversation with her but it was very difficult because she barely spoke English. I gathered her name and found out that she had 2 sons. I showed her some pictures of my family and then a bunch of my team members had gone up on stage to dance at that point, and the woman I was talking to indicated that she wanted me to go up too! I told her that I was too shy and she told me she was shy also, and then she gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me up there with her anyway!
So there I was in a bar in the Philippines, on a stage with bright lights and the loudest music that I've ever heard. And I danced. I know this is about the girls and not me, but any mission trip has a way of cultivating your heart and I definitely had a growing experience that day.
As I was trying to keep up with everyone else, I I thought, "this is crazy because I really believe this is what Jesus would be do. Maybe not exactly, but this is totally what His ministry was like! He welcomed the outcasts, He sat and ate with the corrupted tax collectors, and I' dancing with the..." And then I caught myself from making the mistake of using the girls' current occupation to label them as if that was their identity.
And then I thought, "I am dancing with my sisters - my fellow daughters of the King! And I am celebrating that!
To be continued.
~ Rebecca Rae
So here I am, after 3 months of trying to process everything, attempting to collect my thoughts and share some information about W.E.T. and to just share what the Lord did in my heart during this trip. It's too much for just one post, so this will be the first of a few.
First: some background. Here is a brief description of what Wipe Every Tear does from their website:
"Wipe Every Tear’s dedicated staff and volunteers seek out miserable bars masquerading as joy filled places to provide women with real hope for a better future and a helping hand to leave their current circumstances. Through genuine relationships and the building of trust we help facilitate their transition from the sex trade to a new life of freedom."
 |
| Walking through a small Filipino village |
One thing I personally didn't understand going into this was how so many girls get into this situation. On one street alone, "Walking Street" there are approximately 1,500 women being trafficked every day. How does this happen?! A lot of the girls that are trafficked in the bars are tricked into working there. They were promised a job as a waitress and instead they wound up somewhere completely different. They rarely try to leave, because of the poverty level and having a job means they can send money back to their families, and to most of them, being able to support their family is worth doing anything.
The ones who voluntarily work in the bars do so out of desperation. If a girl cannot afford to go to college, it is nearly impossible to find any other line of work. Fun fact: even working at the gas station or at McDonald's requires a college degree in certain areas of the Philippines.
I can't even explain how needed a ministry like Wipe Every Tear is in a place like this. A movement offering these beautiful women an alternative and hope in their future. How they offer this hope is by providing safe homes for the girls to live in rent-free and college tuition paid in full. As they go to school they also have meals and therapy provided for. On top of all of this, W.E.T. also offers each girl an allowance to send back to their family so that they aren't burdened with guilt about not helping provide for their family any more. (Again, family means everything.)
How we get the girls to the safe homes is by going right into the bars and inviting them to leave their current occupation and invest in their dreams. It seems so easy, but often times they don't believe us because it all sounds too good to be true, especially after all the lies and manipulation they've already been put through.
If a foreigner walked up to you at work and said, "If you quit your job, I will take you to a house where you can live rent-free, we'll pay for your college tuition so you can pursue the career you actually want and also give you money to send back to your family each month," would you believe them? Often it takes going back to a girl at the bar multiple times and having several conversations to build trust before she will decide to leave.
 |
| Walking Street - the street full of bars that in reality are more like brothels |
Now I'll just take you straight to my journal about my team's first night of bar outreach:
07.12.2017
Last night was our first of 3 nights doing bar outreach in the Red Light District. I really didn't know what to expect, and now I don't know what to say. It's overwhelming.
The first bar we went into was small and so filled with smoke it made my eyes burn. It didn't take long for one of our trip leaders to hone in on one girl and call her down from the stage. But before that, she and another girl on our team went up and joined the girls onstage to dance to the overpoweringly loud music.
I knew this was something most of these bars allowed, and in our orientation we were told that we were welcome to do that because we were there to make connection with the girls and we can't go in and just stare at them with pity - no matter how badly our hearts hurt.
They told us to remember these girls are at work - they are there to do their thing and make money and they usually won't respond well if you show or act like you feel sorry for them. It blew my mind when the W.E.T. staff told us that,
"We don't go to the bars to read the Bible to them. We don't go to stand up and yell "Stop doing this with your life! Turn to God!" (We're not trying to get kicked out!) We go to the bars to party. We go to be their friend and to celebrate. We go to show and tell them that they can have a better life, and we invite them to meet with us later when we can talk more freely. We go to offer them an education and a home. We go to give them hope. We go to just love."
The part that really stuck out to me was, "We go to celebrate," All I could think was, celebrate what? My stomach turned at the thought of trying to look happy and act like I'm enjoying myself when I really want to cry.
While we were there, some of the girls randomly started singing and then handed one of our team members a guitar and it turned into a giant impromptu worship session! All of the sudden we were all singing "King of my Heart" at the top of our lungs! And then another, and another, and another...the joy in the room was tangible!
In that time I thought to myself, "When we go into the bars tonight, this is what I'm celebrating. That these girls made it here and now they have such a passionate heart for Jesus. I'll celebrate in hope that the girls who are still in the bar will be in this place singing too someday soon. I'll celebrate because victory belongs to Jesus!"
If I hadn't experienced the pure joy and worship of the girls in Wipe Every Tear's care, I don't think I could have handled the bar. Praise Jesus for giving me exactly what I needed! So because of that, I was able to walk down "Walking Street" with a peace that was definitely not my own!
 |
| Myself and one of the brave women who goes BACK into the bars with us to help translate and give a testimony to these girls since she was once in their shoes. |
Back to the first bar we went to: I was pretty overwhelmed so I don't call a girl down at first. One of the amazing Filipino ladies on our team who came into W.E.T's care and now goes back into the bars to get her sisters out, asked me if anyone stood out to that I wanted to talk to and I said, "How do you choose?!" Because really, how can you pick one girl you want to "rescue" when you want to take them all home?
So I stayed seated as the other girls danced - just praying and taking it all in. When we left and went to the next bar, a woman caught my eye. She stared at me as we found a seat. I told our waitress that I wanted to speak with that woman and so she came down from the stage to sit with me and we ordered her the obligatory drink. (Remember these girls are at work at the have to make money - they get a commission on every drink that is purchased for them. This is our way of buying their time)
I tried to strike up a conversation with her but it was very difficult because she barely spoke English. I gathered her name and found out that she had 2 sons. I showed her some pictures of my family and then a bunch of my team members had gone up on stage to dance at that point, and the woman I was talking to indicated that she wanted me to go up too! I told her that I was too shy and she told me she was shy also, and then she gently grabbed my wrist and pulled me up there with her anyway!
So there I was in a bar in the Philippines, on a stage with bright lights and the loudest music that I've ever heard. And I danced. I know this is about the girls and not me, but any mission trip has a way of cultivating your heart and I definitely had a growing experience that day.
As I was trying to keep up with everyone else, I I thought, "this is crazy because I really believe this is what Jesus would be do. Maybe not exactly, but this is totally what His ministry was like! He welcomed the outcasts, He sat and ate with the corrupted tax collectors, and I' dancing with the..." And then I caught myself from making the mistake of using the girls' current occupation to label them as if that was their identity.
And then I thought, "I am dancing with my sisters - my fellow daughters of the King! And I am celebrating that!
 |
| My amazing team <3 {some faces blurred for privacy} |
To be continued.
~ Rebecca Rae
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