Birmingham Women's Leadership Conference 31 July 2005
Esther grew up in Burma in a poor Christian family. As a teenager, her parents asked her to leave and get a job so they could better care for the five younger children. She was kidnapped and sold to a brothel in northern Thailand.
She was alone in a strange country with a language she didn’t know, and with no legal documents or status. On the wall of the brothel, in large letters she wrote in Burmese the words of Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation. “
The message of the light of God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ is desperately needed and seldom heard in the alleyways of a red light district, inside the guarded walls of a brothel.
New Zealand Baptist Kerry Hilton moved to the infamous Sonagacchi red light district in Calcutta, India, to help the women trapped in the human misery trade of that area. On any given night 20,000 men cruise the streets to pick out one or more of the 6000 prostitutes. They are there because of illiteracy, poverty, betrayal and sale into white slavery by a family member or “friend”.
Even if Sonagacchi streets are bleak and mean, Jesus would find them right up his alley. Kerry said, “If you were to hang out with Jesus, you would have to spend time with the poor.”
Trafficked men, women and children are probably the largest unreached people group in the world.
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