Walking down Wenceslas Square at night -- especially on the weekends -- will break your heart. During the day it is an outdoor mall, tourist attraction, and great spot for "Kodak moments," but in the moonlight, a darker side of Prague finds a home-base here. Wenceslas Square, where twenty years ago hundreds of thousands of Czechs stood ringing in their freedom, now lures people into an industry that traps hundreds of other women.
Twenty years after the fall of Communism in Central Europe, the Czech Republic is no longer considered a part of "Eastern" Europe; it has been "Westernizing" quickly, taking on many characteristics of its modern neighbors like Germany and Austria. While its economy is not quite as strong as those countries, it is still thriving enough and in a geographically-desirable location to make it an appealing prospective home for many Eastern Europeans. Unfortunately, many Eastern European women who relocate to the Czech Republic find that there isn't much work for them other than in the sex industry. Other women get offered restaurant jobs and move to Prague thinking they will be working as waitresses, only to find themselves trapped in brothels or cabarets.
Men, too, oftentimes find themselves working for the sex industry, though normally in another capacity. Recruiters travel to African countries and offer employment to men in Prague. These men are less often trapped -- they come willingly because, at least financially, Prague can provide them with more comfortable lifestyles -- but their jobs are definitely crucial in maintaining Prague's reputation as a sex hot-spot. On any night of the week, you can find groups of men -- more often than not of African descent -- hanging out on the street corners in the square. If you watch them, they look lonely, and they don't seem content at all with their jobs... Their jobs? They keep an eye out for stag (bachelor) parties (normally from Great Britain or Germany) and single men walking the square, and stop them to suggest places where these men can have "fun" that night. In essence, they are solicitors, and by the looks of it, they are doing their job well.
Women walking the square at night should be careful if they don't want to get asked by a man herself where he should go for a good time. Normally, this is no problem at all for me because I tend to "walk with purpose" pretty much anywhere I go. Last month, however, my friends Talitha and Stephanie, and I did get posed this question. We don't know whether it was someone looking for sex or simply a fun bar, but the fact that we were walking a bit slower made it easier for him to approach us.
What Talitha, Stephanie, and I had been doing was prayer-walking for the city. Both girls also go to Faith Community Church, and over the past months God has really put the sex industry and prostitutes of Prague on Talitha's heart. I can see why: many people come to Prague specifically for sex, and, with so much of it like the cabarets being legal -- even popular -- most of the countless evils of the industry get overlooked. Many Czechs are unaware of the illegal and often forced employment of immigrant workers in the city, and with a post-communism disposition for every man to fend for himself, it would be difficult to convince them that this is a battle worth fighting.
And so we pray. Last month and this month and hopefully for many more in the future, folks from Faith pray. We meet at one end of Wenceslas Square and walk around the square. We stop in its sidestreets. We stop by the cabarets. We head down to other parts of town -- like by Charles Square -- where we know prostitutes linger on the corners. And while we walk, we pray.
We pray for God to keep business away that night (this weekend's snow was a blessing); to keep the women and men safe; to not let the solicitors feel satisfied in their jobs; to provide hope, purpose, and worth to the women being abused by this trade; to provide money for survival and safety to women when they are granted slow business; to care for the children of people working in the sex industry; to provide good Christian men to befriend the solicitors and cabaret owners so that the Gospel may begin to be shared amongst them; to provide women who feel called solely to minister to prostitutes and dancers, who can provide them with consistency in their friendships and love in their lives where there was none before; to show legal loop-holes through which justice can be administered and immigrants can can protection. We thank God that He is righteous and that He is at work in this city. We thank Him that Prague is now a city where we can pray openly to Him. We thank Him that His grace extends to everyone, and that there is hope for each one of the men and women we pray for -- from the prostitutes to the proprietors to the patrons. We thank Him for people He has provided to befriend and serve prostitutes and cabaret workers -- we already know of two women and one man, and are hopeful there are more than we know.
We thank God for the International Justice Mission, which may be gaining interest in Prague, and for workers like E--, who Talitha met just this past week. Truly through God's hand, Talitha and E-- sat next to each other returning home from Christmas in Ireland this past week. E-- is about to start her new job working for La Strada International in Prague. La Strada is an anti-human trafficking organization that operates in nine different countries, including the Czech Republic. It seeks to serve and protect women who have been trafficked into different countries -- in the Czech Republic often as sex slaves. E--'s role will be a dangerous one. She will be serving women at a La Strada safe house in Prague, working night shifts for them, and accompanying them when they have places to go. We don't know if E-- is a Believer or not, but we know she is in a position to show immense love to these women. She has a giant heart, and God will be using her. We also now have a connection through E-- to serve the human-trafficked community ourselves, so E--'s role with La Strada has the capacity to open huge doors for others who want to make a difference.
Whenever you think of it, please pray with us. Pray for the safety, conviction of hearts, and redemption among Prague's sex trade workers. Pray that stag parties and visiting businessmen will find better things to do during their stays. Pray that human trafficking will end in Prague, and everywhere. Pray that justice seekers and lawyers will take a greater interest in the Czech Republic's often undercover sex industry. Pray for E-- and the people she will be serving at La Strada. And definitely think of us the second Friday of each month as we pray through Wenceslas Square and asks for God's mercy to come down all over Prague.
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