Scars and Stories, Slaves and Salvation (South Asia 8)

“Joy unspeakable that won't go away, and just enough strength to live for today.”

Our last full day in South Asia we went to an after-care home for girls and women rescued out of the sex-slave trade.

I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I did anticipate it being the hardest, most heartbreaking day for me, because human trafficking is an issue that breaks my heart so much.

But as with every day and every moment in South Asia, God surprised me yet again. Once again, He showed me Christ's prevailing story of redemption and it was a beautiful experience full of joy, not the sorrow and heartbreak I expected.

The home was more like a tiny village, a big concrete wall enclosing the place, creating a little world of safety and healing. There were buildings and houses, drying laundry hung on ropes strung between trees. They weren't barracks full of rescued girls still scared in an in-between house as they waited for the next thing. It wasn't a halfway house, it was a new life, its own little world.

There were little girls and adult women, we were told there were girls as young as four, I think most of the girls we interacted with were between ten and 18. There were a few babies and toddlers, the children of many of the women.

As soon as we got there the younger girls were already grabbing our hands, pulling us around to play and dance, putting their arms around our waists. We tried to teach them a line-dance, they tried to teach us Bollywood. In the end we just danced and jumped and laughed around, a mix of Bollywood and ballroom with a little swing thrown in.

There was this one little girl, probably nine or ten years old, who attached herself to me and was by my side (or rather kept me by her side) almost the whole time. She grabbed my hand almost as soon as we got there, put my arm around her shoulders, and dragged me off to show me around.

Then we joined the dance party. We jumped and spun and twirled. She tried, vainly, to teach me the Bollywood steps. We didn't speak the same language, but it didn't matter. Gestures and smiles spoke more than I would ever have known they could.

At the end of our short time at the home, two of the girls did a dance for us. They couldn't have been much older than my 12 and 13 year old sisters, Lauren and Ashleigh. They looked so sweet and happy, innocent, reminding me again of my sisters, who have known no real or deep hardship in their short lives.

It was crazy to realize what has happened to those girls. I had to remind myself what they had all been through, because they didn't act like it. There was so much joy in the dancing, so many smiles, an abundance of laughter. They danced and played like these unspeakable things had never happened to them.

Many of the girls had scars on their arms, a few on their faces. I looked at one girl's arm and saw what looked like a very poor tattoo of the letter R. One girl, who was probably around 12, had a x-shaped scar on her face, beside her eye.

They were all such sweet girls. My little friend was so skinny and tiny. I simply cannot fathom that at one point she was raped multiple times a day, by man after man after man. And that after experiencing that level of abuse, she can ever smile again.

But she seemed so innocent, and she did smile so much. There was so much joy in her bright eyes. She was so, so beautiful; so full of life. All the girls were like that, beautiful and joyful, only their scars telling the stories of their abuse and abandonment.

I expected a veil of sadness deep in their eyes, whispering of the unspeakable things done to them, but the veil seemed to be gone, lifted. Not that I think it was never there, not that they aren't broken and bruised still, but it was so very clear that they've all been completely set free. They have been redeemed. Christ's salvation and freedom was so apparent in their countenances.

It really emphasized that Jesus is the only hope, the only true bearer of joy and life. All the organizations and homes we visited while in South Asia had that hope and joy, because they are all founded in the blood of Jesus, not the failing inability of man.

It's so beautiful to see, and a truth to be found anywhere and everywhere, not just in South Asia. No matter what, hope and joy are only found in the love and blood of Jesus Christ.