Thirty Pieces
Human trafficking. We’ve heard about the problem but few of us see a real human face in this nightmare. Now I have. On my last trip to Singapore I met a woman from Indonesia. A few years ago she lived in Jakarta, was married and had a young child. Her husband left her. Without support she scrambled for work. Along came a “friend,” someone she had known for many years, promising to get her a job as a maid in Singapore. All the arrangements were made and “Jane” (we will use this name because she is at risk with her real name) took the flight to Singapore. The man who met her at the airport took her passport, conveyed her to an apartment and told her that there was no job as a maid. Instead, she would be a sex-worker required to “earn back” all the money he spent for her to get to Singapore. Her quota was 150 men per month. Five a day, every day, doing whatever they wanted. And if she didn’t perform, he would make sure that her son in Jakarta would be harmed. Alone, without a passport, she was essentially a slave. Locked in her room until it was time to “work,” she became a creature of the street, threatened when she didn’t make the quota and afraid to try to escape. No one cared. The police tolerated the enterprise, turning a blind eye to the human trauma. It was just “business.”
Eventually she met one of the members of the church that walks these streets and with great care reached out to one of the women. I am glad to report that “Jane” has been delivered from this prison, although it took some time and caused what psychiatrist Jonathan Shay terms, “moral injury,” as you would imagine. Her son is safe. She is now serving as a teacher in a program called “The Children Under the Bridge.” These are the children of women forced into prostitution, children who are otherwise left to fend for themselves under a bridge in Jakarta. “Jane” has become the mother they no longer have, providing education, safety and food.
Thirty pieces was the price of betrayal a long time ago. Today the betrayal continues. The “friend” has recruited more women with the same scheme. Now I am asking for thirty redeemers. I am asking for thirty of us to provide for “Jane’s” efforts with these children. She needs rent money for herself and her son. She needs educational materials. She needs food to care for these orphans of abuse. She needs thirty of us to give $20 a month (or whatever you can) for the next two years so that she can be a rescuer and redeemer. Now you have a human face of trafficking. Now it is real.
If you want to help, please let me know. I am setting up a separate account just for this project. The money will go through the church that rescued her from the streets. It can’t go directly to her since that puts her life at risk in Jakarta, but all of it will get to her by other means. You can email me or call if you want to help. Thank you.
Yes, I will help her!
Sandy
Yes, I would line to help. The amount of child pornography in the U.S. is terrible. but at least we.have some resources trying to address the problem. Still one knows we could do more. As adults we get to make our decisions. These children have no choice. If it is bad here, .I can’t even imagine how awful it must be there. For adults and.children.
This opportunity to help is a direct answer to my prayer yesterday. I am grateful you shared this, Skip.
You can count with us, We are more then happy to be a blessing
Juvenny & Jeannette
Shalom
Count me in as well. With a happy heart.
Add me as one of the 30.
Absolutely! Count me in too.
Count me in!
Breaks my heart , Praying for this. For many more survivor’s and there healing.
Skip, I am wondering if this church has figured out how to buy these women? There are going market rates, surely. If they have – or could – perhaps we could partner with such an effort there, too.
Count me in. I wonder how many children are being trafficked?? This kind of evil makes one a little sick to the stomach.
This is shocking!
Some though, I am told, willingly work as such, a maid by day, but ‘earning extra’ on their off days, on weekends.
It is difficult for the authorities to nail these activities, unless they go to them. I have seen these disgusting scenes
on weekends when I am on holiday there, and locals explain warning us not to go certain places/areas at night.
Most of these maids are from poor countries close by like Indonesia and Philippines.
Count me in as two, please. Thanks Skip.
Willingly? I wonder if we fully appreciate the circumstances which allow of “willingly” submitting to all kinds of sexual acts with anonymous people. This isn’t my first encounter with these victims and I don;t know any who choose it because they desire to do so. It is usually a matter of survival or threat. The world is not a very nice place to women who have no one to protect them or care what happens to them.
Hi Skip, your concern for the welfare of women is outstanding. Perhaps willingly seems harsh, and does not apply to the decent genuinely-seeking- to- survive types, but the fact is, there are those willful ones, truly disgusting types who don’t care for themselves. Many decent good paying jobs available to them, in sales e.g, , but working as maids are often only a cover to get into the country, as maids are in high demand, in a professional society. They want easy, fast money.
Morality.is not their main concern. Their filthy, lazy, irresponsible attitudes are spoiling the country and its reputation.
It is, I fully agree, the corruption in the world.
.
Yes. That’s coffee money to a lot of people. Starbucks just raised their prices too.
Isn’t too a preposition?
Correction: And Starbucks just raised their prices. #mentalstreamonline
Thank you all. We have not reached 30 but we have and will make a difference. I just make up the rest. You are one of those who gives water to the least of these, and these women are certainly among the least of these.
Heartbreaking 🙁 . Count me in.
Sorry let me rephrase and say not all adults especially women. Extremely vulnerable. Skip your words ring true. Willing?
Hi Skip,
I’ll would feel privileged to be one of the 30. You can send me the necessary info to sign up.
But…I’m just wondering if you should remove this post “Thirty Pieces” from your website and deal directly with your readers via private emails?People from all around the world visit your website and you have no control over what they might do with information they read. It could potentially be passed on to someone who would want to harm Jane or the children.
Or… at least remove the photo. Most certainly, SOMEONE is going to recognize the buildings in the background.
Thanks for making the community aware of Jane and inviting us to help.
Judi
Good point. After today or at most tomorrow, when I have names of everyone who wants to help, I will take it down.
Count us in Skip.
Thanks,
Jerry & Joette Baker
I will love to help
Skip,
I will bring this before my children at school this upcoming school year. We will add them to our prayers and our prayer map where we can see the faces we pray for. We will, once again, start a collection for someone in need. The children will decide. We can’t send $20 per month as it takes a full school year’s collection since they, as you know, truly give from their own money and it takes this long to collect some to send. It will be an honor to pray for them! Our children continue to make connections with children around the world in order to lift them up in prayer. This is one of our main purposes that YHWH has given us-raise up intercessors! Thank you for sharing this with us. Shalom!
Please count me in too! This is an answer to a desire that has been on my heart. Thank you for the opportunity!
Count me in too. 🙂
I had quickly shot off an email to you about it but realize you may check here first- we would like to help! Even if we are short thirty, we could “count” as two (or three or four) to make up the differences in our deficiency. Just an idea –
Lesli
I recently received an inheritance and would be honored to use a portion of it for this rescue. Is there a way I can contribute the total amount at once?
Dear Linda,
Of course you can. It will just be distributed monthly since large amounts at once put her in danger. Look for an email from me shortly.
We are with you too Skip.
I am interested in helping. Thanks for the invitation.
We would love to be a part of this as well!
I’m in, Skip.
Thank you. Unfortunately, when I just tried to send you an email about this, it came back to me as “mailbox unavailable.” Can you please just email me at skipmoen@mac.com so we can get started with a working email address?
Ok. Sorry about that.
I am in. Possibly more in my family, but I need a week to communicate as some of them are out of town this week. I don’t want my name on this stream which is public. How do I do this privately? So the name required field is fake.
I am not sure how to get money to you as I am in China and transferring is not easy.
Do you have wechat, I know I can transfer to you that way, please let me know.