Hello all!
I’d like to update you on a huge and time-sensitive development we’re facing in the Women’s Project.
As many of you may already know, there is a small team of women here in Oaxaca, Mexico working on reaching the prostitutes and trafficked women that are unfortunately high in number here. Prostitution is legal in Mexico, but th e legality of it has not lessenned the horror some of these women live daily. We are specifically working with a group of women that stand outside of motels, since we can reach them more easily than the girls who work in bars, dating houses, and at public restrooms. They stand on the sidewalk, so we walk around, hand out candy, and invite them to eat with us (and once a month we offer free manicures). Every week we see a new group of girls, since most of them get moved around a lot. The high turnover rate makes it difficult to solidify relationships, but those who stick around for a bit longer have become our friends.
This week one of the women who works on the street was stabbed and killed. It was her first day working in Oaxaca. No one knows her name. No one knows where she was from. No one knows anything about her. Now she is gone, and no one knows what happened or why she was killed. This is a relatively common occurrence in the line of work these women are in, although this is our first time facing it ourselves. Yet again, I was reminded of how important this work God has given us is. Perhaps this girl’s family doesn’t know where she is or that she is gone. Perhaps “No Name” losing her life affects few. But “break my heart for what breaks yours, Lord” is taking a new meaning. Because my heart is breaking. Perhaps our team members were the few that mourned this girl here, but God’s heart breaks and mourns for the lost girls of this world; the voices silenced too soon; the lights snuffed out too early. We’re also mourning the loss of two babies this month. Two of the women we work with lost babies due to lack of education, health care, and personal care (meaning we have no idea if their “husbands” forced abortions). Our team is desperate to provide better care and opportunities for these girls, but we are a bit stuck. The restaurant where we meet the girls weekly is very small. Like a lot of restaurants downtown, their business depends on takeout and deliveries. The restaurant itself has room for about four people to sit and eat. Many days we stand and chat with the girls who come to eat with us. When we paint nails, we sit on the sidewalk or on a speedbump. We’d like to change that. We’ve wanted to change that for a while. Every time we see a “for rent” sign downtown, we’ve called to ask for pricing. The prices are ridiculously high. But this week we saw a small place for rent ON the street we’ve been working on! We called, and the price is less than HALF of what we’ve seen before! It’s genuinely too good to be true. But we have to take action NOW. This week our plans are fast-forwarding at a million miles per minute. We will be creating a charity group here in Oaxaca, on an official level, in order to receive donations internationally with tax deductible options. We will be heading downtown more often as well, due to finally having a place to sit and chat with the girls. We are going to start offering classes: everything from reading (some of these girls never even went to the first grade) to Zumba, cooking, life-skills, etc. We will get to offer medical check-ups, counseling, and many more healthcare options. Just typing out what we can begin to offer is making me feel so excited and scared and overjoyed. We desperately hope that with these facilities we can make an even larger impact on the lives of the girls whose lives are desperately lacking in hope. We want to make sure that these girls have more options when it comes to their babies. We want to make sure they are capable of understanding reliability and friendship. We want to make sure that there are fewer girls with No Name; helping them understand that we care, we love them, and we mourn for them. Our hearts break for what breaks God’s. And we hope that our hands and feet work for what is God’s.
If you’d like to help us out financially, here are our needs:
-400 dollars a month for rent, utilities, and food/materials used during our visits
-1,000 dollars to invest in a sturdy door for the place we are going to rent, paint, tables, chairs, etc.
Please pray for us. This is a wild ride, and we’re so excited to be participating! We need wisdom, discernment, safety, and motivation on the really hard days.
Thank you for being people we can rely on, for caring about a group of women who are often forgotten, and for having hearts that break along with ours. You are greatly appreciated.
-Ruth and the Women's Project Team.
P.S. Our team has set aside time every Sunday night at 10 pm (Mexico City time) to pray. We may not be physically together at that time, but we want to come before God as a unified group with a unified heart. Join us at that time if you can!
*Update Jan 25, 2019
I am so excited to tell you everything that has happened this past week! As soon as I sent my update last week, people started responding, wanting to help. We saw this as a clear sign that we should move forward with creating a charity. By Saturday night, I was meeting with a lawyer to discuss specifics and options. Tuesday I met with the owner of the building we want to rent. He told me that someone had offered him 5x the rent to use the building as a new motel. He refused. Someone else offered him double the rent to use the building as a bar. He refused. We explained what we would be using the building for, and he suddenly seemed very excited. Can you believe it, the man is a Christian! He was very pleased with the work that we will be doing and have been doing, so he gave us a discount on rent and is giving us a whole month (rent-free!) to do renovations. At every step, God has been leading us and opening doors way faster than we could have ever expected. It is amazing; what an awesome God we serve!
So, for those of you who have expressed the desire to help us financially, we are grateful to be about halfway there! Since paperwork takes eons, our official charity bank account will not be ready for at least a month. Meanwhile we have set up a bank account under a mission organization.
I am overwhelmed by the responses, encouragement, and swiftness of the family of Christ. I have been speechless many days this week, overflowing with gratitude. And I am comforted, knowing that the women I have come to care about so deeply are cared for by many in the world. Thank you.