Featured Story

Rescuing Girls From Prostitution
June 2002

Written by Sue Leak, who directs the Victory Center, a ministry to street girls sponsored by Arms of Love International.

A dear friend of mine came to me one day and asked me if I wouldn't please come with her to met two young girls that lived in her neighborhood. We found the girls sitting on turned upside-down buckets in the middle of a clean but sparsely furnished little room on the corner of the street. They were both small for their age, scrawny even, filthy, poorly dressed and afraid. As I sat and talked with them, the names and faces of dozens of young children passed through my mind.

Cris and Liz's mother had ended up in jail several years before. The girls were left in the care of their grandmother. It was a difficult situation to begin with. The grandmother had very little money to meet the needs of these precious little ones, but she did the best she could. Unfortunately, one day the grandmother left home to earn their daily income and never returned. Grandma was riding to work in a public transportation bus when it was struck by a train, and she died instantly.

At that time, Cris and Liz were about 10 and 11 years old. They sat in their cold, dark little room waiting for grandma to come home. When she didn't come, they didn't have anyone else to care for them. No one to make sure that they had the very basics of food and water. Then neighborhood men, who knew what had happened to the girls' grandma, began visiting the girls' small room on the corner. These men offered to buy the girls something to eat if they would be "nice" to them. Hungry and alone, Cris and Liz did the only thing they could do to survive: they were "nice" to these men.

There are too many children in this world who are forced into prostitution. Too many who have no one who takes a personal interest in them. Too many who see no other option but to sell themselves. Too many who have lost their innocence, their hope and their dreams.

Will you help us minister to them? The Victory Center is a ministry dedicated to the loving care of these precious children. Our vision is to do more than provide for the basic needs of these children -- food, clothing, and shelter -- but to go further and give them a new home and a new family, Christian discipleship, discipline, an education, vocational skills, and above and beyond all else, God's LOVE. Only then will they be able to heal from their past and prepare for a new future - with a new hope in Him.