Last night I was on the street

Last night I was on the street and got into a conversation with a woman we’ve known for several years. We were supposed to meet at the office this week and make an overview of her situation so that she could take steps to return to her home country and her children. That has been her big wish for as long as I’ve known her. It’s always: “I’ll stop after the summer” or “I won’t be back after Christmas”. And yet she is still there. What a disappointment for herself and her children. Yesterday she also indicated that she wanted to continue working for a while. And then I wonder: W H Y? It is difficult for her to make ends meet and of course you first make sure that money goes to your children no matter what. Only, all the costs she has here cause the debts to mount. Some time ago that was a good € 30,000.00 while it was something like € 6,000.00 when I met her a few years ago.

Like this woman’s situation, there are many others in various variations. It is often said that they are not motivated, do not persevere and do not want to work on their future. Recently someone said to me: “They stick their heads in the sand for reality”.

It’s so easy to have an opinion if you don’t know the situation of the prostitution world. Then I remember the words of a young woman who said: “I don’t know who I am. I don’t know what I want and I don’t know what I can do”.

Another woman once told me that she had never had an education, that she didn’t know how to make choices or determine direction in her life.

When and how do you start a change in your life? You can’t do that alone. You need someone next to you who is willing to go that way with you. Professional help is of course very much needed here, but also someone who goes that way with you. To whom you can pour your heart out to and who doesn’t think you wouldn’t be motivated. No matter how often someone doesn’t show up, she’s still welcome.

A few years ago, after 8 years, I received the long-awaited message from a young woman. I’ve already met her behind the window in her first week and I knew God wanted to say something to her. It was also clear to me that that should not be said there at the Red Light District. For eight years I reminded her of that and then one morning there was that message. “Does your invitation still stand and can I come over?” The next day she was standing there in the office and she kept coming after that. We talked a lot and always with God central in our conversation. She decided to quit prostitution. We were able to baptize her and have a good contact with her to this day.

If we are faithful, God will entrust us more. God has a plan for everyone’s life, no one’s birth is an accident. Even though everything went wrong after you were born. God has a reason for everyone’s existence, so also for the one who doesn’t know what to do to get out of the circumstances.

For us, we don’t sit opposite a client, but we stand next to our neighbor to go on our way together. That’s a big difference. Protocols, rules and traditions are not bad in themselves, but you can also hide behind them.

Jesus sees the person behind her mask and is involved with them and goes a way with that one person. He has a destiny for everyone and also for her. We can stand next to her to stand together Shoulder to Shoulder, to encourage her and to be there for her.

In the beginning of Bright Fame we were told that we were not professional because we were involved in a client’s life. But with God you are not one of His clients but you are His beloved child. He entrusts that child to us to follow a way.

As Bright Fame we have been allowed to do this for more than 18 years in the Redlight of Amsterdam and together with El Roi for more than a year now in hotels along side women who work in the escort industry.

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Frits Rouvoet