Twirl Me

You know those times in life where everything just slows down.
The times where your mind is not wandering with a million things racing through your head, but rather you are just in the moment. I had one of those the other night. It was very simple, but I find that sometimes in the simple things, the greatest joy can be found.

We went out to the streets.

Just like the other nights, we smiled and waved at the girls. We told them we had some tea, literature, and cookies around the corner for them whenever they wanted to come over. It gets hard to tell the girls apart and remember their names because they change their hair and even names so much. But there are a few that I have put to memeory. These ones I have shared more then a a mere "how are ya" conversation with, actually we have become friends of sorts. They have asked for help finding new jobs, for prayer, or we have just enjoyed each others company.

One girl all night stayed in the vicinity of our table.

She kept walking back and forth talking on the cell phone. A few times i was pretty sure she was not even talking on the phone. I think she just liked being in our prescence. I had had a few conversations with her before. She was the one who had warned me of a man who was going to steal a necklace off one of our team members. P has a raspy, deeper voice so I can always tell its her. She also seems to be very no nonsense, and I appreciate that quality in her. Finally,towards the end of the night, I was able to strike up a converstaion with her.

Me: "Hey there, hows the night going?"
P: "Oh fine fine."
Me: "Do you mind if I ask you something?"
p: "ya..sure sure..go ahead."
Me: "What is love to you?"
P: "LOve? You mean sex?"
Me: "No No.. I mean if you were to love someone..like to love me.. what does that mean to you?"
(I tried to use hand motions to express what I was trying to convey.)
P: " There are two kinds of love: there is friendship love like between you and I.. and there is husband and wife love."
Me: "Do you want a family and a husband?"
P:" Me? yes I do I do. But not here. Not on the streets. There is no love here."

There is no love here.
She spends night after night with the exception of Sunday nights on this street. Can you imagine inhabiting a place where there is no love? Most of us cannot. Love means you matter. You are cared for.

As a little girl, I loved to play dress up. As much as I was a tomboy and enjoyed rough housing with my brother, there was something marvelous about dress up. What is the first thing my little girlfriends and I would do when we played dress up? We would dance. We would twirl in Mommys dresses.We would play pretend. We were Princesses in a beautiful castle. You see in a house or a place where there is love, there is freedom to twirl and pretend. Up into high school, there was nothing like listening to music with girlfriends, bouncing on the bed, twirling , and dancing. Even in my college years, I still love to do this. So many giggles and so much joy in these moments. It is in the subconcious knowing that you are loved, you are with people who love and enjoy you, thus you have the ability to be free. I still sometimes twirl in a dress that is flowy. I can still be the twirling little girl in her mommys dress because I have the freedom that comes from knowing that no matter what I am loved.

P was robbed of this.
These girls were robbed of this. Their dress up consists of putting on clothes that come off the easiest. They listen to music that has to be shut off when a client is in want of their services. There is no love. There is no twirling. There is no pretend. They just have the reality of being a product, a commodity, and nothing precious. They do not have freedom.

Me:"Do you like to dance?"
P: " Yes yes I do."
Me: "Like what kind?"
P: " I like the couples Greek dance."
Me: " Could you teach me.?"
P: "Oh no, I do not know how.."
Me: " You know I could teach you to waltz.. couples dance."
P: "There is no music"
Me: "Oh it is fine.. here let me see your hand.."

So we began to dance.
I am not very good and not the best teacher, but we giggled as we stumbled on each others feet and counted.. 1234...1234.. The team began to sing Waltz music behind us. Princess began to try to twirl. I could see that she wanted me to spin her. So that is what we did. We were not too good at this and pretty soon we were more of hugging and spinning together then dancing. In the midst of the filth of the streets, I danced with a Princess. We got to play pretend. She got to experience what it felt like to be safe and loved. We forgot where we were. We were just two girls laughing as we spun together. In that moment, there was freedom. Finally, after spinning and laughing, she let go and ran away to another group of girls taking her giggles with her.

You see it may seem like this was a blessing to her. A blessing to a girl who has no love for a moment was allowed an expressive act of it. But this dance was a blessing to me. In that moment, princess showed me where God was in the midst of all that darkness. He was right there. I had been struggling with trying to understand how I felt the love of Christ in this darkness but still with mixed feelings of questioning Him on how He could allow this.

The tree. The fall. The choice. This.. all this horrific pain.. this hoplessness.. did not come from the Lord.This was not His perfect plan. You see darkness is the absence of light. Light is never overwhelmed by darkness. Rather it penetrates and defeats darkness. There is no place for darkness where there is light.

The Lord said that He comes to give life and life abundantly.
It was in this moment with Princess that I understood the grace of God. I know that He is good, and I feel His love in this atrocity of sex slavery because I see Him and all that He brings contrasted with this darkness. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." I know that this is not all there is for these girls.. I know there is hope. There is abundant life, for I know the One who brings it. I have experienced it. This is Gods grace. He gives us hope. Hope for the future. He gives us undying love. Unfathomable love. He gives us Joy. He brings justice. He comes to bring abundant life! He comes to set the captives free.. He brings love and with that love comes freedom. Gods grace is that He comes into our darkest places and conquers our darkness.

I cannot offer any of these girls a promise that life will be easy. If they get out their road to healing is long and hard. But I can offer a hope, a love, and a freedom that only comes from knowing and believing that Jesus died and defeated death by rising from the dead for every sin and every wrong thing we have done. This world is not the end. There is glory and beauty that awaits us in heaven. Maybe we will get to dance and twirl with our heavenly Father.

You want to know how good God is?

I had been talking this entire trip about how much I wanted to be able to go dance or to at least go and watch it.. Not club dancing, but pretty couple dancing. Like on a beautiful terrace or something. Who knew that my one dance while in Greece would be on the streets with amongst prostituted women. Who knew that my dance would be with a Princess.

Who is more blessed then I?


Psalm 146

1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.