India (MNN) – After many years of working with women in the red-light district in India, a ministry is taking the next step to address the needs there. Vision Beyond Borders is working to open a Day and Night Care Center for the children of women working in the brothels.
What is life like for these children?
“A lot of times, the mothers don’t know who the fathers even are,” says Patrick Klein, president and founder of Vision Beyond Borders.
He explains that the children grow up in an environment that says women are objects. That mentality ultimately contributes to the cycle that keeps the red-light districts going.
“There’s a lot of children being born in the brothels, and what happens is these kids end up living in the brothels from newborns until they can go to school — they’re there all day long,” Klein says.
And it’s not only their minds and hearts that are in danger. The kids become targets, too.
“It’s really dangerous in the red-light area, because it’s kind of a lawless area. So, the children really are at-risk especially, because there’s no one really to protect the children. They kind of roam around, as they get old they roam around the streets, and men can take advantage of these children very easily.”
For years, VBB has been asked to open a center for the children, and now, they feel God has opened the doors for them to do that.
The Day & Night Care Center
Taking the kids out of the brothels while their mothers are working protects them. But it’s also an opportunity to build into the kids’ lives.
This model of a care center isn’t new. Other ministries have provided this in the past. Klein says the opportunity to share the hope of the Gospel is ripe. One ministry was even able to use the Bible to teach the kids English.
Klein says, “It was really amazing to see these kids learning how to pray, how to worship, and really to love Jesus with all their hearts.”
(Image courtesy of Vision Beyond Borders)
Vision Beyond Borders wants to provide a safe place for the children to learn, grow, and be kids — something that isn’t happening in the brothels.
“It will be a clean place, very bright, cheerful — because when you go into the brothels, it’s very dark, very oppressive, you see pictures of the Hindu gods and goddesses on the walls and statues everywhere. It’s just a very unclean, very oppressive, dark place.”
But this ministry will not only impact the kids, Klein says. He explains that when the mothers see the genuine love and care these ministry partners are giving to their children, it breaks walls. It gives Vision Beyond Borders and partners the opportunity to tell them, also, about Jesus.
From a dream to reality
Right now, Vision Beyond Borders has just under two months to buy a property. If they don’t raise the money in time, the property could be offered to someone else, or at a different price. If they can secure the property, renovations will hopefully take somewhere between three and four months.
(Photo courtesy of Vision Beyond Borders)
Will you join Vision Beyond Borders in this process? First, start with prayer.
“We can definitely use prayer because it’s a spiritual battle,” Klein says.
Ask God to provide the funding, to help them secure the property, and that everything will go smoothly. Ask God to continue to use Vision Beyond Borders to spread the hope of the Gospel in one of the darkest places in the world. Pray for those who have learned of Jesus to put their faith in Him.
Please, also consider contributing to the purchase funding. You can give here (just scroll down to “India Red-Light Children’s Day & Night Care Center”).
Finally, Klein leaves us with a memory which served as his affirmation that Vision Beyond Borders needed to open a Day and Night Care Center. On a previous visit to India, they had a worship service with some of the children from the red-light district. He remembers a young girl raising her hands in worship, saying out loud, “I love you, Jesus!”
“And I just thought, Lord, this is so important that we set up a daycare, nightcare center for these kids to have a safe place they can be so they’re not in the brothels, not subject to men abusing them, but also not seeing their mothers used.”
