RED LIGHT MINISTRY NETWORK FORMS TO SUPPORT SEX TRADE MINISTRIES

A NEW NETWORK has been founded to link churches and Christian organizations reaching out to prostitutes.

Representatives of 13 ministries working with women caught in the sex-for-sale industry met together for the first time, recently, to swap strategies and success stories and pray for more Christians to start similar programs.

Almost 40 people involved in ministry to prostitutes gathered for the two-day forum organized by Ruth Robb, a Youth With A Mission leader who has worked in the field for more than ten years.

The event - held at the mission's national headquarters in Harpenden, Hertfordshire - linked teams from 11 churches and two YWAM teams working in red light areas of cities across the country. Drop-in centers, a safe house, and a mobile crisis support unit were among the projects represented.

"We wanted to meet to learn from and encourage each other and seek God for ways of reaching prostitutes in this country," said Robb. "It was good to pray for each other without any sense of competition, very much in the opposite spirit to that we see so often in the girls and even among the secular agencies working with them."

Topics discussed included relationships with local authorities and government agencies, safety and protection, and the need for greater awareness of the opportunities for such ministry in the wider Church.

"One of the other significant things we talked about was the growing number of 14 to 16-year-olds getting involved in prostitution, and how many are being pimped by their friends," said Robb. "It used to be that an older man would get them into it, but we are seeing more and more girls getting recruited by other girls."

Although prostitution is on the increase - linked to rising drug use - many cities do not yet have outreach programs. "Churches are not involved not particularly because of a sense of judgment, it's more that there is a lot of fear and ignorance," said Robb. The new network aims to raise awareness by providing speakers for local churches and conferences.

The basic qualification for working with prostitutes is "to understand grace, basically; to really know that God loves you, and you can love others with that love". Robb added: "You have to want to be out there because God is leading you, not to see people get saved. That is what he wants, of course, but if that is your motivation you will burn out after going for a long time without seeing any 'success'.

"It's all about motivation, keeping going in the face of encouragement. Just the other day I found out that one of the girls I used to work with had killed herself. How do you cope with that?"

Coming from a "sheltered, middle-class" background, Robb was led to getting involved in ministry to prostitutes as a teenager, when she read the Bible account of the woman of "ill repute" who washed Jesus' feet with her hair. "I was an unlikely candidate in many ways, but I have felt really privileged to be involved."

As well as working with YWAM's outreach in London's renowned Earl's Court district, Robb has helped start outreaches by local churches and served as an advisor to the Evangelical Alliance. She is currently co-writing a manual for churches wanting to start their own ministry to prostitutes.

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