sorry for not posting a blog last week, I would like to say that it was due to the dificulties of not having a laptop but Larissa was generous enough to let me have unlimited access to her laptop last week while she was on a retreat with the other German gap year students so I really have no excuse!
However, these last 2 weeks have been busy and have been such a blessing and re confirmation for me that I am in the right place. The Sunday after the robbery the YWAM base meeting was led by my friends Deborah, from England, and her Colombian husband Sandro, they had been moved by an article on the problem of sexual exploitation of children in Cartagena that had been published in a national newspaper and so we spent the meetin interceding into this area and as they had a mini outreach team from the DTS with them that week they they had decided to use that time to do their own investigation into the issue. The article stated that there were no official statistics into how many children were being exploited in this city but agencies working in this area estimate there are 2000 girls and boys under the age of 18 are "working" in the sex industry here.
They identified the main areas in the city, mostly in the tourist area, where one could find underage girls, and that most of the customers were tourists, many from Europe. There have been 2 cases brought against foreign men, an Italian man who plead insanity and is now serving time in a secure hospital and an English man who was resident here and escaped conviction. The girls that the journalist spoke too al stated that they were working by choice but because their fathers did not provide them with the money they needed to purchase personal items such as sanitary towels so they worked to pay for these things. The team decided to go to the neighbourhoods identified as being those the girls mostly come from to do activities such as football for the bouy and beauty for the girls to be able to talk to people about the issue and see if they could find out anything more about it. They were able to get confirmation of what had been in the article, and on the Friday night they went to the tourist area to check out the areas identified. As they were going in the night, from 11pm-3am I was able to go with them, we prayer walked around the areas keeping our eyes open, however there were no young girls working as there was a high police presence due to the attention, but we were able to pray for the girls and leave messages on the floor in chalk. For me it was great to feel relaxed and happy walking aorund the old town at that time of night without the fear that had been part of my experience in the earlier part of the week.
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| map of cartagena showing areas of interest in sexual exploitation |
As this was all done as part of the 24/7 prayer week there was a lot of prayer about the issue and as I looked around the prayer room I was touched by how much of the words and prayers written on the walls realted to my vision which I hadnt shared with them before. A lot of words about the girls identity as princesses and verses that I had received about the issue and the value of females in the bible. All of this was a great confirmation after the week before that I am in the right place and things are moving in this area. All the results of their investigations will be passed on to me to help me in my future plans.
In other news, our construction is now nearly finished on the first floor, the accomodation, and it looks fabulous in the colonial style that Cartagena is famous for, also with less than three weeks until my mum and sister come over to visit me I am really looking forward to having a break and spending time with them showing them the wonders of this beautiful city.
Next week, being Holy Week, we have a differnet programe which I will share with you from the apartment with Mum and Sue.
Take care all
God Bless
Petra
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