AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Lauran Bethell likes dark streets and late nights. She loves prostitutes.
She is a self-described “missionary who hangs out in red-light districts.”
Bethell, who works with International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches USA, spoke Feb. 20 during the Ethics Without Borders conference, sponsored by the Texas Baptist-affiliated Christian Life Commission.
She walks the streets of Prague greeting women who work as prostitutes. She gives them carnations and a simple message: Someone cares about you. She is often joined by students of the International Baptist Theological Seminary, which is part of the European Baptist Federation.
That initial greeting usually builds into a relationship between Bethell, the students and the women. They sometimes develop friendships over coffee in local bars.
Through the years, Bethell has discovered that many of the women are Bulgarian gypsies. Some of them had been trafficked into the Czech Republic and forced into prostitution. Most ask Bethell and the students to pray for them.
“The focus of our work, the work we have felt most profoundly to do, is to pray with and to pray for,” said Bethell, who won the 2005 Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Award for her work.
Human trafficking happens in all nations, Bethell said. As many as 17,000 people — mostly women and girls — are trafficked into the United States each year. They enter primarily through Texas, California and New York.
Bethell admits human trafficking is a large issue, but she says Christians can fight it with simple actions. Her prayer and relationships with women in Prague are evidence of that, Bethell said. Many of the women Bethell and the students befriended have stopped working the streets.
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