pretty women?

last thursday i was reading my social history book and listening to music at the same time at the Marriott hotel lobby. my parents and i were waiting for my brother. in between music and pages of history, i couldn't help but notice the parade of women going in and out of the elevator of marriot in the arms of caucasian, asian and american men. i couldn't just go on reading 'coz my heart felt like it was being squeezed. oh God, help us and have mercy upon us, i thought silently. they were lovely and young ladies at that. of course, they were younger than me and it just broke my heart. the flesh trade and the idea of some of the young ladies that marrying foreign men was a ticket out of this country.

what are we doing? what am i doing about it to be exact? was i just sitting there and seeing them go in and out and judge them or am i praying for them? i was there listening to the music, studying for my thesis on the social history of hunger in cebu and enjoying the company of my parents in a comfortable place but even there, the social realities of poverty, unequal opportunities, prostitution and lack managed to catch up with me. and yes, i can't do something about it in the flesh but i can definitely do something about it on my knees praying for mercy for this land.

oh God, where are the sons and daughters who will fight for those who do not know their left hand from their right hand? where are those who would cry out for those who are silently screaming for freedom? my sister once preached about her dream to see an end to prostitution just as william wilberforce fought to end slavery in England and i didn't wholly share that desire until that night.

i've always seen "pretty women" before walking out in the dead of the night while i am inside the car passing by the streets of junquera on my way home with my family but it never hit me that hard as it hit me that night. i think that was what tita nene would put it: the right timing of God to open your eyes to the truth and reality. oh how He loves them the way He loves you and me! His heart goes out to them and He hears the cries and secret prayers of their hearts.