October 2011, Hello Friends, The team in Tajikistan was asked some questions about the girls who are coming to Jesus out of prostitution: 

1) The girls live in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.  

2) They are involved in prostitution, to buy food and drugs.  They live in on the streets, in apartment blocks' basements or brothel type private homes.  

3) In our villages the economic situation is catastrophic so the teen aged girls come to the capital in order to feed their little brothers and sisters. Since they have no skills, they are left to sell their bodies and get into the hands of drug dealers, who put them on heroin, making them into nothing.  Others come from orphanages.  When they leave the institutions they can not make a penny because they were not taught a trade.  They again fall into evil hands and are brought to the very bottom of existance.

4) We find them in the streets, in brothels, wherever they hang around and start working with them.  We teach them writing and reading, mostly through the Bible, and lead them to Christ. We meet with them around 3 times a week.  Pray as there is one sister who is considering letting her house be used for ministry to these girls.   This will allow us to be much more consistent in teaching and trades training.  

5) The urgent need is proper identification papers which cost $100 each.  Then some clothes costing about $50 plus $50 per month for food.  

6) Such girls are many but regular churches do not want to work with them.  This is very sad since they are the ones with property and resources for such work.  Pray for the Lord to raise up labourers to go to his children who perish in the streets.  

7) Now those who have believed share with other  girls back on the streets, helping as much as they can and leading to Christ.

The comment about some of the girls coming from orphanages may need some explanation.  Across all of the former Soviet Union are remnants of that old social system which felt that children would be better raised in institutions rather than homes so many poor parents still place their children in these orphanages.  At  16 they "graduate" from the very closed, controlled environment  of the orphanage (where they have never even been allowed to purchase their own toothpaste) and are then placed in totally unsupervised dormitories to go to a trade school.  As you can imagine not very many make it.  Most end up on the streets.

Also the comment about the need for proper papers may need some explanation as well.  The police are constantly stopping you and asking to see your identification papers.  If you do not have any, they may demand a bribe since every one is supposed to carry their papers at all times or they may even arrest you and place you in jail for some unsolved crime.  Without papers you cannot get a job or rent an apartment.  However to get papers you need a permanent address and to rent an apartment, you need papers and a job.  It is a vicious circle for the poor living on the margins of the culture.  Thank you for those of you who have contributed funds to help secure proper papers!  One person's obedience is another's miracle!

As always your partnership in prayer and finances is deeply appreciated.

For the least

Steve & Marilyn

Your gifts can be placed on PayPal at stevehill@harvest-now.com