Sari Bari

Check this out....my friends in Kolkata, India have started a blog for Sari Bari, the blanket-making business they run employing girls and women who have left (and most times been rescued from) the sex trade. Girls are trafficked by the thousands from the villages of Nepal, rural India and other places and basically sold as indentured slaves. This is an incredible business and ministry, an amazing picture of redemption and healing.

Because of the stigma attached to the work they have been forced to do, these women and girls are outcast from society; they are shunned, humiliated and abused not only by the people who enslave them, but also from corrupt police and higher-ups (who often use them as well, rather than protecting them), and of course the general population.

My friends there, Kristin & Sarah, are lights in a very dark place. If you've seen the movie "Born into Brothels", that is the neighborhood where they live and work. It is hard work. They daily come face to face with intense injustice and evil. When I pray for them, I pray for hope; and when I picture the women they are inviting into the business, and the redemption taking place, I like to think of the imagery in Isaiah 62:1-5:

1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet,
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.

2 The nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.

3 You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,(Hephzibah means my delight is in her)
and your land Beulah;(Beulah means married)
for the LORD will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.

5 As a young man marries a maiden,
so will your sons marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.