An update on Freedom Street Ministries

Hello everyone! Greetings from San Jose, Costa Rica!

Paola, Ingrid and Elizabeth with Ro Potter in Jaco.

Paola Arce, Ingrid Rong and myself Elizabeth Gilroy recently attended the Shine Conference in Amsterdam, Holland on prostitution ministry and human trafficking. Since that conference. we also attended a conference in Jaco, a coastal town here in Costa Rica where the sexual exploitation of minors is common.  During that time we worked to build the structure and essence of our ministry so we can officially present it to the leadership of YWAM San Jose, Costa Rica. 

Although we have been working in the streets for some time now, our efforts simply came from hearing God's voice and a passion to effect lives and build relationships.  As we have added to our obedience and passion training and understanding, we now have a better structure in place to function as a ministry. In other words, we hope to go from being just a group of people with a heart to work in the streets to an official ministry of YWAM San Jose. But before we are officially in this place, we have to present our vision and passion to our leadership.  We cannot and do not want to move forward in ministry without the release and blessing of our base leadership.


We believe in the authority and covering of leadership in ministry. We also believe that God has put each of us at the YWAM San Jose base with a passion to offer hope and transformation in the streets of San Jose. We know this is God's idea both in the authority structure and our passion in ministry. Therefore, we believe He will work through our leadership to demonstrate His purposes for our lives and ministry.

This ministry is His, not ours. He will raise it up now or delay it. It is in His hands.

Please pray with us over the next few days as we present our ministry to the leadership on Friday morning. Our hearts are filled with excitement but also with surrender to His leadership and the orchestration of this ministry.

We will share with you more about the details of what we look like and what we will be doing in the weeks and months to come. 

Thank you for much for your prayers.

The Freedom Street Ministry team

Red Light Street

Without Jesus there is no true Justice!

In the 17th century Amsterdam was the main trading market in the world. Ships came in and out, and with that came also sailors who after months out on the water were desperate for female company and to satisfy all their needs.                                                                                                                                    
For a while this made the sailors go to the young dutch women to get what they wanted, and this lead to rape and other sexual exploitation. And in reaction to that the Christian church proposed a plan to instead of putting their own dutch girls at risk, they should get girls from other countries to put in their place. These girls were put inside of the windows to keep it in the open and then under control. So an unofficial policy of tolerating this business was adopted. As long as the women worked inside and were not standing in the door openings they could do their business. Women made potential customers aware of their presence through a small opening between the curtains and a soft knock on the window.

As the years went by the curtains opened more and more. And with the less strict sexual morality of the sixties and seventies the tolerance towards prostitution increased even more...

Shine Seminar 2011 !

We started out the Shine Seminar here in Amsterdam with a teaching in Prophetic Justice & Intercession! 

Around the world there are many other organizations that work with Injustice issues with a humanistic point of view, but we know that there is NO message of Justice without the Gospel. 

A girl taken out from a life on the streets might seem to be set free, but it is not until God comes with His healing to her heart that she will receive real Freedom.

Justice is not a human idea, but divine, comes from God.

"In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth." Isaiah 42:3-4

Intercession "It's not about us praying to God, but God showing His heart to us through prayer."

God's calling for all of us is to pray and again we were reminded of the importance of basing our ministry on prayer. We want to stand in the gap for the people we meet, and we hope that also you can be part of our ministry by interceding for and with us.

  

Our schedule is really full, between work duties, lectures, the research project, outreach in the red Light Street & Intercession our week went really fast.


We are really excited to be here and we look forward for what God wants us to learn the next weeks. 

We will update every week so you can keep track on what the Lord is doing with our ministry.

Blessings,
Ingrid Rong & Paola Arce 

In the Streets

The Sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world.

Everyone will praise Him! 

Ten years ago the child protective services of Costa Rica released a statistic estimating there are 3,000 underage prostitutes just in the city of San Jose. Since that time these numbers have only increased and San Jose is fast becoming a key destination in the global sex trafficking and tourism industries.

A small group of us at the YWAM base here in San Jose have a heart to reach out and offer hope to these children and also adults who are either victims of human trafficking or caught up in the glamor and money so easily available through prostitution.

With a vision to extend the love of Christ to these children and other adult prostitutes in San Jose, Paola Arce began visiting the streets as a way to build relationships there about 2 years ago. With this vision burning in her heart, she carried this passion until in recent months several other of us  have joined what is now a ministry called A Street Named Freedom.

Ingrid Rong, Pablo Jiminez and Elizabeth Gilroy have joined skills, passion and vision to be God's hands and feet in the streets of San Jose. Every week, we go downtown serving coffee and cookies on the corners where transvestites, women, men and children prostitutes sell themselves every night. God has also placed in our hearts to do prayer vigils in front of the largest brothel in San Jose every other week.

Our vision has three goals: 1) to build relationships by ministering in the streets on a weekly basis and opening a coffee house type place where we can hold Bible studies, classes and have a place where they can visit and hang-out. We want to offer a place of safety and hope to these broken, hurting people.  2) to produce a video documentary exposing the realities of child prostitution in San Jose. Sex tourism has increased the demand for prostitution in Costa Rica, which attracts men from all over the world.  3) to open a safe house far removed from the city environment where women or children can come as a transition to a transformed life.

We can see the hand of God orchestrating every step we take in unfolding His plan for us in the streets. This is His ministry and not our own. We are prayerfully following His lead. 

As we move forward in these goals, we realize more and more the need for greater training and increased wisdom as we work with these broken lives. They are in need of a complete transformation which only God can bring into their lives. And He has chosen to us for this purpose and has called us out to fulfill it.

In February of this year there is a conference in Amsterdam, Holland. We need to raise money for 3 of us to go. Would you please be a part of this ministry by helping us get to this six-week conference. The people who are hosting this conference have worked in the Red Light District of Amsterdam for nearly 15 years. We hope to glean ideas, concepts and wisdom from these women who have worked with prostitutes and transvestites for years.

Here is a brief description of the conference:

Shine Seminar is a six week course designed to promote a healthy understanding of injustice and how we as Christians can and should respond. We hope to provide education, resources and practical tools while mobilizing and connecting people whose goal is to see transformation for people in places impacted by the global sex trade, human trafficking, prostitution and modern-day slavery. The lectures will be held primarily in the Lighthouse (YWAM Amsterdam's ministry to prostitutes) which is located in the Red Light District of Amersterdam.

This is how you can help us. We feel strongly that God is calling us to go to this conference and are believing He is going to make a way for us all to go.

Paola Arce  and Ingrid Rong needs the following amount of money each for the airline tickets and the conference fees.
Airline ticket - $1,200
Shine Seminar fees - $1,100 (six-weeks of food, lodging and conference fees)
The total per person is $2,300. 

Several of our leaders have strongly suggested that we attend this conference and agree that it is a great way to connect and grow in our ministry. Please contact us if you wish to help in any way. There is a paypal link on this blogsite or you may email us.
Elizabeth Gilroy - elizabeth@11daysjourney.org
Ingrid Rong -  ingrido90@hotmail.com
Paolo Arce - paola1707@gmail.com

May God bless you and keep you.