A White Cloth...

Men are like gold.
Women are like a white cloth.

This is the mindset of the Cambodian people. A white cloth, once soiled, can never be clean again.

Such is the life of the young girls sold into the sex trade. Their fate is set. Their destiny... to live a lonely life in the cycle of abuse, shame and disdain. A white cloth, some as young as five years old, turned into a dirty rag way before they should have lost their childhood innocence.

In a community center, called Rahab House, once a brothel for girls too young for such a thing, these quotes were found on the lightly pink walls of the small rooms where they would wait for the next client, anywhere from 10 to as high as 30 a day:

The men tell us we are pretty, but they are liars.

We put on makeup and tell ourselves we are pretty, but it's not true.

We are like flowers with the petals falling one by one.

Our life has no meaning.

Only Jesus can take a dirty rag and turn it into a bright white cloth once again. This is their only hope.

For I have plans for you, says the Lord, not to harm you, but to give a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11