Exodus Cry - The Prayer Movement to End Slavery

Hey gang, I just wanted to share a story w/ you all regarding Mexico and the Central American region of the globe. I hope this story will grip your heart like it did mine:

Rosa left Honduras for the United States last year to look for work and escape beatings by her parents. Now she works in a dingy railroad brothel. A 17-year-old, she is one of tens of thousands of young Central American women who every year confront abuse, mutilation and death traveling northward through Mexico to escape the poverty and violence of their homes. Illegal immigrant women are so vulnerable to rape on the journey that Guatemalan officials say many take birth control pills tablets before setting out. "When generally young, undocumented women cross the border they know they will be raped or submitted to sexual slavery in order to cross to the other side," said Guatemala's deputy foreign minister, Marta Altolaguirre.

Many never arrive in the United States. They are tricked, robbed, deported or become trapped in low-paying sex work on Mexico's southern border, dreams of a brighter future slowly suffocating in gloomy bars and brothels. Rosa works in a small bar near the train tracks in Ciudad Hidalgo, a violent town on the border with Mexico's poor neighbor Guatemala, and the departure point for an often lethal freight train that takes migrants north. "They pay me 250 pesos ($20) a week and I work from nine in the morning to eleven at night. I don't like it but I have no other work," she said, her dark eyes brimming with tears. The tracks are those of the so-called death train used by the poorest of the poor to get from Mexico's border with Guatemala in the state of Chiapas to Nuevo Laredo near the Texas border. For women who stow away on the rickety train, horror lies around every corner: Criminals, corrupt officials and fellow immigrants rob, rape and kill them. If they fall asleep for a second, they risk falling and losing a limb under the train.

Wedged between two hulking wagons with 10 other undocumented travelers, Guadalupe Acosta clung tightly to a handrail, the whites of her eyes showing fear as the freight train lurched and screeched its way through the warm tropical night. "I am named after Mexico's patron saint; I hope she protects me," the divorced mother of two, 26, said, her blue bandanna fluttering as the train shuddered past a mango plantation. Prayers were not enough for many of the 13,442 women caught in Mexico and deported back to Central America in 2004, up from 10,223 the year before. "We women travel very vulnerable to being raped or killed, but we are prepared to do a lot for our kids," said single mother Marlin Leiva, 23, from working class Honduran city Comayaguela and riding on the train. Before boarding, Leiva spent a night in Guatemalan migrants' shelter La Casa del Migrante, where she received a chilling talk about the dangers of the journey. Walter Arriaga, who often gives the talks to warn the women of dangers, said few immigrants heed his warnings. "Most still make the trip ... Until the economic situation changes in our countries, people are going to keep migrating," he said.

Since the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has pushed Mexico to beef up security along its southern border to prevent terrorists coming through Central America and Mexico into the United States. For the immigrants, extra security agents are an added risk. Arriaga said many travelers have stories of abuse at the hands of Mexican officials. "There exists a perception that the authorities and the criminals work together," he said, although he recognized that Mexico was trying to improve the situation.

Rosa serves customers drinks, sits at their tables, smiles and sometimes sleeps with them. She is rarely allowed out of the bar in the day time. Recently, a gang member tried to strangle her in the street. Now the bar owners want to charge her 10 days wages for a health check. The dozens of brothels on either side of the Guatemala border are packed with young women hoping to save enough money to pay a smuggler or to meet a friendly truck driver to take them north.
Some women would rather take their chances hidden in a trucker's cabin than board the train alone. They've heard about the rapes, robberies and amputations.

Rosa tried her luck sleeping with a trucker. "He treated me well, but left me in (the Mexican city of) Veracruz. Then the immigration authorities caught me and deported me," she said. On her second attempt to reach the United States, Rosa ran out of money at the border. Now she's stuck there. "I miss my family and I just want to go home," she said, staring from the dark bar to the dusty railroad outside.

Source: Reuters: 03/28

...This story is one of many who try to escape the depravity of their lives and embark to 'hell on earth' to do this. Please pray with us. Oh dear Father in heaven, embrace these women in their weakness and confusion. God stretch forth your hand and impact their understanding with the spirit of wisdom and revelation. God we know that only by the work done through Jesus, Your beloved son, that any redemption on earth is possible and we ask Lord God that You would rend the heavens and embrace girls like Rosa, God that You would send people across their path to impart Your love. God that You would show Yourself to these women in a way only You can, and that Your love, oh Your sweet love, would encounter their hearts. We thank you God for who You are and for all that You have in store, not only for us but, for each and every person on this planet. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

To whomever reads this I ask you to ask God to move on your heart w/ His burden for people like Rosa.

Walking in grace,
Ben