The Red House

Last Tuesday evening I stood outside a brothel and cried. I don't know why I was crying and when I finished praying as I walked away the emotion left me. It was a red house that is situated in the same road as The Salvation Army hall. I have passed it many times in the last year and I have always thought it was a student house because I often saw young men going in and out of it.

It was my turn to prayer walk the area around the hall. During a holiness meeting when we were praying for our community G. had told me that there are 4 brothels in our area, so I asked her to go with me so that she could point them out to me.

She set off at a great pace and I worked hard to match her steps as we walked up the road from the hall and turned a corner into the road where she lives. G. stopped outside a lime green house which was just two buildings from where she lives and we prayed. This was the first brothel that we prayed for that night and as we prayed I looked at it. I realised that it was different from the other houses and buildings because instead of a high wall and gates it had a low iron fence in front of it and the windows were completely blacked out. As we walked away two women left the house. Just a couple of minutes later we stopped outside another lime green house and prayed. This time there was a man standing guard at the door. I prayed that he wouldn't see that there were two women praying on the other side of the road and he didn't appear to notice us at all. When we had finished praying, we continued walking up to the hospital, and the man went inside the house. We prayed for the hospital and other buildings as we continued on our way. Once we were outside the hospital we had walked a full circle and were once again in the road where the hall is situated. As we approached the red house, G pointed out that a young man had got out of a car that he had parked in front of the house and when we stopped outside the house the man was waiting at the door. As we prayed, another man left the house and walked up the road looking back towards the house as he walked. From where G lives she can see this house and told me that some days she can see up to 40 men walking through it's front door.

We returned to the hall a few minutes after the prayer meeting had ended and there was no time to pray for the 4th brothel.

Our group of prayer walkers is growing and in a few weeks time we will have a meeting to share our experiences. I do not know what kind of work God has planned for us to do here but we will continue to pray on the streets of this area and ask God to open doors of opportunity.