Roses are red, violets are blue. Prostitution still thrives, so, help, what can people do?
Blue Hill Ave. in the Dorchester area is said to have the highest percentage of street prostitution in Boston. To support themselves, women and young girls step out into the dark every night, watching and waiting for customers. On some Saturdays, however, at about 2 a.m. in the morning, these working women are handed bright red roses. They hold the rose close to their face, smelling it. For some, it is their first time being handed a rose, let alone being offered a word of prayer and encouragement. It was a brief moment of hope in a dark and cold situation.
These are not angels coming down from heaven to provide love and comfort, but they may as well be for these women working long hours in the dark. They are volunteers from Restoration City Church doing their monthly neighborhood outreach program.
The Rose of Sharon ministry aims to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the Dorchester area. They may not be doing much to save these women from their circumstances by handing out roses and prayers, but their goal is to go out and develop a relationship of trust and love with the women working late in the night. And for some of these women, finding someone who sees them and cares for them is enough for these nights. The volunteers want these women to know that they are there for them and that they are safe with them if they wanted help or guidance. “I don’t see a prostitute, I see a woman,” said Nilvia Hernandez, a volunteer at Rose of Sharon of almost four years
Adapted from a similar program from their sister church in Chicago, the ministry, led by Liz Hernendez, was founded almost four years ago. “We want to show them Jesus’ love, to show them that they are worthy,” Hernendez said. The idea of the name “Rose of Sharon” came from the Bible verse Song of Solomon 2:1 which says, “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” Red roses were chosen because they symbolize Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and the shedding of his blood. “The rose of Sharon is just a light of hope,” Hernendez said, “It’s something visual that they can remember.” Other than the rose, however, the team also hands out a small card with the phone number and information of Restoration City Church’s non profit organization called Rooted in Restoration, where these women can go to for help if they want.
The team’s Saturday morning begins at 2 a.m. at the Restoration City Church building. Hernendez and her team of four to five women, and one male, start by praying together for the day ahead of them. They also pray over every single rose they will give out because they believe that through the power of prayer, these roses can become a hope and blessing for the working women. From there, they split into two groups: the homebase team and the outreach team. The outreach team, consisting of two to three women and a male driver, drives through the streets, looking for women workers to give roses to. The homebase team, on the other hand, stays at the church to pray, as well as to keep tabs on the location of the outreach team. “Safety comes first,” Hernendez said, “and we want the ladies [we give roses to] to be safe as well.”
The outreach team prays as they drive through Blue Hill Ave., believing that the Holy Spirit will guide them to the street and women who need help. They look for a woman’s body language and behavior: the way they stop and stare at cars, Hernendez said, means they are soliciting. When the team sees a woman, two volunteers will step out of the car and ask her permission to talk to her, give her a rose, and pray for her. The team always makes sure that before they do anything, they ask for permission. “Because in the place that they are in, they are not being asked to do whatever is being done to them,” said Beyra Desireé, who has been a volunteer of Rose of Sharon since January.
Desireé remembers the first night she went out with the team. “I was in complete shock,” she said. “It’s a different perspective when you’re out there, like this is really happening. You can see their pain.” And what the team strives to do is to reach out to these women and show them love and respect. But that is often difficult to translate into words when the volunteers’ interactions with these women on the street are so short. Before she heads out, Desireé always asks herself, “In those three minutes, what can you share? What words can you say that will impact them? But in reality, there are no words.”
Other than looking for words to offer, Nilvia Hernandez always asks the women she encounters if she could give them a hug. One woman responded, “you want to hug me?” as if she was unworthy of one. They both cried while they hugged each other. “I never had a hug before,” the woman said. For Hernandez, the Rose of Sharon ministry is an opportunity where women can go out and serve other women. Hugs and roses, she said, are simple things that women and girls often get spoiled with. “We take advantage of them,” she said, “And here are women who don’t know what unconditional love is.”
The Rose of Sharon ministry goes out twice every month and, through short interactions, develop relationships with the women they meet. Over a period of time, these women learn to trust the volunteers, occasionally calling out their names and telling them their current situations. The volunteers would often hear news that a woman has found a shelter, or that she regained custody of her kids. Sometimes, Rose of Sharon volunteers also serve at Restoration City Church’s homeless outreach program and see the same women they used to see regularly on the streets, living in shelters. And that is what keeps the team going.
But the outreach itself is not without its challenges and dangers. On more than one occasion, the team has been followed and confronted by pimps who do not want them in the area. Desireé herself finds it difficult to leave her son and daughter at home overnight, but she knows that she can tell her children one day about the work and impact she’s made. “Even for [my parents], it’s hard to know that I’m going to be out in the streets, but I can tell my son that this is what I’m doing,” she said.
In the four years since leading the team, Hernendez has seen some changes to the neighborhood the ministry frequents. “We’ve seen that there’s not as many [working women] out there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it has stopped,” she said. “There’s still a lot of online human trafficking.”
Nevertheless, the team persists, doing what they can to bring a change. “We don’t want to be the mega church that everyone knows about, but we want to be the little church that impacts large,” Hernendez said.
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