Women's Ministries and ADRA working for Women

by Joy Butler
WM Director, SPD

The South Pacific Division (SPD) Women's Ministries and ADRA are making a film together. Joy Butler, WM director for SPD, met her son Marlon in Thailand during the last few days of January, and with the ADRA team took some footage for a hopefully significant film.

The film will portray the plight of hilltribe girls who are unable to get an education because of extreme poverty and some with parents addicted to opium. Many young women leave the villages when offered work in the cities. Here many of them are lured into bars and brothels and become prostitutes catering to the desires of foreign tourists, many later dying of AIDS.

Those who don't leave the villages get married at 13 or 14 and start having babies. For the past four years Women's Ministries in the SPD has campaigned to raise funds to help these girls go to school. At present there are 80 teenagers in school as a result of fund raising.

The film team also visited Rahab Ministries in Bangkok. Patricia Green, a New Zealand woman, has been leading this ministry for 4 years. She and her helpers visit the bars and invite the dancing girls to their hair salon.

Many girls come and receive attention from the converted ex-prostitutes. As their face and hair are done for their night's work they are told about the love of Jesus and the opportunities awaiting them for a new life. Many girls have been able to leave this sex slavery and become new, hope-filled young women. As Joy visited these women, their faces beamed as they told her what God means to them and how He has saved them from a miserable existence and given new life.

If you would like a copy of this video and more information about this program contact Joy Butler, WM Director, SPD, email: jbutler@adventist.org.au