After the day before's events, I was quite greatful for IJM office providing Clive to pick me up Thursday morning. I was really looking forward to going to this particular office because of the interaction I had with Sanjay Macwan, Mumbai Field Office Director at GPG, but was also a little nervous since I knew that I was going to be leading devotions
It soon became 9am and that was the time for devotions. Sanjay introduced me by relating the story of our discussion at GPG and how he had encouraged me to come to Mumbai. It still did not quite seem real that I had actually made it! I started by sharing my personal pain of several failed attempts at finding justice at various times of my life, the loss of my church family, my attending GPG and finding IJM, an organization dedicated to justice. I then shared the many ways I saw God work while doing things with IJM and how I began to realize I could have the same dynamic relationship with God in all areas of my life. I then talked about the story of the royal official in John 4, a passage that shows that God can clearly work in far away places when those close to Him ask. Several people from IJM told me that they appreciated the talk and emphasized they had experienced numerous cases in various operations when they felt God moving in the prayers of those interceding for them.
My first appointment after devotions was with Sanjay, the field office Director. It was his amazing passion for his work expressed in the Mumbai prayer room that motivated me to find a way to visit the office.
He told me his personal history of many years ago seeing the horror of sex trafficking when he and a friend inadvertantly stayed at a hotel near the Mumbai brothels. That memory was a major driver in his getting involved with fighting trafficking. Sanjay said the IJM office has obtained the rescue of 1011 girls and obtained 41 convictions of perpetrators.
My next meeting was with Bob P, the head of investigations. Bob is a soft hearted man, which I could really relate to. I was amazed to find that Bob was from Wisconsin and maintained a home in a Milwaukee suburb. Bob retired from the Racine police force where he got significant investigations experience and began to look at what to do next. Eventually God led him to IJM, and he accepted the investigations role in Mumbai. As is true of all investigators in IJM, the work is extremely dangerous and difficult. Trafficking is a very lucrative business and the perpetrators will do just about anything to protect it. Bob and his team are a close knit group. I had a chance to meet them, but of course can't tell you much about them except that they some of the most experienced investigators in IJM. Bob and one of the investigators agreed to take me to the field later that day. After what I heard so far, was not sure whether I was looking forward to it or not. Bob described it as a dark dark place. More on my own impressions later. On a positive note, Bob said that it would be less likely we would see kids in front of the bothels, both because of the efforts of IJM but also because the model for delivering prostitution was changing to methods that were more difficult to find the victims. This is a major prayer request from the Mumbai team.
The remainder of the morning, I met with Mervyn and another member of the IJM community relations team. It was a great back and forth dialog on challenges of reaching the faith community. Surprisingly similar to the US, step one was teaching them about the problem. Surprising in the sense that it isn't happening 4000 miles away. Then again, it seems that churches universally are a little afraid of taking on social issues. I think I would have been that way a few years back myself. Overall though, I think that good progress was being made.
I also met with then a member of the aftercare team. I asked if there was any advice for our Miwaukee task force regarding creating a after care home, which seemed to be lacking. They said that they also at one time considered creating their own aftercare center, but decided against it. Their thinking really touched me. The existing aftercare centers serve a much larger group of people and working with others and helping them would really benefit more people. Leave it to IJM to value working with others and benefiting the most people!
I also met with one of the legal team. One thing that stood out to me that I never knew was that the courts in Mumbai do not accept the word of their own police force in the course of prosecuting trafficking (or any crime, I presume) Instead, there has to be testimony of two members of the public, one male and one female. I asked how this was possible since many of the "public" present at a brothel would presumably prefer to be anonymous or would side with the perps. They said they included people in the rescue specifically for this purpose. They would witness the passing the money, and the delivery of the girls, and could therefore testify as to the validity of the prosecution.
Mervyn and his associate and I got together for lunch. Actually they brought in their lunches to a small conference room and we shared it among each other. I was a little concerned I was taking their lunch, but it seemed that all got enough to satisfy and the fellowship during lunch was great.
In the afternoon, Bob, Clive, and Investigator and I went for a drive into the city. Although somewhat reassured that there were likely to be few if any minors visible in the brothel areas, I still found our trip there chilling. Going past building after building where rescues had taken place was uplifting, but it was evident that the problem still existed. Many of the "majors", as adult victims are called, are simply minors that got older. I shot this video from the car as we were going through one of the red light district streets. The color of the video reflects my feelings at the time.
We also visited several other areas of the city, including the Taj Mahal hotel, Victoria terminus, and Gateway to India. During this trip there was a little excitement as well. While traveling through an intersection in Mumbai, the traffic police motioned for Clive to pull over to the side the road for an "inspection". The reason for our selection, most likely me, a white face in the front seat. Eventually things were cleared up, but not before 10 -15 minutes had transpired. I was told that these types of stops are not uncommon and typically require a small cash contribution to insure the "inspection" goes well.
Had a great dinner with Bob after the drive. We talked about a number of topics, everything from how God directed him to taking the IJM position to the rules of cricket (it still is a little mysterious to me). I am very greatful for Bob's hospitality. It made for a great day!
