Day 47: for Jane

Today, God's love has really been on my mind. I was sitting outside, just thinking of how far God has brought me and how much he has blessed me. My prayer is that I live a life that says "thank you" to him. That's kind of how it goes when we love someone... we want to spend time with them, do things for them, bless them in whatever way we can.

But what God establishes as sacred, the enemy is always ready to destroy. I truly believe that God designed us with a desire for love so that he could fill that void with his own Holy Spirit, and then after that, show us how true human relational love is supposed to function. Without God, though, we are just filling a bottomless pit with things that do not satisfy. Jane wanted that love so badly, and she thought she finally had it, but how disillusioned she truly was...

Jane’s fall into the world of sex trafficking began in May 2008, just before her 15th birthday. Jackson, her pimp, forced her to work as a prostitute in Portland. When she protested, he beat her. “He made me believe I was not human and I was just for one thing — to make money for him,” she said, calling her life a nightmare and suffering bruises and scars from many beatings.

Asked why she didn’t leave, she said, “I had nowhere to go. I didn’t know anybody. Where was I to go? He threatened to kill me all the time.”

On one occasion when he got mad because she had not made enough money, she said, he pushed her down and punched her in the face, saying, “You are going to die tonight.” She said she pleaded for her life and promised to do whatever he said: “Just don’t kill me. I thought I was going to die.”

Of that beating, the FBI later said, “She awoke to find Jackson holding a firearm at her head and swearing on his mother’s life that he would kill her.” The bureau said that “several times a week,” Jackson choked her, pulled her hair, pushed her and struck her with his hands, a belt and a coffee pot, and that he “tried to bite off her finger.”

“I trusted him even after all this stuff. After he abused me, I still thought it was love — I thought that this is how it was supposed to be. … Most of our arguments were about money,” she said, adding that she had sex with six men a day, sometimes eight or nine. “I was bringing him $600 a day, but he wanted more.”

Jane got out of that life when she was arrested in October 2008 and an FBI agent asked her whether she wanted to go to Children of the Night, where she now lives. She said it was the first time she was treated like a victim instead of a criminal. “I had the FBI on my side. I could actually tell they were trying to help me,” she said.

This is only a small portion of Jane's story. The whole thing is definitely worth reading. You can find it here: Jane's story.  (Just a head's up, this one contains more adult content than usual... but hey, the sad truth is, that's life.)

3.2 miles for Jane
254.47 miles to date.

Ruby
Sandra
Berchewkan
Mani
Sophea
Janna
Syowai
Ka
Stephanie
Alex
Mai
Khamta
Adaze
Jayati
Boloztuya
Prettygirl
Theresa
Esperanza
Xuan
Geeta
Debbie
G.Q., N.H., and S.O.
Anuradha
Veronica
Martina
Shauna
Rosa
Jaycee
Charlotte Awino
Kikka Cerpa
Jana
Lannie
Samira
Mari
Sarah
Mao Mao
Keisha
Brittany
Gabriella
Akemi
Olga
Jane

Because He first loved me,
Stephanie