S. is new to the road these past few weeks.  She is just 18 years old.  Some time ago she had a baby, but because her mother would not help her with the baby, she gave the baby over to an orphanage to take care of.
Pray that S. will see that God has a better plan for her life; that she will find other work before she is in so deeply that she cannot escape.

Recently, each time we go out, we have been giving the women we see a colorful piece of paper with a scripture printed on it.  They have liked pulling out “their” scripture from amongst the papers Nina holds out to them.  This, of course, serves the most important purpose of giving the women encouragement from the Scriptures, which they can then take with them and look at during the week.  But we have also learned from this that many of the women we meet cannot read.  We know those who are illiterate now because they ask us to read it to them, others have some reading skills but struggle to read, a few can read well.  We’d discovered most of our women drop out of school before the 6th grade.  Very few have completed high school.  T. received a scripture card the first day we began giving them out and reported to us later that she had been arrested after that.  While the policemen were searching her and her purse, they found the scripture and asked her who these people were who gave it to her.  Just “some women who love us” she replied.  The past two Sundays we have been giving out packets of school supplies to the women to give to their children to encourage them to attend school.  Most of the women have several elementary-school aged children who are taken care of by their grandmothers while the women are working.
Pray that these precious children will attend school, and complete their education so they will be able to get good work later in life. 

Most of the women’s husbands/boyfriends/pimps are abusive to them.  V.’s boyfriend/pimp is especially so.  Last year, he hit her so hard that he broke her ribs and her liver was damaged.  She was in the hospital from the beating, in terrible shape, reports her friend and fellow colleague, A.  Along with the physical abuse, he forces her to make movie clips of herself with her clients, which he watches later.  Two weeks ago V. found her boyfriend/pimp cheating with another colleague.  She took off, leaving her child from a previous marriage with the boyfriend and his children from another wife.  He already abuses V’s little boy as he’s not his own—he buys food and clothing for his children, but not for V’s boy--so with V. gone, we fear for this small boy’s life.  V. has had contact with a Turkish man who promised her work in another country, but we know how that will turn out should V. choose to go with him.
Pray that V. will seek out people who can help to get her and her child out of this terrible situation.  Pray that she will not go with the Turkish man as this will most probably lead her back into prostitution and the cycle of abuse she so desperately needs to escape.  

R. had a late-term abortion a few months ago.  She’s been so unhappy and looks so unhealthy and worn out since then.  She will hardly talk to us anymore or take coffee, as she did when she was very visibly pregnant and excited about the baby.  We believe that her husband/pimp forced her to do this. K. recently reported that she was pregnant and that she would have an abortion that week, which she did. 
Pray that these women will come to know God and the fullness of life that only He can bring.  Pray for the outreach team to know the words to say when the women tell us of pregnancies they intend to abort.  It breaks our hearts that this is such a common event, a harsh reality of their situation.
    
Beautiful, young E. has been missing from along the Ring Road all summer.  Her phone was turned off and no one heard from her for a long time.  Her friends say she has done this before, but they were still quite worried about her. Later, her colleagues reported she had gone off with a “client” (“user” is a more appropriate term) to the Black Sea.  Now, she is apparently still working in that area and has become addicted to cocaine, thanks to her user, and is even more dependent on him for the drugs.  We recently heard that a woman we met on the Ring Road a few months ago went away with a “client” and died in a bar from an overdose.
Pray that E. will be safe and will seek the help she so desperately needs.  Pray for the users that they will see these girls that they so carelessly use and throw away as human beings.