Women like these in the dirty streets of West Bengal, India, have hit bottom, selling their bodies as prostitutes to stay alive. But GFA-supported missionaries are sharing with them the Good News that God is offering them a new life through His Son.

“If you find any way out for me, please help me so I can lead a better life,” the 40-year-old prostitute pleaded. And what she told the Gospel for Asia-supported woman missionary next was even more shocking.

“Once I was a politician,” Trina Gupta declared, “but I lost an election, and I chose this job to survive in the world. Deep down in my heart, I hate this job desperately.”

Trina’s confession was just one of dozens heard by a GFA Women’s Ministry team when it first entered a prostitute village in West Bengal, India. Team members, and their leader, Women’s Fellowship director Sushmita Choudhary, had prayed for years for an opening to reach out to the women who earn their living as sex workers.

Last year, on World AIDS Day, the missionaries conducted a program on HIV/AIDS in a village where the majority of the residents are prostitutes.

“That was our first step to learn about where these women live,” Sushmita explained.

“Then we started to pray for this place and for the people here.”

A few months later, Sushmita, her assistant leader and local pastor Abraham Gajmer returned to the village.

They felt uneasy entering the village and saw men coming out of the prostitute’s rooms. Other prostitutes sat in a lounge, talking, eating snacks and drinking wine.

The team’s first visit had a specific purpose—AIDS awareness and education. The second visit had the missionaries trying to make more personal, informal contacts. It was not easy.

“They told us to spend only 30 minutes with the prostitutes,” Sushmita said, “because at noon more customers would come.”

“The whole atmosphere was evil, and we were so unsure about how to start conversations, Sushmita admitted.

Overcoming their fears and uneasiness, the women missionaries sat down with some of the prostitutes and began talking with them. When they did, they discovered the sex workers were more than willing to talk to them.

“We are doing this to feed our stomachs because there is no other source of income for us,” one of the prostitutes told the missionaries.

“If we go to work in someone’s house as a servant, it can be very difficult. All the other people know that we are ‘spoiled’,” another prostitute chimed in. Perhaps rationalizing her situation, she added, “We are already accustomed to this work, and it’s a lot easier to earn money. So we have no problem continuing to do this job.”

Regardless of the rationalizing, the missionaries knew the prostitutes were living horrible lives. And in response to those who were seeking a way out, the believers told them about how Jesus could change their life.

“We encouraged all the women from God’s Word,” Sushmita emphasized. “We shared the Good News and distributed Gospel tracts to all of them. We promised that we would pray for a better life for them and that we would visit them again.”

Please be in prayer for these desperate women and for the Women’s Fellowship team that is reaching out to them in the name of Jesus.