Pizza with a Pimp

The night before Easter, I was invited to dinner with a bar owner.  The friends who invited me are Christians, who actually have dinner with him each week.  This man—like many bar owners in many countries—employs Filipinas as bar workers and illegal prostitutes.  These workers are given very long hours (which are even longer on holidays, or when U.S. military ships pass through for R&R). The workers’ contracts are badly violated, so that they often earn a fraction of what they're promised.  Most of what I know about bar owners has never been attractive.  Until I met this guy.

It turns out that he is a happy-go-lucky man in his fifties, and he and his wife both run bars in the same red-light district.  He’s educated and well-connected in the city. He’s fun, intelligent, and generous (he treats my friends to dinner each week).  So, although the Filipinas he employs are quite scared of him, I think he’s mostly a really nice guy.  (But "nice" doesn't mean "good".  He still needs God!)

He doesn’t seem to know what he believes, or whether perhaps he should give up his line of work.  But he does really like hanging out with these Christians, he explained: "Because you all have a lot of joy!"

Please pray for this man, and for other businessmen like him, to repent of their involvement with sex trafficking, and to experience joy in knowing Jesus.