P r a g u e – Every Friday evening an unusual procession starts up on the campus of the European Baptist Centre. Under the leadership of Lauren Bethell, this year’s winner of the Baptist World Alliance’s (BWA) human rights prize, a group of between two and 15 persons – mostly women – prays while marching to the inner city. There they search for contact with women working as prostitutes in the red light district. They go by public transport to the inner city. The American has been working for two-and-a-half years with prostitutes stemming primarily for the countries of the former Eastern bloc. Some of them are being forced against their will to offer sex for money.

Bethell told the 130 delegates at the European Baptist Federation (EBF) Council sessions that this ministry has been developing over a period of time. She reported: “We want to tell the women: You are God’s beloved daughters.” God has by now “worked on the hearts of these women” and a number of friendships have developed. Some prostitutes even accepted invitations to attend a Baptist church service. The Christians accompany these women not only with their prayers, they also bring them small gifts on occasion. In winter they bring along a warm soup. At present, some prostitutes are always expecting a visit every Friday evening between 21 and 23.00 hours. The prayer marchers not only pray softly and anonymously for the women, they also – when desired – embrace them and pray for them out loud. Bethell invited the EBF-Council members to accompany her – and 15 followed her. Among those was BWA-President David Coffey (Didcot), who prayed with others for one of the prostitutes whose husband was seriously unwell.

Bethell encouraged the conference participants to offer similar prayer marches in other major cities. It requires time to win the trust of the prostitutes, yet they also need to hear about God’s love for them. Bethell had led a house for mistreated women in Thailand for 14 years. She is now working in Prague under the auspices of the international work of the American Baptist Church (ABC) as a consultant on questions of sexual exploitation and trafficking in women.