Brothel Germany: Mias Story

Mia and the Promised Land Germany

We met Mia in December 2010. For three months we had prepared to visit the women in the brothels of our city. Armed with bags full of Christmas sweets and small gifts, we stood shyly outside the doors of the brothels and waited for admission. Out of twenty brothels, nineteen opened their doors to us. We were mostly welcomed very friendly. Sometimes we were allowed to distribute our gifts in the foyer to the girls and women. Sometimes we were invited in, offered to drink, and allowed to sit on the sofas with the girls, in the rooms where they waited for the clients.

One of these brothels was quite filthy and there we met Mia for the first time. I have to admit that while sitting on the sofa, I had to think hard about whether there were any fleas or other pests crawling, and that I would take a shower afterwards – even if it was in the middle of the night … For Mia (and many other women) our visit was a real highlight in her everyday life. The women rushed to the gifts, looked at us with big eyes and tried to say „thank you“ with broken German.

Already two days later (on the first day of Christmas), Mia called our „HerzZeichen“ phone. The communication was bumpy, but we understood that Mia wanted out of the brothel. We arranged a meeting place and Mia appeared there. Since no aid organization had opened on the holidays, we decided to call the police. Nobody there knew what to do with her, and so they decided to put Mia in a hotel in a neighboring town, until the aid organization opened again. Not a good idea, as it soon turned out. Mia was lonely there and frightened. She could not stand it anymore, and called the oly contact she had: someone of the brothel. The pimps quickly picked her up again, and Mia returned from the place, she wanted to flee from: the brothel.

Soon we made another visit to Mia’s brothel. We were startled when we saw Mia. She had lost a lot of weight, looked emaciated, and snuggled close to us, when we sat on that sofa next to her again. Since we could not talk to her openly in the brothel, we tried to signal her with  our eyes, that she could trust us, and that we might help.

Shortly after that,  Mia called us again, it was again a meeting place agreed. Mia did not show up. I do not remember how many times that happened in the following period. Countless „appointments“ were arranged, but the HerzZeichen we were always at the meeting point in vain.

I am so thankful, that we did not give up then. Because one day, in early March, Mia appeared! Meanwhile, our team had decided, that we did not want to consult the police again. Unfortunately, the aid organization in the city was closed again, so we decided to do it ourselves. We were all very excited, because Mia was the first person, we helped to flee sex trafficking.

One member of our team and her husband hid Mia at their home for a week and a few days longer. They tried to talk a lot with Mia (as far as language allowed). So we finally learned more about Mia’s story. Mia came from Bulgaria, she belonged to the Roma people. Her family worked and lived in a southern European country. When Mia was 16 years old, she met a young man and fell, head over heels, in love with him. Soon he suggested that they could go to Germany together. There you could earn a lot of money and they dreamed together of a golden future  (many Roma are very poor). When Mia arrived in Germany, her „friend“ sold her to a brothel in our city. For four years she had to eat there, sleep in a room with other women, and offer her body for every man, who wanted her. Mia did not get any money for that. She was threatened, beaten, raped and treated like scum. It was not until she met us on our Christmas visit, that she had hope again, that there might be a different life for her.

It also came out, that Mia had cervical cancer. A form of cancer that often arises when a woman has a lot of unprotected sex with different sex partners.

The couple cared of Mia. They told her about Jesus and gave her a Bible in her own language. They prayed with her for healing from cancer. At night (she could not sleep because she normally had been awake at night), Mia read the Bible and cleaned up and rearranged her host’s apartment. When they woke up in the mornigs, thy always wondered about the redesign of their flat. It became a running gag in our team.

At the end of the week, Mia decided to entrust her life to Jesus. And we finally succeded to persuade her to contact her family. They did it on Skype – after four years without any contact. Tears flowed on both sides of the screen, and Mia’s family prompted Mia to come back to them.

Our „Herz-Zeichen“ Team prayed for money for the ticket. We could not pay for it  – we all had very little money back then.  Soon, there was a telephone call  from a man – a former pimp – who had heard of our work, when we told about our work in his congregation. He said, that God had told him to give us 100 Euros. We were stunned and thankful. How God provided the money for Mia’s flight was a miracle to us. The missing 50 euros came together with more donations, and a few days later we said goodbye to Mia at the airport.
The couple, with whom Mia had stayed, after her flight,  skyped with her for some time. And we heard that Mia’s cancer just disappeared. The local doctor could not find it anymore. In addition, Mia found a church in the land, where she lived now, and she her family visited that congregation. Her parents and one of her brothers started living with Jesus. Mia found work in a factory. Until today, Mia lives there and is member of the congregation and works in the factory to earn her money. We do not know to what extent her emotional wounds, which result from her time in the german brothel, have been healed, because language is still a problem.

Mia is a woman of many, who have known Germany only through the windows of a brothel. Mia’s story took a happy turn. For many women, their story ends quite differently. I pray and urge, that many women and men in Germany stand up and protest against this great injustice, that is happening in our country.