Ladies of the Night

The night underworld of Ulaan Baatar

It’s 10pm and the dusk is deepening in Ulaan Baatar (UB). As people return from work we prepare to face another growing darkness – an underworld of paid sex that prowls the city’s streets.

Tonight I will help John Koehler, Alimaa and Khash hand out tea and biscuits to UB prostitutes. They do this Monday and Friday nights and John’s told me enough stories so I feel compassion towards them not fear. The stories are heartbreaking. Oyonchimeg, 28, came to UB as a 12 year old to escape a sexually abusive brother. She turned to prostitution after living on the streets. Likewise Urna, 32, is deaf and couldn’t get a job.

Isaiah 43:4 comes to my mind where it says we are precious and honoured in God’s sight and He loves us. That means everyone including prostitutes. Similarly John’s ministry Streams in the Desert uses a verse from Isaiah 41:18 which talks about the change amongst the most barren lives.

Prostitution in UB is a growing problem as more foreigners arrive and locals with tug rug to spend go in search of low cost fun. Women as young as 12 years sell themselves for a few dollars to ease poverty or unemployment.

Streams in the Desert began this year when John met ‘women of the night’ through a ministry to alcoholics. He saw they had needs yet no one was helping them. He has found no definitive statistics on prostitution but knows of 400 around the UB Hotel alone.

It’s dark when we park outside this hotel. We head to the statue of Lenin in the park opposite where drunks are hanging out with some women. These women aren’t what I expected. Few are scantily clad and wear little makeup. Most meet our gaze although John says some avoid him.

I ask their names, ages, about children… Most are friendly and smile at my Mongolian pronunciation. It’s a cold night but nothing like winter (minus 40 degrees) when John would invite them into the car to keep warm. Still enough women appreciate a hot drink.

“When we first went we paid the ladies 5000 tug rug an hour to chat out of the cold,” said John.

In this way John, Alimaa and Khash got to know Naraa and Enkhtuya.

“They brought a friend with a drinking problem who said no one would every listen or talk to us. But we had dinner and watched a movie with them and they put in a good word for us. They told the other girls we were Jesus freaks but friends. So we decided to take tea to the statue of Lenin and talk to the girls in the open and they introduced us to others.”

Then they met Boldma, a formidable 6′1″ and 180 pounds (81 kg) with a crew cut, black jacket, pants and boots. John thinks she’s one of the biggest bosses with 40 working girls.

“We offered her tea and she crossed her arms and looked mean. And I said to myself ‘Lord I want that lady’.”

Boldma softened when Khash told her they were Christians. A Christian lady had helped her son while she served eight years in prison for manslaughter. So if they were ‘Jesus people’ they didn’t have to pay the girls to talk.

They soon realised Boldma was miserable and their ministry included her. She’d found it hard to earn a living after leaving prison and turned to pimping which pays USD $1000/month. But she despised the women for selling themselves.

“I believe if she came to the Lord it would be an earthquake. It would rock a lot of ladies, a lot of bosses.”

Actually one pimp who became a Christian came with John one night to share her testimony – this led to the conversion of one prostitute – now studying in a Discipleship Training Program.

The women come and go as we hand out tea. They’re like shadows. Some disappear with drunks into the park, get into cars and I guess a wandering foreigner from the hotel solicited another.

John has been asked if a Christian guy should come here but the main emotion he feels towards the women is sadness. It is sad to see them proffering themselves and their dignity in a dirty, gloomy park with alcoholics ogling them.

Khash and Alimaa tell the drunks and women about social events at JCS and alcohol recovery programs. Social events usually attract many but it’s hard if they want to change because prostitution is their income.

“Some are from the countryside and have kids to feed but no job,” said John. “Or their husband is dead. Some earn $200-300/month although here in the park it’s more low end so it could be just $150-200. But inside the UB Hotel the ladies are getting about $400/month. In a factory they might earn $100/month working 30 hour shifts.”

The other problem was morality. Some women didn’t consider the leap into prostitution so big as they had slept with boyfriends and might as well get paid for it.

“There was no real Christian influence here 17 years ago. Before that it was Godless atheism. They haven’t grown up in a Judo-Christian context when they know it’s wrong…”

John said they needed a half way house where they could escape their community. His dream – finances allowing – is to establish a three story house with hair salons and work outlets, classrooms to learn new skills and dorms to live in.

It’s almost midnight and time to go. Most of the women have disappeared. The sky is dark and the only lights filtering into the park come from the UB Hotel. But it’s obvious the only real light that will reach these women is Jesus. Thankfully John and his crew give them a little touch of paradise every Monday and Friday night.