Stories From Our City | Rahab

This past December, three YU interns took the opportunity to learn more about Rahab ministry by signing up to go carolling.

YU's Rahab carolling is a yearly tradition started by the Rahab team in 2009. Over the first three weeks of December, they commit to carolling at each of the 200 exotic massage parlours they have relationships with in the GTA. Rahab’s vision is to empower women and children in the sex trade to be liberated and restored, and this event helps build relationships with women so they can later pursue their vision and provide spiritual help and critical care.

We received instruction about what to do when arriving at the spas, what songs to sing, and brought each business we’d visit to God in prayer. From there, we loaded into the van laden with gifts, and were off!

Usually, carollers travel to multiple spas in one afternoon, stopping at each one to sing and deliver small Christmas gifts for the workers. In this, Rahab meets the women where they are at by bringing the outreach to participants, eliminating barriers and increasing access.

After we got more comfortable and perfected the pattern of arriving to a new spot, anchoring the outreach by reading a Bible verse aloud together, and unloading the van with gifts and song folder in hand, we began to realize the joy one quick rendition of “We wish you a Merry Christmas” could bring.

One of the most powerful parts was seeing the faces of those who answered the door change from confused looks, to timid smiles with bright eyes as they started to join in and hum along. Their changed faces and demeanor became evidence God’s transformative power in these broken spaces.

In the van, Joanna and Carol, of the Rahab team, shared even more about the transformation happening in their ministry. They talked about women who had found liberation and restoration after receiving Rahab gifts during carolling last Christmas, and the multiple women who had already contacted them for help after the rounds in the last few weeks.

Even among such brokenness, hardship, and devastation, God showed us interns how joy transcends. Without fully knowing what we were doing, or how singing could help, we signed up to serve with a smile and some slightly out of tune lyrics. Easily, however, God’s transformative power used our service and smiles to light up these dark spaces and bring lasting joy.