人生不设限·改变的可能性一直都在

CHANGING THE WORLD

在旅行中，我观察过处于各个改变阶段中的人，特别是前面提过的2008年印度之旅。那一次我到孟买演讲，那是印度最大也是全世界人口密度第二高的城市，贫富不均的状况非常严重。《贫民窟的百万富翁》这部得到奥斯卡八项大奖的电影就是以孟买为背景，但这部了不起的电影其实只是浮光掠影地提到孟买贫民窟的惨状与性奴役状况的泛滥。

In my travels I've observed people in each of these stages of change, especially during the 2008 trip to India that I described before. I went to speak in Mumbai, India's largest city and the second most populated city in the world. Once known as Bombay, Mumbai is on India's west coast, on the Arabian Sea, and serves as its financial and cultural center.

据估计，孟买有超过50万人被迫出卖身体，这些人大部分是从尼泊尔、孟加拉等国的小乡村被绑架来的。许多女性是所谓的“神之女奴”，被祭司强迫卖淫。有些则是男变女的变性人，也就是被阉割的男性。她们被塞进又小又脏的屋子里，一个晚上至少要跟四个男人有性交易。艾滋病病毒在这个区域传播得很快，并且已经造成数百万人死亡。

This city, home to both great wealth and terrible poverty, has been in the public spotlight because it served as the setting for the Academy Award–winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. As great as it is, that film offered only brief glimpses into the horrors of Mumbai's slums and the sexual slave trade that flourishes in a city dominated by Hindus and Muslims, with only a small population of Christians.

我到过孟买一个人称“囚笼之街”的红灯区，去看看那里的人所受的苦，并对性奴役的受害者演讲。邀请我去的人是德弗拉吉(K. K. Devaraj)牧师，他创办了“孟买青少年的挑战”机构，这个机构的工作是拯救遭到性奴役的人，并帮助她们找到更美好、更健康的生活。

It's estimated that more than half a million people are forced to sell their bodies in Mumbai. Most are kidnapped from small villages in Nepal, Bangladesh, and other rural areas. Many of the women are devadasi, worshippers of a Hindu goddess who were forced into prostitution by their "priests." Some of the prostitutes are male hijras, castrated men. They are packed into filthy tenement houses and forced to have sex with at least four men a night. They have spread the AIDS virus rapidly, and millions have died.

德弗叔还主持了一家艾滋病孤儿院、供餐计划、医疗中心、艾滋诊所，以及拯救毒瘾街童的活动。他之前看过我的影片，希望我能成为孟买的“变革推动者”。他期盼我可以说服那些性工作者逃离被奴役之路，进入他的庇护中心。德弗叔说，每个被奴役的女人都是“一个珍贵的灵魂、一颗珍宝”。

At one point I was taken to the red-light district known as the "Street of Cages" in Mumbai to see the suffering there and to speak to the victims of slavery. I had been invited by the Reverend K. K. Devaraj, founder of Bombay Teen Challenge, which works to rescue people from sexual slavery and help them find better, healthy lives.

“孟买青少年的挑战”是股向善的力量，因此，就连孟买贫民区的妓院经营者也同意让德弗叔和他的基督徒团队进入他们的地盘演讲——虽然那里的人大部分信奉的是印度教。即使“孟买青少年的挑战”经常试图要那些性工作者接受基督信仰，还说服她们离开妓院，过好一点的生活，不过妓院经营者还是非常喜欢德弗拉吉牧师的团队，因为他们可以安定人心。

Uncle Dev, who also operates a home for AIDS orphans, feeding programs, medical centers, an HIV/AIDS clinic, and a rescue operation for drug-addicted "street boys," had seen my videos, so he hoped that I could serve as a change agent in Mumbai. He wanted me to convince women working as prostitutes to flee slavery and to move into his shelters. Reverend Devaraj says that each enslaved woman is a "precious soul and valuable pearl."

这个团队一点一滴地努力改变这些受奴役女性的心。那里的女孩大约10岁到13岁就被绑架了，她们大多是从乡间小村落被骗来的，非常天真。如果女孩没上当，皮条客就会去说服她们的父母，说可以让女孩赚进平均薪资50倍的收入。更惨的是，有时皮条客干脆跟父母买下女孩，这种事很常见。招募并把女孩送到妓院，只是一长串残忍虐待的开始;一旦女孩被关起来后，妓院经营者就取得控制权，并告诉她们：“不管你愿不愿意，从现在起，你得为我们工作。”

Bombay Teen Challenge is such a force for good in the slums of Mumbai that the pimps and madams allow Uncle Dev and his team, who are Christians, to come in and speak to them, even though most are Hindu. They welcome that calming influence even though the Bombay Teen Challenge team constantly tries to convince the prostitutes to accept Christ and to leave the brothels for better lives.

我们访问了几位被“孟买青少年的挑战”拯救出来的性奴隶，她们每个人的故事都让人心痛。不幸的是，这样的故事在那里却很常见。她们说，如果拒绝接客，就会遭到毒打、强暴，然后被装进笼子，丢到黑暗污秽的地窖里。在那样的地方，她们甚至无法站立，还会挨饿、被虐待，再加上不断被洗脑，直到屈服。然后，她们会被送到妓院。女孩们被告知妓院以700美元买下她们，因此她们必须在妓院工作三年还债。一位性奴隶告诉我们，她被迫接客好几百次，每接客一次，抵债两美元。

Bit by bit, this ministry works to change the hearts of these enslaved women. The average girl is kidnapped between the age of ten and thirteen. They are lured from small rural villages, and most are very na?ve. If a girl is wary, the recruiters try to win over her parents, telling them she will earn fifty times the average wage. Or, sadly, they buy the girl from her parents, an all-too-common occurrence. The people who recruit and transport them are the first in a long line of cruel abusers. Once the girls are captive, the pimps take control, telling them, "You work for us now, whether you like it or not."

大部分的女孩都认为自己别无选择。妓院老板告诉那些女孩，老家的人已经不会接纳她们了，因为她们败坏门风，是家族之耻。而因为接客的关系，许多女孩得了性病或有了小孩，如此一来，她们更觉得自己没有别的出路了。

While in Mumbai, we interviewed several former sex slaves who'd been freed by Bombay Teen Challenge. Their stories, each one heartbreaking, are unfortunately not unusual. If they refused to be prostitutes, they were beaten, raped, and put in cages in dark and filthy underground compounds where they couldn't even stand up. There they were starved, abused, and brainwashed all the more until they became submissive. Then they were sent to the brothels where they were told that they had been purchased for seven hundred U.S. dollars and that they had three years to work off the debt as prostitutes. Former sex slaves told us they'd been required to have sex hundreds of times, with two dollars applied to their debt each time.

这些女性即使过着如此可怕的生活，却还是很怕作出任何改变。没有了信心，她们失去希望，也失去了人性，根本不敢想象可以脱离奴役状态和贫民区。心理学家常在受虐妇女身上看到这种抗拒逃离的行为，这些女性活在恐惧和痛苦之中，却拒绝离开施虐者，因为她们更害怕离开后必须面对未知的状况。她们失去了梦想更美好人生的能力，也因此无法看见这样的日子。

Most think they have no other options. The pimps tell them that their families will never take them back because of the shame they've brought to them. Many contract sexually transmitted diseases or have children as the result of their prostitution and so they feel they have nowhere else to go.

你非常清楚这些性奴隶应该逃走，因为她们的生活实在太可怕了，但你是否也有办法这么清楚地看见自己的状况呢?你是否知道自己会被环境困住，只是因为你没有梦想，缺乏勇气，或者你根本看不见自己有更好的选择?

As horrendous as life is for these girls and women, they often are afraid to make a change. Without faith, they lose hope, and then they lose their humanity. They despair of ever making it out of slavery and the slum. Psychologists often see the same resistance to escaping in women who are in abusive relationships. They may live in fear and pain, but they refuse to leave the abuser because they are more fearful of the unknown. They have lost their ability to dream of a better life, so they can't see it.

想要作出改变，你必须能够想象生命的另一边有些什么，你要对上帝抱持信心与希望，也要相信自己有能力找到更美好的人生。

You may clearly see that these sex slaves should flee their terrible lives, but do you always see your own situation with such clarity? Have you ever felt trapped in circumstances, then discovered that the only trap was your own lack of vision, lack of courage, or failure to see that you had better options?

“孟买青少年的挑战”知道要这些被奴役的女性看到出路很困难，因为她们被压制、被孤立，并且饱受威胁，有些人还说自己不值得被爱，甚至不值得被好好对待。

To make a change, you must be able to envision what lies on the other side. You have to have hope and faith in God and in your ability to find something better.

我在孟买的妓院和贫民区亲眼看见她们的苦难，也见证了德弗叔和他的宣教团队在这些性奴隶及她们的孩子身上创造的奇迹——这些居无定所、以街为家的孩子常被称为“小麻雀”。

The Bombay Teen Challenge recognizes that women who have been enslaved have difficulty seeing a way out because they are so beaten down, isolated, and threatened. Some say they can't believe that they are worthy of love or even decent treatment.

德弗叔的团队带着我一家一家去拜访。在第一家妓院，我被介绍给一位老妇人，我们进去时，她慢慢从地上站起来。她是个老者，通过翻译，她请我“为我旗下的妓女讲道，鼓励她们向善”。

I witnessed firsthand the suffering in the brothels and slums of Mumbai, and I also saw the miracles that Uncle Dev and his dedicated missionaries are performing among the sex slaves and their children, known as "sparrows," who often live homeless, on the streets.

这个老鸨介绍给我一位看起来四十多岁的女性，她说自己10岁就从乡下被绑架到这里来，然后被迫卖淫到现在。

They took me from one house to another. In the first I was introduced to an old woman who rose slowly from the floor as we entered. She was a madam who, through an interpreter, invited me in to "preach to my whores and inspire them to be better."

“我13岁时还清债务，可以自由离开。”她通过翻译说道，“我第一次走在街上，然后就遭到毒打、强暴。我还回过老家，但家人都不想跟我扯上任何关系。于是我又回到这里，继续当妓女。然后我有了两个小孩，其中一个死了。两天前，我发现自己得了艾滋病，所以妓院老板把我开除了。我有个孩子，但现在我无处可去。”

The madam introduced me to a woman who looked to be in her forties. She told me that she'd been kidnapped from her rural home at the age of ten and forced into prostitution.

在你我看来，她是有选择的，但是她在那限制甚多的环境中，似乎没有选择的余地。所以请了解，有时你或许看不见出路，但改变的可能性其实一直都在。而当你找不到替代的路时，就去求助，向拥有较宽广视野的人寻求指引。无论是去找朋友、家人、专业咨询师或人民公仆都好，就是不要一直想着“我已无处可逃”，不要被这种念头困住，要相信总是会有出路的。

"I worked off my debt and was free to go at thirteen," she said through an interpreter. "I went out into the street for the first time, and I was beaten and raped. Still I made my way back to my family, but they didn't want anything to do with me anymore. I came back here and returned to work as a prostitute. Then I had two children, and one died. Two days ago I found out that I have AIDS, so my pimp fired me. And now I have a child to look after and nowhere to go."

其实这位女性才20岁。我和她一起祷告，并告诉她，她可以离开妓院，住进“孟买青少年的挑战”所提供的住所，还可以在那里的诊所获得治疗。一旦我们打开她的双眼，让她看见有一条路通往外面那个更温暖而充满关怀的世界，她不只愿意改变，也找到了信心。

From our perspective, you and I may see that she had options, but in her much narrower circumstance there seemed to be no alternatives. Understand that sometimes you may not see a way out, but know that change is always possible. When you can't find an alternate path, look for help. Seek guidance from those with a wider perspective. Whether it's a friend, a family member, a professional counselor, or a public servant, don't ever fall into the trap of thinking there is no escape. There is always a way out!

“听了你的话之后，我知道上帝选择不医治我的艾滋病，是因为我可以带其他女性到基督面前。”她说，“我一无所有，但我知道上帝与我同在。”

This woman was just twenty years old. I prayed with her. We told her that she could leave the brothel and live in housing provided by Bombay Teen Challenge while also receiving medical treatment at their clinic. Once we opened her eyes and showed her the way out to a more caring world, she was not only willing to change, she found faith as well.

她眼中的平静与盼望让我惊讶，在信心之中，她是如此美丽。她说她知道上帝并未忘记她，也知道即使面临死亡，上帝对她依然有个目的。她已经改变，已经把她的苦难转化为向善的力量。在这么多的贫穷、绝望与残酷之中，她是个光芒四射的例子，展现了上帝之爱与人类心灵的力量。

"Hearing you speak, I know God chose not to heal me of HIV/ AIDS because I can bring other women to Christ," she said. "I have nothing left, but I know God is with me."

德弗叔和他的宣教团队已经想出几种做法来说服孟买的性工作者脱离危险的处境，例如照顾她们的孩子，还提供学校教育，让孩子认识耶稣，以及他对他们的爱。然后，孩子们再去告诉妈妈，让她们知道耶稣也爱她们，她们可以采取行动，追求更美好的生活。

The peace and hope in her eyes took my breath away. She was so beautiful in her faith. She said she knew God had not forgotten her, that He had a purpose for her even as she faced death. She was a changed woman who had transformed her suffering into a force for good. Amid so much poverty, despair, and cruelty, she was a radiant example of the power of God's love and the strength of the human spirit.

我希望你可以拥抱让生命向上提升的改变，然后，也成为提升他人生命的改变力量。

Uncle Dev and his missionary team have developed a number of methods for convincing Mumbai's sex slaves to leave their dangerous situations. They provide child care and schools so that kids can learn about Jesus and His love for them. The kids then tell their mothers that they too are loved and that they can move to a better life. I encourage you to embrace change that elevates your life and to be a force for change that uplifts the lives of others too.