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 Linda Watson Needs Our Prayer
Festival of Light, Australia
News Update :
17th October 2007
Dear Friends,
Linda Watson has phoned me to ask for prayer tomorrow (Wednesday 17 October).
She will be speaking on the steps of Parliament House in Perth, where one hundred women in white T shirts will gather at 1 pm to send a message to MPs that the Prostitution Amendment Bill - to be debated and voted on later in the afternoon - will endanger WA children. Please pray that Premier Alan Carpenter may listen.
Linda - who turned to Christ in 1997 and quit the sex trade where she had been a prostitute and madam for nearly 20 years - knows what really goes on in Perth brothels. However Attorney-General Jim McGinty refused to consult her when considering the new legislation, even though Linda works at the coalface, helping hundreds of women and girls escape the prostitution trap through her House of Hope.
During the past ten years Linda has been harassed and shot at. Her House of Hope has been firebombed, had its roof broken into and its front windows smashed.
A few weeks ago burly men in dark clothing stalked the House for several nights in the early hours of the morning.
Last week she received another death threat. She phoned us late at night, terrified.
All this because she is speaking out publicly about the damage done by prostitution, whether legal or illegal. Yet terrified or not, she is determined to continue. "God still has work for me to do," she says.
Linda said she would tell the crowd at Parliament House tomorrow that there are three "life lies".
The first is: "Your cheque is in the mail."
The second: "Of course I'll respect you in the morning."
The third: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."
But above all, she will tell them about Pia - a beautiful young woman who became a prostitute in the 1990s in the eastern states, where brothels are legal and prostitution is considered a normal job.
Like so many before her, Pia found she needed drugs to deaden the pain - physical and mental - of her new profession. After ten years she turned to Linda's House of Hope, but it was too late. Pia was among those too far gone for Linda to help.
Pia is dead.
Please pray for safety and God's power for Linda - that she and others will be able to open the eyes of the WA Premier so that he will see the need to withdraw this dangerous bill.
God bless!
ROS
Mrs Roslyn Phillips, B Sc Dip Ed
Research Officer, Festival of Light Australia 4th Floor, 68 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA 5000 Phone 1300 365 965
Email rhp@fol.org.au Website www.fol.org.au
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