Jeduh Thih Ni?

Jesuh Thlan

Acung hmanthlak hi, Jesuh ruak an rak chiahnak Garden Tomb asi ko tiah an timi asi. Golgottha ah Jesuh cu vailam an tah (John 19:17-20). Golgottha tlang in a thlanglei inn lianmi inn (2) dan tluk hlan ah a ummi asi. Thlan an kharnak lungtum pi hi, Jordan ram Nebo Tlang i a ummi Abu Badd Stone hi asi ko tiah Simmon Brown le anupi nih tampi hlathlainak an ngeih hnu ah an chim. Zeicatiah Garden Tomb innkhar he aa rup bak asi i, an tah tikah a zeipoh hi aa milh dih ti a si.

Bible zoh tikah, "Jesuh cu Lanhtakpuai lai ni (Preparation Day) ah a thi i, hi Garden Tomb ah hin an chiah i, Sabbath a dih hnu thaizing Zarhpining ah a thawh than kha Mary Magdalin le a hawi le nih an theih kha asi.

"Hi ka zawn ah biahalnak nganpi a ummi cu Jesuh thih ni timi, "Lanhtakpuai lai ni, Preparation Day" timi khi zei tik ni dah asi?" timi asi.

Abu Badd Stone, Jordan (Rf. www.thethroneofgod.com)

Catholic le Protestant Krihfabu nih Thawhthan kan hman ning le tuak ning hi aa palhmi asi. Zeicatiah Jesuh Krih nih, "Ni 3 le zan 3 vawlei tangah phum ka si lai. Ni 3 hnu ah thihnak in ka tho than lai" tiah fiang tein a kan chimh ko nain tu chun Thawhthan kan hman ning cu, Nikhat le cheu lawng Jesuh hi kan thihter.

Tu chun Thawhthan Ni hi "Judah calendar zong in a hman lo i, Rome calendar zong in a hman lo." Zei tluk in dah a hman lo timi van zoh ta u sih:

Ningani (Friday) i a thih ahcun:-

1. Ninga zan-Rinni zan.............Ni (1)
2. Rinni zan-Zarhpini zing........Ni cheu (1/2)

"Zarhpini zing ah atho" ti in tuak hmanh ah, Jesuh thlan chung aum hi, ni khat faite lawng asi. Jesuh nih "Mifapa zong hi vawlei chungah ni (3) le zan (3) a um ve lai" tiah atimi hi a tling bak lo. Cucaah Thawhthan kan hman ning hi, bible bia kal ning cun aa palh bakmi asi.

Jesuh nih a thihnak le thawh thannak ding kong cu, Matt 12:38 ah, hi tin prophet bia a rak phuan chung. Pharisees nih Jesuh cu "khuaruahhar hmelchunhnak" an hal i. Jesuh nih hi tin a leh hna:

"Prophet Jonah kong dah ti lo cu, khuaruahhar chim ding kan ngei hna lo: "Jonah cu ngapi paw chungah ni (3) le zan (3) a um bantuk in, Mifapa zong vawlei chungmuru ah ni (3) le zan (3) ka um ve lai" (Matt 12:40).

Jesuh bia hi a tliang tuk. Palh ding aum lo. Ni (3) le zan (3) vawlei chungah ka um lai ti asi ko. Chap ding le zuh ding a um lem lo.

Matthew 27:62-66 zoh tik zongah, "Farasi pawl le tlangbawi hna nih Pilate sinah an kal i, ni (3) hnu ah ka tho than lai ati caah, thlan kha fek taktak in khar i conghnak nawl kan pe; culo ahcun a zultu nih a ruak an lak lai i, a tho than an ti sual lai" tiah an va nawlnak le thlan conghnak zong kan hmuh rih. Cucaah Jesuh nih, "Ni 3 hnu ah ka tho than lai" timi hi, azultu pawl sin a chimmi lawng siloin Farasi le mizapi sin a chimmi asi timi a fiang.

Cu tluk in bible ah fiangte in aum ko nain, tu chun Krihfami nih, Ningani ah kan thihter i, Zarhpini zingka ah kan thawhter tikah, Judah nithla rel ning in cun Nikhat le acheu lawng a si. Mirang nithla relnak le suimilam caan in tuak zong ah a dik in a dik kho lo.

Zeitindah cucu ni (3) le zan (3) kan ti khawh lai? Mirang calendar in rel zongah ah, nikhat ah suimilam 24 um in tuak tik zongah, ni khat le cheu lawng asi than. Cucaah Jesuh kan thihter le thawhter than caan hi, palh tha lo tein aa palh.

Ni (3) cu suimilam in tuak ahcun 72 asi. Atu Thawhthan kan hman ning hi suimilam caan in tuak ahcun, Ningani zanlei in Rinni zanlei tiang suimilam (24) asi. Rinni zanlei in Zarhpini zingka 7 Am tiang hei si sehlaw, atam bik ah Jesuh thlan chung a um caan hi, suimilam 37 tluk lawng asi.

Suimilam in tling tein a um le um lo cu kong dang chia ko rih u sih. Judahmi nih nikhat an ti tawnning theng in rel lo in, Lai tuak in rel tik zongah, ni a tling kho hrimhrim lo. A suimilam in tling hmanh hlah sehlaw, ani ahcun a tling ti in kan tuak khawh.

1. Ningani ----Ni (1) nak
2. Rinni     ----Ni (2) nak
3. Zarhpini--- Ni (3) nak

Asinain a zan in tuak tik ah tuak awk atha hawi ti lo. Zeicatiah Ningani a thih ahcun, zan (3) cu zeiti hmanh in asi kho ti lo. Zan (2) lawng vawlei chung um ding asi than.

1. Ninga zan---Zan (1) nak
2. Rinni zan---Zan (2) nak

Cucaah atu i Ningani kan thihter ning cun, zeiti hmanh in Jesuh hi thlan chungah zan (3) a um kho ti lo. Ni (3) hmanh hi, "tuak hramhram" lawngah aa tuak kho ding asi. Cucaah Jesuh nih "ni 3 le zan 3 chung vawleichung a um dingmi kong le Jonah 1:17 a epchunnak prophet bia a rak phuan chungmi hi a tling lo" tinak asi hnga.  Cucaah, atu lio "Thawhthan" kan hman ning hi cu, Bible ning in cun, a dik kho lo.

Zeidah An Tuak Palhmi Asi Hnga?

Jesuh hi Friday ah a thi tiah kan timi hi, bible cheukhat ah an rak lehpalh caah asi. Hlanlio deuh Krihfa hmasa hna nih, an rak palh deuh caah a si kho men. A ruang cu Bible pakhat lawng zoh in le bible tha deuh in an rak zoh lio ruangah asi kho.

Bible vialte lakah tial hmasat bikmi cu Paul cakuat an si. Galati cakuat hi tuan bik a tialmi asi i, AD 48 hrawng ah asi. Paul nih hin Jeuh chuahnak le thihnak kong hi a tial lo. Thawngtha Cauk pali nih Jesuh thihnak kong an tialmi tu in, Jesuh thihnak le thawhthannak hi kan theihmi asi.

Bible tha tein zoh tikah, Jesuh a thih zarh ah hin, Sabbath pahnih aa tong ti kan hmuh. Cu Sabath pahnih kong hi, hlan lio Krihfa hruaitu hna nih rak buai deuh hna sehlaw a dawh. Cu Sabath (2) cu "Kum Sabath le Zarh Sabbath" an si.

Hi Sabbath ni pahnih ah hin, Kum Sabbath hi "a thiang khunmi Sabbath" (John 19:31b) tiah a leh. Hi Kum Sabbath hi Zarh Sabbath nakin a thiang deuh tinak a si. Cu nih a langhtermi cu Jesuh thih zarh ah hin, "Sabbath phun hnih" (a thiang khunmi le a thiang deuh lo mi) a um tinak a si. Phun dang in chim ahcun "a sunglawi deuhmi Sabbath le a sunglawi deuhlomi Sabbath an um" tinak a si.

Cu Sabbath pahnih cu hi tin zoh khawh a si.

1. Kum Sabath: Hi Sabath hi "Passover" (Lanhtak Puai) asi. Egypt ram sal sinak in an chuah zan philhlonak puai asi. Nissan thla ni 14 zanlei in aa thawk i Nissen thla ni 15 zanlei ah a dong. Aa thawk caan hi zanlei 3:00 in nitlakkar ah aa thawk. Hi Sabath cu kum khat ah voikhat a chuakmi asi. Judahmi tuanbia ah ni sunglawi bik ni a si. Cucaah hi Sabath cu Mirang bible ahcun, "special Sabbath" asiloah "a high day" (nisang ni) tiah an ti. Cu ni sunglawi cu "Nitlakka in aa thawk i, a thaizing nitlak tiang" asi. Cu caan chung cu eidin timtuah dah ti lo cu, zeidang rian tuan a thiang lo.  Lanhtak Puai lai ni cu, "Timhlamh Ni" (Preparation Day) tiah an ti. Hi Preparation Day ah hin, Jesuh a thi ti kha bible ah kan hmuh. Kum Sabath hi, ni laklawh ah a tla kho i, voi tam deuh cu zarh chung ni ah an si. Thilnu phulhlo changreu puai (ni 7 ulhmi) he aa thawknak ni zong asi (Exodus 12: 15-20; Matt 16:12).

2. Zarh Sabbath: Hi Sabath cu "Zarh khat ah voikhat ulhmi Sabbath (Rinni) asi." Hi ni cu Ningani nitlak in Rinni nitlak tiang asi. Hi ni ah hin, riantuan khawh asi lo. Sabath buar asi caah, eidin tah ti lo cu, zeihmanh tuah athiang lo.

Bible tha tein zoh tik ah, a fiangmi cu, Jesuh vailam an tah ni le a thih ni hi, Zarh Sabath silo in Kum Sabbath (Lanhtak Puai/Passover Sabath) lai ni, "Preparation Day" ah khan asi ti kha atanglei bible ah fiang tein kan hmuh.


Jesuh Thih Ni Taktak

Bible lettu nih hin mah le uarmi hawih cio in Bible hi leh a rak si. Kokek bible ca in a letmi cu an rak tlawm ngai. Cucaah Mirang bible zong hi, an i khat theng hna lo. Ahota hi a dik bik ti cu ka thei lo nain, fiannak ah epchun ka duh.

Jesuh a thih ni hi phun (2) in an tial.

1. Ningani (Friday)

2. Ani chim lo in, "Preparation Day" asiloah "day of Preparation" timi an si.



1. Friday Ti Ahmannak Bible 


Lai Bible Thiang ahcun, "Jesuh thihni hi, Cawnningani (Friday)" ti asi (Luke 23:54; Johan 19:31). Lai Bible Thiang hi, Today's English Version (TEV) lak deuh in tialmi asi tiah tleicia Rev. Dr. David Van Bik nih a rak ti bal. Cucaah Lai bible hi TEV in lakmi asi caah, TEV ning tein "Cawnningani" tiah a ti tikah, apalh ti khawh asi lo. TEV tu nih  a leh ning kha asi.

Bible dang zoh tik ah, Lai Bible Thiang ah John 19:31 i "Cawnningani" (Friday) tiah timi te khi, hitin an an hman. Bible minthang bik (10) kan zohchun lai.


2. Day of Preparation asiloah Preparation Day

Atanglei bible hna nih cun, Luke 23:54; Johan 19:31 hna hi, "Day of Preparation asiloah Preparation Day" ni ah Jesuh cu athi tiah an tial. Acheu nih, "Passover lai ni" ah tiah an tial. Cucu aa khatmi ni an chim duhmi an si.

1. King James Version (KJV) nih cun, Jesuh thih ni cu, "it was the preparation,...for that Sabbath was a high day.." tiah a tial (hihgh day timi cu ni-thianghlim/ni sunglawi tinak asi).

2. Living Bihle (LB) nih cun, Jesuh thih ni a thaizing khi "a very special day, Passover" (Lanhtak Puai, ni sunglawi taktak asi) tiah a tial ve.

3. New International Version (NIV) nih cun, Jesuh thih ni cu "a day of Preparation" asi. A thaizing cu "a special Sabbath asi;  Judahmi nih cu Sabath ni ahcun, ruak kha thing cungah thlai an duh lo" tiah a tial (Special Sabath atimi cu Passover/Lanhtak Puai kha asi)

4. Philip Modern English (PME) zong nih, "Jesuh thih ni cu Passover ca i Timhlamhni (a day of Preparation) asi ati. Zeicatiah a thaizing Sabath cu a biapi tukmi Sabbath asi caah asi (particular important Sabbath tiah a tial).

5. Revised Standard Version (RSV) zong nih, Jesuh thih ni cu "a day of Preparation" asi; zeicatiah a thaizing cu Sabbath ni asi i, "a high day" asi caah asi tiah ati.

6. Jerusalem Bible (JB) ahcun, Jesuh thih ni cu "Preparation Day asi" tiah a tial. Zeicatiah a thaizing Sabath cu sunglawi tuk in an ulhmi Sabbath asi caah asi" tiah a tial.

7. New English Bible (NEB) ahcun Jesuh thih ni zanlei cu "Passover lai ni asi; cu Passover ni cu Judah mi caah nisunglawi tukmi ni asi" tiah ati.

8. New Living Traslation (NLV) ahcun Jesuh thih ni a thaizing cu Special Sabbath asi; zeicatiah cucu Lanhtak Puai ni asi caah asi" tiah ati.

9. New American Standard Bible (NASB) ahcun Jesuh thih ni cu "a day of Preparation" asi; zeicatiah a thaizing Sabbatah cu a high day (ni sunglawi) asi" tiah ati.

Cun Luke 23:54 zawn zong ah khin, KJV, NIV, RSV, PME, JB, NLT, NASB nih cun "Preparation Day" asiloah "day of Preparation" tiah an hman. Zeicatiah "Sabbath ni a nai cang caah" tiah an tial (LB, TEV, NEB bible pathum lawng nih "Friday" timi an hman).

LB (1971), TEV (1966) le NEB (1961) hna hi naite lawng ah chuahmi an si caah, an mah nih "Timhlamh Ni" timi kha tu chun Thawhthan Ni kan hman ning hawih in, "Friday" (Cawnningani) tiah an chap bia tu a si. Hihi Cawnningani ti silo in "Timhlamh ni" ti tu a si. Rev. Dr. Rual Uk lehmi ahcun "Timhtuah ni" tiah a leh.

Cucaah hi bible (10) leh ningcang hi, epchun tikah Jesuh thihni hi 'Timhlamh Ni" (day of Preparation asiloah Preparation Day) timi tu hi an hman deuh caah a dik deuhmi asi. A thaizing hi, "Special Sabbath" (Passover/Lanhtak Puai) cu asi.

Passover (Lanhtak Puai) hi Zarh dongh ah si lo in, voi tampi cu zarh chung ni ah a tla tawn. Jesuh thih kum ah hin, Jesuh thih zarh ngelcel ah hin "Kum Sabbath le Zarh Sabbath" hi an um veve.

Cucaah a tawinak in Jesuh thih ni le thawhthan ni hi, hi tian tuak khawh asi.

1. "Jesuh hi Kum Sabbath caah timhlamh ni (day of preparation or preparation day) ah a thi.

2. Zarh Sabbath thaizing (Zarhpini) ah a tho than. Zarh Sabbath cu Rinni kan timi khi a si.

Ruah dingmi cu "Timhlamh ni (day of preparation/preparation day) timi khi zeitik ni sette dah a si hnga?"  timi asi.

Cucaah hitin tuak khawh asi.

1. Timhlamh Ni (Preparation Day) khi Nithumni (Wednesday) asi a hau.
2. Special Sabbath (Passover) ni khi Nilini (Thursday) asi
3. Ningani (Friday) khi ni lawngkang ni asi. Khi ni ah Mary Magdalin le hawi le nih "zihmui an cawk; sathau an timhtuah" (Mark 16:1-3).
4. Rinni (Zarh Sabbath) asi caah an i din than.
5. Zarhpini (Sunday) zingka te ah thlan ah an kal.

Judah nithla rel ning in tuak tikah hitin tuak khawh asi.

1. Nithumni zan-Nilini zan..............Ni khatnak le zan khatnak
2. Nilini zan-Ningani zan  ..............Ni  hnihnak le zan hnihnak
3. Ningani zan-Rinni zan  ...............Ni thumnak le zan thumnak

Zarhpini zingka cu Jesuh a thawh than an theih lawng asi. Sabbath Ni cu Rinni zan muika in a dih cang caah, Jesuh hi muika zong ah tho than sehlaw theih lo asi. Zantim le zingka zong ah tho than sehlaw theih lo asi. Zeicatiah Mary Magdalin le a hawi le thlan an phak cu, "A rak tho diam cang; thlan a lawng cang; thlan ah a rak um ti lo."

Cucaah acunglei thil sining vialte zoh tik le bible sining tuak lengmang tikah, Jesuh hi "Preparation Day) timi, Special Sabbath lai ni, Nithumni (Wednesday) ah a thi timi kha fianter khawh asi. Cucaah nikhat khat achun, Krihfa hruaitu thawng an chuah tik le bible ning tein Thawhthan (Easter) kan hmang lai ti ahcun, Nithumni tu hi a thihni ah chiah i, "Good Wednesday" tu ulh ding asi ko hnga.

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Zohchihmi Bible

1. Today's Parallel Bible, Zondervan, 1995
2. Eight Translation New Testament, Tyndale, 1985
3. "Easter," Mercer Dictionay of the Bible, Mercer University Press, 1990.


Biafunnak

Jesuh thawhthannak kong a rak tuaktantu hlanlio Krihfa hmasa hna nih, a tuak an rak palh deuh kho men. Cucaah Jesuh hi Ningani (Friday) ah kan thihter i, Zarhpini ah kan thawhter. A ngaingai tiahcun, Nithumni (Wednesday) ah thih i, Zarhpini zingka (zantim zong asi kho) ah a tho ding asi. Cucaah nikhatkhat ahcun, Nithumni (Wednesday) tu hi "Good Wednesday" ti i, Jesuh thihni ah i hmang kho sehlaw, cucu Bible chim ning a tlin cemnak asi ko hnga. Good Friday um ti si ti lo in, Good Wednesday tu hi siter ding asi. Hi kong hi, WCC le Pope te hna nih hin biatak tein ruah i, ning cang tein hman khawh ahcun sullam a ngei deuh ngai ding a si.

Human Trafficking As A Modern Slavery

Ref. www.stopmodernslavery.org

Rf. www.dailymail.co.uk

Rf. www.schusterinstituteinvestigation.org

National Human Trafficking Resource Center states that "International Labor Organization estimatess that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally, with hundreds of thousands in the United States. The victims of this crime in the U.S are men and women, adults and children, and foreign nationals and U.S. citizens."  The question is who will be the next victims? 

This article is one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read as an Asian man. This is taken from BBCNews.com to share all other people all over the world. I want to remind all the dangers of human trafficking to all my country's fellows. We Christians should firmly stand agaist human trafficking all over the world. All Christians need to work with all religious believers to save all the victims. 

 The human traffickers are the most cruel slave traders on earth today. They are "Evil doers" and "the Polluters of human race." They are "Harmful for human race." They are "ABOMINATION" of modern society in all nations and cultures. All human traffickers are "addicted to money, drug and evil behaviors, and are "the children of Satan, the father of all lies." 

Human traffickers should not inherit the kingdom of God when they died. They need to repent for their past sins and evil business. Anybody who went to the brothels are "supporters of human traffickers." They are also "Evil doers, who are harmful and dirty people." Anyone who did human trafficking or went to brothels need to repent for their sinful and evil behaviors rifght now. They should not inherit the Kingdom of God if they don't repent from their sins. This is the word of God.

This is the most sad story I have ever read but I am glad many human traffickers were arrested. 

Here is the story of "A Brave Asian Lady, Shandra Woworuntu,' her deadly experience with evil human traffickers. The story is taken BB News  at http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35846207

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Shandra Woworuntu arrived in the US hoping to start a new career in the hotel industry. Instead, she found she had been trafficked into a world of prostitution and sexual slavery, forced drug-taking and violence. It was months before she was able to turn the tables on her persecutors. Some readers may find her account of the ordeal upsetting.

BBCnews.com

30 March 2016, Magazine

Shandra Woworuntu: My Life as a sex-trafficking victim

Shandra Woworuntu

I arrived in the United States in the first week of June, 2001. To me, America was a place of promise and opportunity. As I moved through immigration I felt excited to be in a new country, albeit one that felt strangely familiar from movies and TV.

In the arrivals hall I heard my name, and turned to see a man holding a sign with my picture. It wasn't a photo I cared for very much. The recruitment agency in Indonesia had dressed me up in a revealing tank top. But the man holding it smiled at me warmly. His name was Johnny, and I was expecting him to drive me to the hotel I would be working in.

The fact that this hotel was in Chicago, and I had arrived at JFK airport in New York nearly 800 miles away, shows how naive I was. I was 24 and had no idea what I was getting into.

After graduating with a degree in finance, I had worked for an international bank in Indonesia as an analyst and trader. But in 1998, Indonesia was hit by the Asian financial crisis, and the following year the country was thrown into political turmoil. I lost my job.

Shandra stands just right to the man in the centre

So to support my three-year-old daughter I started to look for work overseas. That was when I saw an ad in a newspaper for work in the hospitality industry in big hotels in the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. I picked the US, and applied.

The requirement was that I could speak a little English and pay a fee of 30m Indonesian rupiahs (in 2001, about $2,700). There was a lengthy recruitment process, with lots of interviews. Among other things they asked me to walk up and down and smile. "Customer service is the key to this job," I was told.

I watched through the window as the new driver gave Johnny some money - I thought, 'Something here is not right'

I passed all the tests and took the job. The plan was that my mother and sister would look after my little girl while I worked abroad for six months, earning $5,000 a month. Then I would come home to raise my daughter.

I arrived at JFK with four other women and a man, and we were divided into two groups. Johnny took all my documents, including my passport, and led me to his car with two of the other women.

That was when things started to get strange.

A driver took us a short way, to Flushing in Queens, before he pulled into a car park and stopped the car. Johnny told the three of us to get out and get into a different car with a different driver. We did as we were told, and I watched through the window as the new driver gave Johnny some money. I thought, "Something here is not right," but I told myself not to worry, that it must be part of the way the hotel chain did business with the company they used to pick people up from the airport.

But the new driver didn't take us very far either. He parked outside a diner, and again we had to get out of the car and get into another one, as money changed hands. Then a third driver took us to a house, and we were exchanged again.

The fourth driver had a gun. He forced us to get in his car and took us to a house in Brooklyn, then rapped on the door, calling "Mama-san! New girl!"

By this time I was freaking out, because I knew "Mama-san" meant the madam of a brothel. But by this time, because of the gun, there was no escape.

The door swung open and I saw a little girl, perhaps 12 or 13, lying on the ground screaming as a group of men took turns to kick her. Blood poured from her nose and she was howling, screaming in pain. One of the men grinned and started fooling around with a baseball bat in front of me, as if in warning.

And just a few hours after my arrival in the US, I was forced to have sex.

Brothel in Brooklyn where Shandra was taken to her first day in USA

I was terrified, but something in my head clicked into place - some kind of survival instinct. I learned from witnessing that first act of violence to do what I was told.

The following day, Johnny appeared and apologised at length for everything that had happened to us after we had parted company. He said there must have been a terrible mistake. That day we would get our pictures taken for our ID cards, and we would be taken to buy uniforms, and then we would go to the hotel in Chicago to start our jobs.

Day and night, I just drank beer and whisky because that's all that was on offer - I had no idea that you could drink the tap water in America

"We'll be OK," he said, rubbing my back. "It won't happen again." I trusted him. After the bad things I had just endured he was like an angel. "OK," I thought. "The nightmare is over. Now I'll go to Chicago to start my job."

A man came and took us to a photo studio, where we had our pictures taken, and then he drove us to a store to buy uniforms. But it was a lingerie store, full of skimpy, frilly things, the like of which I had never seen before. They were not "uniforms".

It's kind of funny, to look back on that moment. I knew I was being lied to and that my situation was perilous. I remember looking around that shop, wondering if I could somehow slip away, disappear. But I was scared and I didn't know anyone in America, so I was reluctant to leave the other two Indonesian girls. I turned, and saw that they were enjoying the shopping trip.

Then I looked at my escort and saw he was concealing a gun, and he was watching me. He made a gesture that told me not to try anything.

Later that day our group was split up and I was to see little of those two women again. I was taken away by car, not to Chicago, but to a place where my traffickers forced me to perform sex acts.

The traffickers were Indonesian, Taiwanese, Malaysian Chinese and American. Only two of them spoke English - mostly, they would just use body language, shoves, and crude words. One thing that especially confused and terrified me that night, and that continued to weigh on me in the weeks that followed, was that one of the men had a police badge. To this day I don't know if he was a real policeman.

They told me I owed them $30,000 and I would pay off the debt $100 at a time by serving men. Over the following weeks and months, I was taken up and down Interstate 95, to different brothels, apartment buildings, hotels and casinos on the East Coast. I was rarely two days in the same place, and I never knew where I was or where I was going.

These brothels were like normal houses on the outside and discos on the inside, with flashing lights and loud music. Cocaine, crystal meth and weed were laid out on the tables. The traffickers made me take drugs at gunpoint, and maybe it helped make it all bearable. Day and night, I just drank beer and whisky because that's all that was on offer. I had no idea that you could drink the tap water in America. 

Shandra & 3 other trafficking victims near brothel in Connecticut. They were told to pose.

Twenty-four hours a day, we girls would sit around, completely naked, waiting for customers to come in. If no-one came then we might sleep a little, though never in a bed. But the quiet times were also when the traffickers themselves would rape us. So we had to stay alert. Nothing was predictable.

Despite this vigilance, it was like I was numb, unable to cry. Overwhelmed with sadness, anger, disappointment, I just went through the motions, doing what I was told and trying hard to survive. I remembered the sight of that small girl being beaten, and I saw the traffickers hurt other women too if they made trouble or refused sex. The gun, the knife and the baseball bat were fixtures in a shifting and unstable world.

Physically, I was weak - the traffickers only fed me plain rice soup with a few pickles, and I was often high on drugs

They gave me the nickname "Candy". All the trafficked women were Asian - besides us Indonesians, there were girls from Thailand, China and Malaysia. There were also women who were not sex slaves. They were prostitutes who earned money and seemed free to come and go.

Most nights, at around midnight, one of the traffickers would drive me to a casino. They would dress me up to look like a princess. My trafficker would wear a black suit and shiny black shoes, and walk silently alongside me like he was my bodyguard, all the time holding a gun to my back. We didn't go through the lobby, but through the staff entrance and up the laundry lift.

I remember the first time I was ushered into a casino hotel room, I thought perhaps I would be able to make a run for it when I came out. But my trafficker was waiting for me in the corridor. He showed me into the next room. And the next one. Forty-five minutes in each room, night after night after night, the trafficker always waiting on the other side of the door.

Because I was compliant, I was not beaten by my traffickers, but the customers were very violent. Some of them looked like they were members of the Asian mafia, but there were also white guys, black guys, and Hispanic guys. There were old men and young university students. I was their property for 45 minutes and I had to do what they said or they hurt me.

What I endured was difficult and painful. Physically, I was weak. The traffickers only fed me plain rice soup with a few pickles, and I was often high on drugs. The constant threat of violence, and the need to stay on high alert, was also very exhausting.

My only possession - apart from my "uniform" - was a pocketbook [a small handbag], and the things it contained. I had a dictionary, a small Bible, and some pens and books of matches I pilfered from hotel rooms, with the names of the casinos on them.

I also kept a diary, something I had done since I was little. Writing in a mix of Indonesian, English, Japanese and symbols, I tried to record what I did, where I went and how many people were with me. I kept track of dates too, as best as I could. It was difficult because inside the brothels, there was no way for me to know if it was day or night.

My mind was always thinking about escape, but the opportunities were so rare.

One night I was locked in an attic in a brothel in Connecticut. The room had a window that I found I could open, so I roped the bed sheets and my clothes together and tied them to the window frame, then clambered out. But I got to the end of my makeshift rope and saw I was still a long, long way from the ground. There was nothing for it but to climb back up.

Then, one day, I was taken to the brothel in Brooklyn where I had arrived on my first day in the US. I was with a 15-year-old Indonesian girl I'll call Nina, who had become a friend. She was a sweet, beautiful girl. And she was spirited - on one occasion she refused to do as she was told, and a trafficker roughly twisted her hand, causing her to scream.

We were talking with another woman who was in the brothel, who was the "bottom bitch", which means she was sort of in charge of us. She was being nice, saying that if we ever got out I should call this guy who would give us a proper job, and we would be able to save up some money to go home. I wrote his number in small piece of paper and I kept it safe.

And it was while she was talking about our debt - the $30,000 the traffickers said we had to pay back - that I just started to freak out. I felt sure I would die before I ever served 300 men. I closed my eyes and prayed for some kind of help.

Not long afterwards, I went to the bathroom and saw a small window. It was screwed shut, but Nina and I turned all the taps on loud, and, my hands shaking, I used a spoon to unscrew the bracket as quickly as I could. Then we climbed through the window and jumped down on the other side.

We called the number we had been given and an Indonesian man answered. Just like the bottom bitch had said, he promised to help us. We were so excited. He met us and checked us into a hotel, and told us to wait there until he could find us jobs.

He looked after us, bought us food and clothes and so on. But after a few weeks he tried to get us to sleep with men in the hotel. When we refused, he phoned Johnny to come and pick us up. It turned out he was just another trafficker, and he, the bottom bitch, and everybody else were all working together.

                          (The above photo is the last man who trafficted Shandra)

This is when I finally had a stroke of luck.

Near the hotel, before Johnny arrived, I managed to escape from my new trafficker and I took off down the street, wearing only slippers and carrying nothing but my pocketbook. I turned, and shouted at Nina to follow me, but the trafficker held on to her tightly.

I found a police station and told an officer my whole story. He didn't believe me and turned me away. It was perfectly safe for me, he said, to go back on the streets with no money or documents. Desperate for help, I approached two other police officers on the street and got the same response.

Outside the brothel, there were detectives, armed police and a Swat team with sniper rifles lurking nearby.

So I went to the Indonesian consulate, to seek help getting documents such as a passport, and some support. I knew that they had a room that people could sleep in in an emergency. But they didn't help me either.

I was angry and upset. I didn't know what to do. I had come to the US in the summer, but it was getting towards winter now and I was cold. I slept on the Staten Island Ferry, the NYC subway and in Times Square. I begged for food from strangers, and whenever I could get them to listen, I told them my story, and I told them that there was a house nearby where women were imprisoned, and that they needed help.

One day, in Grand Ferry Park in Williamsburg, a man called Eddy bought me some food. He was from Ohio, a sailor on holiday. "Come back tomorrow at noon," he said, after I had gone through my tale.

I was so happy I didn't stop to ask him what "noon" meant. I knew from school that "afternoon" meant PM, so my best guess was that "noon" was another word for "morning". So early the next day I went to the same place in the park, and waited hours for Eddy to return.

When he finally came, he told me he had made some calls on my behalf. He had spoken to the FBI, and the FBI had phoned the police precinct. We were to go that minute to the station, where the officers would try to help me.

So Eddy drove me there, and two detectives questioned me at length. I showed them my diary with details of the location of the brothels, and the books of matches from the casinos where I had been forced to work. They phoned the airline and immigration, and they found that my story checked out.

"OK," they said in the end. "Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?" I asked.

"To pick up your friends," they replied.

So I got in a police car and we drove to the brothel in Brooklyn. To my relief I was able to find it again.

It was just like a scene from a movie, except instead of watching it on TV I was looking out of the window of a parked car. Outside the brothel, there were undercover police pretending to be homeless people - I remember one of them pushing a shopping trolley. Then there were detectives, armed police and a Swat team with sniper rifles lurking nearby.

I can enjoy it now, but at the time I was very tense, and worried that the police would enter the building and find that nothing was happening there that night. Would they think I was lying? Would I go to jail, instead of my persecutors?

A police officer dressed as a customer pressed the buzzer to the brothel. I saw Johnny appear in the doorway, and, after a brief discussion, swing open the metal grille. He was instantly forced back into the blackness. Within seconds, the whole team of police had swept up the steps and into the building. Not a single shot was fired.

An hour passed. Then I was told I could get out of the car and approach the building. They had covered one of the windows with paper and cut a hole in it for me to look through. In this way, I identified Johnny and the girls working in the brothel without being seen. There were three women there, Nina among them.

Let me tell you that when I saw those women emerge from the building, naked except for towels wrapped around them, it was the greatest moment of my life. Giving birth is a miracle, yes, but nothing compares to the emotions I experienced as my friends gained their freedom. In the flashing blue and red lights of the police cars, we were dancing, yelling, screaming for joy!

Johnny was charged and eventually convicted, as were two other men who were caught in the following days. I still needed support, though, and an opportunity to heal.

The FBI connected me with Safe Horizon, an organisation in New York that helps victims of crime and abuse, including survivors of human trafficking. They helped me to stay in the United States legally, provided me with shelter and connected me with resources to get a job.

Business cards from many people who helped Shandra's case

I could have returned to my family in Indonesia, but the FBI needed my testimony to make their case against the traffickers, and I really wanted them to go to jail. The whole process took years.

In Indonesia, the traffickers came looking for me at my mother's house, and she and my daughter had to go into hiding. Those men were looking for me for a long time. So great was the danger to my daughter that eventually the US government and Safe Horizon made it possible for her to join me in America. We were finally reunited in 2004.

In return for helping the government, I was granted permanent residency in 2010. At that point, they told me I could choose a new name, for my own safety. But I decided to stick with good old Shandra Woworuntu. It is, after all, my name. The traffickers took so much - why should I give them that too?

A couple of years after my escape, I began getting severe pain and numbness in my joints. I developed skin problems and found I was suffering from terrible migraines.

After many tests, the doctors put it all down to the psychological toll of what I had been through.

It's been 15 years now, but I still have sleepless nights. My relationships with men are still far from normal. I still see a therapist every week, and I still go, once a fortnight, to a psychiatrist to pick up a prescription for anti-depressants.

I still get flashbacks, all the time. The smell of whisky makes me retch and if I hear certain ringtones - the ones my traffickers had - my body stiffens with fear. Faces in a crowd terrify me - they jump out, familiar for an instant, and I go to pieces.

Spend any time with me and you will see me fiddling nervously with the ring on my finger to calm myself down. I used to wear an elastic band on my arm, that I would snap continuously, and a scarf that I would twist about.

So happiness eludes me, and perhaps it always will. But I have got better at dealing with my flashbacks. I love to sing in a choir, and I have found raising my children to be very healing. My little girl is a big girl now - a teenager! - and I have a nine-year-old son too.

I have decided to do everything I can to help other victims of trafficking. I started an organisation, Mentari, which helps survivors reintegrate into community, and connects them to the job market.

At the same time, we are trying to raise awareness of the risks of coming to the US among people who still see this country as some kind of dream land. Every year, 17,000 to 19,000 people are brought to the US to be trafficked. Last year, we helped publish an educational comic book on the issue in Indonesian. We also provide chickens and seed so that the poorest can raise the chickens to sell and eat, and don't feel they have to sell their children to traffickers.

Not all victims of trafficking are poor, though. Some, like me, have college degrees. I have helped a doctor and a teacher from the Philippines. I have also helped men who were trafficked, not only women, and one person who was 65 years old.

I have spoken about my experiences at church halls, schools, universities and government institutions.

After I first started to tell my story, the Indonesian consulate approached me, not with an apology but a request for me to retract my statements about their refusal to help. Sorry, too late - it's out there. I can't pretend what you did didn't happen. Even after my case made the news, the Indonesian government didn't bother to get in touch to check if I was OK, or needed help.

As well as working with community groups, I have also addressed the Mexican government and last year I testified before the US Senate.

I asked the senators to introduce legislation to ensure that workers recruited overseas know their rights, are not charged fees, and are told the truth about the salary and living conditions they can expect in the US. I'm happy to say that since then the law has been changed and overseas recruitment agencies have to register with the Department of Labour before they can operate.

I was also lobbying the Senate, on behalf of the National Survivor Network, to place victims of human trafficking in roles where we can have a direct impact on policy.

The Survivors of Human Trafficking Empowerment Act has done exactly that. I'm honoured to say that in December 2015 I was asked to join a new advisory council, and we met for the first time in January, at the White House.

Image copyrightNY State Assembly

Image captionShandra speaking after the New York Assembly pledged to crack down on trafficking

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image captionAt a news conference with members of Congress Ted Poe and Carolyn Maloney

Image copyrightThe White House

Image captionAnd at the White House with fellow members of the Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, and Secretary of State John Kerry

We urgently need to educate Americans about this subject. Looking back on my own experiences, I think all those casino and hotel workers must have known what was going on. And that brothel in Brooklyn was in a residential area - did the neighbours never stop to ask why an endless stream of men came to the house, night and day?

The problem is that people see trafficked women as prostitutes, and they see prostitutes not as victims, but criminals. And in cities, people turn a blind eye to all sorts of criminality.

We might start by putting men who pay for sex in jail. After that brothel in Brooklyn was raided many sex buyers were interviewed, but all were later released.

Nowadays, men who are caught in the act are sent to a one-day session called John School. It's not really punishment, but it teaches them how to identify children in brothels, and women being coerced into sex work. Good - but not good enough. I think men who pay for sex with trafficked women or men should have their names put on a public list, just like they do for child abusers and sexual predators.

I am still close friends with Nina, who recently turned 30. And for years, I had a phone number for Eddy, the man who spoke to the FBI on my behalf, when I was desperate.

In 2014, around Christmas, I dialled the number. I was going to tell him about everything that had happened to me, but he cut me off, saying, "I know it all. I followed the news. I am so glad for you, that you have made a life for yourself."

Then he said, "Don't even think about saying thank you to me - you have done it all yourself."

But I would like to thank you, Eddy, for listening to my story that day in the park, and helping me start my life again.

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image captionShandra Woworuntu speaking at a march to end violence against women, in March 2016

Image copyrightMentari

Listen to Shandra Woworuntu speak to Outlook on the BBC World Service.

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Comments from the blogger

1. The story is taken from BBCnews.com.
2. I admired this brave Asian lady. I hope her message will make a safer world for many countless victims around the globe.
3. I am Asian. I always pray for all the victims of human traffickers. We also need to pray for the traffickers because they don't reallized they are committing the most cruel and cruesome crime. Their sins very loud to the Lord. They need to repent so that God can forgive them.