The bright lights draw people in. The bars and clubs are booming with business. What seems like party central is just that, party central. Men from all different countries congregate on the strip. They walk arm in are with women and ladyboys (men who look like women). 4 white girls head to the strip of bars in the Red Light District. There is no agenda except loving people. As soon as we step foot on the strip I am overcome with the huge amount of oppression that exists. My heart is immediately broken. “Jesus, why?” I am reminded of the reason that I have come on the race. This is one of the first time’s my heart is broken to a place of such compassion. This is my heart’s beat. Several squadmate’s told me that they could see bar ministry being a place I would prosper and be good at. I never really believed it fully, I have never been a party person and never really loved the bar scene, but here I am in the middle of it all and understand that God has given me a heart for the women and the men caught up in it all.
First stop is the night market. This is a great place to get local food, meet people and just observe. We get a table in the back to have the prime observation spot. Quickly we spot a couple white men with Filipino women, they have clearly been purchased for the evening. One man has two women. The women are uninterested, but play the part of the perfect date knowing exactly what to do and when to make the man feel desired. My heart goes out to both the men and the women. What we really want to know is the story of the man. What lead them to the Philippines to purchase a night with a girl that he knows nothing about? Is he married? Does he have a family? How lonely is he? And what about the women and ladyboys who were with them? What situation led them to the streets, the bars, the clubs, the massage parlors? Can they get out or are they too far in to have a glimpse of hope? Do they have children? Do they want lives with families? We decide that we want Jesus to lead us to a woman who will tell us her story and let us in on her life and the realities of working in the bars. So we pray and begin walking. Ladyboys, prostitutes and women offering us massages line the streets. We stop by a group of ladyboys who tell us how beautiful we are. Thank you Jesus for giving us a bunch of people to talk to. We have a long discussion about where we are from and telling them how pretty they are. It is a vicious group of women who are hating on each other’s looks but yet all I can see is the women/men that I know are deep down inside. “Hannah Montana” as s/he refers to him/herself offers to help us find a bar to go to with her/his friend. S/he thinks that we actually want to purchase women or ladyboys for the night. But it’s alright, I keep reassuring we just want to be friends. We stop at the first bar that is a basement type bar. We walk in and I am immediately sick to my stomach at the sight. There is a bar to the left and down about 10 stairs is a stage area with 12 women lined up to be chosen from. They are dancing with few clothes on and there are no people at the bar. We all get the feeling that this is not the place God has for us so we ask them to take us to another bar. As we walk out several American men walk in and see us leaving and ask “No good ones tonight?” Talk about the anger and sadness that rises up in that moment. Anger that he is there and sadness that he feels he needs to be there. We walk another block or so and arrive at the place God wants us to be. Leading up to the bar, I had uneasiness, but almost immediately, I knew that was where we needed to be that night.
It was a bar that we had driven past several times in the fews days prior. A place we all joked about yet knew was in need of some Jesus. It was a midget boxing bar. The entertainment…boxing midgets, dancing women, and I guess on some occassions, boxing women in bikinis as well. We walked in and purchased drinks so we could sit down and stay. It was only 10:30. In the ring were 5 women dancing. We took seats on the far side of the room where all the other dancers were taking a break. They all stared. Then 3 of the dancers came to hang out with us. They thought we wanted massages, but were shocked when we denied them several times. It wasn’t until halfway through our time there that they got relaxed anddd realized we just wanted to be friends. They shared their stories and told us about their children. They told us about the mean men that came into the bar. They laughed with us. They danced with us (for fun). They shared their snacks with us. I will admit it took me awhile to process everything that was happening. Jesus was dealing with and breaking my heart further. I was purely angered that any women was objectified and used like they were. I was angered by the midgets that came out to box in the ring and that their size was being used as a source of entertainment. They came to talk to us after they boxed as well. You could tell they hated everything about their job. They were sad and empty. Jesus reminded me that we bring the light. When we walk into the room we are Jesus to every person we meet and everything changes. We made friends with the massage manager who was floored we were even there. We made friends our first night with 3 girls that we offered to take to lunch the next day. Then we got kicked out for not buying enough drinks. But we were okay, because we had lunch plans.
Our lunch plans the next day fell through because they had to do something for work, but we were invited back to the bar that night before they started work to hang out. Jesus had me stay back and intercede in order to let another teammate go. They went and hung out. They made friends with the bar manager and the girls manager. They made friends with the midgets and more of the girls. They got to do the cha cha slide in the ring and referee the boxing match. Jesus has opened a huge door for ministry at this bar for us. We have invited more than 10 girls for lunch tomorrow. They are excited and so are we. My heart has never felt more alive than it does doing bar ministry. It is hard, but so good. So far, this is my favorite month and ministry on the Race. Pray for the Holy Spirit to 100% lead our conversations and for friendships to be developed. Pray that we would be lead to the other bars He has for us. We will continue going out at night to minister. Some of you may be wondering why we are doing this when I told you our ministry was Unsung Heroes (finding new ministry contacts). The answer is that we feel like God has placed our hostel a 10 minutes drive from the Red Light District of Manila for a reason. We carry the light and there is so much darkness here. We want to love where the definition of love is so misplaced. We want the women to feel real love and worth that comes from Jesus alone and not from what they can offer with their bodies. Sex trafficking is real. It is something you think you are prepared to see until you actually see it and now we have to do what we can so during the day we will have meetings with potential contacts (if you know of any please let me know!) and at night we will go to the bars.
Pray pray pray!
If you would like to partner with us in our mission we are in need of lots of prayer. We are also in need of a little extra cash. The Lord gave me a vision for what next Saturday looks like for ministry. It is Valentine’s Day! I believe the Lord wants us to buy as many flowers as possible and take them to the bars and streets with us to hand out to the women to just let them know they are loved and that they are beautiful. I would love for you to partner with me on this mission to share the love with the prostitutes, dancers and ladyboys. We have to buy our sodas when we go to the bars and they are a little more expensive that what we have budgeted from personal money for the race. Which means we are a little short on cash to buy tons of flowers. If you could spare a couple of dollars toward our mission, we would be extremely grateful and excited. You can donate by sending money to my paypal account at paypal.com and sems the money using my email address ([email protected]) (or contacting me via email or Facebook messenger and I can give you other ways…like giving money to my mom to put in my account.) All funds will be used only for the purpose of bar ministry flowers! My personal goal is to raise $200 which will allow us to purchase roughly 260 carnations from a sweet lady at the market. I know it seems like a lot of flowers but there are a lot of women to be loved!
