I have done a terrible job at writing about my daily life in Thailand. I’m sure you have noticed. I normally just write about what God is teaching me. Well, today those two things are mixed so you get to hear a little about what I actually do 🙂
When teams come to SHE, it is my job to teach them how to do ministry in the red-light district. I take them down for their first night of ministry and introduce them to the way that we do ministry.
Yesterday we got a team of 5 from Kansas. And I got to go out to Bangla to do ministry.
When I was down there, we were in Soi Tiger, at the 69 Bar. (Lovely name, huh?) I was playing Connect 4 with a precious woman. And I had a God Moment that I’d like to share with you.
Let me paint you a picture of what it was like for those 15 minutes –
We walked in and the three girls I was with ended up at a small round table inside the bar. They started playing Connect Four with one of the bar girls. I was sitting at the bar, just a few feet away from them, playing my own game of Connect Four with a bar girl. We were having a good conversation, but the bar manager noticed and was sitting across the bar from me, running interference. (I was ok with this because the team was having a good unwatched conversation with the girl they were with.) Twice during our game, my friend had to get up and go take a shot. These girls are kept drunk. It is good for business.
The bar manager was dressed completely differently from the girls. She was dressed modestly in a shirt and shorts. Her hair was twisted up into a bun. She kept a sharp, watchful eye on her girls. It took me approximately 30 seconds to figure out that she was in charge.
The main part of the bar was in the back of the place. The part of the bar that the girls danced on and customers sat around stretched around the borders of the whole place. There were a few small, round tables in the middle.
There were about 5 girls dancing on the bar right next to where I was sitting with my friend, playing Connect Four. They were holding on to poles and thrusting themselves around with the purpose of attracting men into their bar. All you have to do is look into their faces, and you can see how miserable they are. They stare straight forward with blank, expressionless faces. They do NOT look like they are having fun.
This was the scene when the group of men walked into the bar. They were drunk. They went around from girl to girl, hugging and kissing on them. The way they were acting reminded me of a bunch of 12 year olds in a candy store. None of the girls looked like they were pleased with this attention. At least….not at first.
After their game was over, the girl that the team members were talking to looked at them with a sunken face and said simply, “I have to go because the men are here”. Then she walked off to entertain them. By the time she crossed over to where the men were, she was all smiles fake smiles.
My girl had to go too. Everybody did.
But right in the middle of this – a song came on the speakers
were the lyrics I could not (and still cannot) get out of my head. I think Rihanna sings it. I had never heard it before last night.
It rocked me.
I saw all this stupidity going on around me and these powerful song lyrics were pumping through the speakers in this bar.
Words have so much power. So does music. I could not believe what I was hearing. We found love in a hopeless place. Those lyrics could not more accurately portray what I believe God is speaking over that place.
There is a strong influence of hopelessness on Bangla Road (red-light district).
These women come day after day to vie for the affections of men who care nothing for them. They do what they do (in part) because they need/want money. They believe the lie that they are bad because of what they do. They become “ruined” or “spoiled”. And the love of money gets them into it. It lures them with lies that everything will be ok and that they will be able to provide for their families so well.
The men – they have been duped. They are lured in by the “fun” of the night life/ bar scene. They believe the lie that there is no harm in what they are doing. They think they will find the thing that will fill the void in their hearts. They are trying to fill it with beer, drugs, violence, sex, and fast living. Underneath it all, they are just looking for what we are all looking for – to be loved.
Slowly, the men and the women are being wrapped in chains of bondage.
And sometimes, when you are in that atmosphere, it is easy to also get lost in hopelessness. It is easy to forget that God is bigger that the things we see. It is easy to think that the things we do are useless in the long run.
It is easy to believe those things, but they are NOT true.
When that song came on, it was incredibly encouraging to me. Because that is the goal of what we do – to love. That is the ultimate goal.
Those women ARE going to find love. Real love. Love that does not disappoint. Love that sustains. Love that fulfills. Love that accepts them for who they are. Love that heals. Real love.
When I was briefing the team, I was telling them about how important it is to go out to Bangla Road with an expectation of seeing God do something. So, in order to practice what I was preaching, I asked God to do something that showed me hope. And he showed it to me. In the form of secular song lyrics. He showed me a promise – a promise of love in a hopeless place.
cool.
