Okay okay, I got your attention! Hear me out! This month in Thailand my new team and I are doing Ask the Lord (ATL). ATL is where we don’t have a ministry host that we are partnered with, and we have a lot of freedom as a team to seek out what the Lord has in store for us. We have only been here for four days and the Lord has already pushed us far beyond our comfort zone. Before jumping into this month, our team discussed different forms of ministry we want to pursue and all of us had the desire to do bar ministry.
Back flash to the day I looked up routes on the WR in 2015. I remember seeing Thailand on this route and it was one of the major reasons I picked it. Ever since then I had a heart to minister to women in the Red Light district of some sorts. I am not the only one on my team with that heart desire.
After discussing this desire we decided to Google where to find a prostitute in Chiang Mai. Let’s just say your stomach sinks with the results. Yesterday, my team and I did our research and made plans to hit the bar scene. Alexis, Liz and I stopped for dinner then took a tuk-tuk to the party street where we knew of a place that is known for picking up women in prostitution. After walking for some time, we didn’t find it, so we went into a bar with a live band. We ordered a round of Cokes. Then we met a cricket player and enjoyed some conversation, but we still had our hearts set on finding this bar. Walking a little further and asking directions, we headed back in the direction we came. Not long after, we found the place! We were informed it was a place mostly for men, but we still proceeded to buy our second round of Cokes, that were double the price, and found ourselves in a strip club. As naïve as it sounds, we knew why our Cokes were over-priced and decided to go in anyway. As we sat at the bar, many of the bartenders and dancers came to meet us! One woman stood and talked to us for as long as she could until it was time for her to dance again. She introduced herself and complimented our eyes and talked to us as if we were regulars. Before she went up to dance, we asked her if she wanted to meet us for lunch tomorrow. She said yes, so we picked an easy location that wouldn’t get lost in translation. We wrote down our number, said see you tomorrow and headed home, hopeful that she would meet us the next day.
Tomorrow rolled around and Lily, the dancer, called us around 10am saying she couldn’t make it that day, but she still wanted to meet the following day. We agreed and were hopeful that, because she remembered to call us, she would make it the following day.
So here we are. Today is the day we are meeting Lily for lunch. She called an hour in advance saying she will see us in an hour. As we patiently waited, she showed up! She took us to this hole in the wall Thai food place and helped us order. The food was great and Lily told us all about herself and her job. She then told us about the rest of the day she had planned for us to do with her. The plans were: three hours of rest in a park, two hours of shopping in the cheap market, and then time to shower and change before we hit the disco bars with her! We told her we had plans with our team at 6 so we could only hang out until then.
After lunch we headed to the park. It was so peaceful. She said she likes to go there because the flowers are beautiful and she doesn’t like being alone. And when she is alone she plays music to give her strength. During our time at the park we heard a lot about her “customers”—some “good men” that take care of her and don’t ask for her body, and the “bad men” that ask for her body. Some people may not understand why the three of us spent almost 5 hours with a woman who works as a prostitute, but she has a name, and she has a family that loves her. She works to send half of her month’s earnings home to her mom, so her mom has a place to live. She also is so discerning. She looks at the men’s hearts and sees something good in them. My new friend wants real love. She wants a job that doesn’t bring loneliness or pain to her life. She knows there is more. My new friend wants Jesus. She needs deep, compassionate love, abundant grace, and joy that never runs out on her.
I learned so much from Lily. I learned how loyalty comes in many forms. I learned how my brokenness is no different than hers. My sin and her sin both equally break the Father’s heart—for it is only my human heart that categorizes sin on different playing fields. God who is with us doesn’t compare my brokenness to hers; He just sees brokenness and died for freedom for us both. I learned how honesty stirs both hearts. It stirred her to express the longing for a way out. And it stirred mine to see her beautiful heart in the midst of what I think is chaos. My team and I plan to continue to hang out with our new friend, Lily, who happens to work as a prostitute. We hope to connect her to a café that will help her find a new career she is longing for. But most of all we want to show her Jesus’ love. We want to tell her about the man who died on the cross for her, and we want to be the light in her shadowy life.
Lily is a name to protect her identity, but please pray for her. The Lord knows her name and has given her a new name.
