We wanted to take the friends we meet who work at the bars
out for a night of fun and just to hang out without any customers. Sarah, Carrie, Kris, and I set out not
really knowing how this was all gonna work… seeing as paying for a person is a
strange and unsettling concept for us.
We prayed for an easy transaction
(?), that our intentions would be clear. We decided it would be best to invite 2 girls out from
the Darling Bar — the bar we most often visited and really connected with
people there. One of the girls
spoke English well, and the other spoke English… enough. So we told Koo that we wanted to take
her and Ouey out for the night, and we would pay for them so they wouldn’t have
to work. Koo first said it’s
expensive: 400B for 1 girl (about
$13) started to speak in Thai.
They seemed excited and then Koo said okay tonight there’s a special
price — 3 girls for 800B… Anna (one of the other girls) wants to come.
Sweet! We paid
the dues rather easily and left the bar triumphantly for our girls night
out. I was walking beside Koo and
ran asked her what she wanted to do, and ran a couple options by her. Instinctively she responded with a
robotic answer of “whatever you want to do�. I was struck by her need to perform and please. So I exclaimed to Koo with conviction—
“No. Tonight is different. Tonight there are no customers, nobody
to please. Tonight us girls are
free and out to have fun.�
Koo started to speak excitedly in Thai to the Anna and Ouey
and they started dancing down the street and proclaiming “we are free!�
We ended up going to get some dinner, and Ouey was feeling
free enough to indulge in ice cream with us… the others were too concerned
about their figures. We laughed
and hung out! The girls told us
that no one had ever given them a night like this. This was the first time for them!
We ended up going to pub where there was some live music
going on. We had a fantastic time
and danced the night away!
What an epic night!
I pray that this moment and the whole night would be an expression of
what Jesus can do for us. He gives
freedom! He has paid the ultimate
price for us, for our sins and now we have the opportunity to experience joy and
freedom from what holds us down.
