It is easy amidst the sea of 20,000 bar girls, bars every few feet, massage parlors with full size beds, men who wear shirts that say Good guys go to Heaven and bad guys go to Pattaya it is easy to get a tad discouraged. Then God reminds me that he is the God of this city and the God of the broken.
Today while our group was teaching I had an amazing opportunity to visit with a 26 year old young lady I will call Kay. Kay really enjoyed her english lesson today; she called me her sister, and stated to show me photos of her life. The main teacher came by and told me that Kay had been at a recent party held for the bar girls; 135 attended. The teacher told me that Kay had a dream after the party that there was a man dressed all in white and that there were people following him also dressed all in white and they were very happy…Kay does not know Jesus just yet but I thought it was pretty amazing he had given her such a beautiful dream. Then Kay started to sing the words from one of my favorite songs…I could sing of his love forever. I asked her if she wanted me to write the words for her and she said yes; then I wrote down John 3:16 for her. She held the paper tightly and thanked me in 3 languages. Kay motioned that she was getting goosebumps; the main teacher said that Kay had told her that when she prays to Buddah she gets nothing but even hearing the name of Jesus she gets goosebumps. Kay has requested to receive a Bible and she will get one when we go back to class on Thursday.
Tonight we went to bar ministry for the first time; we invited the women to English classes, we gave them tracks which they were really suprised they could keep and one girl actually read the whole thing then they both tucked them into their purses. The smiles of the two sisters we talked to and my earlier visit with Kay today reminded me that Jesus is God of the city of Pattaya. The glimmers of his glory are a reminder that he is here in this place and reigning in me even when the situation looks overwhelming.
