Each
night we rome the streets of Patong, Thailand, one specific street actually.
This street is lined with one bar after another. People fill the streets every
night causing the road to be blocked from cars so the chaos won’t be
disturbed. As you walk down the street,
just to get to that specific bar where you have been ministering to some
ladies, you are bombarded. Bombarded with kids (age 6-7) selling flowers,
person after person holding up signs and asking you to come to the Go Go
or Ping-Pong shows, lady boys dancing seductively on the center
stage of the street, and girls flaunting their bodies on the dance poles. After
seeing all that to get to one bar, we are greeted by two ladies who know us
well now. They know every night I order a Coke light and sit there wanting to
lavish God’s love on them. I am interested in seeing them and 
inspiring them
into walking into Gods plan.
” I have made you known to them and will
continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in
them and I myself may be in them.” -John 17:26
I will
not tell you these ladies’ names for confidentiality reasons, but I will tell
you that these ladies crave something more. I have had the opportunity to ask a
lot of questions about their lifestyles and why they do what they do. Each
night they work 8pm- 2am, then go to the disco nearby, or go with someone for
the 
night. A normal night is staying up
till 5am, vomiting all morning because of the hangover, sleeping most of the
day, and then doing it all over again. Most women have moved from their hometown and
come to the highest sex tourism capital of the world just to make money for
themselves and their families.
One of
the ladies we know started telling us about 
when men take her and how she makes
them pay because it is her only income.
The bar she works at does not pay her, but they give her a free place to
stay- a place above a local bar, where eight other woman sleep, side by side
with no mattress, and most days no running water.
I have
had the opportunity to get to know these two ladies and love it. At the bar we play the games like connect
four, Jackpot, or Jenga each night and laughter fills the air. We yell back and forth at each other because
the noise of music and people fills the streets and the countless bars, making
it almost impossible to hear.
God
has been doing some wild things down on the streets of Patong. Some things we
will never know or understand because it is in the spiritual realm, however we
stand fighting the good fight!
“For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms” -Ephesians 6:12
We
devoted ourselves in a 24 hour prayer this past week. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and
effective” (James 5:16). We watched God stir up our hearts and give us a deeper
burden and passion to see the truth bring freedom. God is doing his mighty work
among this place!! “Then [they] will know the truth and the truth with set
[them] free” (John 8: 32).
Monica
(teammate) and I have really been investing our time into these ladies and 
know
the Lord has great plans. Every night they know we will come and they wait for
our arrival. One lady, without us asking, asked us if she could come to lunch
at S.H.E, shocked by her excitement and diligence, we of course said yes. She arrived and stayed ALL day. She did not even
want to leave. She just wanted to hang out. She took English class and is
excited for next week to take more classes. These ladies are God’s children and
they are craving to know more and to find their true purpose among this city of
confusion.
“And you also are among those who are called to belong to Christ”
-Romans 1: 6
Pray
for us as we continue to shed light in this dark place and be the instruments
God calls of us.
Shocking
news: Just found out one of the ladies we have been ministering to has moved
back to her family’s home. It was sudden but we praise God because she is not
in the bar scene anymore. I have no idea what she is doing now, but I trust God
is continuing to pursue her.
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here.
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mightily at work and it is exciting to be His hands and feet.
” [Jesus says] I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life”
-John 8:12
