This blog was written by my teammate (and roomie!) Lindsay Fox. There are 60,000 women working in prostitution in Pattaya and God led us straight to the one that was looking for a way out. I love it. I love how God cares about each person individually.
That night we went out again for the last time to talk to the ladies working the streets and the bars. We headed out at about 6 pm… usually at that time the girls are putting on their make-up and still primping themselves and not too distracted by trying to catch men yet. I was paired up with a Thai girl who had just become a Christian 6 months ago, and we set off to a bar across the street. Apparently this was the bar that Sage and Jordan sat outside of and ate ice cream and felt compelled to pray over the other day, but I didn’t know that at the time. Anyways, we went in there, walked up and down the huge aisle and finally sat down at one of the bars in the middle. We started talking with one of the bartenders named Sip (pronounced Seep) and before I knew it she was in tears. She hated her job, she hated selling herself to men, she hated her boss. She had heard about God before but always felt like He had no reason to forgive her or love her after all she had done – she had even heard about the Tamar Center and tried to call them about going to church but somehow was never able to get a hold of anyone. She wanted out of her lifestyle but didn’t know how to get away – she owed her boss money and was afraid to leave, and had nowhere to go but back to his place at night. I told her some of my story and let her know that there’s nothing a person can do that is past the point of God loving them. My partner translated the parts she couldn’t understand, and then all of a sudden they began talking a million miles per hour in Thai… I just sat there, smiling and nodding… not really knowing what was going on.
After about 5 minutes of that, my partner looked at me and asked “do you think we should have her come with us now?” and I felt my stomach flip. I replied YES, and so we asked her if she would come with us before her night of work started- that we’d find a way to pay her boss back, and that we had a safe place for her to stay. She anxiously looked around, and then nodded to us. She said goodbye to the girls she was working with, grabbed her purse, and walked out with us. Talk about guts!!
Before I knew it she was swept away by the ladies in charge at the Tamar Center, but not without her asking if she would see me later this week… I had to tell her no. She asked me when she’s going to see me again – I couldn’t think, and so I just said I didn’t know. She hugged me and half stated, half asked “in heaven?” and I sort of laughed and cried and said of course. Then she was whisked away into the crowd, and that was it…
