Sawat de Kha (Hello in Thai) from the beautiful land of smiles – Thailand! We have been is this beautiful country for about a week now doing debrief and preparing to jump into ministry in Thailand. Our team has been given the assignment to go to Pattaya, Thailand. This city is located on the coast about 1 1/2 hours south of Bangkok. We will be working with Tamar Ministries which is founded with the purpose of helping women escape the jaws of prostitution. A little background…
Prostitution in Thailand is ILLEGAL but it is practiced openly all over Thailand and it is not prosecuted. The money that prostitution brings into Thailand is estimated to be $22-27 billion dollars for this country! So things are not likely to change here for a while. Many of the women here put themselves into the business voluntarily to support their families back in the villages. There are some women here that have been trafficked into prostitution from other countries and there are children who are also forced into prostitution. The children have either been sold into it because of poverty or kidnapped and trafficked in. The trafficked women and children will be almost impossible to find because they are kept underground and away from the “public” areas.
We have been told from previous World Racers who just visited Pattaya for 2 4 hours that this place is filled with evil. According to them there is a real spirit of lust over the city and seems to consume this city. Half of the population of Pattaya are involved in prostitution. As it is a coastal town but not an island it is much cheaper to get to and therefore if you go to Pattaya for a “holiday” the purpose is not righteous. While we were in a meeting for debrief in Ko Samed someone walked by with a t-shirt that read,
“Good men go to
heaven. Bad men go to Pattaya.” So just by that we knew we were in for a heavy month.
Our ministry will be going into the bars and meeting the prostitutes, talking to them and building relationships. Our goal is to be able to buy them out of bars whenever possible to take them and help them experience normal life. A lot of these girls are just children 13-18. They have not had the privilege to experience what we would consider “normal” because of poverty and prostitution. We will also be working with the Tamar ministry teaching English and working with the women who have already escaped this lifestyle. Since the language barrier is so extreme compared to working in Africa we will be taking a translator with us to Pattaya. Her name is Ja (pronounced Jo). Her English is excellent and we are excited to build a one-on-one relationship with a local Thai woman as she will be living and ministering with us this next month.
Please PRAY!! We are in desperate need of spiritual support this month. It is going to be a battle as the scripture says,
“
For our struggles is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12
Ephesians 6:12
We know we are entering the battle and we need your support. Please PRAY whenever you think about us. Please pray for: Opportunities to minister, for us to have compassion for the women involved in prostitution, mercy and grace for these men who are involved, for our hearts to be prepared for this ministry, recognize that we are in the world but not of the world, time and priority for our own prayer and bible study.
Thank you for your continued prayer and support. I will be keeping you up to date as much as possible with ministry in Thailand.
We know we are entering the battle and we need your support. Please PRAY whenever you think about us. Please pray for: Opportunities to minister, for us to have compassion for the women involved in prostitution, mercy and grace for these men who are involved, for our hearts to be prepared for this ministry, recognize that we are in the world but not of the world, time and priority for our own prayer and bible study.
Thank you for your continued prayer and support. I will be keeping you up to date as much as possible with ministry in Thailand.
