This month, as many of you know, we are working with the Red Light district in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This means that we go out to the bars at night and hang out with the women in the sex trade. I must tell you, the first night I went out I was in shock. The first bar we went to, the Full Moon bar was full of six girls who looked like they could be some of my best friends from home. Thinking that they must be there just hanging out or be tourists like me the first question I asked them is what they were doing there. They laughed and smiled and asked if they could get me a drink. Then it hit me. They worked there. It was their job to come up to me smiling and laughing, to be friendly and to talk to me.
I know this sounds silly and naive but in all honesty they just didn’t belong there. I couldn’t fathom the thought of them being prostitutes and selling themselves for sex; they were too beautiful, too sweet, too innocent, and too young to possibly be doing that. As I asked their ages I got a variety of responses. They are anywhere from 19 to 37 in the Full Moon bar. Pat, who is 19, was there and it was her first night.
The next week God brought me to an old note I wrote on my iPod about some books I was thinking of reading. Looking for a new book to read I looked up Desire by John Eldredge and this is the opening story…
Once upon a time there lived a sea lion who had lost the sea. He lived in a country known as the barren lands. High on a plateau, far from any coast, it was a place so dry and dusty that it could only be called a desert. A kind of coarse grass grew in patches here and there, and a few trees were scattered across the horizon. But mostly, it was dust. And sometimes wind, which together make one very thirsty. Of course, it must seem strange that such a beautiful creature should wind up in a desert at all. He was, mind you a sea lion. But things like this do happen.
How the sea lion came to the barren lands, no one could remember. It all seemed so very long ago. So long, in fact, it appeared as though he had always been there. Not that he belonged in such an arid place. How could that be? He was after all, a sea lion. But as you know, once you have lived so long in a certain spot, no matter how odd, you come to think of it as home.
This story hit me hard. It broke my heart as I read it again and again. Yet I am happy God gave me this story because it has allowed me to feel for these women in a deep and intimate way, which is the way the Father feels for them. He has unending love for me, for you, and for each one of the beautiful women and ladyboys in the Red Light district.
Since that first night I have made friends with most of the girls at that bar and have hung out with them on several occasions. My heart is open to and for them, because that’s what they are. They are just girls, and they are my friends. They are girls not so different from me who have had it rough and don’t have a ton of options in their lives at this point. It is my responsibility to love them, to inspire hope and truth in them and to let Jesus do the rest.
Love you all!
-Dez
