Ladies and gentlemen, my team in Thailand needs your help. This month our ministry requires us to go to bars every other night of the week to hang out with prostitutes and buy drinks. No, you read that right, and no, it’s not a joke. You see, we are working with men, women, and children who are victims of human trafficking. Young girls and even young boys are taken from rural villages around the time they graduate the 6th grade and are forced, by means of coercion, physical violence, or debt, to work in bars as prostitutes.
Our goal is to be safe people with whom they can spend time, talk, and feel and see the love of Jesus in the midst of the darkest circumstances. The only way we can connect with them, however, is to bring business to the bars where they work. That means buying non-alcoholic drinks and tipping these men, women, and children for the time they spend chatting and playing bar games with us. If we don’t do this, the bar owners and the “bar moms” as the supervisors of the women and ladyboys are called, won’t allow their charges to spend any time with us.
Every safe moment of normal conversation, joy, and healthy spiritual love we can provide for these people is one more moment they don’t have to spend being forced to sell their bodies. It’s one more moment where they can feel loved in a way that honors them as human beings made in the image of God. For those with whom we spend enough time and build relationships over several nights, our partner organization can provide a way out of the sex industry and set them up with good jobs, housing, and counseling if they so choose. But trust has to be built first, and that can only be built over a relationship, and to forge relationships with these men and women we must pay for their time.
The money you helped to raise for my World Race goes to international and in-country travel, daily meals, lodging, travel and health insurance, and emergencies. Right now my team members are funding our efforts at the bars with their personal funds and, given that we don’t have an income this year, that won’t last forever.
Any amount you can donate is a huge help. On average, each of my team members spends $10 a night, which covers a total of 4 drinks and 2 tips spread out over two to three bars. We need your prayer coverage, your encouragement, and for those who are able to give financially, we need funds.
If you are able or feel led to give financially, you can do so by clicking on this link:
paypal.me/JoshuaGill14/10
The money received there will be distributed equally among my team members for the purposes of bar ministry.
This is another way for you to partner with me and my team in ministry and permanently impact someone’s life for the better in one of the darkest places on earth.
I’ll send an update soon with the story of one of the women who has been helped by this ministry so far.
In the meantime, God bless you and keep you and yours in joy, peace, faith, and love.
