“I’ve got a feeling….that tonights…gunna be a good night..that tonights gunna be a good good night…ahhhh haaa” is blaring on the Ipod stereo sitting on my bed. Michelle is putting smokey eye make up on Erin to get her all glammed up for the night ahead. Ricki and Hope are putting on their new dresses that they had just bought the night before at the market and all their new jewelry. Perfume is being sprayed every where mixed with hair spray. Everyone is asking each other opinions of if their outfits look good or not.Pretty soon we all,just like any other girls night getting ready session, began dancing to get our selves pumped up for the night out.
I can’t even begin to count how many “getting ready sessions” I have had before going out to the bars; too many to even begin to count. So for me this night was just like any other night right? Wrong. Yes, we were getting ready to go to a bar, but it was not going to be a typical night for me. Tonight I was not going for my own self satisfaction, tonight I was not going to come home with any regrets, tonight I was not going to fall asleep and wake up the next morning hung over……. Tonight I was going to the bar to bring worship to my Creator, to sing songs of praise to Him, to cry out and intercede in prayer for the men and women of Patong beach.

We arrived at the bar in downtown Patong and the YWAM worship team was already set up and ready to play. All I could think of is; is this really my life now? At one point in my life the bar scene was where Satan attacked me and drew me in. It was a place where I threw my identity in Christ out the window and took on the form of a completely different person. The bar was a place that marks a lot of darkness in my past. Now here I am at a bar about to sing praise and worship music at the top of my lungs. It is now going to be a place where I am crying out to my Creator, it is now going to be a place where I minister to people.The band began playing and all I could do was lift up my hands in surrender to Him. Soon the band began playing ” There is no one like our God…there is no one like our God..greater things are yet to come…greater things are still to be done in this City..”. All I could do was look around me and cry out to God, there are greater things to be done in Patong. As the song was playing I was looking across from me at girls half dressed throwing themselves at older men, begging, pleading for their attention. I watched as a young girl was sitting lifeless on a bar stool waiting for her next customer, knowing that she does not want to be there. I sang this song at the top of my lungs as I watched an older european man flirt with a young Thai girl that probably could have been his daughter. I sat there and cried out for the young women of Patong. As the band continued to play the bar become more and more busy with tourist sitting and listening to the band sing out in worship. Jesus name was being heard through out the streets of Soi Sea dragon.

I know God is present in Patong, he always has been, but I do know that he has greater things to be done here. He is not finished. I am amazed that I serve a God who took something that was so shameful in my past and such a strong hold in my past, and now he has made it my ministry this month. That a place that once was so dark now I find freedom with Him in that place.

Our night out soon ended and we all piled into a van that took us back to our home. We arrived home that night after the bar overwhelmed by Gods presence and joy. Knowing that God has huge things in store for this month! I went home that night with no regrets!