I have been in Thailand for about two weeks now. Living life here is great. There are two teams in Chiang Mai and we have intermixed and become one big team. Three girls from my team, myself included, and three girls from Julie’s team work at a drop-in center for at-risk kids called Garden of Hope. These are the children from the slums who used to be seen on ‘Bar Street’ begging money from tourists or selling flowers for abusive parents. Kids once again that are at high-risk for being trafficked. But since coming to Garden of Hope, many of the children have given their lives to Jesus and they, their families and their community are being transformed.
All of these kids have been raped or beaten at some point in their lives, but out of the 30 kids that come to Garden of Hope only two of the girls have been raped in the last two years! I know that is still tragic, but it is a HUGE victory and testimony to the transformation that is taking place in their community because otherwise, the statistic would be much higher.
All of these children have come from Buddhist homes with shrines and Buddhist practices, and idol worship but now when you visit the community, the shrines are taken down, the idol worship stopped. The majority of these families have given their lives to Christ through the witness of their children. One single mother just gave her life to Christ last Saturday!
All of these children were once made to beg for food, money, or sell flowers. Now these children are in school, off the streets, and no longer made to beg. Instead they can focus on playing and being kids, which they do quite well!
Everyday Tuesday through Friday we spend our afternoons playing, helping with homework, teaching English, and sharing the love and stories of Jesus with these little ones. It is tiring but worth it.
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The last two girls from my team along with Julie and one other girl from her team, are working at a coffee shop across from the big university in Chiang Mai this month. They help wash dishes, clean, serve food, talk to students, build relationships, teach English and share Jesus through the relationships they build.
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At night we all come together and reach out to the prostitutes and lady boys and “Johns” on ‘Bar Street’. We order orange juice or water, play games, mingle, build relationships and show the sweet, pure love of Jesus, not the cheap imitation kind that all these people are so used to receiving.
Katie and I have been visiting regularly this one bar. A lady boy manages it and another lady boy works there. The manager, we will call her ‘Lotus’, has a heart of gold. She never forces her employees to go home with customers as so many do.
I asked her one night how she feels about all these white men coming to Thailand just to purchase women for sex and she said,
“It makes me sad for the girls. No girl wants to be ‘bar girl’.
They only choose it because it is their last, last, last, last, last, chance to survive.
You know these girls spend a week with a man and he leaves
and does not think about them ever again, but these girls have feelings now for the man
and the man leaves and they are sad. It makes me sad for them.”
Another night I asked Lotus what it meant to her to be Buddhist. She said,
“I don’t know. My parents make me, train me, teach me in Buddhist.
I don’t practice much. I did not get to choose.
But I think having respect for the God is important,
but I can not change because of parents.
They would not be acceptable about me if I change.”
“If you could choose to follow any religion that you want without fear
of your parents what would you choose?” Katie asked.
“I do not know much, but I think Christian. I want to learn more.”
I then told Lotus that Katie and I were Christians and if she had any questions we would be happy to answer them for her.
“Yes, I have” she said.
Just then a customer came in. She had to get back to work and we had to go. When I said good bye to her she said,
“No you can’t go.” I told her I would be back Monday.
“Yes, you must come back!”
I told her to be thinking of her questions and we would talk Monday.
This seemed to satisfy her and she said,
“Okay I write them down.”
** photos compliments of Cameron Cary
