What would you do if you were born a woman in Thailand? Where women are considered second-class citizens, where they believe as Buddhists that you must have done something wrong in a previous life to be born a woman, where the financial responsibility of the family is the burden of the women.
What would you do if you were uneducated and poor, and everyone in your family was looking to you as the provider?
Where would you turn?
Would you work 3 jobs to make ends meet?
Would you sell everything that you owned?
Would you consider selling your child because it would mean one less mouth to feed?
Or if it was a daughter, would you sell her virginity to the highest bidder regardless of her age?
Would you become a prostitute yourself?
The women that I have met here in Phuket on Bang La road over the last week and a half all share a similar story.
It is a story that gets passed down from generation to generation.
It is a story that has become the “norm”.
It is a story that has become culturally acceptable… worse it has become expected.
It is a story that too many people are ignoring.
It is a story about a girl who is desperate, who is alone, and who believes that she is only worth 300 baht (the equivalent of about $10) for the detestable and degrading things that she can do with her body.
It is a story of a girl who came from a city or village in the north of Thailand looking for a job, looking for hope, looking for a way to help her family… and she got sucked in by the bright flashing lights, the empty promises from men of a better life, and the money.
She starts off shy and reserved and withdrawn with her head down.
Then she begins to learn how to work the crowd, to pull people into the bars, to smile and say welcome.
She learns how to put on an act, to play the games, to say what she thinks you want to hear.
She listens to lies that she is worthless, that no one will ever love her, that there’s no hope of redemption, that she is trapped.
This is also the story of a girl who once believed those same lies, who looked in the mirror and criticized every inch of her body, who considered herself damaged goods.
It is a story that involves self-mutilation, drugs, depression, and an eating disorder.
But it is ultimately a story of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
It is a story that tells of how He pulled her out of that pit of despair, broke down the strongholds in her life, showed her the truth, set her free from her past, told her she was a blessed daughter of the Most High, made her into a new creation, turned what the world intended for evil into good, showed her unconditional love, and even called her on a mission trip to the nations to spread His majestic name.
It is a story of the redemption, restoration, and healing that has brought me to Thailand, to this street, to these girls.
I want to pass on my story so that others might have hope, might hear the truth, might feel real love, might be saved, might see the one, true God who is living in me.
I want the Lord to come in to the lives of these girls here because when He enters the story there is overwhelming VICTORY!
Here is a short video that my teammate Emily put together about the streets of Bang La.
I hope it gives you a better idea of the enemy that we are up against. Please pray for big things to happen in the lives of these girls. Our God can do more than we can ask or even imagine…
Only He can bring hope and healing to this dark street.
