Okay, if you have been keeping up with my squad then you have probably read a ton of blogs about the sex industry here in Thailand, well here is another one. This is such a huge issue that isn’t talked about enough, isn’t prayed over enough, isn’t recognized as the problem that it is. Women, whether trafficked or forced through circumstance, are being used and taken advantage of across the world, and especially here in Thailand where sex tourism is huge.
My team, along with three others, is working at SHE Ministries this month and each night two teams go out to Bangla Rd, a street lined with at least one hundred bars, and at each bar five to six women work each night. These women are bought and sold as easily as the alcohol at these bars, and sometimes for not much more than a drink costs. I’ve been out to Bangla twice so far and each time I’m filled with love and hope for this place. That probably sounds crazy but I know that the Lord is at work on Bangla Rd, I know He has such incredible plans for that place and for the people on that street.
One of the main streets off of Bangla Rd, called Soi Seadragon. On the right side are the "open" bars we are allowed to go to, on the left are the "closed" bars which we aren't allowed to go into. The girls in the "closed" bars are probably not able to leave like the girls in the open bars are.
Walking down that road we see people from all over the world, young and old, single people, couples, and more often than you would expect families with parents pushing strollers (the Lord has had to work on my heart in this, I feel so much anger towards the parents that are exposing their children to this atmosphere). Most of the people on this street are oblivious to the helplessness that these women feel, the lack of opportunity for anything different for them. These women may not have been trafficked but they feel like they have no other choice but to continue to work in the bars to support their families. Many of them come from poor villages and are told they will be taken to Phuket to work in the hotel or restaurant industry and then when they arrive because they don’t have the necessary skills, or speak English they can’t find work. They will then turn to the only other option they see, becoming a prostitute working in bars along Bangla Rd. Many of them even tell their families about their situation and ask to come home, but often parents refuse and tell them to stay there where they “can be useful”. Can you imagine the worthlessness that these women feel? The total lack of love from anyone?
Soi Easy, another of the off streets of Bangla, we are only allowed to go to the first half of this street, SHE won't let us go to the back half because they feel it would be unsafe for us. God has really given both Ashley and I heart for this particular area, so please pray specifically over this street.
So my job this month is to show them that they are WORTHY and LOVED, beloved DAUGHTERS of the KING. So every other night of the week I go out with two incredible women, Ashley Huber and Melissa Lowell and we visit a few bars and try to sit down with the women, or play the various bar games they have (connect four, jenga, or the odd hammer-a-nail-into-a-giant-piece-of-wood game) and talk with them. We ask them questions about their lives, if they like working at the bar, if they have any children, etc. Then when we feel like they may be ready we tell them about the English class that SHE offers and hopefully set up a “day-date” with them to be able to spend time with them outside of the bar. If we feel like they are ready we can share the Gospel with them, but for us is more about building a relationship that the full time people at SHE can build on.
On the nights that we are not in the bars we spend that time in intercessory prayer for the girls who are at the bars. We worship together, read Scripture, and prayer for divine appointments, for the words to say, and for the bars to go to. We pray that the women would be ready to hear what they have to say. We pray for the men at the bars that they would see these women not as something to be bought but that they would see them worthy of so much more. That these men wouldn’t be so wrapped up in the loneliness or bitterness or whatever it is that drove them to the bars, that drove them to find happiness in the darkness of Bangla Rd. That they too could find the love of Christ, that they would realize that THEY are worth so much more than the life they have chosen from themselves.
Please be in prayer with us each day from 9 to 12 at night here but in the morning your time. We would love your support in this as we continue to bring light and hope to the men and women on Bangla Rd.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
Isaiah 61:1-3
