Welcome to Pattaya, Thailand, a beautiful city situated on
the Gulf of Thailand. However, it isn’t the beaches or the sights that bring
people to Pattaya. Every year nearly 2 million people travel to Pattaya as sex
tourists (yes, the name means exactly what it implies). In this city of 70,000
more than 20,000 men and women are working in the bars as prostitutes.
My
team and I have been completely heartbroken as we walk the streets of this
city. I have never seen anything like this is my 
life! Everywhere you look, you
see foreign men with young, pretty Thai girls. The sexual perversion is so
openly displayed here. It’s disgusting, heartbreaking, appalling, and
infuriating all at the same time.
Monday
night was our first night in the bars. As I strolled down Walking Street (a
most popular street of bars), I was so overwhelmed. Everywhere you look there
are women and lady boys (the name given to transgender prostitutes in Thailand)
covering themselves with layer after layer of makeup- a mask they wear so easily
to cover their brokenness and emptiness.
A
man enters the bar where I am seated and the girls are instantly flirtatious,
vying for his attention, but in a moment of unrestrained honesty I catch a
glimpse of one of the girls’ eyes and all I see is sadness and shame. In that
moment I want so badly to grab her by the hand, to lead her out of that bar,
off of that street, and into the glorious freedom that only comes through
Christ. However, in an instant her look of desperation has disappeared, replaced
once again by this confident provocativeness. She quickly returns to this dance
she feels she must dance. But I know the truth. I have seen a glimpse of what
lies beneath the façade. This is why we come. We will continue to come to the
bars and we will proclaim freedom and hope to any who are ready to listen.
Take
a look at this video to see the pain in Pattaya and how the Lord is working in
our hearts.
