I am finally sitting down to write a blog to talk about all that God did and to be honest I don’t really have words. After a month of doing bar ministry the only words I have are that God has been gracious and He is good.
As previously mentioned, I spent a month going to the bars in Chiang Mai’s red light district and hanging out with the people there. My partner Justin, and I particularly had a heart for the ladyboys, which eventually led us to visiting a particular bar called “The Shamrock Pub.” While we were there we spent much of our time losing many games of connect four, jenga, and pool.
During those many losses, I had three encounters that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life.
My first encounter is with a ladyboy named “Q.” When I first met him, he was a she sitting next me. It was a quick introduction had over the sound of music blasting in both ears. Despite that, her smile really stuck out to me. Later on that night I met a guy named “Q” sitting a few stools down by himself. This meeting was a little funnier as we sort of both realized that we had met before under different circumstance. He seemed to be slightly embarrassed by this fact but still had that smile on face.
In a place where dead smiles are plastered on the face of many men and women, it is a rarity to see a smile that has light in it. Immediately, we were drawn to Q. He still seemed to have some life in his eyes. My heart was already being filled with a love for him. I wanted to know his story and how he ended up working in both a ladyboy bar and a gay bar in the red light district. Unfortunately, of all the people we met he spoke the least English. So our month was spent hanging out with him. Every night we came out at some point during the night he would find a way to come hang out with us at the shamrock pub even though he was working at another bar…
My second encounter was with an older man who may have been drinking too much. He sat down beside me one night at the shamrock pub. I did what any normal person would do and I turned to him, smiled, and said “hi.” He then proceeded to invade my personal space and talk to me about different things. While he talked to me I was assaulted by the smell of the cigarette he was smoking and the alcohol on his breath. As if that wasn’t enough, because the music is always so loud, every time he said anything to me he leaned in far too close to my face for my taste. Everything about his presence repulsed me. I pretty much wanted to throw up in my mouth and tell this man to get the heck out of my face. Instead, I sat there with a smile on my face attempting to learn his story.
A few crude jokes later, I eventually learned that he was from Austria on holiday for 5 weeks. Also, he was unmarried and his family consisted of his family of his parents, a brother, and a sister. He also had a boring job he didn’t really care about. As he spoke, a sadness began to come over me…
My third encounter was with a girl named Mitchi. She is one of the people who have committed to staying long term in this ministry. In our final days of ministry she began going to the bars with Justin and I. Since we were getting ready to leave in the next week we had been praying for God to continue to bring more people with His heart to keeping working here.
In the week, that we went out with Mitchi I finally got to learn her story. She lived in South Africa and when she was 13 she was trafficked into the bars and didn’t escape until she was 18. A woman, who is now her mother, picked her up and took care of her. Now she was living in Thailand where she has chosen to commit all that she is doing to fighting for the men, women, and children working in these bars…
These 3 encounters have left me we in awe of God’s goodness…and well….I need a second blog to tell you why. So I will follow this up with the endings in a few days. 🙂
