We were prayer walking the streets of Patong a few weeks ago
and I could hear the song “Battlefield”
by Jordan Sparks playing somewhere close by. The words to the chorus if you
aren’t familiar with this song are: “Why does love always feel like a
battlefield, battlefield, battlefield?” This area that we walk and pray over is
a place that whatever you want to do is okay and it’s all done in the name of “love”. But, instead of looking and feeling
happy, it feels more like a battlefield so this song seemed to fit. It even has
the stench of one, as the whole area really smells!
If you pay attention, you can see the causalities of this
battle walking around each day. They are men and women who may smile and look
normal at first but if you can look past the fake smile you can clearly see how
they both have no hope. One is searching so desperately for love and acceptance,
the other trying so hard just to stay alive. Both need so much to know real
love, the love from our Savior.
Walking around during the day you wouldn’t necessarily see
this battle, as it’s a very popular spot for European family vacations. At
night however it’s undeniably an intense place where people everywhere are
looking for all sorts of distractions. I saw a bar just the other day called,
Devils Playground and that’s a comparatively nicer name to give you a better
picture of the kind of area we are in. I’ve seen so many people that just look
like death walking around. Somewhere past the outward appearance is a heart
just like mine except that theirs if filled with pain. All these outward
behaviors are showing an inward problem. I’m not in anyway condoning these things but my heart is beginning to
break for these people. Not only the women who so many out of desperation are
here, but also the men. We pray daily that we see them the way Jesus sees them.
He died for them and longs to bring them wholeness that is only found in a
relationship with Him.
While this battle is draining the Lord strengthens us to be
able to go in to try and talk and build relationships with these women. It’s a
slow process sometimes and we are trying not to be discouraged through
reminding ourselves of what God says. We know that hope is coming to these
streets. The missionaries who started this ministry have seen a decrease in
bars on the main stretch of the road since the time they started prayer walking
it. They also say that less woman work on this street now and fewer men come!
Praise God for this! However, we are in a new area that hasn’t been prayer
walked and teams haven’t gone into these bars before. We get the chance to
start something new and with that will come opposition. We know though that we are light because
He is light, and He lives in us.
Please continue to pray that hearts are softened so that we
are able to speak to the girls about SHE and the Lord. Pray also that we have
perseverance to continue going in even if we aren’t seeing immediate results!
