Dear Friends,
I’m out of my league.
Its 2:30pm…..twelve girls gathered in a little nook called ‘The Cave’ to pray. With the soft sound of worship music in the background we all cry out to our Daddy and ask for His wisdom, protection, and guidance. We invite the Spirit to go with us and for His presence to invade wherever we step foot. After some time we gather into our groups, (this time its myself and Natalie Reeves heading out) and we make our way to the bars.
Nat and I walked around the district with the intention of just praying and listening for God to direct us. After making our way through a few bars and saloons. Eventually we make it to a ladyboy bar (ladyboys are men who want to be women… they call themselves women and act, speak, talk, dress like it). There were several standing around and immediately one came up and took our order, and another, Bubbles, came over to say Hi. He was super nice, and so funny! After we asked if he wanted a drink (we buy them drinks so we are allowed to sit and chat with them) and he said agreed, he took a seat. We ended up chatting for a while and even meeting Stacey, the owner of the bar. Stacey has worked as a ladyboy at the bars for a while before opening up his own that he was currently working at (for about 10 years now). He seemed more closed off than the others but was still friendly. Another one came up then and asked if he could sit with us so we bought him a drink too and the five of us just sat talking for a while. It was so natural. They were so so friendly and honestly, we spent most of the time just laughing together. After a while it was just Nat, Bubbles and myself left at the table. We got a little Thai lesson, talked about how long he had worked there, what his life was like before, and a plethora of other things. He mentioned how he dropped out of school at 14 and couldn’t read or write, then said “but at least I can do this” and ran his hands down his sides. I just listened but I so badly wanted to tell him THERE IS SO MUCH MORE YOU CAN DO THAN THIS! It was hard because I know, God knows, and maybe even you know, there is so much more out there for them, but they just don’t see it. As we tried to set up a time to go to lunch, we realized how much more difficult that may be then what we thought. Bubbles seems to work around the clock and the only way we could spend some more time with him would be to ‘buy’ him. All 12 girls working with Lighthouse this month are trying to raise money to be able to do that, but as of now, we only have a little. But at least we were able to buy them drinks and get to know them. We were able to listen to what they had to say, no matter what that was. We were able to love on them as much as we could in that moment, and now we just trust God to move upon that. They all wanted us to come back and so of course we will. I am so looking forward to getting to know them more and possibly taking them out for a day or night. Please pray that God would open doors for that.
After our time at the bars was over and we headed home, I was exhausted. Throughout our time with the ladyboys I realized that God gave us the emotional energy and strength to not just combust with all the crazy stuff going on around us. But as we arrived home, well now its time to be broken for these men and to process. There is an aspect to these ladyboys brokenness that I can’t even speak to, or minister to until God changed something huge in them. I can’t tell these men that they were made for greatness, that God made then to break the chains of wickedness, to stomp in injustice, to love and free women and children, and to live as victorious sons of God. I can’t begin to encourage them as men because they don’t see themselves as that. Do continue to pray for us as we continue to get to know and love these women and ladyboys. Pray with us that the chains of deception would shatter, that we would continue to follow where God leads us this month, be intentional with them, and really just give all of ourselves to loving them. We have less than three weeks left here. It’s easy to think that not much can be accomplished in such a short period of time. But, well, thats just crap.
Love,
Liv
