In America, men start conversations with women in a bar saying, "Can I but you a drink?"
In Thailand, men say, "Can I buy you for the next two hours?"
Last month I was blessed enough to team lead with Lydia Shaw.
I was also blessed to lead an all girls team.
Our name was Team SWAG. (Single Women After God),
But mostly, because we were swag.
We worked with a ministry named Lighthouse In Action, where a wonderful woman of God, Emmi, started a few years ago in Chiang Mai.
Lighthouse In Action is the umbrella name,
Because she focuses on three ministries in her city.
WonGeneration- Where she owns a coffee shop and ministers to men and women who work there and who come for the coffee.
XLife- Where she goes to the villages and builds relationships with the slum kids, and tries to prevent children from being bought.
Love Acts- Where she goes into the Red Light District, builds relationships with the women, with the owners, with the Johns, and the ladyboys, and just loved on them, and eventually tries to bring the women out.
My team worked with Love Acts.
We went to the bars almost every night to find that one person God was calling us to.
At the beginning of the month, Emmi sat us down and told us to not go in and try to change everybody.
Find that one person, and love them tremendously.
Things this last month changed completely.
Emmi was blessed enough to be able to move her coffee shop to a better location.
Now, this isn't just your average coffee shop.
This place is also where she houses teams, her workers, as well as anyone else who needs somewhere to live.
It was a four story building.
And she was moving into a six story building.
The month of March, was mainstry month.
Where all the men were together in Phuket doing minsitry, and all the women were up in Chaing Mei, having to move large large items up and down stairs all day for a month.
We did not complain.
From the beginning, we saw how much God has blessed Emmi and this organization, and I wanted to help in any way I could.
So from 9-6 every day, we moved.
All five teams of girls packed everything up,
cleaned the six story building that wasn't used in three years.
and moved everything in.
In two weeks.
At night, we went to the bars.
Lydia and I hung out with two women, where to this day, I still cannot pronounce their names, but they looked for us every night, and us for them.
Most of the women have children.
Some of my teammates got to meet them, and hang out with them, and love them.
Kelly and Katie were able to take their girl out of the bars for the night to hang out, but they had to pay.
I witnessed too many girls be bought.
By sleezy men.
By young men.
By men that could be my grandfather.
The women would smile and laugh at the guy, and then just look at us lifeless.
They would be more excited to talk to us, than to the men.
When you walk into the Red Light District, there is an "alley".
This alley has a boxing ring, with about thirty bars surrounding it.
Every Monday Wednesday and Saturday there are matches, where everyone comes out.
When the men come to see the matches, the women flock to them.
Grab them and try to drag them into their bars to have drinks.
Grab the men in places you don't grab.
Do anything they can just to make a couple of dollars.
A way they make money, is getting drinks.
Every night Lydia and I would split a glass bottle coke.
And then buy our girls, and the midget boxer who would hang out with us, a whiskey.
We would spend $30 a night of our own money, just to be able to talk to these people.
We played games, Connect 5, dice games, and Billiards,
Which I found out I was terrible at.
But it was fun.
But, they aren't happy.
They do this, because they think they have to.
They think it is their only way to make money.
To send to their families,
Where even though their parents gladly accept the money, their child is a disgrace, and don't look at them as their daughters, or sons.
There are lady boys, men who dress as girls.
Don't get them confused with drag queens.
These lady boys are the prettiest girls I have ever seen.
You would never be able to tell they are men, but they are the sweetest people you can meet.
All these women and lady boys want is to be loved.
They don't know they have a way out.
They only get to "love" for two hours,
and then come back to work.
And even then, it is just having sex.
Sex is their job.
They are not prositutes.
They are God's beautiful daughters.
Who are just lost.
Who think they are worth nothing.
Yet get clients every day who will pay practically anything to spend two hours with.
And when you tell them, that God loves them so much, and He doesn't want anything from you, just your love,
They have the hardest time believing.
So, how much do you cost?
