Amazing Thailand.
Amazing Thailand has come and gone. Amazing is technically an understatement for me. There are so many things I miss about being in Thailand; cheap street food, being able to speak the language, and most importantly my FRIENDS on Bangla Road. I miss the way their faces would light up with a smile as we walked in. I miss the way they run up and give us hugs.
I miss loving on them.
Back at training camp we spent one evening praying for the nations we were about to head into. We were asked to pray for the orphans and AIDS victims in Africa, the poor and needy in Central America, and lastly the women trapped in the sex trade in Southeast Asia. I recall when I prayed for the women in SE Asia it really struck a soft spot in my heart. Gosh, I can remember just weeping and crying out “WE ARE COMING TO SAVE YOU!” After we were done I walked over to Cassie and told her that I didn’t know what my heart desired for the race until that very moment. I knew my heart was meant to reach out to the women of Southeast Asia stuck in the sex trade.
(Lighting of Sky Lanterns w/ names of my closest bar girls)
(Releasing their names to Jesus so they can be freed)
Fast forward to January 2011 in The Philippines. At this point we weren’t sure if the squad was going to split up in Thailand….and by that I mean the women would go work with the bar girls in Phuket and the men would go up to Chiang Mai to do manual labor and work with a center that is considered a safe house for girls who are at risk of being involved of the sex trade. When we found out ministries for the month we first heard that we were NOT being split up as men/women. Secondly, my team and team Crash of Love would be heading to Phuket to do outreach IN the bars of notorious Bangla Road. What?! God, you are amazing. Doing this kind of ministry outreach was heavily heavily desired for amongst many of my squadmates. There were FIVE other ministry sites the Lord could have sent me and my team, but God saw my heart and sent me where He knew my heart would come ALIVE.
My heart came ALIVE. As mentioned in my last post, I was able to speak to the women in their native language. They spoke Isan and I somewhat spoke Lao which was similar enough to carry an actual conversation. We joked a lot, played games, had great conversations, and strong friendships were built. The girls working there knew there was something different about us. Other than the fact that we dress weird and only order coke/red bull, they noticed that we were there for a different reason. It wasn’t to have drinks and get drunk, it wasn’t to come out and spend time with just our group of friends, but it was to come out and shower Christ’s love over each and every one of them.
We held the key to proper resources if they wanted to get out. We were sent to rescue them and bring them to a safer place.
I truly do miss the women I made friends with. I just have to leave it up to God to take it the rest of the way. I can raise my head up high knowing that I did my best. For the 30-40 minutes we spent at each bar I/we treated them as human beings and not just sex objects. Instead of asking how much it costs to bring them home or what all they would do, we would ask them about their families back home or what they had to eat that day. Side note: they sure do eat a lot of Som Tom (papaya salad) and grilled chicken!
Here’s a story of one of my favorite memories with the girls at the bar. We went my favorite bar that I was really close with a lot of the girls. I sat right in the middle of the bar and ordered my usual coke. The teammates that were with me sat on the side and began talking to another girl working at the bar. Once the girls I knew saw me they quickly came over to say hello. All 5 of them came and pulled up a chair next to me and just began talking about all sorts of stuff-jobs, life, and I even showed pictures of my family. Now, remember this bar only has about 5-6 girls working at it. Two older men walked up the bar and sat down. I noticed right away because I was like crap, now they are going to leave because they had a better chance of making more money if they went over to them and gave them attention. The girls make commission from selling beer – not Coke and then also their other income is from when they sell themselves. So I really felt discouraged when those two guys at down. I thought our conversation was going to die and the girls would wander off. Wrong! They all stayed around me! Only ONE of the girls left and she just left to get their drink order and then came right back our conversation. Not trying to brag or anything, but it felt AMAZING to have five beautiful Thai women sit and would rather talk to me….a non-beer buying, no-sex wanting, poor missionary fella like myself instead of two wealthy looking guys who could provide them with a good income for the night. VICTORIOUS! Those two lads literally got NO attention from the girls except to order drinks. The Lord attracted them to ME that evening so that I could continue to bless them with my love for them.
My teammates would literally have to pull me away from the bars each night. Now, back in my pre-race life I would need to be pulled away because I wanted to drink more! But not here, I had to be pulled away because I wanted to love on the girls some more. Some would say I have a problem, but is LOVING people too much really a problem? I think not. J We try not to stay too long at each bar because we aren’t “cash flowing” customers. When we take up the girls’ time the bar loses sales on alcohol and they lose the opportunity to collect “bar fines” from customers that want to take the girls away for night. We don’t want to make the bar owners/managers angry so we only stay for bits and pieces at a time.
Even though I’m in Malaysia now my heart still longs to be in Thailand. I am trying not to let that be a distraction for the rest of the race because it just wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the countries we visit. I knew before we started that Thailand would have a special place in my heart…..I just didn’t realize it would take such a large portion. Thailand has taken part of my heart and I feel like the only way my heart will be complete again is if I return and pick up where I left off. I fell in love with the culture, food, people, weather, and oh yea-the beaches aren’t too shabby either! I know God is constantly moving in Thailand-especially in Phuket. From the time we were there, bars have CLOSED and many bar stools remain EMPTY. Most importantly, girls have straight up left the bar scene in order to search for new jobs and a new life.
God is there. Amidst the darkness and rule of evil spirits, He continues to use people like me to be part of His army. He’s called upon us to bring light to the darkness. I know He’s not done on Bangla Road.
Neither am I.
