“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Today I listened to an amazing story about a woman who risked her life to spend two years in Thailand to minister to prostitutes and offer them a way out of that lifestyle. Around 12 million people live in Bangkok. In one of the red light districts of Bangkok where Celeste McGee and two other ladies ministered, within a 1-square mile radius, there are 10,000 prostitutes. Celeste worked with a non-profit ministry called “The Well” where women who left prostitution are taught new skills and are discipled in a new way of living for their family and children. At the end of those 2 years, there were 65 women in “The Well” program; some of these women were reunited with their children.
Two to three times a week, Celeste and the other two ladies would go into a strip club, sports bar, or pool table bar, wherever prostitutes were being sold, and they would sit down with the prostitutes, talk with them, and build a friendship with them to offer them a way out of their prostitution. Many times, they would buy a woman prostitute for the night (cost to buy was $17-20) and in turn, Celeste and the two other ladies would treat the prostitutes like a queen. They would take them somewhere special and safe, like bowling or ice skating or to a Christian concert. They would buy the prostitutes ice cream, and do anything they thought would show the women that God loves them and desires a relationship with them.
Celeste’s story of how they would purchase the prostitutes to shower goodness and grace on their lives is an amazing radical idea! Reminds me of how Jesus’ purchased us, the Redeemed, with the priceless blood He shed on the cross for the payment of the penalty of sin in our lives so we can be showered with goodness and grace for the rest of our lives by God the Father.
Less than 2% are Christians
96% are Buddhists
More prostitutes in Thailand than Christians.
More brothels in Thailand than schools.
In 2007, more than 9.4 million foreign men have traveled to Thailand to partake of the sex industry.
Thailand is known as the sex capital of the world.
http://www.swbts.edu/dashboard.cfm?dateString=20090225&dateToLoad=February%2025,%202009
