This is the main road that the small streets full of bars
stem off of. This is the street we walk
down every other night in prayer. This
is also one of the darkest and saddest places I have ever seen. Think of the strips in Myrtle Beach or
Daytona Beach that tourist come to and look in shops, hang out, and take
pictures. That is Bangla Road plus girls
dancing on bars and poles, selling themselves, and Lady Boys who are boys
raised to be girls in prostitution, dressed in cabaret costumes.
This was a new sight for me.
The bars in Chang Mai did not have many of these things. They 
also did not have tourist families with
their children of all ages exposed to this. It did not have groups of women my
age on vacation hanging out in the bars.
It did not have them standing and videoing the “entertainment�.
The families with children who took pictures of their 6 year
old daughter dancing on a bar with a ladyboy or the father with the 10 year old
son staring at the girls dancing on the poles broke my heart and incited my
anger. How is this a good idea? Why do these parents not see how wrong this
is? Bangla Road is not just about buying
women for the night but it is a tourist sight for all to come and watch.
This is when I get overwhelmed with the depravity of
mankind. I do not understand why we are
okay with women being sold and used for others entertainment. Why aren’t other foreign women appalled by
what they see? Instead I see them with
their cameras and phones capturing the “entertainment.� I see the women in the bars and on the street
and my heart breaks for the life they have to live. Their families have groomed some of the women
for this job, some have been trafficked, and some have no other way to provide
for their families. They deserve so much
more in their lives than being objects for another’s pleasure.
I walk down Bangla Road with my team of four girls. We do not go into the bars or down the side
streets of bars. Our main goal is to
prayer walk down and up Bangla Road. We
listen for the voice of God and obey.
I’ve never spent so much time praying in my life, but it has been
incredible how God has spoken to us and guided us in our time down there.
My team of girls has built relationships with one of the
girls in a bar, an Indian women who works in a shop on Bangla, and an American
guy who has been living and working in Phuket.
It has been a privilege to go behind these amazing young women and
support, encourage, and guide them as they hear God’s voice in obey. I wish I could put into words how powerful
prayer can be and important it is for us to be out there praying and
interceding for the groups who do go into the bars each night.
Tonight is our last night on Bangla Road. It will be hard to say goodbye to the people
we have gotten to know. Pray we finish
strong.
