In the United States, sex trafficking is hidden. It’s there, but you don’t see it advertised as you walk down the street or on the menu as you’re ordering your dinner.
But in Thailand, it’s not hidden. Not at all.
I know because this past month my team was staying right on the corner of the red light district in Chiang Mai. Two doors down (in the same building as our hostel) was a bar where women were on the menu for $10. I walked down the streets at night and saw older, foreign men openly fondling young women the ages of their daughters or granddaughters.
Part of our ministry was to go to these different bars and show them the love of Jesus by simply just building a friendship with them. No string attached. For these women and ladyboys, used to people only talking to them for what they could get out of them, this was very different for most of them and left them a little confused but also a little curious to know more.
The first night I went out, I expected my heart to be torn to pieces by the anguish of these girls’ lives, to be utterly outraged, to see pain ridden all over their faces. But I was very surprised when I didn’t. Most of them didn’t have a “woe is me” attitude when we talked with them; they seemed happy, friendly, and like they were having a great time. They didn’t seem like they were enslaved and wanting to escape, just the opposite, it seemed like they were choosing this life and enjoyed it. Being new to this scene, it left me a bit confused. I was still waiting for that moment for the gravity of this situation to really “click” in my heart.
I did intercessory prayer one night as part of my team went out to the bars and the Lord showed me something. Here’s an excerpt from my journal-
“I was standing in the 3rd story conference room looking out the full length windows at the city life below, praying. Then I put my hands on the glass and God revealed to me that this is what the women feel like. They’re trapped behind glass walls. They can see out, they can see freedom, hope, and God; it’s so close, but yet so far away. They can almost touch it, but every time they try, they keep running into the glass wall, falling down and getting bruised. They look free, like they have a choice, but that’s because no one can see the glass wall – their invisible chains and prison…”
And this became evident as we spent more time with each of the girls, getting to know them better. Learning about their lives and families, asking their dreams and desires, sharing our lives with them…they let us in the other side of the glass and they didn’t want to be there. For some, it was the only way they could make enough money to hopefully have a good future in a few years of saving. For others, they had small children and the dad had run out and she needed to provide for her family. They all had stories of why they were there. For some it was their choice, for most it wasn’t. But they had to keep their “happy face” on because well, they were in the business of customer service, after all.
There is one moment that sparked a flame in my heart and I felt just a teeny tiny glimpse of what they feel like. It was something simple and small, but it was enough.
Two of my teammates and I were leaving a bar and walking through the “horseshoe” of bars to get back to the main street when a foreign man at one of the bars yelled out, “Hey sexy!” as we passed by.
My heart had been hurting for the men, almost more than the girls. I’m usually really empathetic, but I was still having a hard time relating deeply to how these women felt up until this point, but at this moment something shifted. I looked at him and kept walking, but in my head I was fuming. “Who the heck does he think he is to talk to a woman like that?! Excuse you, but we are NOT pieces of meat or animals for you to call after!”
I got so defensive and irritated and then it hit me between the eyeballs. It finally clicked. A small glimpse of how these women feel inside. This one little comment reminded me how much I HATED getting those kind of comments from men and how degraded they made you feel, yet, this is what these women and ladyboys hear EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I wasn’t angry at the men because I understand that they are broken, lost, and need the love of a savior just as much, but I was enraged by the reality of the consequences of their actions.
We’re not objects. We’re not pieces of meat. We’re not a sports game where the most obnoxious and loudest fan gets the prize. And we’re not your coin jar for you to drop your 1 cent pick up lines in.
Maybe that’s harsh, but I’m just keepin’ it real.
I don’t like being treated that way. Nor any other woman for that fact.
I know the way it makes me feel when it happens and I don’t want anyone else to feel that way.
But my heart broke for the what these women go through every day.
What if they never knew any better than being treated like the door prize? What if they’ve never seen what a real relationship looks like or never encountered a man treating her with respect simply because she’s a human being.
And maybe that’s it right there.
We are humans.
I see videos, pictures, commercials, and ads plastering social media about animal rights. And while I am definitely not against that (you should love your animals!), sometimes it makes me think of the reality of how many “human” rights are being stripped away every day.
Every time a girl is called at, it screams the message, “you are no more than an animal!” to her.
But she is. She’s a person. A human being who should be respected; not based on her age, race, genetic makeup, her education level, social status, the job she has or doesn’t have, her appearance, cleanliness or filthiness, the language she speaks, her beliefs or religion, her wardrobe, her place of living, relationship status, and people’s “assumptions and stereotypes.” NO! A human is the most beautiful thing that God ever created. Worth so much, He sent His own son to die for us so that we would know the depth of the love He has for us. If God has deemed us so worthy of such a pure, relentless, unending, unconditional love…who are we to ever deem someone “unworthy”?
These women deserve to be reminded that they are human and that’s enough. It was enough for God, it should be enough for us.
While sex trafficking is a problem, a very big problem, I think there is a bigger underlying problem of not recognizing the value of nor truly loving people. And while not everyone can go out to the red light district and love on the people being trafficked, you can help be a part of the solution. This doesn’t just go to the women on the streets and in the bars. Not even to just women in general. But to all the people who get passed by every day by people who forget they are humans, too- your clerk at the check out line, the woman you see cleaning your workplace every day, the men who come every Tuesday to collect your garbage, the college kid who gave you your coffee from the drive-thru window, your neighbor you see cutting his grass, the person sitting next to you in church, the old man who’s walking slow as he shops in the grocery store, the kids running around begging for attention but only told to be quiet, that stranger your pass in the hallway at school, your parents you haven’t talked to in a while or reminded them that you love them…think of it. How many people do you pass by in a day? How many chances do you have to do something for them to remind them that they are a human being and they are worthy of love- whether it’s doing something nice for them or simply saying hello and asking how they’re doing?
We will probably never completely eliminate human trafficking, but we can make a difference by choosing to look beyond our normal sight and choose to love the people in front of us; the ones seen and the ones forgotten. And one person at a time, the difference will be made.
Who will you go love?
