As I sit in my small, shared room of 7 messy women in Thailand listening to Christmas music, I can’t help but feel a little numb to the fact that I’m not going to be home for Christmas this year. It hasn’t seemed to quite sink in yet. Maybe because while in Thailand I feel like I’m visiting Florida, maybe because I haven’t seen my family in over 5 months, maybe because I’m not able to partake in any of the usual Christmas traditions I’m used to this time of year. No nativity count down calendar, no ABC’s 25 days of Christmas, no snow, no big department stores decorated and crowded with shoppers, no big cozy coats, sweaters and scarves, no hot cocoa or ice skating or sledding.
It’s hard to think of being away from home for this special time of year. Then I think of the beautiful girls I’m getting to know here. The very ones whose families sold them to the city to be prostitutes so they could have enough money to survive. The same girls who are in the arms of single traveling men, wedding rings on and all, each night in the bars; bought and sold for their time like cattle. All because they have “no other options.” And they almost don’t. Most of these girls are from villages outside the city, and because of this are not considered citizens. The only jobs non-citizens can have are selling random bracelets and flowers on the streets or…their bodies. Some of the older girls start out selling bracelets and flowers only to find that they are not making ends meet. They fall back on prostitution because it is guaranteed money.
The darkness that surrounds these girls can be easily missed or mistaken. They are covered in a veil of sadness, but unless you’re really looking it’s hard to see. They are masters at masking their emotions; always smiling and joking and laughing because that’s what their customers want to see. And what the customers want to see, they see. They don’t think about the girl as a person. They don’t allow themselves to think about the consequences of their actions or the effects this kind of life has on these girls, or themselves. All they see is a moment of want, a moment of control, pleasure, a moment to forget whatever they left behind, or an attempt to fill a void they are unaware, or quite possibly, are very aware, is there. Whatever it is, it’s given to a sickness that breeds in these dark bars, where the enemy has been given free reign. A darkness that masks, conceals, clouds thoughts and confuses morality. After all, he is the master of trickery and deceit.
When walking into these bars it’s easy to expect and see the jail these girls are living in. What can be overlooked is the jail the buyers are in as well. It’s hard to look at these men and not feel extreme anger, or hatred at what they are allowing to happen to these children.
The truth is, they are also loved by God….just as much as the girls. They are lost. They are bound. They need God’s love just as much as the victims, and every time we enter a bar we are not just bringing God’s light to the girls, we are bringing light to the men. The men who are so consumed by lust they let it control and dictate their entire lives. It’s horrible and heartbreaking, the hold the enemy has in this part of Thailand. Really, in the world, because sex trafficking is an every day occurrence in almost every corner. It’s real, it’s happening and it’s been allowed to grow under the darkness of unawareness.
It’s hard to see the hope in a problem that is so huge. A problem that affects and destroys so many people.
But then, as I sit here, just a week before Christmas Day, I am reminded of the precious baby that we live every day to praise, whose birth is celebrated this month, and whose birth brought forth the very salvation from every evil, every darkness, from every burden and jail in which the enemy tries to place us.
What a blessing to be able to carry this joy and good news to these broken people during the very season He came to give it to us. What a truly perfect gift.
This horrible injustice is real, and it’s big.
But our God is bigger, and He has already overcome the world!
Joy to the world, the Lord has come! Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns! Let man their songs employ! While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
He rules the world with truth and grace! And makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love. And wonders of His love. And wonders, wonders of His love.
