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God works in mysterious ways.
We've all heard that one, and I bet many of us have even seen it come true.
I definitely saw God show up mysteriously in May through through civil unrest in Thailand.
God used the Thai military coup to answer my prayers.
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In May, our ministry was in the red-light district of Phuket, Thailand. It was the heart of sex tourism, and our mission was to spread the love of God there by small interactions with people.
One night was a local holiday – Buddha day. We went down to the bars that night as usual, but very few were open. It turns out, it was illegal to sell alcohol that night because of the holiday. Most of the bars just closed, since they wouldn't make any sales. And, to our delight, the girls who work almost every night, had a night off.
It was a welcome sight. The road that is normally crawling with tourists was practically empty. All of the usual buying and drinking and dancing was suspended.
We caught a vision: what if this road looked like this every night? What if it were this empty every evening? What if all the tourists had to go home and all the girls finally got a rest?
Crowded Bangla Road on a normal night
So we started praying. We started praying what we felt was an impossible prayer. God, make Bangla Road look like this every night. Make it this empty every evening. Halt the commerce here, make the tourists go home. Close the road.
A week later, the military takeover happened. Although there was little affect felt so far south as Phuket, part of the coup included a mandatory nationwide 10pm curfew.
10pm. It meant we couldn't go to the bars that night. Although we were sad to miss out on a night of ministry, we spent the night in prayer.
We thought maybe the curfew would be only one night, but the next night it was still in effect. 10pm, everything closes, everyone has to be home. Although it would mean an early night for us, we decided to go out to Bangla Road anyway to see all the girls we had connected with.
However, we got there and most of the bars were closed. Most of our friends weren't even working. The bars didn't see the point in opening if they had to close at 10pm. It took a few minutes to dawn on us… Everything was closed…wasn't this exactly the answer to our impossible prayer?!
The road was nearly empty, just like we had prayed. And it had been like that the night before. And the night after, and the night after, and the night after.
The curfew continued until we left Thailand and past that. It blew us away… We hadn't expected anything good to come of the coup, but look! Our prayers had been answered. Maybe, in some crazy way, this coup happened to answer those prayers.
Many of the sex tourists we spoke to were headed home because of the early bar closings, and the girls we knew got to rest and have time off work for a while. God really dramatically answered the prayers we prayed for that road to be empty every night.
In addition, He used those empty nights to draw others into conversation with us, other people we wouldn't normally have been able to talk to.
One of those evening, my squadmate shared the gospel with a ladyboy, someone who normally would have been so busy she wouldn't have been able to sit and chat.
Another night, I spent an hour listening to an older tourist from Australia share about his life. He was just lonely and wanted someone to listen.
Street prostitutes usually will not give us even a second glance because they know we will not become customers, but I was able to talk with two 57 year old Thai prostitutes because business business was dead; I got the opportunity to talk to them as women about their lives and their families and look at them in the eyes as people and equals.
And on our last night, a bar promoter came up to us because he suspected we were Christians. Traffic was slow, so he had time. He had just started reading the Bible and had been seeking answers to many questions. He had just accepted the truth of Jesus Christ. And we were able to encourage him in his new faith.
God moved dramatically through our prayers and through the military curfew. He really does work in mysterious ways.
Although the curfew has been lifted now and Bangla still probably glows with it's same haunting lights, God is moving there. He is faithful, and He hears the cries of His children. Despite the darkness there, there is a feeling about it, a feeling that He is still sovereign over it, that He is still in control. He is slowly but surely redeeming that place inch by inch. In the end, I know He will remake Bangla Road into something new.
In the end, I know He will answer our prayer in full and end the darkness on Bangla Road.
