During a
recent trip to the super market near our home for the month here in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, Emily and I met a lady-boy.
Ladyboys are men who desire to be
women. They act, speak, talk, and dress like women. Most lady-boys live as a
woman so throughout this blog I will refer to the lady-boy as “she”. And for the sake of privacy we’ll call this
lady-boy Marina.
Marina
was timidly walking down the soap isle, shopping basket in hand, with her head
down and her face shielded by a fabulous Louis Vuitton baseball cap. When I passed her I said “hello” to which she quickly
lifed her head revealing an excited smile and responded with an enthusiastic
“Hi!” I think my friendly acknowledgment took her by surprise. She followed her animated greeting with…
“Where you from?”
“Wow! America!”
“My name Marina”
“How long you stay?”
I continued
the conversation by asking her if she was from Chiang Mai…
“Yes, I Chiang Mai baby”
“I work bar on Loi Kroh”
“You know where is?”
“You come visit me”
“I want know you”
Little
did she know we’ve spent most our time here in Thailand getting very familiar
with the bars on Loi Kroh street and that we would certainly come visit her and
want to know (and love) her too.
Our next
outreach was during the day, so Emily and I headed down to Loi Kroh street in
hopes Marina would be working early and she was. We learned she opens the bar at 3pm then
heads home for a couple hours to “get sexy” for the long night ahead. 
We drank
Diet Cokes while she sipped Whiskey, played Connect Four (a popular game at
most the bars in Thailand) and chatted about breasts and hormone injections —
certainly not your typical day of ministry on the World Race. But something about our time with Marina was
strangely comfortable and sweetly innocent; something I don’t think I could say
if our encounter happened during night outreach.
difference between night and day on bar street is shocking. It is almost like the women and lady-boys
have two separate lives. During the day
you’ll find bar workers relaxing in the bars as if they were customers. Many have their children with them (see
picture of me with a bar girl’s baby), laughing enjoying the company of their
co-workers, unaware of potential customers passing on the sidewalk. In the light of day they seemingly live in
freedom to be themselves before they transform into someone they’re not,
someone who is numb to the sad realities hidden by the darkness.
I believe
God is using day outreach to give my team a glimpse of HOPE; a glimpse of what these
bar workers’ lives can look like – full of freedom. But removing the “darkness” and all the
deception that comes with it is only possible with Jesus. So we will continue to be His LIGHT day and
night as we build relationships with the bar workers and pray faithfully for God’s
LIGHT to shine permanently on Loi Kroh street.
If I say “Surely the
darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me,” even the darkness
will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as
light to you. Psalm 139:11-12
God is light. In Him there is no darkness. 1John 1:5
