I sit in the bed of the truck as it slowly weaves its way up over the mountain in to Patong. I can hear all the passerby’s honk their horns almost simultaneously for a brief moment and I know we’ve crested the mountain. The spirit on the mount is located at this point. Part of Buddhist belief is that the honking to the spirit gains you one merit. It is here the spiritual atmosphere changes and I feel like I’m literally heading into battle as my heart rate even begins to increase, not out of fear but anticipation. The rest of the drive down the hill I am reminding myself of the armor that I am wearing and that darkness has no hold over me. Christ has already won. I begin praying that God’s angels surround us and protect us and I can see the giant white winged beings on all sides of the vehicle.
Alert and full of peace I make my way through the maze of people. Music, traffic, and shouts are coming from every direction competing for attention and the volume only intensifies as soon as I’m standing on Bangla Road. In the midst of the symphony of 200+ bars playing in the air I can hear the cries for help from the hearts of 2,000 women trapped on this street. Some of them line up beneath the lights waiting to be bought, those who already have been cling to the arm of their broken, hollow lover. Some lifelessly grip a pole in the transparent boxes above the crowd. The others are at the bars dancing or entertaining the mass of tourists. Then there are the VIP clubs, the closed doors, the brothels, things I’m not supposed to know about.
Walking down the street of flashing lights, deafening bar music, and tourists I see families with children, groups of lonely men, people pausing to take pictures or record when they were on Bangla Road having the time of their life capturing that woman in the mask and silver dress swaying like a zombie in her glass cage, and the transvestites dressed in exquisite costumes of feathers and jewels.
My head can’t comprehend he chaos of it all, nonetheless, I find myself entering into the rows and rows of open bars with the sole purpose of loving these women and seeing them the way they deserve to be seen. In the event we earn their trust and find those who want out that is when we tell them about SHE where they can come and get a job and take English classes. Until then it’s pure love. Noticing their worth, feeding them hope through the look in our eyes, playing games with them at the bar to distract them from the leeches that come to suck more life from them.
It is a bit overwhelming because there are just so many women to get to know and to reach. However I know that it’s all about that one life I can touch. I know even as I walk I bring life and I shed light. I know that God is there on Bangla Road and good things are happening. Bangla Road be set free!
Pray that my last two weeks here in Thailand God moves in even bigger ways. Dare to pray daringly. Lord, bring the walls of Bangla Road crumbling down!
