I’m not blind anymore.
Statistics aren’t just something I have learned and memorized.
Documentaries and Dateline Specials aren’t just something I have watched and cried over anymore.
Today I came face to face with the reality of Sex Trafficking and this is what I experienced.
Today as we left lunch I walked down a street lined with massage parlors that are fronts for brothels where the girls sitting outside dressed in tight, revealing clothing, I became sick and heartbroken as I watched some of them grab men walking by, begging them for business. Desperate to meet the demands placed on them by their (let’s call them) “employers”.
I was a mere few inches from them.
I watched a man sit with a girl outside of a parlor making small talk with her, and I felt as if he was trying to be as gentlemanly to her as he thought appropriate to band-aid and justify his actions. I watched a man walk into the three-story, pink, Christin Massage Parlor that’s a one minute walk from where I am staying.
I experienced all of this in less than ten minutes.
Tonight as we went out to explore Phuket, we walked down to Bangla Street which is lined with bars, more massage parlors, dance clubs and strip clubs. I knew it was something I needed to see but I was not ready for what I experienced. The way to Bangla Street we were bombarded with advertisements for strip shows and sex shows every few feet. It should have prepared me for what was coming but it didn’t.
We arrived on Bangla Street and it was packed. Packed with men, women, and even children with their parents all walking along this road lined with the aforementioned “businesses”. I looked beyond the people advertising shows, drink specials and clubs and saw young women dancing on poles on top of the bars. Moving their scantily clad bodies around just enough to catch the eyes of those seeking them, but these young women were so tired. It was incredibly evident that they don’t enjoy what they are doing.
They are trapped and this is what they have to do all night, every single night.
As we walked down the street having walked all the way to one end I reached my end and just began to cry in the middle of the street. I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t watch these girls sell and advertise their bodies to those that didn’t seek to honor or treasure them, but to those who are hungry and seeking to devour them. I was crying for the girls, I was crying for the men and women seeking to purchase them and I was crying for the people who think they own these girls.
Crying for the hurt and pain, crying for the injustice, crying out of anger and confusion.
God what the heck is going on? Tonight as I sit back in my room after leaving the streets, I have asked so many questions. I have cried more. I don’t get to unsee any of this.
This is real.
I am not angry with God for any of this. I know this isn’t his will. I know that he seeks to bring life and life ABUNDANTLY, and that its the enemy who come to steal, to kill and destroy (John 10:10), and that’s what he is doing not only on this street but around the world with the sex trafficking industry.
Those of us who have chosen Christ, have tasted this abundant life. The life that’s full of hope, peace, joy and healing and it is our job to bring that wherever we go. It’s what we were told to do (Matthew 28:16-20). We can’t afford to be selfish with what Christ has done for us, there are COUNTLESS who need Jesus. If our hearts and lives have truly been changed by the grace and mercy so freely offered to us by our Heavenly Father, we should be dying for others to experience this.
There is NO ONE who is too far from the reach of the Lord. NO ONE who will not be granted grace, forgiveness, mercy and healing if they approach the Lord desiring salvation and redemption.
NO ONE.
Not these girls, not the pimps and madams, not the buyers. Yes anger is a real thing. What is happening is so wrong. But I challenge you to get uncomfortable where you are. Be angry, that’s fine, but don’t sin in your anger.
I challenge you to pray for your eyes to be opened to the things happening in the world around you. I challenge you to pray for the things that make you angry. The things that make absolutely no sense and make you ask God, “Why?” I challenge you to pray into the things that seem insurmountable and seem like they are impossible and even the areas that your heart has become hardened to and even the things that you refuse to acknowledge because once you open your eyes and heart to that it’s going to hurt like hell.
But it’s worth it.
Our own comfort is not worth knowing others are going without what we have experienced with Jesus, and possibly spending eternity separated from Him. Need I remind you (and myself) that Jesus left the most comfortable place to become a human, dwell among us and our junk and crap, and DIE for us to restore all those who desire, to himself because of His incredible, unexplainable, unimaginable love for us.
I don’t get to complain about being uncomfortable because I will never be as uncomfortable as Jesus became for me. The bar is set.
At this point I am running the risk of rambling, but I am sure there will be more of my heart to come. Understand that I am learning all of this as I share and I don’t have it all figured out. But I am trusting Jesus all along the way. I am so uncomfortable tonight and my heart is so heavy. However in this crazy and almost inexplicable way I am simultaneously experiencing more of the Father’s love for me and this world. Being uncomfortable and having my eyes opened is so difficult but so beautifully worth it.
I am praying for all who read this that you would ask the Father for bravery to see and feel what He needs us to see and feel. I am praying that you would experience greater intimacy with Him as you take steps of obedience. I am praying that you are surprised. I am praying that you become uncomfortable. May you be blind no more in Jesus name.
Love Y’all.
