Here is an overall look at Thailand and what I learned during my time there.
It was a whirlwind of a month (in the best of ways!). I moved rooms/homes three times, worked with two different ministries, and welcomed parents for our Parent Vision Trip (PVT).
The first 3 weeks were amazing! We worked for an organization with a mission to empower the Burmese peoples as they are engaging in one of the longest civil wars in the history of the world. The political unrest in Burma is a problem of politics and a discrimination in religion. Burmese peoples are fleeing the country and seeking refuge where they must. It seems small, but we did office work, participated in their workouts (they were NOT easy at first), and helped wherever we could with the details and different programs. The office was in dire need of help with several English projects and children’s programs to move these areas of the organization further.
Our last week was PVT. It was an eye opening experience for all of the parents and we engaged in ministry with them in the Red Light District and gave teachings over what we have learned on the World Race. We also did prayer walks and “Ask the Lord” ministry, in other words we went where the Lord told us to go.
There were two things tugging on my heart the whole month. The first was the spiritual warfare. There is a creepy spirit dude on the bills of Thailand money that the people worship, and there are Buddhist temples everywhere. They give much power to these spirits. Every street corner in Asia there is a spirit house that people offer food, drinks, money, and flowers to. It truly is a scene from the Old Testament and makes me see it in a whole new light. There are giant golden statues everywhere, people bowing down and worshiping these pieces of man-made metal. There is not peace in Chiang Mai, there is severe unrest in the spiritual realm. The second thing tugging on my heart was the Red Light District, which also invited spiritual warfare into the area. We stayed only 2 blocks away from it. The darkness in those streets was felt to my very core as I observed the people.
Before I knew where it was, Ally and I decided to go try vegan food down the road. On our way there, I noticed many things didn’t look right.
“Ally, I think we are at the tail end of the Red Light District.”
There were massage parlors with several women outside of them, stairs to upper rooms with the windows shut, women dressed to the nines, and ladyboys. There were hidden massage places in alleyways and scandalous furniture settings on the outside. I noticed a woman with tarot cards on the side of the road. I paused and went to pray for her, for peace to be with her and for any evil to leave her life. I found myself praying a lot as we exited this mysterious street.
A week later, I was at the hospital getting blood drawn. Across the way, there were two western men with tiny Thai women, one of which caught my eye. Her eyes were black, tormented, seemingly dead. Her teeth had silver behind it, her body was tiny and lifeless. I sat there praying, yet so angry. How could someone do something like this? How could men from MY country do this? How could you use her to go to the hospital with you, make her feel important to you, and then use her?
A week after this incident, I discovered some shocking statistics: Ninety five percent of customers are Thai men. Three percent are Chinese/Asian. Only 2% are western. Yet I only saw and noticed the 2%. So how many more prostitutes were out there? I found many as we went out and I discovered the streets I had been walking were the Red Light District. I saw many lifeless eyes, bruised skin. I greeted them all and watched these prostitutes as their face lit up. Someone was recognizing them as a human being.
After praying on this street with my C-sters and the parents, the spiritual heaviness I first felt in that area became no match for peace that was invited there. Jesus paved those streets with the Holy Spirit’s peace and sent rain, delaying the trade for the people. I will say though, I felt a little guilty praying for the rain. It is such a sad, unending cycle. If these people do not get business, the women will go hungry. If they do get business, the women will be traumatized and some may end up in danger or dead. The Red Light District is a vicious cycle. Yet, after all of that I can’t help but become angry when I see men choosing women and going into closed rooms, stealing the last bit of their identity as they disengage with the human behind their lifeless eyes. Life for these women is stolen, life is not found. As I pondered the thief, I found myself praying for the men, though I was fiercely angry. I found myself feeling like God can provide for them in other ways without this business, but still a little sad and confused as to how I felt in this situation.
All in all, I want justice. I want the souls to be seen and healed. I WANT SEX TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION TO END. It is fitting in Revelations that God uses the metaphor of the Scarlet Woman while sex trafficking is the number 1 crime in the world right now. It is not a coincidence, my friends.
Continue to pray for justice for the oppressed and the voiceless. My heart continues to go out to them. I leave Thailand with a hope that cannot put us to shame, that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.
