No matter where you are in the world, walking into a bar resonates a strange sense of familiarity. The aroma of sloshed beverages that have seeped into the floors, the mesmerizing waltz of colorful lights across the room and beats that reverb in your bones that make you want to wiggle. You find the friendly (and sometimes not so friendly…) bartender behind the bar serving the parched. And then there are the men. And the women. No matter where you go, Spain, Thailand or the U.S., it’s all the same.
This month, my home in Thailand is just a block away from a road that filled with bar after bar after bar. One place, called the Stadium, has a floor plan with such open fluidity, it allows you to easily make your way from one bar to the next. A pub crawler’s dream, if you think about it. The entrance to all the bars are dotted with women and ladyboys enticing passerbyers to come in and belly up to their bar. The thing is, their job isn’t just to fill up the bar, they offer a litany of additional services.
One of the many different tasks that we have for ministry this month is to go out and hang out in these bars, order a soda and make friends with the people working in the bars with the hopes that someday our new friends will leave the bars. The reality is in Thailand, the sex industry runs rampant. Women, men and unfortunately, sometimes children, are selling their bodies as a means to providing an income for their children or their parents or as a result of human trafficking.
On my way to my first night out, I felt a pain in my stomach. We were about to meet the reality of this heavy issue face to face. Sure enough, stepping into the first bar felt the same but different. The smell was the same. The lights were the same. The songs were the same. But it definitely felt different. The girls at the door would beckon the people walking by to stop and sometimes taking them by the hand to pull them in. Men would stop and lean in, eyeing the girls in this bar seeking out the one who would satisfy his desires. It was a lot to take in.
As we walked through the Red Light District, I saw several women working very hard to close a deal. One girl went in for the very dramatic, big and sensual hug. Another was flirting real hard. They drink the drinks that are bought for them. They sit on laps and caress and cuddle.
Wait a minute. How is that any different from any other bar? This happens everywhere. Men and women in the pursuit of sex. Yeah, there may not be a seller and a buyer, but the actions are the same. The pursuit is the same.
On the nights we have bar ministry, we have some who go out and some who stay in to pray. Tonight I stayed in. As I was praying, one of my favorite movies came to mind, Moulin Rouge. Have you seen it? It’s a love story with fantastic music and a lead actor who sing to me all day. The story takes place in a brothel and the romance is between a prostitute (Satine) and a penniless writer (Christian). The scene that came to mind was where Satine had decided to runaway with Christian and she was back at the Moulin Rouge packing her belongings. The manager of the Moulin Rouge walks in to try to stop her and she says, “All my life you made me believe I was only worth what someone would pay for me! But Christian loves me. He loves me! He loves me, Harold. And that is worth everything!”
Right. It’s not just a pursuit of sex. It’s a pursuit of love. Love is worth everything.
Don’t get me wrong, there are differences between the men and women who sell their bodies and those who sleep with people they meet in bars. But the actions lead to the hook ups are the same. The touches, the looks, the words that lead the mind down paths that will lead to something more – it’s the same. One of the women we talked to is enamored with a man who came to spend a week with her. He may have paid her for the time that she spent with him, but there was still a connection. Her eyes show that her heart was tied.
The men and women who work in the bars here in Thailand are no different than you and me. Yeah, people pay them for their bodies, but what have you given away for free (and I’m not just talking about sex)? I don’t ask you this question to condemn, that’s most definitely not my heart, but help adjust our perspective. For some, it’s easy to disassociate ourselves from the reality that these individuals are loved by God and not ‘just a prostitute’. The men and women in the bars are worth more. The buyers are worth more. You are worth more. And love is worth everything.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16
