I Took My Mom To A Bar In Thailand
Parent Vision Trip. To me those words meant that my mom was coming to Thailand. I counted down the days until I could see her. I knew she was arriving in Chiang Mai before I was. I knew which hotel she would be staying in. And when we arrived, I found out her hotel was only a block away from the hostel I was staying in! I wanted so desperately to break the rules and sneak over and see her before we were scheduled to see them. But I waited.
The day of, I moved my stuff over to the hotel we would both be staying in. When we got there, there were some parents already waiting in the lobby. I searched, but didn’t find her. So I brought my stuff to the room and then came back to wait impatiently in the lobby. I sent a message to her, hoping she would have figured out wifi and see the message and come early. But she didn’t come early.
I waited. Checked my phone every 30 seconds.
Then finally, at exactly the time we were supposed to meet, I saw her! I jumped up out of my seat and hugged her. 7 months is way too long to go without a hug from my family!
We spent the next 5 days almost entirely in each other’s presence. I wanted to soak up as much time as I could with her. I knew that even though I only had 4 months left after this, it would feel like an eternity after only a taste of home.
She brought greetings from home, snacks, and other things that are difficult to find overseas. Which was great, but just to have her in the same room was everything I wanted.
I got to show her bits and pieces of my life for the last 7 months. She got to experience 4 types of ministry with me—slums, monk chat, ask the Lord, and bar ministry. I think she enjoyed the experience of all of them.
In the slums we were supposed to play with kids, but it was a school day, so there were only a few little ones, and those who were there were reluctant to leave their mothers’ sides. We ended up going to a little stand and buying juices to hand out to the kids. It was a hit! One kid that we did get to play with a bit, was so thirsty that when we tried to give a juice to his mom the kid took that one too!
In monk chat we went to a Buddhist temple and sat down at a table to talk with the monks. For them it is practicing English and answering questions about Buddhism, but where else in the world are you going to find better opening for evangelism? The guy we talked with was very happy, laughing most of the time. He was open to hearing about Christianity, but did say multiple times that he believes in no gods.
Ask the Lord was different. I have done what we call “treasure hunts”, but it was suggested that we try a “Jericho Walk”. Basically, we prayed about where God wanted us to claim as His territory, then we prayer walked around it 7 times and yelled. Both mom and I felt God was leading us to the bar street. We thought it would be a simple walk around the building we had been ministering in, but it turned out to be a much bigger area that we had to walk. My phone has an app that keeps track of how much I walk, and (though it’s not very accurate, it does get close) it said we walked 8 miles that day! It was so cool! As we walked around and around, people began to notice us and smile. We got a few comments and questioning glances. And our “shout” at the end was kind of wimpy, but we did it!
And finally, Bar ministry. This to me has been the most challenging ministry I have done so far. I don’t go to bars in the states, so to do this for ministry already puts me out of my comfort zone. Then to add the fact that these women are for sale… it is so hard to keep a happy smile on my face. The idea for us short term teams is just to make friends with them and show them that there are people in the world who aren’t out to abuse them. But the more time you have the more you can share with them about the gospel. In Asia relationships are very important, so to just go in and preach at them would not work. You have to build a friendship with them first.
Well, mom and I were with a fairly large group, and the bar we chose was small. It had a pool table that took up most of the space. Also, since it was relatively early in the night that meant that it wasn’t very busy yet, so there weren’t as many women. So, our group decided to split up. Half went to play pool with the girls and half stayed in the booth to do intercessory prayer. Mom and I stayed in the booth. But it was so amazing to watch the transformation! At the start of the night the women were all smiles… but obviously fake smiles. These are the smiles they put on for customers. As the night went on and we prayed for them to open up, you could see that they were genuinely having fun. By the time we left they gave us hugs and when we came back the next day they were so happy to see us!
We also did some adventuring. We went to see elephants and tigers! At the elephant place we got to feed them and watch them get a bath, then they preformed a show. We saw them play soccer, paint pictures, and do tricks. We got hugs and kisses! Then we went to the tiger kingdom and walked into the cage and pet a tiger!
Overall, it was a great week! I’m sad its over. I wish she could have just continued with me for the rest of the race! But it won’t be very long until I’m back home for another hug!
Love you Mom!!
