Picture this: Your family works on a farm, but they’re not making enough money. What’s the best and easiest solution? They send you to a touristy city to get a job. You’ll have to send most, if not all of your money back to the family. It’s an easy solution because there’s plenty of opportunity in the city…plenty of opportunities to work in the bars selling yourself to the men who come. By the way, you’re 14.
If you walk Bangla Road in Phuket you’ll find this to be a common story among the 1200+ girls there. They serve drinks and/or dance on the bars until the end of the night when they will most likely go home with a guy. It’s common in a lot of cities in Thailand, not just Phuket.
I’ve met girls working in the bars that have young kids and husbands. Many of them also have foreign boyfriends who come to visit them often. They do a great job at putting on a mask. I’ve spent enough time with a few girls to learn that they aren’t happy, but they don’t know what else to do, so they try to make the best of what they have.
I’ve seen girls 15 and younger dancing on bars. I’ve seen guys hassle and tease girls in public like they’re merely objects for their enjoyment. I’ve heard girls tell me how lonely they are and that they drink or be the funny girl to fill that void. I’ve seen teeth that give girls away as drug addicts. I’ve seen girls sneak shots to make the night go faster.
And here’s what makes me even angrier…a lot of the tourists think that the girls “want” or “choose” to be there, so it’s totally OK to take advantage of what’s there. This might be true, but how do you define these terms? They “want” or “choose” to help their families. After talking to them, I know first hand that they don’t “want” or “choose” out of their own desires to be in the bars selling themselves.
Our ministry offers a way out. It has 2 parts. Our contacts teach the girls how to make jewelry and to bake. (They make AWESOME chocolate cookies by the way…) So they equip them to start their own business here or back in their hometowns. They also disciple the girls. Most of the girls come to know Christ and can then disciple others and share Christ with others that foreign missionaries may not be able to reach. Amazing!
Our part this month is visiting the bars, forming relationships with the girls, and hopefully getting an opportunity to invite them to lunch with us and to show them what the ministry is all about. I’ve met some awesome girls. They’re funny, they’re genuine, and they’re some of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. They’re stealing my heart.
The spiritual atmosphere in the bars is dark and intense. People are seeking all types of love and intimacy that they hope will satisfy. We spend a lot of time in prayer before we ever set foot in a bar. But it’s worth it. Over 35 girls have gone through the ministries program and have left a life of selling themselves to men.
