An image that I will never forget.
Walking Street, Pattaya, Thailand.
A tall, beautiful woman was wearing an outfit that completely glorified her features. She was standing outside of a bar with two men that were gawking and flirting with her. She was stunning, but she looked so sad. She had blue contact lenses and her hair was dyed a lighter color. Everything about her features was completely transformed, and according to society’s standards, perfected, from her original beauty. A few minutes later, I glanced at an older woman who was wearing a corset and heels. She was probably in her 50s or 60s. I will never forget the look on her face – defeated and lost. I looked at her belly and it was so wrinkled from age and abuse. My heart broke in half, I was devastated. I kept thinking, “How long has she been doing this?” “How long has she let the evil of this world determine her value and worth… that she has to be thin, beautiful and perfectly put together so that some complete stranger will have sex with her to make her feel worthy?”
My heart cried out for these women on the streets.
Jesus’ heart cries out for these women on the streets.
These women are His children.
These women are my sisters.
No matter her story, her past mistakes, her current mistakes, her job, she is a daughter of the King and she is worthy of love. Not the kind of love that demands you to take your clothes off and sell your body for money, but the kind of love that says “I see you, I see you dwelling in such a dark place, covered in shame and I choose to love you just the same.”
The town of Pattaya, Thailand is solely known for sex trafficking. Most of Thailand, apart from the bigger cities, is incredibly poor. However, tourists and foreigners would flock to Pattaya because they were looking for pleasure and they knew that the locals were poor and desperate for money. Soon the Thai people heard about this and they would send their daughters out to Pattaya to help their families make more money. So they would sell themselves to support their families back in their hometowns. That just blew my mind. I love my family so much, and if we were starving to death, would I do that for them?
That’s when Jesus comes in. Without Him, that may seem like the only option, but God’s light shines brightest in the darkest of places. He enters into our brokenness, gives us the strength we need and says to us, “My name is Hope.”
As we were walking through Pattaya, I felt God’s presence and protection so heavily on that street. We had our prayer warriors covering us in prayer, we went into Walking Street with a purpose – to get outside of ourselves and what was comfortable and pour into the people in our present, to show these men and women Jesus’ love, to fight back all of the lies that they’ve been told for so many years, to proclaim the truth that they are worthy of love. Because that what it means to seek first the kingdom of God.
-B
