I just received an email from my organization saying it has been too long since I blogged. Oops.
I do apologize though to my supporters, I should have done a better job at keeping you updated on what has been going on…so I will begin with what my month in Thailand looked like.
We worked with an organization called SHE (Self Help and Empowerment). Their goal is to reach the bar girls of Thailand. As many of you may know and many of you may not; Thailand is huge for sex tourism. Young girls from all over Thailand flock to the touristy areas to get jobs in the bars to help support their families. In thailand, a lot of the financial responsibilities fall on the female. These girls often do not have training in other areas of life nor schooling, so they go where they can get work; the bar. Bar girls dress in tiny outfits hoping to appeal to the tourists, which are mostly western men. The girls negotiate prices for things they would be willing to do with the men, and I’ll let you imagine the rest. I don’t think your imaginations could create anything much worse than what actually happens anyway. This is how the girls make their living. Although the girls are not trafficked or physically forced into the bars; most of them are forced by circumstance. When your entire family is depending on you to feed them, do you take an undesirable job or let them starve? I think we all know the answer.
They don’t enjoy what they do, they do it because they feel they have to.
SHE sends people into the red-light districts to create friendships with the bar girls. To sit down at the bar, order a coke, and just talk to the women. Look them in the eye, show them respect. To show that not everyone wants them for their bodies and that they are worth so much more. After building relationships SHE can offer a variety of things for the girls such as english classes and job training/opportunities that don’t involve the bar scene. They offer them a way out.
Getting to work with this ministry was a hard but wonderful experience. A few nights a week my team and I would head into the red light district and try to strike up a conversation with some of the girls. At first it was unbelievably awkward. Here I was, dressed in pants and a t-shirt while everyone else on the entire street is practically naked. Then as the loud, vibrant tourists around me ordered shots and beer, I ordered a Sprite. I felt boring and judged. At first it really bothered me…I didn’t want to stand out or be the weird one. When I used to be the drunk tourist a few years back, I remember judging people who looked like I did now. But throughout the month that embarrassment went away. Because I saw the look on the faces of those girls who worked at the bar. When they saw me and my friends coming; they smiled and literally ran toward us. They were happy to see us, they began to trust us. They knew that to us they were more than objects…they were worth being heard.
I didn’t save 10 girls from the sex industry. I may not even have saved one. and thats alright. Because they were never mine to save.
What I do know, is that if after all my time spent there, all I did was make ONE girl feel like she was worth more… Make one girl see that she was beautiful and deserved a better life….then all the time in the world there is worth it.
“I used to think I had to be something special for Jesus to use me, now I know he uses ordinary people more.” -Bob Goff
P.S.
CAMBODIA UPDATE: This past month we lived way out in the country at a children’s home for teenage orphan boys. They had all lived on the streets at one point and were addicted to drugs. After being moved to the childrens home they are all clean and are being raised by a couple who loves the Lord and shows the boys family love every day. Throughout the month we lived with them and taught them english (which helps them to get better jobs.) They were such joyful boys despite all they had been through….and I could take a lesson from them in being happy through all circumstances. We lived in the middle of nowhere and the house parents cooked every meal for us. We got a taste of the real Cambodia and the boys will forever have a piece of my heart here in Cambodia. I thank Jesus he took drug-addict, starving boys and brought them to a place of love where they receive 3 meals every single day. God is so good.
