I walked up to the boss and stuck out my hand to shake his, I
said, “Hi my name is Carly, are you the owner of this bar?” He replied in an Australian accent, “My name’s Ashleigh,
and yes it is.”
Now I’d absolutely love to tell you we had an incredible
conversation about God’s love and how he needed to free these girls from their
life of exploiting their bodies for his benefit…but I can’t. Honestly the rest
of our conversation was very cordial and boring, I asked why the bar was named Freedom Bar
and he said the owner before him had named it that and he just kept it. He said
he’d owned the bar about 2 years. I told him I was traveling the world on The
World Race doing volunteer work with my team in 11 countries over 11 months. He
said have a great trip and I said thanks, shook his hand again and walked away.
for not being more bold with my words, for not telling him everything I thought
of him and his business, for not telling him that I was a missionary and that
God wanted him to stop sinning and change his life.
on my face and whispered I’ll tell you about the conversation later. Not long after we finished our Sprite and
decided to go back to Starbucks to pray and refocus our thoughts and emotions
before going back out to the bars. We all felt the strong need to go pray with
the guys (Clint and Michael) who were back at the coffee shop interceding on
our behalf about everything that night.
As we walked back down Bangla Road I was overcome with
emotion, it felt like everything was brighter, louder, more menacing and in
your face as before, you couldn’t walk 2 steps without someone waving a paper
in your face for a party or “ping pong show (a very bad show)
couldn’t take it anymore…I turned to Bridget and Leslie and said, “If another
person shoves a paper in my face I’m just going to tell them exactly what I
think about what they’re doing” It was actually hilarious because all of the sudden our
path was clear, we walked the rest of the way down the road with no one outright
approaching us which was bizarre, then as we got to the crosswalk about one more step until we were off of Bangla Road when one young guy came up and waved a paper right in my
face asking if I wanted to go see a ping pong show.
I was at the absolute end of my “grace rope” at that moment,
I turned and practically shouted “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??” He looked very surprised at my response, I’m sure it looked as if I had fire practically shooting from my eyes because I was
ready to pounce, everything that I wanted to say to Ashleigh the bar owner,
came pouring out on this guy on the street, “I asked him why are you promoting
such a disgusting show? Do you think this is a good living? I am a
missionary, I don’t want to go get wasted, I’m here to free these women from a
life of exploitation and give them hope for their future, and show them that there
are other jobs out there available for them”
He just looked at me
like I was crazy and said “don’t talk to me about that stuff, I was in a car
accident and already had my miracle.” I was surprised by this response and asked
his name, “Neil” was what he told me looking afraid at what my next response
would be, I just said “well my name is Carly, it was nice to meet you, God
loves you” and I walked away…
barely get the story out our guys before we just began praying and I lost it.
this nation, break my heart for what breaks yours” This is where He answered
that prayer…that night at the bar I saw with His eyes, I saw HIS DAUGHTERS-the prostitutes whose eyes were empty as they did what they could to make a few
bucks to send to their children, I saw how His heart broke for HIS SONS-the tourists pushing their infant children around the streets, who were
buying women to fulfill momentary desires, I saw how incredible sad He was for
HIS PEOPLE who were out to “have a good time”
with their Savior
He created
him for greatness NOT for the sinful/empty desires that he is letting rule his
life
in his face, no matter how much I wanted to hate him for what he stood for…I
couldn’t, I couldn’t hate him because God didn’t hate him, God loves him and
wants me to pray for him, to somehow find it in my heart to love him with
Christ’s love and pray for him.
I saw on Bangla Road make God sad and angry and its okay for me to feel those
things too, but God’s response is to send His one and only SON to die a sacrificial
death in order that EVERYONE can know Him and be saved. That means that God’s
response to this sin, to our sin, is LOVE…and that’s what I want to respond
with too…no matter how hard it is…I’m praying God will continue to fill me with His
LOVE as we continue ministry here in Thailand…and really for the rest of my
life.
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will
he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died-more
than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is
also interceding for us. 35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or
hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord”
