I guess I wasn’t meant to stay away for long. While most of the
squad remains back in Cambodia, finishing up ministry there, a
handful of us came back early to Bangkok with one purpose in mind: go
back to the bars to set His captives free. While we were in
Cambodia, we watched the movie Human Trafficking.
It wrecked us to the very core and then activated within us a need
to come back here and just be present in the midst of one of the most
gut-wrenchingly horrible industries in the world. Women are sold
everyday as slaves, stripped of all rights and paralyzed by fear that
if they ever attempt to escape, their whole family will be killed. It is
totally and completely evil and makes you want to scream out in one
of those purely-from-the-gut type of screams.
so eight of us, not able to sit back and do nothing, came back to
Bangkok to be a presence in the midst of it all and make the darkness
scream as the feet of Kingdom enter.
bars are definitely one of those places I am sure I am meant to be.
These women need to know that
they are loved and valued and known by name by the one who is Love.
And these men need to know this is not the answer to the
problems they are facing and that there is one who loves them despite
all their regrets and mistakes.
all need to know there is a better way.
Last
night I talked to a girl at the bar name Nadi. She immediately asked Andi and me why we both were there since clearly we don’t fit in with the
normal crowd. So we told her. We told her we were there to tell her
and others just how loved and valued they are by God. That there is a
better way. And we told her we were there because we followed Jesus.
She rolled her eyes in that total disbelief type of way and quickly
replied, “God isn’t here. He left this place long ago.”
way,” we said, looking her straight-on in the eyes. “He’s here.
We followed Him to the bars.”
It
hurts to not only see with your own eyes the shame and defeat of
these people, but to hear it come so directly out of their own mouths
as matter of fact. The people who come here feel completely
abandoned and trapped by their own shame, searching for any escape
from the problems they are facing. It is written all over their
faces. The pain. Regret. Unbelief. Hopelessness. And all the while they believe the bars are completely devoid of God’s presence; that somehow the God who is Love, Grace, and Truth all in one could
ever turn His back on His children.
that these bars are exactly where you’ll find the Jesus that I’ve come to
love more now than ever. He loves these bars here in Bangkok. The
brokenness. The desperation. The search for truth. He wouldn’t be the person to stand at a street corner
and yell “Sin! Sin!” No way, not Him. Not the one who is Love.
He’d be the one who’d sit at the bar with you. Listen to your story.
Stare into your heart not with disgust, but with delight over you.
And then He’d tell you there was a different way. Maybe He wouldn’t
even have to say it. Just by His radiance you would know that He has
what you want and so when He got up you would instinctively follow
Him to see where His path would take you.
certainly hasn’t left these people. In fact, He’s leading more and
more of His followers to come into this place and love His children.
The more His people fall into the lies of abandonment and shame,
the more He’s pushing in and invading this place. He’s capturing
these people by Love, setting the very example we all should follow.
too long. It’s time the Kingdom of freedom was instated in this
place.
who come into this place in shame and defeat will soon know with all
of themselves just how present and powerful the One who is Love is.
existence.
