Sarah Bullers Post about what we are doing. Blessings and love.
Over the past 3 weeks we have been working with a ministry in Patong, on Phuket island, called SHE (self, help, empowerment). The idea behind it is to provide a safe place that works to get girls working as prostitutes in the bars into an environment where they can be employed making jewelry and other arts and crafts.
Each day we hang out in the shop with the girls, laughing, and helping them make beautiful jewelry and homade cards. It is amazing to hear their stories and see the transformation God has already made in their lives.
At night we walk the bars, our job, is simply to sit with the girls and get to know them. We try to create relationships with them and invite them to the shop to expirience a new way of life. This is not as easy as it sounds, as many of the girls want to get out, but becasue there is such a pressure in the Thai culture to send money home to the family, they feel obligated to stay.
This is Lek. She has become a good friend, and the first girl I always visit on our nights out. Lek has a beautiful 12 month old daughter. Because of her job, her daughter is not able to stay with her, so she lives far away with Lek’s mother. I have really been suprised by how open these girls usually are. If you ask them any question, even the hard stuff, they are usually willing to talk about it. Lek doesnt like her job, but she does it to make enough money to support her daughter and family back at home. She also hopes to one day find a man that will love her and take care of her and her baby. This seems to be the cycle that many of these girls get trapped in.
The hardest part of this ministry is the amount of time it takes. Often Mark and Sharon (the couple that founded SHE), will spend months at the bars every night, and see no fruit at all. The hardest part for me is to see a girl I have been talking with with a client. Often we will prayer walk the bar areas at night. This is the times where we are able to see more of the whole picture of what is actually going on. The other night we passed two white american men holding hands with Thai boys that looked like they were about 12 years old. It makes me sick to think that men would actually do that, that they would buy boys, they are just boys! But this is reality of life here, and all we can do is pray, and hope that our conversations will create a lasting seed of hope of a better life for all of those consumed in this industry.
