Some of you may say, “Christel, I know it is real. I have heard about it”. OR “Christel, I know it's real. I have read about it”. As of last night, I know it's real because I saw it.
I was standing outside on the 4th floor balcony overlooking a street of Chaingmai. It was a street off of the busy, main road and looked pretty empty. I could see a parking attendant in a little stand in the near empty parking lot. I could hear a child bickering with his dad in the lonely car in the lot. I looked down the road further and saw three people walking towards me.
I saw a man and two women. The man was holding hands with one of the women. My heart started racing. From afar, I thought it was a white man with two Asian women. I didn't want this to be true. (Many of the men who buy these prostitutes are foreigners) As they came closer, my fear became reality. The man was white and maybe in his 40s or 50s. The women were probably in their 20s, both dressed in short, tight dresses. I saw them walk closer to me and then my fear became worse. Instead of walking towards the main street where they could have gone to get dinner or something, they all walked into what seemed to be a four or five story apartment building. From where I was standing, I could not tell if it was a hotel or motel or anything, but I never saw them come back out.
What I saw was my first glimpse of sex trafficking.
This is what my month will be working with. Currently, I am in Chaingmai, Thailand working with Lighthouse in Action Ministries. This is a ministry that was started by one amazing Thai woman who has a heart for getting Thai prostitutes off the streets to show them that they can have a better life. The premise behind her ministry is loving through action over loving through words. Our main objective will be to show Jesus' love through our actions. Since I have only been here for three days, the different facets of her story and ministry are still being pieced together in my brain. Here is what I know. Click here to go to Lighthouse in Action Ministries website to learn more. Scroll down to the bottom to watch a video about Emmi, the founder of Lighthouse, and her ministry.
Her ministry has three parts.
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Xlife: Village ministry. Most girls involved in sex trafficking come from the villages. Either their family sends them to the cities to get involved in prostution (as a job to help support the family), or they are sent there thinking they will be working in restaurants or other jobs. People going to the villages, stay in host families (in pairs) and live alongside of the host families. They do manual labor in the mornings, (most likely working in the rice fields), take rest in the afternoon, do children's ministry for a few hours and then have dinner and fellowship in the evenings.
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Bar ministry: This is what it sounds like. Going to the bars and creating relationships with the prostitutes. Half of a team will go out for a few hours (8pm – 10:30pm) while the other half stays back and covers the team in prayer and worship. The goal is to create relationships to meet with the prostitutes in their off hours.
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Coffee shop: Emmi, the wonderful creator of this ministry, owns a coffee shop on “the strip” of Chaingmai. This coffee shop is a place where relationships that are established in the bars can be cultivated in the off hours. It also is a place where the local university students are encouraged to go to to learn English when groups are in. People involved in this ministry could be planning events at the coffee shop, teaching English classes, or just being a friendly face to the staff.
SOOOOOOOO What will I be doing???
EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our team has the incredible opportunity to get a little bit of every aspect. Tomorrow morning (Thursday), we will join the other girl's team on a prayer walk in the surrounding area. At night, we will be going to the bars and praying and checking out the spiritual atmosphere. On Friday, we will be heading to the village for a week. When we get back from the village, we will be helping the other team with the coffee shop ministry.
This month is going to be HUGE. God has big plans in all of our lives, but we need your prayers. Please pray for protection of our hearts. That we are open to feel what God wants us to feel, but that we are wise and not allowing the enemy to enter our hearts and deceive us. We have two younger girls from another AIM program joining our team for the month. Please pray for protection over them, too, as this is their one month glimpse of the world race.
I will not be in communication with people while in the village due to limited internet access, but will update you all when I come back next Friday. Thank you for your prayers. God hears them.
