(sort of), and loaded a couple of trucks that took us to the bus stop. We loaded a 12 hour bus to head for Chaing Mai, realizing that a group of our women were
going to Chaing Mai as well… Manistry begins. Initially, I was rather excited
for the bus ride, as we were riding on the coolest, double-decker bus I have
ever seen, and I have come to enjoy the long travel days that the World
Race isproviding; however, I forgot that Thai people are much smaller than we are…
oops.
Arriving in Chiang Mai, the women left for the Lighthouse, a
ministry they are working with. Us guys,
sat around at the bus stop for a few hours while we tried to reach our contact
and find out where he was.
with the girls (manistry?) while we tried to
figure out what was going on. Apparently we had arrived a day earlier thanwe had planned and our contact would not be picking us up until the next
day. Not easily discouraged, the 15 of
us decided to make the best of our situation and decided that we would enjoy
Chiang Mai for the night. That’s when
“manistry” took a different direction than I had anticipated. While myself and a few others decided to head
back to the Lighthouse to take advantage of beds, couches, and showers; a few
of the guys (not going to mention any of the leader’s names) decided instead,
to go get massages. Something didn’t seem right about starting manistry month
with massages. Then, we all headed for
the Sunday night market which is huge in Chiang Mai so some of the guys could
do some shopping with their personal money. At this point I was beginning to think that the women might be doing
manlier things. The night market did however allow me the chance to try some
unusual fried foods from the street vendors and a chance to go find a “Muy
Thai” boxing ring.
we began to pass some very fancy hotels leading up to our destination. And as
we neared the ring, I began to realize where we were… The arena is built right
in the middle of nearly a hundred bars filled with women trying to sell
themselves to anyone with more than $5. It became real, really fast. I
had heard all of the statistics on sex-trafficking and prostitution in
Thailand, but now the numbers were right in front of me. We left without speaking a word to one
another, probably for the rest of the night.
You see, there are an estimated 2 million prostituted women
in Thailand. The sex-trade brings in
around $27 billion USD annually in Thailand alone, and the government
advertises, “The only thing juicier than our fruit is our women.” And how does this happen? Men like you and me, influenced by greed,
take women out of the poorest of poors promising them education, careers, or a
better life for their families and force them into prostitution. Sure there are a few women desperate enough
that they choose prostitution fearing there is no other way for them to survive,
but I wonder if they know there is another way?
I believe that we are all involved in this whether we
acknowledge it or not. For me, I know
not whether or not I will wake up tomorrow, but I believe change is a fruit of
men
and women believing in Jesus Christ and proclaiming His gospel.
Let me ask you…
is being done is evil? If you have it
within your power to work against this sort of thing, and choose not to, are
you essentially willing that it continues? The government, the trafficked, the
sex-tourist, where are you going to start?
