Despite my deepest inner wishes, we returned to Bangla Road last night. If you didn't read my last blog regarding Bangla Road, you might want to in order to get some background. I really wasn't super excited about going to this dark place again. Bangla Road and the darkness there really affected my spirit last time we were there and I didn't want it to have it affect me again. I prayed the whole van ride to Patong that God would guard my heart. Tonight we were asked to pray with the tourists or whoever else on Bangla Road we felt called to pray with.
When we arrived, we began to prayer walk and right away we began talking to a man that was trying to get people into a bar. The bar was called "Seduction". The man was trying to get us into his bar and asked us what we were doing and why we were in Patong. Andrew, Christopher and I told him that we weren't drinking. He asked us why and we told him it was because we were there to pray. He kind of blew us off but was polite about it. I knew it wasn't going to be easy to find people that would be willing to pray with us.
We walked up to The Tiger Bar where we were told a few of the SHE teams were ministering inside the bar. We stopped and prayed for them, prayed for safety, wisdom, courage, and guidance.
As we arrived at the end of the street for our half-way debrief, I noticed we were about 20 minutes early. I felt this tugging on my heart to make "Free Prayer" signs. I asked Andrew and Christopher and they agreed. We walked all the way back to the beginning of the road and found a tourism office. They gave us three sheets of paper and a sharpie and wouldn't even let us pay them for the paper. We made our way back out to the road.
As we were walking to the other end with our signs, we got many strange looks. It was awesome because instead of all the solicitors putting signs in our faces for "ping-pong shows" (strip shows), they were focused on our signs. Many gave us looks of hatred and distaste, but some asked what the signs said.
One man asked what the sign said and when we told him he seemed halfway interested. I asked if we could pray for him. He took us in off the street in to a tailor shop. There was another man there and they said they would like to be prayed for. They even asked if they could invite others. When everyone was there, five in total, we began praying. These five were Burmese people, people that usually despised by the Thais. After we finished praying for them and after a little conversation, Christopher felt convicted to leave them with his Bible! You can read his blog about it here.
After gifting the Bible, we headed out to meet with the rest of the group. As we approached the rest of the men with our signs in hand, even some of them were giving us strange looks! We prayed as a group and headed back down the road. We prayed for a few more people, stopping at certain bars where we knew prayer was needed. One of these said bars was Club Crocodile. This is a transvestite bar. Both nights that we've been on Bangla Road, there has been a fairly significant crowd standing outside the bar watching the people dancing on poles.
(The picture is out of focus! Sorry, it was dark!)
On the way back to the van, we stopped and talked to the man at Seduction. He allowed us to pray for him after a little convincing (he was worried his boss would see. I told him that if his boss came over, we'd just offer to pray for him too!). He told us that he was a "Christian" and it made me wonder how loosely we use that term. I'm not going to judge this man, but the thought certainly crossed my mind of regardless of what this man says he is, is he following the narrow path? I prayed for that man the entire way home. I prayed that God would show him that he is loved and that he doesn't need to be working on Bangla Road trying to get people in to a bar. He has so much potential in the Spirit!
After leaving Bangla Road this time, I was much more encouraged. I realized I hadn't been angry at all during the prayer walks. I realized that God had allowed me to have empathy with each and every person that I talked to. I pray that these people realize that there is so much more for them. I pray that the light being shown by Mark and the teams from SHE continue to shine until there is no more darkness on Bangla Road!
