Last week two of my teammates and I made our way to the bar district in Chiang Mai. We had researched the area, and unfortunately, found an abundance of answers on forums where you can locate the best women in town. We didn’t know how the evening would turn out, we didn’t know where we would eventually end up, we didn’t know who we would meet, but God knew and had something big for us that night.
After moving between several bars, drinking cokes, and searching for people to speak with we found a bar hidden away from the main road.
This bar turned out to be a strip club, and a place to easily purchase women for the night.
There was a girl there who looked so young, I think no older than 15, who I was told was working her first night. At one point my teammate asked her, “Hi how are you”, she replied back in confident English, “I’m doing well, how are you?” The next question my teammate asked was “How old are you?” Her smile faltered, she looked at her manager sitting next to her who quickly answered for her, “She’s 23 and doesn’t speak English.”
I later found out they hire girls as young as 12 to dance there.
The men. The men were all older and not from Asia. They had traveled across the globe to have access to these women. They absolutely could have had daughters the age of the girls they were watching dance.
How broken are their lives that they are filling the voids by purchasing young girls to distract them from what is missing?
This was such a dark and heavy place full of broken people.
Later in the evening, we met a woman named Eve *named changed to protect identity* who we spent over an hour talking with. At the end of the night we traded contact information with the hopes of seeing her outside of this bar and setting and learning more of her story.
We did.
A few days later, went spent the entire day with Eve. She took us to her favorite Thai restaurant, her favorite park, her favorite market. We learned all about her family, how she works to send a big portion of her paycheck home to take care of her mother. How she doesn’t have a home, but moves from place to place staying with friends. How she distinguishes between “good” men and “bad” men. With bad men seeking sex the night they purchase her and good men “taking care of her”- taking care of her meaning they purchase her to take her out multiple times, manipulate the situation and her emotions, then expect sex later. How much access to her body costs. How she wants to fall in love and be in a relationship. And how she has dreams of working in a coffee shop one day.
When we heard she wants to work in a coffee shop, we knew why we had met Eve. We have a partner here in Chiang Mai that takes women off the street, teaches them the trade of making coffee, employs them, aids them in finding a home, and provides them community and safety.
We have met with the woman who runs this ministry, told her all about Eve, and have plans to introduce them soon.
Before we can make that step, we need to invest more time into Eve, earn her trust, get to know her heart more fully, and make certain she is ready for change.
God is good. He made our paths straight, and led us to the right place and right people. He gave us the right words to speak and the right questions to ask to hold Eve’s story well and understand her perspective.
We are going to continue to invest in Eve’s friendship and we are praying we can help remove her from this lifestyle, and into one that operates in health and brings her joy and safety.
Supporters, please pray alongside me for Eve, as well as for my teammates and I’s safety and discernment as we navigate through the sex trafficking trade here in Thailand.
Praise be to God for beauty and goodness coming from such a dark, broken, and destructive place.
My heart,
Elizabeth
