During the day, Bangla Road seems like a relatively innocent beach town strip. The Phuket sunshine and light breezes remind one that the beach awaits at the far end of the street, while island music plays from tourist shops offering everything from Thai handicrafts to colorful Buddhist paintings. Only the fierce-looking tiger statues, unoccupied dance poles, and long rows of empty bar chairs belie the fact that this road is not all that it seems. At night, Bangla Road reveals its truer, darker side.
Each night, Bangla Road becomes a den of every imaginable vice that defines the nightlife scene. Scantily clad women line the streets on the lookout for business hopefuls, while loud music pulsates from the open door bars, beckoning potential customers in to spend their vacation cash. More than 200 bars line Bangla Road, located on nine crossroads that jetty out from the main strip: Soi Easy, Soi Crocodile, Soi Gonzo, Soi Eric, Soi Sea Dragon, Soi Seafood, Soi Lion, Soi Tiger, and Soi Vegas. Each Soi contains dozens of bars, each with their own wait staff of eager hostesses, trying to make ends meet by selling drinks, divvying out playful banter, dancing, and ultimately selling themselves in the lucrative but illegal sex trade that is so prominent here. Soi Crocodile, also called Soi Katoey, is perhaps most famous for its “Lady Boys,” who, with the help of surgical operations, could pass for Thai supermodels were it not for their identification cards which state they are still males.
The first night we walked down Bangla Road, I thought I would be overwhelmed by the overtly explicit nature of all that was going on around me. Instead, I found myself looking in people’s eyes and seeing the same thing over and over again: emptiness… brokenness… hopelessness…Individuals who were desperately trying to find a way to fill the void within them, believing that perhaps this night would be different and that fulfillment would finally come. And all I could do was cry out to the Father, asking for His love to pour down on Bangla Road.
Since then, my prayer has remained the same each time we walk down Bangla Road. I pray that God’s love would come like a torrential downpour, bringing freedom, restoration, and truth to every heart here. I pray that the light He has given us would pierce the darkness as we walk. I know and believe that in the face of light, darkness cannot remain. So, as daughters of the Kingdom of Light, we confidently go into the bars, bearing a message of truth that we believe will transform the darkness, one heart at a time.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:19-21)
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
