This last month, I have been doing bar ministry. Talking to girls who are free to come and go but are slaves because they do not know where to go. Looking into their eyes, all one sees is emptiness. They are lost sheep waiting to be found, waiting for so much more. These girls are looking for love in these bars; they are looking for hope, and they are looking for a way to make a living.
The men that come through these the bars are just as lost as the girls that work in them. It is almost as if they are looking for something, something that might be found in the bars, in the women, in the alcohol, and in smoking and drugs. They are looking for so much more. These men long for hope, for life, and for the true love that can only be found in God.
This month, I was there to plant seeds. Seeds of hope, seeds of love, and seeds of Christ who is living and active. I was there to show both the men and women that they do not have to live this way and that God has great plans for them. I was there to show the women what true love feels and looks like. I was there to give men reason to question their motives for being in the bars and how they treated these daughters of God.
Now I want to share the story of my last night out in the bars. It was a night that was in God’s timing. He placed us exactly where He wanted us that night.
There are two main girls that we spent most of time with, one is Aom and she worked down Soi Eric and the other is Tuk who worked down Soi Lion or at the sister bar on Soi Happy.
We went to go see Aom first at her bar down Soi Eric. When we got there, she was not there and the other girls said that she had taken the night off. She had a special friend in town since the previous week and we had not been able to see Aom the last couple of time we were in the bars. We walked away really sad that we could not say good-bye.
As we walked out of the bar, we saw one of the leaders that happened to have a phone. We called Aom and had no answer. We made our way to Soi Lion so that we could say good-bye to Tuk. I was able to talk to a girl by the name of Tik, this was her very first night. She looked so fresh and happy. Her eyes did not look lost and hopeless. Knowing that it was her very first night, I was deeply depressed that she choose this job to make more money on top of her other job. We said our good-byes and preceded to the sister bar because we had gotten to know almost all of the girls that work these two bars.
After saying good-bye to the women from Soi Lion and Soi Happy, our group was feeling deeply depressed and heaviness. We decided that we needed to finish the night as a team. We spoke declarations over our selves and prayed. After that, we decided to go to Soi Gonxo because we knew some of our other teammates were down that street. There we said our farewells to Ice. While we were here, the leader that we barrowed the phone from happen to feel it vibrate, she answered, did not understand and immediately gave the phone to us. It was Aom, she had called back. Since it was so loud, it was hard to hear and we convinced her to come to lunch the next day so that we could say good-bye.
We left that street having the feeling of going back to Soi Eric to a different bar. As we approached the street, we started to head down the left side and someone had the urge that we had to walk down the right side instead. The bar that Aom works on is on the right and as soon as we switched sides, Aom came running toward us.
This was such a neat night seeing how things work in God’s timing. God placed my group at the right place at the exact time He wanted us there. Although I did not personally convince a girl to come out of the bars, we planted seeds and I trust that God is going to continue to work and continue to place people in these girls lives to water the seeds that have been planted.
