Nook is a 26-year-old woman who has become a friend in our short time here in Thailand. The first night I saw her she had a blank face that I never thought would smile. We were sitting outside the bar with some of her co-workers playing jenga. We were so loud as the jenga tower came tumbling down. Our laughs rang throughout the bar. Nook rushed over and said something in Thai and the woman we were playing with quickly stopped laughing. Uh oh! We had gotten too loud. As I looked into her eyes I had a deep desire to talk with her. That night she stayed pretty busy and we ended up leaving before having a chance to talk with her.
The next night Becky and I felt very strongly that we needed to return to that bar. This time was different. Nook greeted me with a large smile. She invited me to play pool with her. At this point I knew she had no clue why I was there. As far as she knew I was her next customer and she was right. S
he introduced herself and asked me how old I was followed by the popular question of do I have a boyfriend. We laughed, as I said no but someday. We began playing pool. It was Nook and I against Becky and Foon. I quickly discovered that I am defiantly not a master at the game of pool, but my definite lack of skills provided for much laughter and opened up conversation. Soon after playing Nook shared with me that she hated her job. She works there because her sister owns the bar and she has a four year old son to provide for so this job provides the best money for her. My heart sank. I wanted to hear more of her story but the loud music and need to make money made it hard to get her full attention. She was working so every man passing was a chance at making money. I felt a prompting to get her out of there but I didn’t know how. God was going to have to work here. There was nothing I could do to show Nook I loved her and wasn’t there to buy her body.
Nook and Foon went to eat their dinner and Becky rushed over to me. She felt that God was telling her to buy their time. Take them out. I knew God had spoken to us both so with out hesitation I ran from bar to bar looking for the girls from my team. I gathered up as much money as I could. We needed 800 baht to buy them both for an hour. We were able to gather up enough for a deposit. The girls got their purses and we headed out for the night. At this point they still thought this was a busine
ss deal. That soon changed as seven of us piled into a small tuk-tuk and headed out on the town. We went to a Karaoke bar and danced the night away. It felt like we had been friends forever. God showed himself to these girls.
The check came and quickly came back. Our card didn’t work. We didn’t have anything else on us. Becky and I quickly ran to an ATM. That didn’t work either. What were we going to do? Becky and I knew we couldn’t go back without a plan. So we devised a plan to get the girls back to the bar and pay the bill. When we returned to unveil the plan Foon quickly spoke up and said she could cover the bill and we could just pay her back. WHAT? Did she just offer to pay a bill that was worth more than she made in a week? She trusted us. We were strangers. God was there. He had shown her something different. She was able to trust us. He knew what He was doing.
We left the restaurant and headed home. All completely amazed at how cool our God is. We were blessed with the opportunity to hang out with his beautiful daughters and show them His love. He wasn’t done showing off just yet. As we headed back Becky and I were going to go stay at the bar while the other girls went to get the money to pay Foon back, but Nook and Foon didn’t want to go back to work. Praise the Lord! They walked all the way home with us. We ended up exchanging phone numbers. We had new friends and the story of Nook only begins.
God is working here. I have confidence in Him that this territory that Satan thinks he has a strong grip on will be overturned. The church is going to rise up inside this place. His sons and daughters are searching and He is pursuing. Please pray that the love of God shines brightly throughout this darkness. Pray for an awaking of the church inside these streets.
