Pattaya, Thailand is famous worldwide for its sex tourism and referenced by Christians around here as a pit. Most people coming to Pattaya only come for one thing unfortunately. The notorious Walking Street is world famous for its brothels, bars, and strip clubs. Sin here isn’t even hidden as women wearing next to nothing stand outside the bars, calling people in. A team mate and I did a prayer walk down Walking Street one night. One of our ministries is right next to it. It sits right off the pier for the boats just arriving in Pattaya. However, our main bar ministry with the girls was in other areas of Pattaya. We worked with a group called Tamar Ministries that works on getting the women out of the bars and helping them get jobs. We would walk down the streets at night before the men came. There were hundreds of women everywhere. All there for different reasons. One woman had been there for years. She was from Northern Thailand and had two kids. Her husband wouldn’t take care of her kids so she started working at the bars to provide for her family. Some girls were young and had only been there for a couple days. And some girls liked working there. Those were probably the hardest stories to hear.
The first part of ending Sex Trafficking is prevention. Our second ministry this month was working at Agape Ministries. This place works with the kids, provides them love and a good education to keep them from ending up in the bars. We would arrive every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as we heard their little Thai voices giggling with excitement. We played with them, sang songs, colored, and just held them. Loving on kids well ALWAYS helps me see how well loved I am by God.
This is Mok from Agape.
She
never
smiles
…ever
My heart was attached from the moment I saw her. I started wondering what caused her to shut down and refuse to smile. If only she knew how deeply loved she was. How overwhelmed with joy God was the moment she was born. I tried so hard to get a smile out of her, a laugh, a facial movement. . .something, but she never did. Again, I was reminded of the Father heart of God that I so often regret. No matter where we come from or what we do, God bends over backwards just to get us to smile on a daily basis. He is overjoyed just from being around us and longs to hold us even if we never smile. Oh Mok, if only you knew how special, planned, and delighted in you are.
Our third ministry this month, was passing out Bibles to the Chinese on the pier. Most people are confused, including the Chinese, when I tell them we’re passing out Chinese Bibles in Thailand, but this is one of the most awesome ministries I’ve ever been a part of. We would arrive at the pier of Pattaya right next to Walking Street at five every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night and pass out Bibles until nine. We hold signs and hold out Bibles as we say, “Yesu ai ni” (Chinese for “Jesus loves you”). Some people are overjoyed to receive a Bible in their language for the first time and some take it out of curiosity. I had one Chinese man get so excited that he held the sign for me the whole night as he would pass out Bibles and explain it to them in Chinese. And he wasn’t even a Christian! Since our first night, we’ve passed out over 11,000 Chinese Bibles and several English Bibles to people from the Middle East.
This month has been humbling to say the least with its own set of challenges. Whether it’s been facing conflict with new teams or leading worship with bronchitis, Thailand has been awesome. They say this place is so dark, but when I arrived I kept being reminded of the verse in Psalm 139 that says, “even darkness is not dark to you.” This month, I had the honor of playing a small role in the Kingdom where my team and I got to be a light with our ministry hosts. Please continue to pray for the people of Pattaya!
He has called me higher,
Jenn
