**This blog has no pictures….but well worth the read, i promise!!***
For those around my
age, do you remember when you were 11….and for those not my age, do you remember
when your kid turned 11…and the coolest thing was having your birthday party at the
bowling alley!! But not just any bowling alley…the one where at some
random hour in the evening all the florescent lights would be turned off and
the black lights would be turned on? All of a sudden the ordinary bowling
ball you had played your first game with became a rolling, glowing ball of
neon, and not only did your teeth and socks almost blind you, every speck of
lint on your clothes did too! How fun was that?!
Last night, at age
28, I bowled just like that here in Thailand and had just as much fun as when I
was 11!! It wasn’t anyone’s birthday…it wasn’t even a special occasion
really. Although when I took in the scene, I realized that it was a
celebration, of sorts.
I stood there
leaning against the wall with one of my squad mates (and fellow Texan) Darci.
It was one of her “girls'” turn to bowl. She held the ball up, boldly walked towards
the pins and launched the 10 pound ball down the alley…strike!! She
turned around and began jumping, yelling, laughing and dancing all at the same
time…and so did everyone else 🙂 It was awesome!! Darci leaned
over to me and said, “I’ve never seen her like this…so animated.
Usually she is very reserved and quiet”. Our hearts leapt for joy.
This “girl”
of Darci’s is one of the women she met this month doing bar ministry. She
was one of three that both Darci and Shannon became friends with through
visiting the bar district almost nightly over the past three weeks. Darci
and Shannon weren’t the only ones bowling with their girls, as we
affectionately deemed them. In all, four different pairs of us racers had
brought out 10 girls last night! Well, to be honest…we actually bought
them. It is how it works. In order to take the bar girls out of the
bar, you must pay the bar to let them go…(read to the end to find out how we
paid for this!)
To say how I have
been involved in all of this is just to say, I prayed. I didn’t engage
much with the girls in the bars.
Each night when our fellow racers would descend upon the bars and
continue to build those relationships, Melissa and I would walk the
streets…praying for those relationships…praying for the women in the
bars…praying for the men in the bars…praying for Thailand and the spiritual
holds that are on this beautiful country. So although I can’t rightly
call any of the precious girls there last night my own…I was able to take part
in the friendship and unconditional love that was going on. That was what we were celebrating…
Last night was the
culmination of three weeks of building up to the point where the friendships
and trust had been established enough to invite the girls to hang out outside
of the bar. We had always gone to their world. We would order
cokes, play games (Lindsay and Steph met their girls over a game of connect
four the very first night they went into the bar district!!), and just chat
about anything and everything. It was all about looking at them with love
not lust, speaking to them in kindness not judgment, and distracting them, even
for a moment, from the prowling eyes of the men who are there for only one
reason. We had to enter their world first. It was the only way to
see what they see; the only way to catch the slightest glimpse of their lives. But last night was a chance to remind them of
a world full of choices…a world full of fun girlfriends who didn’t want
anything from them except for who they really are.
By the end of the
night we were exhausted! We had bowled
three games, danced our hearts out to Britney Spears and Beyonce, and cheered
each other on in the always hilarious experience that is bowling. We all walked as a group out of the mall well
after midnight chatting like the best of friends. As we parted, hugs were given, huge smiles were exchanged (sometimes with the
language barrier that is all you have to work with), and we all waved one last
time as we went our separate ways.
At the beginning of
the month I had questioned the impact that we were going to be able to make in
the lives of these girls in such a short amount of time…not only did God answer
that question for me…the girls on my squad did too.
- © I am so proud of Lindsay
and Stephanie for their focus and determined hearts for making more than the
most of the short time they had with their girls! I have no doubt in my mind that those two
girls’ lives were changed because of the love that was shown to them. - © I am proud of Darci and
Shannon for 100% looking at the sweet hearts of their girls no matter what they
were wearing on the outside. They saw
the beauty within and were bold enough to tell them what they saw and real
enough to dance right along with them! Darci’s supporters donated over $1500 to
pay to take these girls out!!! And
Darci was so generous with that money in letting everyone bless their girls in
whatever way they could…Praise God!! - © I am proud of Rocio and
Robin for taking on the challenge of be-friend three girls! I would walk thru the bars and see them
laughing and chatting with their girls and it always made my heart melt. - ©
I’m proud of Kara and
Sammie…they took this ministry full steam ahead from day one. They worked beautifully together and were
always talking about a girl they had met and now had a coffee date with, or
they had to go because they wanted to go visit a girl. They took this challenge, knowing that they
may see some very difficult stuff and just dove in head first, covered in the
Lord’s favor!
So although only 10 out of many many girls were missing from the bars
this past Friday night…I couldn’t help but smile (well, it might have been a
satisfied smirk)thinking that the bar district was a little less crowded. There were 10 less girls who had to go home
with a man that night. One more night
where they didn’t have to compromise themselves and feel shame. No, on Friday night, I hope all they felt was
the beautiful exhaustion of playing too hard with their crazy American friends
who loved them.
