This month is our final month on the World Race! I am currently in the city of Chiang Mai, in the northern region of Thailand. This month, myself, Kristin, Heather, Becky, Hannah, Marissa, Leigh and Tiffany are working with YWAM’s ‘Lighthouse’ project. Our ministry this month is to university students during the day (we’re working at a coffee/smoothie shop directly across from the local campus) and in the evening, we are ministering to both male and female prostitutes in the red light district. I have been looking forward to this ministry for a few months now, as I have heard so many amazing stories from previous teams that have gone to the prostitute district.
As many of you know, a big part of my testimony is Christ redeeming me from a sexually promiscuous past. I spent so much of my young adulthood trying to fill a need for love by seeking it out with men. I used to find my worth and value by whether I was attractive enough and desired by men. The life I lived was unfulfilling and I was blinded by lies of what this world tells us is important.
Now having known the love of Jesus, having received His forgiveness and seeing His redemption in my life every single day, I know without a doubt that there is nothing greater than His love and my identity now as His daughter, His prize, His possession.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
-2 Corinthians 5:17
So having come from a sexually sinful past, I knew beforehand that this ministry would be close to my heart. My first night out, my heart broke for these girls. My heart also broke for the men. They were mostly foreigners, who perhaps in Chiang Mai for business or perhaps intentionally flew here for the purpose of buying prostitutes. I couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Are these men married? Do they have daughters at home? Are they lonely? I know they are just as lost and blinded as I once was. They also need a Savior!
As I looked down the street lined with prostitute bars, I was flooded with emotions. Angry at sin. Angry at the effects sin has on the very people God created, in His very own image and likeness. People that God created for a relationship with him. People that God has created great plans for and given a purpose for their lives.
I imagined Jesus coming in and turning over all the tables, just as he did with the moneychangers in front of the temple. Looking down the street and seeing all the flashing lights, blaring music, and practically naked women and men dressed as women (‘ladyboys’), I began to cry. The story of Jesus when he was told that his dear friend Lazarus had died came to mind. Upon hearing the news, the bible says, “Jesus wept.” Jesus wasn’t just weeping for his friend—he knew that he would bring Lazarus up from the dead, but rather Jesus was weeping over death—death which is a result of sin and Satan. Knowing that Jesus wept, we see a glimpse of the heart of God over His people.
But praise God, Jesus has overcome Satan, sin and death! I became filled with great hope for the people in these bars. THIS WILL NOT GO ON FOREVER. These bars will come down! AMEN?!!! Those that Christ has called for Himself, will be found. AMEN?!!! Jesus, while dying on the cross, cried out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?–My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and that that moment, the sins of the world came onto Jesus, the perfect, sinless, lamb of God. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead, proving victorious over the sins of the world! The wrath of God was satisfied! My sin and the sins of those prostitutes, those adulterers, everyone who, in reality deserves eternal death and separation from the perfect, holy, righteous and just God, could receive forgiveness and reconciliation to Him, not by what we do (because there is nothing that can justify us before God!) but rather, by what He has done for us! Our sins went onto Jesus so that we could receive Him and His righteousness. No more death! No more guilt! No more shame!
‘God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’
-2 Corinthians 5:21
Death, sin and Satan couldn’t hold Jesus in the grave, and it sure wont hold His sons and daughters down. And that is a promise! AMEN.
