We spent the month of November in Thailand and our ministry was to build relationships and love on the men and women in the Red Light District, the most concentrated area of sex trafficking in the city of Chiang Mai.
The street where we spent most of our time is a concentrated area that contains numerous bars and massage parlors, which are known for sex trafficking. We prayer walked over the area in the mornings. Half of us went out several nights a week and the other half interceded for the groups that were out.
This is the experience of our first night in the Red Light District through Bekah’s eyes:
It was a very unsettling environment. There were men with their hands all over the bar girls and prostitutes they considered purchasing, some men lurked around as if stalking their prey and possibly contemplating the consequences of their actions. The girls laughed and seemed to be having a great time. The music was loud and distracting, it was difficult to focus. As we strolled through the sidewalk lined by bars we spoke life and prayed blessings for the people we passed. At the end of the alley there was a large group of about 20 female prostitutes who began to swarm around us. I only saw them out of my peripheral vision, but I assumed they were sexy, confident, beautiful and they sounded like they were having a great time. As we walked closer I felt heaviness in my spirit and needed fresh air. We turned down a side alley to pray and regroup. As we prayed, the Lord said softly “You belong here.” I was allowing myself to be intimidated and overwhelmed by the enemy’s playground. Josh and I needed to believe that we belonged there as a light in the darkness. I felt God urge me to smile and make eye contact with everyone we passed and to walk through the bars in the alley again with new eyes.
This time we began to walk back down the alley from the end where we left off, at the swarm of the half-naked prostitutes surrounded by men drooling over them. I smiled and began to make eye contact with each of them. As I got closer I noticed their jaws were angular, they wore layers of make-up and false eye lashes, their feet seemed to be too big for the shoes they were wearing. These were all ladyboys and I had not even noticed the first time. (Ladyboys are men that choose to live as women and dress and behave femininely- some are surgically altered.) When my eyes locked with theirs I saw a desire to be accepted –not confidence. Hearts that wanted a pure love. Their faces seem to ask,
“Am I lovely?”
“Am I enough?”
“Do I matter?”
Even as I write this its unreal to me that these were the same people that we passed by earlier. I was so blinded by the smoke and mirrors that I didn’t even see the situation for what it truly was. My heart burst with love for these men that felt like they weren’t enough and had been pressured to be something they were not.
Isn’t that just what the enemy does to us? He creates lies to make us feel intimidated, less than and as if we don’t belong. He even goes as far as telling us we aren’t enough in our originally created form. It was all one BIG HUGE LIE.
Our second walk through the alley was beautiful. We found ourselves caring for the men that had their hands all over the women- some still wearing their wedding rings. We noticed many men sitting alone, full of reflection and regret. Their faces said it all.
“This is not what I thought it would be”
“No matter what I try, there’s still something missing”
The prostitutes that were smiling and laughing would turn seconds later and drop the act. I often saw faces full of sadness. They are treated as men’s play things and required to drink alcoholic drinks all night. I hated watching them being forced into a numb state of drunkenness.
God is a God of freedom, not oppression.
It must break His heart to see His children being enslaved in so many different ways in the Red Light District. The men are oppressed by the sin in their life that drove them to be consumers of lust and deception. The women are enslaved by their bar owners or bar moms, some were forced here against their will through sex trafficking and others choose this life to feed their families believing they are not worth a better life. The ladyboys are enslaved by thoughts that they must achieve an unattainable goal- changing everything that they are to be something they are not. Comparing themselves to others instead of seeing the beauty in which they naturally possess. If Jesus was in Chang Mai, I think the Red Light District is exactly where he would be. Where hearts are searching for something greater than themselves.
