It’s late.
I’m with two friends and we decide to explore the city for a while and practice some photography skills.
We end up finding ourselves on a street with neon lights, a whole lot of men and even more girls.
Men, both young and old. Girls, the same.
I’ve heard about the Red Light Districts. I have seen them from a distance and I’ve watched lengthy documentaries on them. I even bought a necklace to “end slavery”.
Last night I looked girls in the eyes whose brokenness became my own.
Last night I looked men in the eyes who had on wedding rings and who probably have a daughter my age at home. In that moment, God’s brokenness for them became my own. His brokenness for their sin and their shame. His sorrow for their lives that have been so entangled with the affairs of this world that they somehow find a moment of comfort in walking the same street I walked for completely different reasons.
You’re probably wondering why I would choose to willingly walk down one of these streets and my answer that I say often is that “once you see, you are responsible.”
I now have faces in my mind of girls. Some who seemed to be enjoying the challenge of getting one of the men that were walking down the street and some who were sitting to the side trying their hardest to cover up their bodies because their clothes weren’t.
Both versions of girls just as equally heartbreaking.
I have always heard that an orphan is just an orphan until you meet one personally and you put a name and a face with them. I learned last night that the same is true with the women working the streets to earn money. They are just women but now that I have put faces with them, faces that had sorrow and brokenness and shame and hurt all over them, these women aren’t just women to me anymore.
These women are beautiful and are created in the image of my incredible God. They are temples of Him and they are being treated completely opposite. They are women that the Lord cares so deeply for. Women that He calls beloved. Women that He created to bear His image of gentleness and kindness and selflessness. Women that He created to mother beautiful babies and nurture things of life.
Some of these women are choosing to live the life that they are living. We could point fingers at them and judge them. Or we could let our heart shatter into a million pieces and let our brokenness lead to the action of fighting this fight of such sin in this world. We could ask God to break our hearts for what breaks His. We could ask the Lord to let us feel, for just a moment, what He feels every time He walks down that street.
We could look at the men walking down the street as dirty pigs who just want a moment of satisfaction. Or we could let our heart shatter onto that street and weep and cry out for the men of this world to rise up and be men. We could ask the Lord to break us and let that brokenness lead to action of loving these men despite their decisions knowing that this isn’t an act of only flesh and blood but an act of the spiritual realm. Of the darkness that rules places like this. Of the darkness that rules their hearts.
I have faces in my mind. I have faces of girls and I have faces of men that I will never, ever forget. It’s time for us, as Christians, to stand up and say that enough is enough.
Friends, let your heart be broken. I warn you, though. Don’t pray to be broken if you aren’t okay with the Lord walking with you down a street where His heart is shattered on the ground and His tears are constant. Don’t pray the prayer if you aren’t willing to step into pretty dark places.
****Note: I tried to Google some facts, statistics and organizations about trafficking and prostitution in Thailand and what did I find? Website on website on website about where to find the best Red Light Districts and which bars and clubs to go to once you get there. There you have it, folks. Let your heart break. Let it feel what the Lord feels. Let’s do something about it. Facts and knowledge are great. Brokenness is great. But if those things don’t lead you into action than they are of no worth.
Update on life: My team and I are currently teaching English 4 days a week! I have two classes each night, one with 8 and one with 5. They are all older, college aged and working people. So far they have been SUCH A JOY and constantly keep me laughing. I look forward to all the relationships that the Lord is going to bring out of this month. It has been a rough first week for some of us but we recognize the spiritual warfare that it is and we are asking that you keep us in your prayers. We know that we aren’t fighting flesh and blood and that the enemy doesn’t want to see relationships come out of this month and he definitely doesn’t want to see Jesus glorified. Thank you to everyone that is supporting me and praying me through! Your constant emails and texts mean the world to me and I couldn’t be making it through this without you guys.
