.Living in Slavery.

She wakes up everyday at about 3pm, does what she needs to do and goes into work at 7pm.  Her night consists of putting on a fake smile, acting like she is actually attracted to men she would never even glance at, playing pool and drinking.   Sometimes as early as 8pm she is already purchased for the night at the small fee of $11 and shortly after leaves with the customer.  She now belongs to the customer for the night.  She doesn’t have to do everything the customer wants, she now puts her own price on things..  But if she chooses a price too high, or she just chooses not to do what the customer wants..  There are sometimes consequences.  When a drunk man is angry and isn’t getting what he asked for, they can get mean and things can get ugly…

– When we were in Thailand, Sammie and I had the opportunity of becoming good friends with two girls who are slaves to this lifestyle.  We had the chance to purchase them before anyone else had the chance on several different occasions.  On other days we would go to visit them and they would already be with a customer or “friend”  as the bar owner likes to call it (which was heart wrenching).  But on the nights we were able to take the girls out, we had a blast eating at different places, bowling, and karaoke.  I was finally able to see their true heart come out.  I saw their fake smiles turn into real enjoyment.  They shared how they don’t like their jobs they only do it to support their families and someday they want a family of their own.  These nights were awesome because we were getting them away from the bar enviroment and showing them what it feels like to really enjoy themselves.  The fact that the girls would actually choose to leave the bar with us was amazing in itself because they were actually losing money by leaving with us, because we did not pay them any extra money.

By the end of our ministry in Thailand I was a little discouraged because I knew that we were leaving our girls, and they were just going to keep living the life they were living before we met them.  But the truth is we were able to show them a good time outside of the bar life, they were able to come alive and act immature around us, they enjoyed making fun of me singing Thai karaoke and they were able to laugh at me bowling when I fell, and scored a 55 : ) .  It didn’t matter their lifestyle or how they acted..  We showed them how Jesus loves them unconditionally.