In Thai culture, it is the responsibility of the daughters to support their families. The son’s job is to earn merit for the family by living in the temple for a while usually 4-6 months. While his job lasts only a few months, the daughter’s their whole life. When ever her parents decide they are old, which can be as early as 40, they send her off to go find jobs in the city. Almost all of the girls we met were from northeast Thailand, the poorest region in the country, they come to Pattaya to support their families.
At first I was a little hesitant about doing bar ministry. I didn’t know what to expect or what it would look like. What could I possibly say to girls working in a bar? I’m not very outgoing and I am more of a listener than a talker. But I ended up loving it! How bar ministry was like this: we would begin in group prayer, then we would go to open bars and sit at a booth and order a drink (soda, juice, or water). The girls would usually come up to us, excited to see women foreigners who are genuinely interested in getting to know them. We would talk and play bar games like connect 4, Jenga, or Jackpot ( a dice game). We would hand out info cards about English class and when the Spirit led, tracts.
The first time we did bar ministry I met 4 girls. Two were sisters. The older sister was 32 years old she had been married to an Italian, but she separated from him after a year. The younger was only 19.They had only been working in the bar for about a week. One of the women from the ministry really poured into these girls and shared her story with them, and what the Lord has done for her and gave them tracts. They read the whole tract while we were there.
The next day at ministry we went to another bar, the woman I talked to was in her mid 40’s. She had a 20 year old son. She had been working at that bar for 10 years! I asked her if she liked her job, she said no. I then I asked her if she could do anything, what would she want to do. She didn’t have an answer, which broke my heart. She had accepted her “fate” and didn’t even think she could do anything else. Even though I could see pain in her eyes, they were beautiful light brown; so I told her that she had really beautiful eyes, and that they smiled. She wouldn’t believe me. She was at a point where she couldn’t accept a compliment. She still hopes that she will meet a good man and take her out of the bar. I asked her to come to English and she said she was old and lazy. Pray that she will put her hope in Christ.
One of my favorite days doing bar ministry was when I met Olivia and Samantha. When we first approached the bar Samantha didn’t pay us any attention, she stared out into space and was smoking a cigarette. Olivia was 26, when I asked, she said that she didn’t like working in the bar. She had another job working in a restaurant but didn’t like it because she worked the cash register and didn’t like doing the math. Her dream is to own her own Thai restaurant. While we were talking, Samantha’s cigarette smoke was blowing in my direction, and Olivia tapped her hand, to get her to move it, which I thought was kinda funny and considerate of Olivia. I asked Olivia if she wanted to play a game, so she got one out, at this time one of the Thai staff from the ministry started talking with another girl and Olivia was interested in that conversation. She asked Samantha to play with me. She did not seem too excited at all. We started to play connect 4. After a few rounds I asked her if she liked this game, she didn’t say anything, but she went and got another game. We started to play Jenga. We had so much fun! We were pretty good at it too. The tower only fell after each row was on two blocks each. It was awesome to see her transform from being depressed to see her laugh and smile.
In conclusion a lot of the girls we talked to are from the Isaan area. They don’t like their jobs, but are hoping to meet a good man, that will marry them or send them money to support their families. A lot of the girls have been married and have children. Their children stay with their grandparents and the mother sends money to take care of the families.
What you can be praying for:
-Pray for legit business to take place of the bars in the red light districts.
-Pray for Godly men to raise up in the communities and disciple leaders. A lot of men in the Isaan area or lazy, alcoholics, who don’t work, and have many wives.
-Pray for workers to come to Thailand. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Prayer praises:
-Pattaya is not the place it used to be. Long term workers there have seen legit business rise up on Walking Street and say it isn’t as dark as it used to be.
-The Lord has answered so many prayers already and is transforming lives!
