It’s 8:30pm and I’m walking through a dark street. I see bars and more bars along the street. As I go in one of the bars I see a young girl in the entrance wearing the shortest shorts I have ever seen and a shirt showing her belly. I look at her face and looks about 20 years old. I started talking to Mali, another girl that works at the bar, and asked her how old that girl I saw in the entrance was. She said she was 14 years old. My heart sunk. That could be my little sister. Just to warn you, the names I use in this blog have been changed for their safety. I will call her Mae. Mae was standing outside the bar wearing almost nothing to get attention from “customers”. Once a customer came in the bar, she gave give him all her attention and made him buy as many drinks as possible. The customer then grabbed/touched Mae anywhere he wished. Then the door opened up for him to “buy” her for the night.
This is what my ministry was like in Thailand. Sadly, Mae isn’t the only one. I can tell you so many stories. There are millions of women being sold for sex, not by their own will, yet, people give them the title of “prostitutes”. It’s sad and heartbreaking to know that this really happens. It is real life. I watched documentaries and movies about Human Trafficking in the past but I had never seen it in “real life”. Every other night during the entire month of December, I had the opportunity of going to bars and building relationships with the “prostitutes” and “ladyboys” working there. I was able to show them genuine love. I wanted for them to know that I wanted to have a meaningful conversation with them without wanting anything in return. Thai people do not trust easily, so it took a while to build relationships and to gain their trust. After that, you can ask them anything you want and they come up with the funniest answers ever! After getting to know the girls better, I walked down the same bar street during the day on our prayers walks, and the girls would come to us and hug us. Just seeing their smiles and joy during that time made my day. At that point they knew that we weren’t there to buy them. We just wanted to love on them.
The days that I was not at the bar, my team and I would intercede for the city and our other teammates.
It was definitely not easy, seeing the hopelessness and spiritual warfare that that place carried. My heart breaks for them. Please join me in praying for Chiang Mai and that these women and men will have a supernatural encounter with our Heavenly Father.
One day during intercession, the Lord showed me a vision of the bar street in Chiang Mai.
I saw people inside the bars blindfolded and had chains on their hands and feet. They were so deep in their sin that they couldn’t see past that. The good and the bad had no difference. As we walked in the Chiang Mai bar street I saw giant angels behind us, backing us up. It looked like an army. As we walked further in the street the darkness wasn’t dark anymore. As we walked in the bars, chains were being broken, blindfolds were coming off, and hearts were being made whole.
God reminded me that we need to know who we are and know what we carry: Ephesians 1: 19-23 -> “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself. ”
It is encouragement to see and know that even if I don’t see things happening in the natural, the Lord is doing things in the supernatural realm. He is faithful and true.
There is so much work to be done.
“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Matthew 9: 37-38
His kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven.
