Pattaya, Thailand was hard. I keep rewriting this blog. Maybe trying to make it appealing to people reading it, maybe trying to hit all of the hard moments in that subtle expression of words that makes you feel so compassionately for those broken and hurting souls. I’ve tried to write it but I just need to write it as is; to write what I saw and broke my heart. If your heart aches with compassion or with contains the fire that filled me, I encourage you to research organizations like the one that we worked with www.tamarcenter.org/en or similar causes at www.daughtersofcambodia.org, www.worldvision.org and http://www.a21.org/index.php
In Pattaya Thailand, my team made friends with prostitutes.
You first must understand something about the tourism in Pattaya. If you Google Pattaya, Thailand the first 5 or 6 pictures that appear are that of sandy, breathtaking beaches. The 7th picture shows you girls lined up at a bar. This gives you a better indication of what Pattaya is about: sex tourism. I don’t recommend everyone doing this but if you add Soi 6 on to the end of that Google search, you’ll see the street that we went to (amazingly where the Tamar Center is located). Hundreds and hundreds of girls in their uniforms, who you can buy for the night for 2 beers and $14.
That was our mission, our day and our ministry. No teaching from 8-3 with a lunch break, paint this wall, pick up this baby. This week: buy a drink (non-alcholic) at a bar and befriend the woman working there. While we were only there for a short time, we were able to go out three times. We were partnered with the Tamar Center. This center initially teaches English classes but offers the chance to learn a skill set like beautician, card maker, etc. and connect with a church. Twice we went out along with Thai women who work with the center, splitting up into groups of 2 or 3 per bar. There we would buy a Coke and just make conversation. What is your favorite thing to do? How many children do you have? Are you Buddhist? There wasn’t a hidden agenda of trying to sneakily convert people or condemn in any way. We just listened. We told them about our families, laughed at jokes and looked at pictures of their kids. At the end, we gave them a flyer to the Tamar Center. We asked if we could pray for or “bless” them (as Buddhists are definitely in favor of blessing).
The other time that we went out, we walked on Beach Road. This is where the “freelancers” end up, the women who can’t work in the bars for one reason or another. They stand on the edge of the beach, rats running around behind them in the distance. Old white men coming up and inspecting the potential product. This night we bought flowers. We went up to about 30 different women, offering them a carnation, a flyer and a tract. A lot of women tried to pay us for the flower or were hesitant to take it. We still talked to them and asked if they wanted prayer, but often we had to leave sooner because of potential customers. Overall, the flower seemed to make the night shine just a little bit brighter.
Whether it was in the bar or on the beach, the next day if we walked by and saw a woman from the other night, we would wave and smile, hoping she held on to that little flyer that could change her life.
