Tonight was a special night, because we got to take our new friends out for a holiday from the bars. We picked them up at 7 o’clock and paid their bar fines so they were free for the night.
As they walked out with us, all of the girls we passed by inquired about where they were going. Our friends cheerfully replied that they were going on holiday and we were taking them bowling. The other girls sighed with envy.
We jumped on the sky train and headed to the Ekkamai station. None of us had ever been there, but we got to the mall without too much trouble. We found the bowling alley on the fourth floor.
It was really clean and modern. It looked almost like a club. It was nothing like the dirty, smoky, run down bowling allies I know back home. It’s all very high-tech like most things here in Thailand.
We each got a token and were directed to the Auto-shoer. There is a bank of lockers marked by size, and each has it’s own token slot. There is a measuring station where you put your foot to see what size shoe to get, and then you put the token in the appropriate locker and flip the toggle. A nicely cleaned and tied pair of shoes drops out of the little shoot at the bottom of the locker. It was pretty cool.
Since it is so hot here, we were all wearing sandals and had to buy the Major Bowl socks. We hadn’t really thought about that, but I guess they will make a nice souvenir.
We bowled one game, and had a great time laughing and cheering each other on. It was good to see them just being with friends and having a good time.
After our game was over, it was still really early. We didn’t want to part just yet, because we wanted more time to talk. We decided to buy an hour of karaoke instead of bowling more.
Karaoke is a bit different here than what we are used to at home. Here, you rent a private room with couches and a flat screen TV, instead of going to a bar to watch a bunch of drunken fools singing badly in front of a crowd.
The rooms are very nice and classy. We got a couple of microphones and attempted to navigate the music system. They had songs in Thai and English, so we choose a few of each. Fortunately, the Thai songs were also displayed in phonetic English so we could try to sing along.
We sang some Eagles, and danced to YMCA and a bunch of other songs. The girls really enjoyed hearing us try to sing in Thai. We had a great time.
After that, we decided to stop down at McDonalds for some ice cream. It was perfect, because that gave us a chance to really sit down and talk with them about why we are here. I feel like they were really opened to hearing us after hanging out all night.
When Susan explained that we are Christians, one of the girls chimed in, to our surprise, and said that she is a Christian. She was baptized when she was younger and took part in the Lord’s Supper. We tried to get more details about what kind of church it was, or what denomination, but we couldn’t understand what she was trying to say.
We were pretty excited to hear that though, and she told us she has a Bible and then started to recite the NT books, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, John…” to us. It is very encouraging to know that she has some knowledge of God. Most people here have never heard of God or Jesus, they only know Buddha and some of the Hindu gods.
We talked a little more about our lives and the transformation that Jesus has made in us. I gave a short testimony and shared some of the struggles I have had here and how God has worked through them. They listened very intently as we shared our lives.
When we were done sharing about The Well and our desire to help women to leave prostitution, we simply told them that it is their choice if they want to leave. We will love them, and they will be our friends either way. We just want them to know they are loved, and that they have a choice if they want out.
I really appreciated being able to hang out with them outside of the bars, and to get to know them better as friends. It meant a lot to me just to be able to give them an escape from the demands of the bar, even if only for one night.
