Meet Ice………
She’s 20 years old.
She’s beautiful.
She’s from Bad Girls Bar.
My team met Ice one of the first nights here in Thailand. Since then we continuously went back on our nights out to build a relationship with her and invite her to lunch at SHE. Ice kept saying she would come join us ,but when we called her in the morning to ask her to lunch she was either sleeping or too tired from the night before. She's usually working until 3 or 4 in the morning and is too exhausted to come hang out with us.
Well, the other day she finally said yes and drove over to SHE on her moto bike to hang out with Carmen, Bethany, and I. She has such a beautiful spirit. A year ago if you would have told me I would be hanging out in bars, befriending men drinking their nights away, or loving on girls stuck in prostitution I would have been shocked. But it is exactly where God has placed me. Ice and us girls spent time just talking, eating leftovers in one of the kitchens, watching the other girls bake cookies, drawing pictures, coloring pretend tattoos on eachother and doing our hair. We hung out like I would hang with friends back home.
Ice is such a playful girl, and literally just a girl at heart. Shes affectionate and loves all our hugs, shes got a little sense of humor too. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding her English but she only learned 5 months ago, just before she stared working in the bars. She has such a beautiful smile….it lights up a room!
Ice is so close to leaving the bars and coming to SHE. When we invite her to come she doesn’t say yes and she doesn’t say no…she says she wants to hang out with us almost everytime we ask but then she is so tired she doesn’t answer her phone when we call. More recently though she comes over every opportunity that she gets.
Well now the month is over but Ice came over several times to hang out with us. She came Christmas eve and helped cook all the food and came Christmas day to our barbeque, blending in with all of us…saying our goodbyes were one of the harder ones of The Race so far, but I know in my heart Ice will be at SHE soon. It’s just in Gods time, not mine… Let my will be done, not yours I heard God say. Ice, tears streaming down her cheeks said as she was leaving,“ I’ve never had friends like you before. I have Thai friends but never any friends like you.”
My heart broke with love for her.
When I opened my bag at debrief I found a small wrapped package with a t-shirt candies and a note that says. I love you. I miss you already. I won’t ever forget you.
Well Ice, I love you too, I miss you already and I wont ever forget you either.
