You’ve seen her; we’ve all seen her. She stands on the street corner, dressed provocatively, wearing too much makeup, in the dark hours of the night. We instantly recognize her profession, and most of us quickly pass judgment. She obtains an instant label in our minds; “prostitute.”
An emotion quickly rises up within us; disgust, repulsion, embarrassment, maybe even pity. We may briefly wonder why a woman would respect herself so little that she would sell her own body, but we quickly drive by and let our thoughts wander to something less troubling.
But what about her story? Do you stop long enough to find out or even just to wonder who she really is apart from the plastered makeup and skimpy outfit?
I didn’t…until I came to Bangla Road.
Bangla Road is a Sodom and Gomorrah of Thailand. Seriously. Everywhere you look there is some sort of perverted imagery. Even when the bars are closed during the day, the T-shirt vendors, the bracelet salesmen and the advertisements for that evening’s festivities make sure you get your eyeful of innuendos. As I walked down Bangla Road for the first time, I was completely overwhelmed by what I saw and heard. And that was in the daytime when none of the bars were even open. We walked down the side streets and into the bars and we prayed as we went. We prayed that the presence of the Lord would fill Bangla Road, the side streets and the bars. We prayed for divine encounters with the girls that work there. We spoke truth and life over an area saturated with lust and perversion. That in itself was a powerful experience.
And then we returned to Bangla Road about 6 hours later. If I thought it was overwhelming during the day, it was multiplied 100 times at night. The noise level was chaotic, and I couldn’t walk ten feet without someone offering me flyers advertising all sorts of perverted shows and services. Literally everywhere I looked there were girls dancing on bars and girls standing on the side of the street, negotiating their price with a male customer.
The girls on Bangla road are referred to as “bar girls,”because as I read somewhere, this term is “less offensive to westerners.” Regardless of the choice of wording, these girls’ lives are defined by their profession…or are they? While people are quick to judge based on outward appearance, God looks at these girls the same way that He looks at you and me; as His beloved creation. Kind of gives a different perspective on the subject, doesn’t it? If these girls are beloved of God, how do we communicate His love to them? By continuing in our busy schedules and passing them by, or by taking the time to show them true compassion and their value as His beloved creation?
Their stories are diverse. Some of the girls have children to provide for. Others send money home to parents who live far away. But there is a common thread connecting these girls’ stories; they are searching for something better. And we have something better to offer them; the hope of Christ.
There is nothing quite like sitting down across the counter from a young woman in a bar and asking her for her story. Her eyes light up when she realizes you genuinely want to get to know her, and you didn’t come looking for anything else from her. This is exactly what Jesus did. He sat with “prostitutes and sinners” and ate with them. And yes, the Bible clearly shows that He received ridicule and judgment from the religious leaders for His choice to do so. But what the Bible doesn’t tell us is what the scope of His ministry might have been to these women, or how many found the hope and the “something better” that they were looking for simply because He took the time to listen to their stories. He showed them genuine compassion and they responded. The definition of compassion is the “deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.” Compassion, therefore, moves us to action. It moved Jesus to action. And it is moving us to action today on Bangla Road. I am excited to see what God is going to do through our team as we spend time just listening to her tell her story.
It is pretty easy to pass judgment and plaster labels on Bangla Road. It would be easy to dismiss it as a lost cause from the outside looking in. But the beautiful thing about God is that wherever He is, there is hope. And there is hope for His beloved, even in the bars of Bangla Road.
