Here are the facts:
- Daughters and sons are being sold to brothels for as little as $12 having to service 10 to 12 customers daily.
- There are more brothels in Thailand than schools.
- 25% are from America.
- prostitution occurs mainly in bars, brothels, massage parlors, karoke bars, often a number is given to the individuals so they can be chosen by customers to be bought for the evening.
- There are more than 20,000 Thai women prostituting themselves daily.
- At least 10,000 ladys boys are involved in the sex industry in Bangkok.
- 1 in 4 Thai gay men have HIV.
- 1 in 35 Thai women have HIV.
- Lady boys that do not have HIV, risk it more in other areas.
- 70% of male tourists came deliberately to partake of Thailand’s sex industry.
- In 2002, 4,560,000 make tourists came for sex.
- In 2007, 9,436,571 male tourists came for sex.
- $4.3 billion per year is US contribution in Thailand where the highest percent European and Japan.
- The government will not shut down prostitutions because 70% is money made.
So what does this mean? Well, first the facts are crazy sad and that gets my attention.
Well, let me second say, I do not camp or do anything crazy like a trip like the World Race. But when you follow Jesus, you end doing crazy things you never thought were possible. When I was first introduced to World Race by my dear friend Allison, I never thought that my expectation would live out, but an all girls team that was doing bar ministry wrote blogs that made think that my life can be more. That I have a calling in my life, to be Jesus to the world…and now, over a year later, I am doing that. I get to do and see all things I read July 2012.
Like this month, me and my team 112 are doing “Ask the Lord” for ministry. This is basically we have no agenda but seeing what God is doing in Bangkok. Which has been beyond incredible. Much of it is red light district and seeing the different ways ministries have been set up to create an escape from the sex industry and also to provide jobs because they still have to have an income.
So tonight was the second night I walked back in Nana.
Background.
They do not have a choice. The kids are sold because either their parents don’t know, need the money desperately, or selfishly decide their addictions is greater than their child.
Ladyboys: are not wanting to be woman technically. They took a role that was given to them. They usually have no boys in the family and at age as young as 3, the parents make a decision to choose their most “feminine” son and raise them to be the daughter role. Why you may ask? Because in Thailand, the woman is the financial provider in the family. The sons go off on spiritual journeys to become monks in the villages out in the Northeast part of Thailand, while the females are to take care of the family.
Other woman-daughters/Ladyboys: So when a family gets in debt, the daughter has to take care of that. So what happens with daughters and “ladyboy daughters”, they realize to move to the city is where you make money. They get here and work in factories. After realizing factories cannot support the rent and make it in the big city(they are hardly getting by), while trying to provide money for their families they try to find a new job. Well, word spreads and being a waitress is better money. So they do that until they hear that working in the bar, they make even more money. Then working in the bar, you find out wearing less clothes and more make-up, also targeting foreigners can earn you money. So there are girls that are making lots of money for their families by being prostitutes, so why not…why not do it to make the money one needs for their family to get out of debt. The sooner and quicker this begins, then everyone can go home and live happily ever after…oh, this does not happen. The scars and years to do this is many.
(This is the reality for these girls/ladyboys in small villages that feel that the choice is not really choice, there are responsibilities and this is what needs to happen, someone has to step up and pay the bills).
My briefing with one of our ministry led me to ask (after I got all the facts), “Was do they have a choice?”. I say no. I mean they do technically, these girls do not have a gun to their head. The brothel girls have less freedom because they have to reach a certain payment to be released, but in the Nana…they have a choice. The choice to honor family. Honor the code that woman pay the bills and the debt. The choice to be responsible and do whatever you can so your family has food on the table. The choice to leave a husband that is probably abusive. The choice to leave children to live with grandparents so that you can pay off debt. The choice to work in a factory. The choice to know that more money is made in a different place and go there. The choice to make more money because that is the only choice, or you are shameful and irresponsible, not caring for the family. I really think they ran out of choices….and my heart breaks.
Being in the red light district is incredibly sad. It hurts my heart. It makes me cry myself to sleep because this is some girl, my age, that “I think”, does not have a choice. She is cold and burdened. She looks at us as a friend. She looks at us as a safe haven and a bit normal from the every night routine. That someone does not desire her touch or expect services. But looking into their eyes. I see freedom. I see Jesus wanting to offer them an escape. I see us being Jesus to them and showing them love, building a relationship, and eventually offering them an escape with a new job and restoration from all the pain that came from that lifestyle.
The choice is be Jesus. Be bold and get a little uncomfortable. Walk into a strip club and bar and love a person well. That is my choice and thankful that Jesus can use me.
This verse is a prayer and song I sing and pray the whole time I am in these places. 2 Cor. 3:17, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”. I believe Jesus is in that bar. He is beside me. Holding back my anger toward men, extending my hand to a woman/ladyboy in need, and providing smiles and questions to give them HOPE! That is the God I serve and believe in. He sees them and wants to bring freedom. That is the choice…to be bold to offer the freedom and say yes.
Blessed to be apart of the kingdom in my first strip club experience. That is where Jesus goes and that is where I will follow.
