Being on the world race I try my best to give my all in ministry. Sometimes ministry isn’t what you expect it to be, and thats when God starts optimizing your heart for the way He sees things.
Four nights a week we made our way out to Patong Beach to the famous Bangla Road located in Phuket, Thailand. This road was known for sex trafficking and so much more. Thailand the #1 Sex trafficking country in the world is a place that thirst for Jesus in so many ways.
Jumping into bar ministry this month, we gave it all to God. Walking into a place filled with bars, choosing where to go was sometimes peaceful rather than disturbing. A place like this, we always made sure our Spirit was leading us, and not our flesh. As we prayed I will never forget a bar that opened my eyes..
At this bar there were two people who were so welcoming yet so innocent.
Their names were “Guitar” and “Poe”. (Guitar – Man in Blue; Poe – Woman with the peace sign up)
Guitar was a man at the age of 23 who had been working at the bars since he was 18. He was a loving guy with an amazing personality. You could tell he was a leader in many ways. With his influence, he led another person into the bar industry as well.
That person was Poe.
Poe is his younger sister. She is 19 years old and had been working in the bars for 4 months when I spoke to her.
Talking with her, she had very broken english but was able get somethings across while having Guitar translate for me.
As we conversed i got to know who she was and what she likes to do. But i will never forget her response to one of the questions I asked her.
“Do you enjoy working here? Could you see yourself working here for the rest of your life?”.
Her response was, “No, I really don’t enjoy working here. I want something better, but i don’t know anything else. This is all i know…”
As we talked about her job, she seemed sad and uneasy about her current situation.
Seeing her in her current situation made me stop and think. Thinking deeply i was reflecting to myself in a position of doing something i didn’t enjoy for the REST OF MY LIFE, which put me in a place of unhappiness.
Just Imagine being raised doing something, you couldn’t imagine yourself doing…
Instantly i knew she longed for something more.
So from then on out she had my heart. Every time we went to Bangla Road i longed to see her. I longed to give her hope and reveal a God that loves her deeply.
Everyday I visited her and I brought her a special something.
That special something was a rose in exchange for a smile. A rose for a smile.
That rose resembled hope and love. It also represented who God was.
God is Love. He wants to help us all, and he can. But only if we let Him.
This month my perspective on so many things broadened in so many ways. This month I’ve witnessed so much, giving me one of the most humbling experiences I’ve ever been on.
What humbled me most wasn’t the fact that this place was known for sex trafficking.
What humbled me was the fact that many people didn’t know what they were living for. There were a lot of people yearning for so much more…
I wondered what that was exactly.
Walking into this place you instantly sense hope. Every person your eyes would meet, you could see they all wanted more..
From witnessing “Lady Boys” (women who are really men), to seeing women being grabbed in a way a man shouldn’t grab a woman makes me think…
There has to be another way.
You could see they want more than the money they are going to receive each night.
They want more than the drink that’s in their hand.
They want more than to dance on a pole in a glass box for hours.
They want more than to be looked at as objects in this world.
They want more than to be used for their bodies in a local hotel for thirty minutes.
Bangla road wants more than to be known for Bars and Sex.
Thinking how vivid and how bold this place was, makes me ask myself: What exactly are they missing?
They’re missing a savior.
They’re missing someone to show them a way of life like no other.
They’re missing someone to show them who God is.
Who is God?.. God is Love.
“That is why we labor and strive because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10)
(To recap the month of Thailand, heres an awesome video that my teammate DeAnna made.)
Real Men Buy Roses Not Girls. from DeAnna Jarnagin on Vimeo.
