Walking down the street has been a unique experience. As my male teammate, Colin, and I are out and about during the evening searching for people to interact with and talk to about Christ we are constantly grabbed by women as we pass by the bars. One can barely acknowledge the women to the left and to the right without them trying to get you to purchase their “services”.
When you look at their faces you can often see the pain in their eyes as they approach you. Though many of these women have unfortunately succumbed to this lifestyle that often leads them to a short and broken life, many of them are forced to be out soliciting for men to purchase their bodies as if they are simply an object that can be purchased. These women are closely monitored and rarely out of the sight of their, for lack of a better word, owners.
As Colin and I walk these streets early in the evening it is strange to be greeted by women literally lining the streets as they see us. I want to tell them they don’t have to do this for us and that we will not use them as many other men have, but we simply cannot because if we try to initiate with them they will not stop trying harder and harder to get us to buy them.
So we simply walk in to each bar, do the best we can to respect the women yet at the same time limitedly acknowledge them, and talk with who-ever we can about life and God.
On one such occasion we met a young man named Joe.
Joe is an intelligent, attractive, and well learned young man who works as a bar tender at his family’s bar. Often as we sit at the stylish, marble topped bar that he works at we talk much about life, family, and God.
Joe has actually been raised as a Christian, but he does not seem to practice his faith very much. His life mainly consists of working till about six in the morning each night, waking up at four in the afternoon, and then going back to work at six in the evening.
We have had the opportunity to speak truth into Joe’s life and we even almost all went to church together though that did not work out because of his work schedule.
It truly has been amazing to be involved in this young man’s life and love him well. I know that God could use Joe in a great way to influence and change the brothel bar culture that he works in, and I believe that Colin and I have encouraged Joe well in that and that God will continue to do his work in Joe until he comes to a place where his life is completely devoted to the glory of God.
God has a plan for Chiang Mai, he has a plan for the red light district, and he has a plan for Joe’s life, and I know that through our ministry here we have played a part in that plan of the Lord’s work being accomplished here.
Know well my friends and supporters that God is much greater than all the sin and brokenness of this world. As my ministry comes to a close here within the next few days I am not discouraged at all, rather, I am encouraged by the fact that the Lord is doing a great work here in Chiang Mai and that he will continue to change this place and the lives of the people here.
God bless you my loving supporters
