Last week we spent some time talking and ministering to the bar girls in the red light district of Bangkok, Thailand. Many of the girls I met asked about my friend Julie on the June race. Julie Lortz was part of a team that spent all of September befriending these girls, and learning a lot about the darkness inside the sex traffic trade. Her stories speak volumes:
“I want to share some of what we learned as we built relationships with the women. The majority of the women are from a very poor, farming village in Northeast Thailand, called Esarn. The daughters are responsible for rescuing the family from the hopeless poverty, while the young men are usually free to live as they wish. The young girls find out that they can make good money at the bars in Bangkok. Sometimes a friend tells them; sometimes people come to the villages to recruit the woman; sometimes the girls are sold by their families; other times their parents or their devastating situations force them to seek money and a different life in the city. Little do they know that this new life will bring pain that changes them, cuts deep and lasts a lifetime. All the woman dream of one thing – to be rescued. With every man that comes to the bar, they have a new hope of being rescued. They want a farang (foreigner, usually from US, Europe, or Australia) man that will sweep them off their feet, take care of them, love them, be their prince, provide for them, marry them and take them out of the bars. It is unlikely they will find that kind of man at the bars. And if they do, there is another problem: a man cannot fulfill the deepest longings of any woman, a man cannot heal them on the inside, a man cannot offer the perfect and unconditional love that they need. Only Christ can rescue them in the way they need to be rescued. Only Christ can bring redemption and healing to these women. Please continue to pray for the women to be rescued.
Pray for truth, freedom, release, healing – so much healing.”
“And now, I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the
Valley of Heartbreak into Acres of Hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did when she was young, when I freed her from captivity.” – Hosea 2:14-15
[From: Into the Darkness, click here to read it all
Pray for Thailand.”
[From: The bar scene, click here to read it all.]
