So we talk and laugh and my team of Marissa, Ashlee and Katie drinks about 5 Cokes altogether throughout the night. Sometimes, when the music they play is too much for me (hello, Ricky Martin and Juanes songs!), I bust out the infamous Barnes Robot, which my brother does fantastically and I do hilariously. But the women love it and will even try to move robotically after I am done. The Macarena, which played one day, was also a big-hit dance.
But as much as I love talking with these women, showing them love in a place so devoid of it, I cannot see this as normal. Our contact, Mark, said this sometimes happens. It begins to feel not quite so sickening, not quite so ghastly. It begins to feel that maybe all men want really is this; that you can’t stop this from happening, that this is how the world is.
As my teammate and leader fantastically stated in her blog, THIS IS NOT NORMAL. This is not okay. This should always sicken us.
The little children brought here by their families? That is still sickening to me. How do you show a little boy or little girl these images- of ladyboys, men who dress and act and sell themselves as women; of scantily clad women dancing on poles and on bars; of old men lifting womens’ skirts with their canes- and then later teach them that women are to be respected and cherished, that they are not just objects used to satisfy men’s sexual desires. Because I think that’s what these children are seeing.
And then the men, who I came here ready to hate. But then I saw their eyes. And I learned that there is actually a high rate of suicide among male sex tourists. They come here searching, trying to fill a void in a way the world has taught them…and it doesn’t work. That void isn’t filled by the things you find on Bangla Road. It’s found in Jesus. And these men NEED Jesus. They need to learn what it means to be a real man. They’re yearning for acceptance and companionship and relationship, and you just can’t find that for $20 a night.
Please pray for the women and men of Bangla Road. Pray for the families that come here. Pray that the children be shielded from these sights and protected from the thoughts that can accompany them. Pray for the ladyboys, that they come to know who they are in Christ, that they become proud of being male and of the awesome responsibilites that come with being a man (hopefully a man of God!).
Pray against judgment and hatred and resentment. Pray that we never forget that, though we may not be prostituting ourselves on Bangla Road, we have all prostituted ourselves to other gods and need God’s forgiveness and salvation as much as every person involved in the sex industry. We need Jesus every day. Pray that the women we are building relationships with, inviting to lunch and English-language hours, see Jesus in us, feel His love and come to know their need for Him, too.
