7pm worship time seemed was one of the best worship nights of the month here at Lighthouse in Action. We were blessed with YWAM New Zealand joining us with their musical talents. I was singing and praying and kept seeing pictures of eyelashes. Like big, beautiful, (probably fake) eyelashes. I didn’t think anything of it because I had just put mascara on for the first time in about a week and thought that eyelashes were just on my mind.
We headed out to the bar and it seemed like an ordinary, uneventful evening. We visited the girls that we usually visit and drank some Sprite. We talked to my favorite little girl that sells flowers and bought cookies for the other kids. It was quiet in the bars. Toward the end of the night, we were about to leave when walked past a bar with a girl in a blue dress that looked so so so sad. My heart immediately broke for her. She was beautiful and she was about my age. I told the girls that I was with that we should go talk to her. As we approached, I noticed her eyelashes. Her big, beautiful, (definitely fake) eyelashes. I knew in that moment that God wanted us there.
I asked if we could buy her a Coke and she seemed full of disbelief that we wanted to sit with her, but so excited and jumped up to put our order in. She was so excited to spend time with us. She told me about her family and her friends. She told me her likes and dislikes and we laughed. She was about my age and she told me that she doesn’t like her job, but she needs money…
As we chatted with her, another girl came over and quickly informed us that she knew exactly who we were- we were World Racers and she was so excited to hang out with us. She told us that she knew about Jesus and that World Racers had bought her a bible. (We’re not sure if she has ever read the bible, but she told us that she loves it so much!) It was a beautiful end to the evening with hugs and smiles and talks of hanging out again.
I knew coming into this month that it wasn’t going to be an easy month for me. I knew that going to bars for ministry would be hard for me. I knew that seeing women trapped in this lifestyle of addiction and darkness would be hard to see every day. I knew the reality that a lot of these women like this lifestyle and don’t want to get out of it would be hard for me. I knew seeing the men fawning all over these women would be hard for me. It’s just hard…
But if I could only share one thing that God has been teaching me this month, it would be that we are all created in His image. No one is created more or less in His image- we are all equally created in His image. We are sons and daughters and though some people are trapped in lives of darkness, we have to see each other as God’s creation and God’s children. We can hate the sins that rule people’s lives, but that gives us no right to judge or hate the people.
What I’ve learned talking to these women, bar owners, children, tourists, men, and lady boys that spend their nights in the bars is that they all have a lot of much hurt in their lives. They are all broken people to different degrees. Many are lonely and seeking companionship. Many are searching for something that will rid them of the hopeless feeling and reassure them that they are loved. They want someone to listen. They all desperately need Jesus and whether or not they are open to hear about Him or know Him already, they are still His children. He loves them the same as He loves you and me.
When we start to think about people as all equally created in God’s image, it changes our prospective. It puts us all on equal playing field. God created us all equal. No one is higher or lower than anyone else. We are not defined by our function in society, but by our essence- that we are made in the image of God. And he calls us to love each other. Mark 12:30-31 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
We are called to love each other the way that God loves us. We are called to a self-sacrificial, inconvenient, felt love that is not natural to us. We are not called to judge people or “save” people- only God can do those things. We are called to love. Though this ministry is hard, it is so cool to see how love breaks through darkness. By walking those streets with God’s kingdom in our hearts and minds, people notice something different and people come to know the Lord through relationships based on loving God and loving people with equality.
The story of the beautiful girl with the long fake eyelashes doesn’t end here. I pray more teams pour love into her and that she comes to know Jesus through the people that He is handpicking to share about him here in Chiang Mai.
