This month ministry has been a wild adventure. I’ve had more travel days than I ever thought I could in less than one month going from Bangkok, to Mae Sot, to Burma, to Chiang Mae, to Mae la noi, to Pattaya, and back to Bangkok.
While we were in Mae Sot, Thailand, we worked with full time missionaries who support and help burmese make a life out of themselves. Mae sot is about 10 minutes from the Myanmar (Burma) border so we got the privilege to go visit and hang out with some of the kids for the day. I’ve probably never seen a more poor place. All they had was dirt and more dirt, yet they were some of the most joyful human beings ever!
Don’t be fooled… she was attached to my hip but didn’t like to smile. Honestly, it broke my heart how attached she was to me for a few hours because I knew I was leaving. Man, they appreciate love and affection that’s for sure!
All of these places I traveled to were for ministry except Pattaya. In between traveling from Mae la noi to Bangkok, Ellen and I decided to make a pit stop in Pattaya because we had a few free days and wanted to go see the beach and the islands around it. I didn’t know a single thing about Pattaya before going, didn’t know the reputation the city had, didn’t know what it looked like, all I knew was that there was a beach and we were going.
We went to the beach, but not until the next day. We decided to just eat and do a little exploring the first day, but a lot of what we saw were bars/clubs back to back to back. Every street, every corner, every where you looked all you saw were the red lighted bars and clubs with women (or mostly ‘she men’) in their tight dresses and heels and old white men in the bar stools.
It looks just like all of the documentaries and movies and what you heard it to be. Red light districts, short time rooms, all the girls, and all of the old men on “business trips”… it’s real and it’s sad. How could this life be? It baffles me and is extremely heart breaking. I know a lot don’t choose this life, which is sad, but for the women who do and the old men who come for the women is even more sad.
There are 30,000 female prostitutes over the age of 18 in this one city. That doesn’t include the children, the men, and the pimps. Pictures don’t do this place justice, but when you walk up and down the streets you can just see how dark physically and spiritually the place truly is. It’s so easy to say God is no where to be found here. But the simple fact that He sends us, His messengers, there to see for themselves, to shed a little of His light, to care for even just one prostitute or whomever, or the fact that a new person each day is standing up for this and saying “this is not right” and gaining compassion for this shows that He sees the city and sees the people. I mean, think about how blown up this whole topic has gotten the past few years and how much compassion is rising in people’s souls and all the campaigns… He sees these people and the real pain that we so easily walk past and turn our faces and say “How disgusting!!!”
Some facts: 1) prostitution is legal and regulated in 22 countries 2) there are about 40 million prostitutes working in the world 3) 2.5 million of that 40 are trafficking victims
“They forced me to sleep with as many as 50 customers a day. I had to give the pimp all my money. If I did not earn a set amount they punished me by removing my clothes and beating me with a stick until I fainted, electrocuting me, cutting me.” 4) the average age to enter in prostitution is 13 5) estimates say 1 out of 10 men in the world have paid for sex 6) prostitution means big money – but mostly for the pimps 7) 80% of prostitutes have been raped 8) 9 out 10 women you ask say they hate their job 9) but 9 out of 10 say that they have to because it’s the only way they can provide for their families
This list could go on and on. Instead of turning our heads, giving the cold shoulder, or just talking about how gross it is, if you can’t do more – at least see them as people. I think that’s a good start. Pray for the women, pray for the pimps, pray for the kids, and pray for the people who pay for their service. While any and every one of them may be at fault, they are people with deep brokenness, deep holes in their hearts, lost, stuck in a cycle they can’t get out, or think that this is all their is out there for them, they are still people.
In the midst of all that darkness and craziness, when it’s so impossible to see God, He is still God. He’s still God of that city. He still longs after every single one of those people, and He still wants relationship with every single one of those kids, every one of those women, and every one of those pimps. That’s our God. That’s the God who is massive, mighty, and amazing.
Fun fact: I’ve also recently learned that the song “God Of This City” by Chris Tomlin was written while he was in Pattaya. He was there for missions but was only sweeping the streets and what not, but he wanted to do more. So he asked to play at a bar on Walking Street (pretty much a brothel) and he was told only if you bring 30 of your christian friends who all buy a Coca-cola (because it’s more expensive than alcohol) then he could play his worship music. Well, within 30 minutes he didn’t know what else to play so they started free worshipping and prophetically started stating the words to this song over Pattaya.
This was during the day which is why it looks fairly empty.
Walking street.
(Don’t get me wrong, we were able to have fun, find a cool freeze room, watch a live MMA fight, watch a man make turkish ice cream, walk out on a pier and see lit up boats and buildings, listen to cool music, shop around, eat some good food, boat to an island and swim in some pretty water, etc. I was never in danger or would ever put myself in, this was just a lot of what you saw and is sad and struck a nerve and wanted to share it with you guys)
