It’s Sunday here in Thailand. I got to wake up and choose to
go to church. Then I decided
to meet some friends and have lunch and go to the mall for a bit of
shopping. Sitting on the couch in our guesthouse I began
thinking about the millions of women my age and younger who do not have
any of
these freedoms. They do not have the ability to choose anything.
Millions of
girls and young women from the ages of 9 to early twenties are tricked,
forced,
or sold by their families into prostitution. When I walk down the
road in Chiang Mai I
wonder if I’m walking by a brothel. Supposedly
I would never even know it. There are several brothels here in the
city. Being
here is really making me appreciate all the freedom and opportunities
that I
have being born in America.
Many women are in prostitution because
they have no freedom, no rights, no values, and no other opportunities
to make
money in Southeast Asia. Women are often not seen as human beings
but
as property. This makes it okay for them
to be sold, traded, and used like merchandise.
I’ve been reading a book
called Sex Slaves: the trafficking of women in Asia.
The sex industry is very big
business in all of Asia. It makes me so angry as I read this book
and
hear what these women have to experience. In reality the girls we
meet in the bars have
the “good” prostitution job if there is one. They can quit when
they want to. They are not sold in to it and are there by
choice even though really they have no other real way to make good
money. Everyday I see men with the girls they have
bought for the day or the week or something and it just gets to me.
Mostly what I see are foreigners with the Thai
girls, but according to the book Asian men spend 80% or more in the sex
industry. The difference is they usually go to brothels
or wealthy men have the girls brought to their 5 star hotels. How
is this just okay? How come there is even a sex industry that
consists of millions of girls treated as slaves? How do fathers
and mothers sell their
daughters? How do mothers who were sex
workers raise their daughter to follow the same career path? How can
women how
were tricked into this life recruit other girls the same way? How
can they become the brothel owners and
managers? How come in most of the world
women are not seen as human beings equal to men? Even in America
this can be a problem, but
no where compared to the rest of the world. Who will change
this? Where are the safe places for women?
Yesterday we went to Mae Sai
a border town to Burma so we
could cross into Burma and
get another 15 days in Thailand.
This town is a major place to import
Burmese women into Thailand
for prostitution. In Mae Sai the police
charge brothel owners 2.600 baht a month per prostitute they have in their
brothel. The police have even been known
to transport girls to Chiang Mai brothels for a fee that is added on to the
debt the girl has to pay off by servicing clients. It amazes me how deep the sex industry goes in
all of Asia. Japan is the number one spender in
the sex industry. It is run by mafias,
the police, politicians, etc. There is
no safe places for these girls to go except the few ministries who are trying
to help these girls.
I don’t know how people can
be this evil. I have no concept of how
people can treat people so heartlessly. I feel such deep anguish
over to depravity
that is in our world. I know we are
sinful and that as humans we allow this sin to prevail, but can people
really
be this evil? Sometimes I don’t know how
to live in this world the way it is. My
heart just hurts when I think of the evil that is done. Many
times I ask God why? Why have I been chosen to have salvation and
freedom and opportunities and the girls I’ve gotten to know in the bars
don’t? I feel so inadequate. I wish I could do something
more to help
these girls, to change the system, but then I realize my own sinfulness
too. When I look at the men in the bars I do not
see them as God’s creation and a child that he loves too. I see
them as evil monsters preying on
women. I have anger and hate towards
them, but Jesus calls us to love our enemies. He teaches that he
wants all to be saved and
none to perish. He teaches that
salvation is free to anyone, absolutely anyone. It is hard to find
the balance. It is hard to realize these men are also trying to
fill the emptiness
they have in their lives. It is hard to
have compassion, but Jesus is teaching me how to look at humanity
through his
eyes.
I will never take my freedom
for granted. I will continuously thank
God for the privilege he has given me to be born and raised in America. I will also try to use that freedom and
opportunities to help others who have not been granted them yet. I will never forget the women I encounter
here. I probably always see their faces,
see the sadness in their eyes, and feel their desire to be truly valued and
loved.
These are the things that
have been going through my mind for the past couple of weeks. Please pray for us this week has we minister
to these girls. We are going to be
buying some of the girls and taking them out for dinner or a movie or anything
really. Pray that we have good
conversations and opportunities to share about Jesus’ love for them.
