Ministry: Thrive Rescue Home | Location: Pattaya, Thailand
The Morning After.
It was Sunday morning and I woke up feeling restless. I hadn’t slept well that night as I woke up twice feeling prompted to pray for them. Their faces were so clear in my mind and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Later that day I tried my best to take a nap, but I couldn’t stop thinking “at this time yesterday we were going to meet them. I wonder what they’re doing now. I wonder what they did after we left and this morning.” I continued to wonder how God spoke to them.
The Night Before.
The night before we did a normal thing, we walked into a couple of bars. The next thing we did was far from normal for me and most people. 11 of us women sat at a table and invited some of the “bar girls” to come sit with us. We wanted to show the love of Jesus by simply treating them as humans through talking with them and painting their nails. Because these women were waiting for men to come and purchase them for either time or sex, we had to at least buy them a drink to get any of their time. After asking a few women to sit with us, one did. I’ll call her Nam.
I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them
Bob Goff, Love Does
As we began to remove the polish from Nam’s fingers, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. Thankfully we had a translator so we could talk freely. We quickly learned that Nam was in her forties and had only been working at the bar for about 10 days. She has four children and one has passed away. When I asked if she had grandchildren her eyes lit up and a proud grandma smile came across her face. We also learned that her husband had left her, so she was single. When we poignantly asked her if she wanted to be working here, she said no and that she was looking for another job. When I asked her what kind of job, she said that she really wants to work for the elderly. My heart broke. Her desire seems so simple and pure. Yet, she’s working in a bar earning 100 Baht ($3) for every man she has sex with (while her boss gets 200 Baht ($6).
We didn’t get all of the details of Nam’s story. I would love to know how she ended up at a bar in Pattaya when she lives in a different city. I would want to know why she left her home when she went on and on about how wonderful her it is and even told us that we should visit and stay with her. When we asked if she had questions for us she just smiled and said “no, no. Just thank you so much for being here. It is so kind.” Before we left, Carly asked told her why we were there and that we were missionaries. She asked her if she had heard of Jesus Christ and she shook her head yes (this is VERY rare in Thailand). We then prayed for her and she began to cry. Nam is by far one of the sweetest women I’ve met and even though so much of her past story is unknown, as she hugged me goodbye and smiled as we walked away, I had nothing but hope that it was significant that she was the only one in the bar that chose to sit with us. I believe that her time with us is a part of the new story God is weaving for her.
Next we walked across the street to another bar. There were no men there, but several women who like the other bar greeted us so graciously. They moved tables and chairs around so that we can sit and some of the group began to do the nails of one of the bar girls there. In the meantime, one of the women (I assume was the owner) brought in a bunch of tee-shirts from her car. As she did she told men, who seemed to be regulars, to go away. She pretty much shut down the bar for us! When she brought the tee-shirts in she began to give them to us. She said that this was all she had and she wanted to give us something for Christmas. Now, I will admit that it’s not a shirt I would typically wear (it’s completely anti-vulnerability), but as I looked up these shirts were hanging in the bar with price tags. She was giving us her inventory! I then proudly put it on and we all wore it for the rest of the night…even to the crowded night market!
Me and my Christmas Shirt: “My Life, My Choices, My Mistakes, My Lessons. Not Your Business”
A few minutes later, a 38 year old women I’ll call Ping sat at my table. As we did her nails we asked her questions about her life. She worked at the bar for a couple of months and also had children. She came to work in Pattaya in order to pay off her car. She spoke English, so we inquired about that. Ping said that was a supervisor at a resort hotel, so she had to learn to interact with the customers. From the outside it didn’t look as though she minded her work and was just happy about her new car. She was by far the most elegantly dressed of any of the women from either bar as she wore a blue dress covered in jewels. Soon into the conversation one of my squad leaders Laura noticed that her right hand was swollen. Ping said that she had broken her hand after falling off of her motorbike. She hadn’t been to the doctor and she had no cast on it. Laura then asked her if she heard of Jesus. She said no so Laura told her a little bit about Him and that we believe He heals. Ping let us pray over her hand and sure enough she said that it felt much better. I have faith that it’s been fully healed nowJ
As I walked down the street in my new Christmas shirt I couldn’t stop smiling. I didn’t expect to have that much fun with the women. I was so wrong. We laughed so much that I forgot where I was or why I was there. Our gift was beyond humbling and coming from a bar girl it was an in-my-face reminder that we celebrate Christmas because it’s the day we honor our Savior coming into the world. The One who bled and died for her. The One whose resurrection says that no one is beyond his hope, love, and redemption, not even someone who accepts money for sex. Of course, I wondered what difference our nail painting session had, but only for a short while. It was clear in their eyes that the women we sat with were blessed by our presence. They were blessed by us not wanting anything from them, we just wanted to be with them. I think that’s something that many of us desire and hope for. It’s a longing common to us all. To know that we are worthy of just being with simply because of who we are, not what we can do or offer. To give someone else an ounce of that, is an incredible honor.
The Next Night…
So, two women in the same “business,” but seemingly for different reasons. While Nam was there out of obligation, Ping seemed to be there out of convenience. Either way, my teammate Kristina made a great observation that all of the women come to Pattaya because they know they can earn a decent amount of money from selling their bodies. In other words, there is a guaranteed clientele here. It wasn’t until the next night that the weight of her words came alive for me.
Stay tuned for part two!
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