The first night of bar ministries came slower than anyone would have liked! From the night of our prayer walk all I could think about was that glass box! As I laid in my bamboo hut I would just play her face over and over again in my head. And as I thought about her I would grow angry at all the men that looked at her with lustful eyes! How dare they! Didn't they realize she was someone's baby?
I couldn't help but stay angry! As we were praying that Friday night before we went out I continuously prayed that God would give me grace for all of those men! So we set out on our first night! And as I walked I prayed. I prayed for every man down there, I prayed that their eyes would be opened to the truth, I prayed that all lustful thoughts would flee from them, I prayed blessings over the man I saw walking with a prostitute, and as I prayed my heart softened. I realized that God loves them just as much as God loves the women in the bars. I saw that they were so broken themselves. I saw how many of them were living under the control of the spirit of lust, of greed, of loneliness.
That night I got to meet a young woman who told us her life story. She was married but her husband had died. Because her husband was financially responsible for his mother this burden was passed to her once he was gone. Knowing she couldn't afford both her two sons and mother in law working at a gas station she went into the bars. She had worked in the bars for 8 years, every few years leaving one bar for another. Not long ago she had lost her son in a house fire. As she talked about her remaining son you could see the helplessness in her eyes. All she wanted to do was support her son, even if that meant selling herself in a bar.
Any where you turn on this evil street you are hit in the face with evilness! That night as we drove home I realized how even in all it's brokenness we have a God that is bigger! We have a God that will one day set free all of the broken people who are searching for something better on Bangla Road.
