Phuket, Thailand, my new home for this month. Many may hear of this and its closeness to Patong, and may think, wow, Susan is doing ministry in a favored tourist destination, must be nice. It is true, Phuket/Patong is beautiful, God worked His incredible artistry in creating this beautiful place. The beaches are beautiful, the lush green is breathtaking. However, all it takes is one for one to be open to see, to realize how grossly perverted this place of beauty can become. I would like to at least say that by day all seems well, but that wouldn’t be accurate. While a bit calmer than at night, it is still clear even in the daylight the prostitution and lust that is rampant. Bars line the streets, inside of which sit five to six beautiful women, women looking to sell their bodies and John’s looking to purchase pleasure. These women have stories, have hearts, have value, but how much this gets missed, when all they are viewed as is their flesh and the services they can offer. How hard that must be for them, how hard that must tug at their hearts, or are they numb to feeling? But, with us that it is different and they see that. I’ll go into this more in a later blog… there is just so much to say, so I apologize if this blog is a little all over the place.
Finding the words to accurately describe the night scene, well it’s more than difficult, and honestly, probably not something everyone needs to experience. It is close to being the equivalent to walking into an endless strip club. My eyes have seen more than they’d like, while at the same time I am somehow glad to have seen the reality of what happens, beyond the drinks, etc. Without seeing it, I would honestly just think, oh it’s like spring break craziness… But it’s more, and it has broken my heart. This brokenness is good though, it stirs passion, moves me into greater boldness, and increases more fight in me to bring love and truth to this place, to these hearts. While my eyes have seen a lot, they haven’t seen the worst. Due to safety on several levels, we are only allowed in the open bars, ones behind closed doors are off limits, and truthfully I wouldn’t dare to step into them, as their names are enough to keep me distant, having some reference to the devil or his playground. I pray for them though, and believe it is powerful. God reminds me of the power of prayer in the small things…. the very morning before this night of ministry, my friend’s ipod busted, her ipod was not only a way for her to worship, but had also been one that the team has used for worship on nights that we intercede. With her close to tears, I just said lets pray about it. God knows how much she uses this to connect with him and the blessing it is for our team to worship him together. We did this, as well as pushing buttons that we had previously pushes, and what do you know, while praying, it was restored!!!! Nothing was erased!!! If God cares for an ipod and listens to those prayers, without a doub,t He is listening to the prayers I send up for the girls that I cannot talk to!
So, back to the night scene in Patong. It is inevitable that men and women alike will approach you as you maneuver through the crowds and shove cards depicting different sexual favors in your face. This is a constant occurrence that happens every 30 seconds or so, it doesn’t happen just once. It breaks my heart and angers me for the men and women that are being bombarded with that much sexuality, men and women that may not know the importance of suiting up with His armor. It also makes me angry to see families with young children walking the streets surrounded by it all. I think, what in the world and I pray intentionally for the covering over their innocence.
So, I say all this to show we are not here enjoying the sun and the ocean all day, although we do plan to do some of this on our time off as a way to recharge and revel in His creation. This isn’t vacation for us, this is us engaging in battle. Our weapons being love, joy, truth, PRAYER, OUR GOD! There is a lot of darkness around, but this does not mean that light is absent. There is light, and there is beauty and this will be restored. Light has the power to drive away the darkness; however darkness also has a way of wanting to resist the light…. I’ve seen it happen personally. Here is the story…
Last week, on this very night, four warriors (Meredith, Laura, Allie and myself) walked down Bangla road, fully armored, ready for battle. Meredith started to feel nervous, we prayed and talked about how her nerves may mean something good was going to happen, but not to worry that God would equip her with words to say, etc. Due to it being a Buddhist holiday of some sort the bars were closed for the evening, a sight we prayed would become a reality someday and someday soon. Uncertain of where to go, listening for direction, Meredith and I both felt led to head to the beach, down the way, a spot we never go. The others agreed, so off we headed. It took only a moment to realize that we were in a major hub, we were smack dab in the middle of it all. A bit overwhelmed at the reality in which we found ourselves, we talked, prayed and determined that if this was where so much darkness was occurring, if this was a hub, than this was exactly where His light and presence needed to fall! So we planted ourselves there, praying into what we saw. For a stretch of time, it cleared out, customers had left or were not making any moves. It was pretty amazing to see. We started to talking to one of the women, she shared her story, which I think we are all pretty sure ended up being a cover of some sort. After she left, I was able to talk to another woman, a woman that I felt I needed to talk to. Well, no kidding, right after our conversation began, a John came and sat right beside her, pretty much in between us. We sat there, listening to the negotiations of what services will be performed and for how much. This went on for a while, while we sat there and prayed, and yes I may have been singing quietly to myself and the name Jesus may have come out a little louder, enough to hear, but low enough to not be a huge distraction. In his talking to her, he mentioned he was a Christian. Yes, he mentioned this while talking about services….
So, please pray for my team, this was our first night of ministry. We’ve had other ministry nights since then that have been amazingly good, but also hard. Each night has the potential to be a roller coaster ride- with highs and lows. Please pray for Patong.
