world calls them Prostitutes…
Butterflies…
It’s month nine and we’ve arrived. Finally! Many of the women on
our squad have been waiting in anticipation for our Thailand
ministry. Before applying to the World Race, most of us went through
that stage of obsessively reading every human trafficking and
commercial sex trade blog we could find on the World Race website. For many
of us, it’s the reason we applied in the first place.
We couldn’t wait to love those whose innocence was stolen. We
couldn’t wait to love those who freely gave of their body to the
highest bidder. We couldn’t wait to tell them that they were not old…
or ugly… or worthless… or stupid… or dirty… or alone. We couldn’t wait to
tell them how Jesus saw them. To Him, they’re His
Daughters robed in white and purple!
While these Night Butterflies fly
from bed to bed each night, God has been and will continue to be
patiently and lovingly waiting for them to fly into His arms!
And now, for us, the waiting is over.
Each night we worship and pray like warriors going to battle
before heading to Bangala Road here in Patong, Phuket. This one road
has hundreds of bars and more than 1000 women “working” on any
given night. As we turn onto Bangala Road, we’re swarmed by men and
women with “boom boom” fliers. We take a deep breath and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to a
particular girl, man, lady boy (transvestites who make up the “third
gender” as seen in the picture below) or bar. We sit down, order a soda and
play a couple rounds of checkers with the girls. We laugh, love and
sometimes cry, and eventually we tell them about another option.
Another way. We tell them about Jesus. We tell them about grace. We
tell them about SHE ( Self Help and Empowerment).
Sometimes the girls open up like a flower waiting for the sunshine and you can see a sparkle of hope in their eyes as we tell them about a God who loves them… just as they are. And sometimes no sparkle comes into their eyes and we pray and move on, trusting that God will never stop pursuing her.
The nights are long and heart-breaking, but full of God’s glory and hope. God always shows up to love His Daughters. Always! That being said, it’s spiritually dark and heavy where we step foot each night, and we need your prayers. Please pray for protection for us and the Night Butterflies. Pray that they would fly into their Father’s arms.
**SHE is dedicated to providing
employment, vocational training and counseling for women who want to
help themselves out of this industry. Please pray about partnering
with them through financial support or by sending a team to love on
these girls as we do each night. Click on the SHE hyperlink to learn more about our ministry partners this month.
