Chiang Mai, Thailand
Red Light District
Last night out in bar ministry
John
noun
def:; a Prostitute’s client
The Red Light District had become a part of our daily lives.
Side note: Who would have thought I would ever been able to say that?!
We knew the ladyboys and prostitutes. We knew their stories. We sat in bars and drank sprite with women who had been bought and sold into prostitution and trafficking thinking that was the only option in their life. Thinking that they had no other choice. These places were not strange, these people were not strangers. They were our friends.
Katy and I began to walk up to a bar that we had visited so many times while doing ministry in Chiang Mai. We had become very good friends with three women named Owi, Chom Roo, and Noonie. They were all 22. The same age as Katy and I by the way. These women had all been working in the bars for a couple years, living a life selling their bodies from a young age. Each having a child under the age of 1 as well. They get to see their children maybe 2 times a year. The reason they are in the bars? To send money to their children and their families. To be the supporters of the family through the selling of their bodies.
That night we had come to say goodbye to them as we were leaving Chiang Mai the next day. Katy and I had bought bracelets for them and were going to give it to them as a Christmas gift that night. Usually when we came to this particular bar, we would have been greeted by three smiling faces. That night there were only two. We had found out that Owi had been bought by a male customer for that entire week to do whatever he pleased and that she would not be back for a couple more days. That was heartbreaking to hear. But not something we were not used to hearing. We did not get to see her that night. However, Noonie and Chom Roo were there just as happy as ever to see Katy and I as we walked up to the bar….
Something was different that night….Someone was there that I did not expect to meet….
He walked towards us as just a shadowy outline from the back of the bar and was siloutted by the flashing dancing lights behind him. His shape became a figure, and the figure had a face. His face was sweaty and his eyes were blood shot. Like he hadn’t slept in days and the only thing that was keeping him up was the longing for human flesh or one more shot of whisky.
That was the first thing I saw of him were his eyes. Once I made eye contact I could not look away from him, not exactly sure what I was feeling.
He introduced himself,
“Hi I’m John”
His shadowy figure had a name now. Still, I had very conflicting emotions.
Was it anger? Was it sadness? Was it frustration? Was it pity? Was it something in between that did not let me sway one way or the other? Who was this man?
As I was silently pondering my feelings, I saw his fingers reached around ChamRoo’s waist and he pressed his face near to hers, forcibly moving her towards him in a way she clearly did not desire wholeheartedly. Her eyes shut tight and her face pulled away as he tried to pull her closer. He was a client. He was a John
Something inside of me lit…….and all the sudden, my hand became a fist…..
I held it clenched at my side as my back started to burn up. This was something I had walked through the red light district and seen time and time again. But in front of me?! Grabbing a girl who had become like my little sister like that?! A sister that I had grown to know and love?! Where are you God?! Where is the justice in this?!
BOOM
All the sudden I was overcome by a wave of humility. The Holy Spirit had entered the room and LOOSENED MY FIST. It was like I had breathed in fresh air in the current bar smoke I was standing in.
and then the Father spoke:
“My Daughter. You can not see beyond what you temporarily feel. Do not make fact what you think you know. But know that this too is MY CHILD. Know too that HE is outrageously loved by ME. JUST LIKE I LOVE YOU. Just like I loved you in your darkest times, I will love this man.
Just like I will continue to love you as you make mistakes and fall. I will do the same for him.
I will continue to come for you. I will continue to fight for you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Daughter of Zion, LOVE HIM LIKE I HAVE LOVED YOU.”
The Father cloaked me in grace in that moment. Reminding me of the same depths of darkness and hopelessness I once found myself in not too long ago. He gave me EXTREME EMPATHY FOR THIS MAN. All the sudden, the feeling of wanting to punch him in the face became wanting to know more of his story. All the sudden God took me back and placed me in John’s shoes. Now I have never bought a prostitute, but I have felt some sort of searching and longing for something. Something I tried to fill with worldly substance or people. Finding later, that what I was trying to fill myself with could ONLY be found in GOD.
Katy asked ChomRoo and Owi if they wanted to go grab some Roti from a nearby stand. All the sudden I heard myself say to John,
“John, you want to come along?”
He replied,
“Sure!”
Here I am…Taylor Hill…Inviting a man who has bought my friend/ Thai little sister for the last month FOR SEX….To come and have Roti in the RED LIGHT DISTRICT with Katy and I
Now repeat after me….GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME. ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD
I started to hear more about John. What he was doing in Chiang Mai, where he was from in the states, etc…
We even began to talk about how he knew Chom Roo and how “they were so tired from not sleeping for the past couple of days due to never leaving the bedroom.” Hearing this was still not easy to stomach. BELIEVE ME. I continued to listen and he began to speak about how he has been searching for meaning in his life. How he is ok with his life but not sure where to go. Feels empty.
The ENTIRE TIME I began to seek the Lord, I began to turn to HIM for wisdom and grace and love for this man. For my Father’s lost lamb.
It hit me like a heavenly 4X4 that night. How we are put on this Earth to love like HE first loved us. To love those who do not know HIM. Who are we to judge or to move past those who are searching for something but do not know it is HIM they are truly striving for?
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth”
1 John 3: 16 – 18
To John, that night was probably a weird night where a sober Californian girl asked him and some Thai bar girls to go out to Roti and to just talk. Who knows! Only God knows what that night really meant to him. To me, God showed me a new part of HIS heart. A heart for those that are brokenhearted, longing, who are prisoned to their guilt and hopelessness. BUT GOD IS BIGGER THAN ALL OF THAT. GOD HAS THE POWER TO LOOSEN FISTS, SOFTEN HEARTS, and WALK AS AN EVERLASTING LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
ISAIAH 61:1 –
PRAYER REQUESTS:
– For ladyboys, and girls that are stuck in the bars in Chiang Mai. That they would be told that there is another option. There are other ways to provide for yourselves and your families besides prostitution. Please contact me if you would like their REAL names so you can pray for them as individuals. I can not use their real name on this blog. I still contact many of them on Facebook and Skype and are updated with some of what is going on in their lives still!
– For continued relationships and bonds with members of my team and bar girls they met this last month in Thailand. That God would continue to work from the spark that their relationships have lit!
– For people that walk the red light district and who partake in the buying and selling of women and ladyboys in Chiang mai. They need a lot of lovin’ too.
Please pray against the strongholds that are in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Pray against Hopelessness, Miscommunication, Greed, Lust, Loneliness, Guilt, and Mistrust.
God is Working in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is clear from people like Pi Emmi and other beautiful people that continue to pour out the Love of the Lord more and more each day. It was an incredible blessing to serve in that ministry.
