Something about this ministry has really stolen my heart. Maybe it’s the injustice. Maybe it’s the brokenness that I know my God can mend. Maybe it’s the hope I see in the girls’ eyes, or the innocence they all carry, one that I know will be shortly and unjustly taken from them. Maybe it’s the fact that they are just like me; save they were born in another country, raised a different way and ended up in what seems like the wrong place at the wrong time.
Last month I came to know 4 girls in particular. They all worked at the same bar and were best friends. Three of them were triplets, the other a daughter to a Pastor, who despite her situation did not know who Jesus was.
I fell in love with these beautiful teenagers, who started working in the bar just a week before we arrived in Chiang Mai. They were so full of life and love. They laughed, they joked, they teased each other, and poked each other when their partner messed up in pool. They were normal, young, teens; full of the promise of the future and the dreams they kept closely hidden in their hearts. Dreams that were still alive, because they had not yet lost themselves completely to the life of prostitution. It seemed they had no idea what kind of life was ahead of them, what kind of destruction would come to their hearts if they stayed.
I met these girls my very first night of ministry. I was walking around the Red Light District and something about the quiet small bar in the corner was beckoning me to start there. I know now that was God’s intention. I met her for the first time as I was playing pool. I felt someone play with my hair behind me. I turned around to see a young face giggling uncontrollably and smiling with laughter. “Beautiful,” She said as she touched my hair. I touched hers and said the same thing.
The next month was full of ministry nights playing pool and connect four, getting to know the girls, their stories. We started setting up day-time dates to get to know them even better. They joined us for coffee, lunch. We would stay for hours playing guitar and singing the American songs we all knew. They taught us some of their favorite Thai songs and we tried our best to say the words well. Around Christmas time we took the four of them to a local church’s Christmas pageant. The members performed the story of Jesus and we were a part of the performance by singing the carols at different points in the stories, the entire audience reading their pamphlets by candlelight. It was beautiful.
Our last date the girls wanted to take us to the market. Not the market the tourists go to, but the one for the locals. We spent the afternoon walking around, shopping, trying all kinds of Thai fruit, laughing and having a good time.
The amazing this is, these girls actually decided to leave the bars at the end of our month with them. They came to our ministry site with us, met our contact and were able to fill out applications for a training program provided by a ministry for this exact reason. Although they didn’t finish high school, this training program would teach them and prepare them for a better job and upon completing the school, help them apply.
To see God work in this way was an incredible blessing, a once in a lifetime experience. It’s not everyday these girls find the strength to leave, and it’s not everyday that they want to.
Seeing God work in the hearts of these girls, give them a desire for something better, and being able to be there to love and encourage them in the process was something I will never forget. To know that their hearts are protected from the evidential fate of so many of these girls brings a thankfulness I can’t even begin to describe.
Please join me in praying for these four beautiful girls, and all the girls, women and children stuck in this kind of trafficking around the world. If you feel led to help in a more tangible way, please contact me and I can give you more information. This training school is expensive and our girls could use as much help as possible in paying their way through to a new life.
