Mere, Mel and I stood downstairs at our hostel before we took the streets and we gathered in prayer to prepare our hearts for the Red Light District, but also to prepare the Red Light District for us. Each one of us prayed for a specific thing. Mel prayed for the little kids who often wander around the RLD, in and out of bars, selling roses and necklaces. She prayed that the cycle that these kids have grown up in will end with them. They will not stay in the RLD forever, because that's not what God intended for them. She prayed that they would be drawn to us, and that we would be able to offer them a ray of hope... I prayed for the people along the streets... the ones with darkness in their eyes. The ones who look like they really aren't there at all. I prayed that Jesus would open my eyes to them, and that I could love them where they were, however that looked to Him. Mere asked Jesus to give her a word or a picture... some kind of direction for the night. She got the word "flower" and then we set off for the night with wide eyes and full hearts.
As we walked down the street, a few girls waved to us and asked up to come in and sit down. So we ordered a coke for each of us, and then one extra for the girl who would sit with us. We asked her to play a game, and she sat down for a few games of Connect Four but it was obvious that she wasn't interested in us. Immediately after she got up to tend to the men in her bar, a little boy approached us (cue Mel's prayer). He was offering single roses for 20 baht, so I bought one and asked him to play me in Connect Four. He kicked my butt 3 times before giving up on me and asking Mere to play with him. We offered him the extra sprite we ordered, and I reveled in the moment because he was operating in his 10-year-old nature. His feet were kicked up, he was sipping on a sprite, and he was laughing at how bad we were at a silly game. It was a ray of hope for him, even if only for a moment.
We paid for our drinks and then walked down the street toward our next destination. The next bar is one of my personal favorites. My sweet Friend, N, is the bar mom at this bar and we immediately connected a few weeks ago when I went to her bar for afternoon bar ministry. She's around 50 years old, and she refers to herself as "mom" because she's in charge of so many girls. She's also as quiet as a mouse... often times I can't communicate with her because she's so soften spoken. However, despite the language barrier and the lack of volume, I love every minute spent with her.
We sat down and ordered a couple cokes and a water and played jenga with a few girls in her bar. Mostly we took pictures and hugged... easy for you to understand why we might be friends. Then suddenly our little boy from the previous bar was standing behind us, giving us pointers on how to win the game! He followed us from one bar to the next because he loved being around us... he was drawn to us. I'm praying that we get to see him again. While we were playing, a woman selling bouquets of roses approached me, so I bought a handful of roses and I knew this was a tangible way to love on people on the streets. Then we kissed N goodbye, and promised to come back for her. Something in stirring in that place, and I love watching it with my own eyes.
While we were talking and praying together, I felt like Jesus was telling me to pray for N's voice... literally and symbolically. She is a bar mom, so she has power of the girls in her bar. They watch her and look up to her and she sets the standard for the girls. So I began to pray that she would literally speak up, so that I could begin to have real conversations with her... conversations that would bring hope and healing and truth. Then I began to pray that she would catch on those things and that she would be the light in the darkness for those people. She would be the voice for those girls, and that through her testimony, hundreds of girls would leave those bars. I prayed that she would be like a roaring lion in that place, that her voice would call for change. Shortly after that, the song "Roar" came through the speakers and the lyrics literally say, "I am a champion, and you're going to hear me Roar, louder than the lion." I love when Jesus speaks through Katy Perry ;)
We left that bar with hope and joy... and as we passed out our flowers to the women on the streets, we saw their eyes light up. Someone had noticed them... someone saw that they existed, and every girl loves flowers.
When we met up with our teammates back at the hostel to debrief, one group of girls had a very different experience. She had a hard conversation with a girl who spoke of the darkness she was living in. She described, in detail, the heaviness of her life. She was working 2 jobs so she could send money back to her son who was living with her parents hours away from Chiang Mai... she had contemplated and attempted suicide twice, and she said, "who would ever want me?" ... As our team members sobbed as they told us of the way they poured their hearts into this girl... They cried to God for freedom for this girl... because the truth is, Jesus wants her. She is precious to him... and it is not about what she's done or seen or what has happened to her. It was never about that, and it never will be about that. It's about grace, and hope and healing and renewal.
My friend Jamie talks about how life is Heavy and Light, and it's okay to be honest and real about it. Sometimes we dance through life and rejoice, and other times we cry and hurt and question. The reality is that each day is different for each of us, and when we through life we never truly know what we might get. There will be days of hard conversations and moments that break our hearts, and there will be moments of hope and light in the darkest places. I won't stop hoping for this place. I won't stop going into the bars and bringing the light with me. I won't stop praying for the men to leave, and I won't stop believing that those girls see something different in me. I love them, and I want, so badly, to walk through the heaviness and through the light with them.
This is why we are here. Maybe you're not stuck in the bars... maybe you live in America and you live a nice life, or maybe you're wondering how life turned to hell so quickly. It's okay to feel those things, and it's okay to be honest about it. There is hope and restoration, and when we expose the darkness to the light, the darkness loses all it's power. The light is coming to the RLD in Chiang Mai, and I believe it's coming for you too, wherever you might be.
Speak up. The light wins. Hope is coming.
As we walked down the street, a few girls waved to us and asked up to come in and sit down. So we ordered a coke for each of us, and then one extra for the girl who would sit with us. We asked her to play a game, and she sat down for a few games of Connect Four but it was obvious that she wasn't interested in us. Immediately after she got up to tend to the men in her bar, a little boy approached us (cue Mel's prayer). He was offering single roses for 20 baht, so I bought one and asked him to play me in Connect Four. He kicked my butt 3 times before giving up on me and asking Mere to play with him. We offered him the extra sprite we ordered, and I reveled in the moment because he was operating in his 10-year-old nature. His feet were kicked up, he was sipping on a sprite, and he was laughing at how bad we were at a silly game. It was a ray of hope for him, even if only for a moment.
We paid for our drinks and then walked down the street toward our next destination. The next bar is one of my personal favorites. My sweet Friend, N, is the bar mom at this bar and we immediately connected a few weeks ago when I went to her bar for afternoon bar ministry. She's around 50 years old, and she refers to herself as "mom" because she's in charge of so many girls. She's also as quiet as a mouse... often times I can't communicate with her because she's so soften spoken. However, despite the language barrier and the lack of volume, I love every minute spent with her.
We thought the word "flower" that Jesus gave Mere might have been the dozens of roses that were around us... the roses we bought from the woman, the roses the little boy was selling, the rose scarf N was wearing, her rose print fingernails, the rose tattoo on her shoulder.... it seemed to be a running theme. But it didn't end there. As we walked down the street, we came across a new bar... it had a different atmosphere than the ones around it. There weren't any girls sitting outside trying to lure us in, there weren't any men in the bar at all... 4 Thai girls sat at the bar and giggled while they talked with one another.... We looked up at the sign and it read, "The Rose Bar." It took us about half a second for us to decide to go in and sit down. We picked a booth in the far back of the bar, and one girl came to take our order but otherwise they left us alone. We chose to use that time to pray over the Rose Bar and N and the little boy and the RLD and Chiang Mai... Hope was being restored for that place in the form of a group of white girls, and Jesus was certainly up to something. While we were talking and praying together, I felt like Jesus was telling me to pray for N's voice... literally and symbolically. She is a bar mom, so she has power of the girls in her bar. They watch her and look up to her and she sets the standard for the girls. So I began to pray that she would literally speak up, so that I could begin to have real conversations with her... conversations that would bring hope and healing and truth. Then I began to pray that she would catch on those things and that she would be the light in the darkness for those people. She would be the voice for those girls, and that through her testimony, hundreds of girls would leave those bars. I prayed that she would be like a roaring lion in that place, that her voice would call for change. Shortly after that, the song "Roar" came through the speakers and the lyrics literally say, "I am a champion, and you're going to hear me Roar, louder than the lion." I love when Jesus speaks through Katy Perry ;)
We left that bar with hope and joy... and as we passed out our flowers to the women on the streets, we saw their eyes light up. Someone had noticed them... someone saw that they existed, and every girl loves flowers.
When we met up with our teammates back at the hostel to debrief, one group of girls had a very different experience. She had a hard conversation with a girl who spoke of the darkness she was living in. She described, in detail, the heaviness of her life. She was working 2 jobs so she could send money back to her son who was living with her parents hours away from Chiang Mai... she had contemplated and attempted suicide twice, and she said, "who would ever want me?" ... As our team members sobbed as they told us of the way they poured their hearts into this girl... They cried to God for freedom for this girl... because the truth is, Jesus wants her. She is precious to him... and it is not about what she's done or seen or what has happened to her. It was never about that, and it never will be about that. It's about grace, and hope and healing and renewal.
My friend Jamie talks about how life is Heavy and Light, and it's okay to be honest and real about it. Sometimes we dance through life and rejoice, and other times we cry and hurt and question. The reality is that each day is different for each of us, and when we through life we never truly know what we might get. There will be days of hard conversations and moments that break our hearts, and there will be moments of hope and light in the darkest places. I won't stop hoping for this place. I won't stop going into the bars and bringing the light with me. I won't stop praying for the men to leave, and I won't stop believing that those girls see something different in me. I love them, and I want, so badly, to walk through the heaviness and through the light with them.
This is why we are here. Maybe you're not stuck in the bars... maybe you live in America and you live a nice life, or maybe you're wondering how life turned to hell so quickly. It's okay to feel those things, and it's okay to be honest about it. There is hope and restoration, and when we expose the darkness to the light, the darkness loses all it's power. The light is coming to the RLD in Chiang Mai, and I believe it's coming for you too, wherever you might be.
Speak up. The light wins. Hope is coming.
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