It's been an incredible journey through Thailand over the past couple months, and honestly a bit surreal that it's coming to a close. There's been days that felt like minutes, and moments that completely stopped the hands of time. There were nights that I've never felt more alive, and nights that I've wished to be far from the cold darkness that engulfed these streets. At times, I believed I had never had a more life-giving community, and other times I felt like my heart had been lost in the masses, completely misunderstood. There was moments of pure joy and hysterical laughter, and moments of terrifying spiritual warfare. We were a group of 20 American girls, walking through our own crap, but coming together as the body of Christ to illuminate the darkness in Chiang Mai... and I truly believe we did that.
Looking back, I see a shift in our ministry about half way through our time here. From the beginning, the bar moms, girls, men and pimps could immediately tell we were different. We walked into empty bars, ordered a couple sprites, and asked a few girls to play pool with us. They would ask us what we were doing in Chiang Mai and we would tell them we were here on vacation and were teaching English at a local college. Then we would come back with small talk questions, "what's your name?" "where are you from?" "how long have you been here?" in hopes to build some sort of foundation for a new friendship. Many of these conversations did turn into friendships! and my friends spent much of their two months investing in specific girls, teaching them English, taking them to lunch, singing karaoke, exploring waterfalls and ultimately sharing their own stories with them.
In the beginning, my heart was hard toward the men we found there... the sex industry is supply and demand at it's finest... these men were the very ones who were fueling the industry. If there wasn't a demand, maybe these girls would be in school. But whatever animosity once stood between me and those men, soon became a burning desire for them to be set free from their own captivity.
We no longer only looked for quiet bars with a few lonely girls... instead we entered booming bars with loud men and rampant personality. At this point, the bar moms, the men and our new friends knew us. The girls would see us walk in, and immediately get up from the men they were entertaining to greet us with open arms. The bar moms would ask if we wanted a couple sprites, and the men told us we were "brave" for coming to such a place. This time, we no longer told them about our vacation or the schools we were teaching at... we told them about our heart for these girls, and our desire to see them set free from those bars. We told them that those girls were our friends, and we loved them so we came to visit them. We looked at the men as if they were something special as well... as if they were worth knowing, because they are. Because for whatever reason, they believed the lie that they could escape their sorrow and misery back home and find fulfillment from the alcohol and women in the red light district. But when they met us, they encountered something different. We no longer had a passive mindset toward these men, rather I was desperate to tell them who they could be.
Each night our team split into two groups. Nine of us would hit the streets, while the other 11 of us would stay back and intercede. We prayed for opportunities to speak the name of Jesus, we asked for men to get up and walk out of the bars, we prayed for vision and peace to overwhelm our teammates so they could have meaningful conversations without fear of anything seen or unseen. We prayed that the men would notice we were different and approach us to find out why....
I'll never forget the night I met my friend Peter from Ireland. He was around my dad's age... and I immediately noticed him when we walked in. I was at the pool table playing a game with my friends Da and Gale and suddenly Peter walks past me toward the bathroom. We made eye contact and I smiled, and then kept playing pool with my friends. A few minutes later, Peter comes walking out the bathroom and this time he stops to talk to me. First, he asked me where I was from and then proceeded to compliment how beautiful my expression was... he said he had never seen anything like it. He told me that I wasn't just pretty.... but radiant. I didn't feel
uncomfortable or violated, because it honestly seemed pure - like he was truly in awe, and this was the opportunity I had been praying for... He said, "you must be blessed by Buddha or the gods or something..." but I told him it was Jesus. He looked at me for a couple seconds in silence, and then added a few more compliments and told me he was going back to his friends at the bar, but that it was nice to meet me and that he hopes I enjoy my time in Thailand.... I'm not sure what happened in his mind for those few seconds of silence, and perhaps I will never see Peter again... but he encountered something different that night, and that is why I came to Thailand.
I came for those men just as much as I came for those women. My heart aches for my girls in there, because I've seen their suffering and I've heard their pleas for help. They don't want to be there. They don't want to strip down to barely nothing, and expose themselves for the pleasure of a man. There's no safety, or purity or dignity in that. They dream of a man who will pursue them and love them and cultivate them, just the same way I do. They want to learn English so they can get a good job, and support their families. They want to believe that tomorrow will be better.... but first they need us to stand up on their behalf. They need Godly men to set the example... these women are being manipulated and abused because we are standing by and indulging in our own desires.
Men, the porn industry fuels the supply and demand... when you think that a couple clicks aren't going to hurt anyone, there are women who are forced to engage against their will, and instead of rescuing them, we are tightening their chains. This is a desperate call for you to wake up. Millions of young women are exploited day in and day out and we need men, along with women, to rise up and call for justice. Get educated on the subject. Ask questions. Find someone to hold you accountable, because the truth is that she's worth so much more than a half-hearted habit. That same habit that requires nothing of you, requires every fiber of her being and every ounce of her heart. She is a human being. She was perfectly created for a purpose. She was made in God's image and she was bought with the blood of Jesus. She's a daughter of the Most High King... and she's waiting for us to go get her; to do something about this.
Rise up. She's worth more.
Looking back, I see a shift in our ministry about half way through our time here. From the beginning, the bar moms, girls, men and pimps could immediately tell we were different. We walked into empty bars, ordered a couple sprites, and asked a few girls to play pool with us. They would ask us what we were doing in Chiang Mai and we would tell them we were here on vacation and were teaching English at a local college. Then we would come back with small talk questions, "what's your name?" "where are you from?" "how long have you been here?" in hopes to build some sort of foundation for a new friendship. Many of these conversations did turn into friendships! and my friends spent much of their two months investing in specific girls, teaching them English, taking them to lunch, singing karaoke, exploring waterfalls and ultimately sharing their own stories with them.
In the beginning, my heart was hard toward the men we found there... the sex industry is supply and demand at it's finest... these men were the very ones who were fueling the industry. If there wasn't a demand, maybe these girls would be in school. But whatever animosity once stood between me and those men, soon became a burning desire for them to be set free from their own captivity.
We no longer only looked for quiet bars with a few lonely girls... instead we entered booming bars with loud men and rampant personality. At this point, the bar moms, the men and our new friends knew us. The girls would see us walk in, and immediately get up from the men they were entertaining to greet us with open arms. The bar moms would ask if we wanted a couple sprites, and the men told us we were "brave" for coming to such a place. This time, we no longer told them about our vacation or the schools we were teaching at... we told them about our heart for these girls, and our desire to see them set free from those bars. We told them that those girls were our friends, and we loved them so we came to visit them. We looked at the men as if they were something special as well... as if they were worth knowing, because they are. Because for whatever reason, they believed the lie that they could escape their sorrow and misery back home and find fulfillment from the alcohol and women in the red light district. But when they met us, they encountered something different. We no longer had a passive mindset toward these men, rather I was desperate to tell them who they could be.
Each night our team split into two groups. Nine of us would hit the streets, while the other 11 of us would stay back and intercede. We prayed for opportunities to speak the name of Jesus, we asked for men to get up and walk out of the bars, we prayed for vision and peace to overwhelm our teammates so they could have meaningful conversations without fear of anything seen or unseen. We prayed that the men would notice we were different and approach us to find out why....
I'll never forget the night I met my friend Peter from Ireland. He was around my dad's age... and I immediately noticed him when we walked in. I was at the pool table playing a game with my friends Da and Gale and suddenly Peter walks past me toward the bathroom. We made eye contact and I smiled, and then kept playing pool with my friends. A few minutes later, Peter comes walking out the bathroom and this time he stops to talk to me. First, he asked me where I was from and then proceeded to compliment how beautiful my expression was... he said he had never seen anything like it. He told me that I wasn't just pretty.... but radiant. I didn't feel
uncomfortable or violated, because it honestly seemed pure - like he was truly in awe, and this was the opportunity I had been praying for... He said, "you must be blessed by Buddha or the gods or something..." but I told him it was Jesus. He looked at me for a couple seconds in silence, and then added a few more compliments and told me he was going back to his friends at the bar, but that it was nice to meet me and that he hopes I enjoy my time in Thailand.... I'm not sure what happened in his mind for those few seconds of silence, and perhaps I will never see Peter again... but he encountered something different that night, and that is why I came to Thailand.
I came for those men just as much as I came for those women. My heart aches for my girls in there, because I've seen their suffering and I've heard their pleas for help. They don't want to be there. They don't want to strip down to barely nothing, and expose themselves for the pleasure of a man. There's no safety, or purity or dignity in that. They dream of a man who will pursue them and love them and cultivate them, just the same way I do. They want to learn English so they can get a good job, and support their families. They want to believe that tomorrow will be better.... but first they need us to stand up on their behalf. They need Godly men to set the example... these women are being manipulated and abused because we are standing by and indulging in our own desires.
Men, the porn industry fuels the supply and demand... when you think that a couple clicks aren't going to hurt anyone, there are women who are forced to engage against their will, and instead of rescuing them, we are tightening their chains. This is a desperate call for you to wake up. Millions of young women are exploited day in and day out and we need men, along with women, to rise up and call for justice. Get educated on the subject. Ask questions. Find someone to hold you accountable, because the truth is that she's worth so much more than a half-hearted habit. That same habit that requires nothing of you, requires every fiber of her being and every ounce of her heart. She is a human being. She was perfectly created for a purpose. She was made in God's image and she was bought with the blood of Jesus. She's a daughter of the Most High King... and she's waiting for us to go get her; to do something about this.
Rise up. She's worth more.
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