Thailand Ministry

I’ve been in Thailand for a few weeks now, and it’s nothing like I expected. We are living at the church and me and another girl use our sleeping pads to sleep in the lobby of the church because it’s the only place that’s cool. I bought skinny jeans and a little make up because as it turns out, you’re supposed to fit in enough to not stand out at the bars. Who knew? Sorry missionary skirts, see you never again. Thai food is spicy and my stomach cannot hang. We are working on it. There’s a coffee stand around the corner that has the best coffee in town for 40 baht (just over a dollar, HALLELUJAH) and I FaceTime my family there. 711 is the place to get snacks and often lunch. The beach is a four minute walk up the street. I get my laundry done the same place I buy bananas. Oreos and peanut butter get me through. And, ministry is incredible.

We do a lot with the church, anything rom sunday morning service to 11pm until 1am bible studies with second dinner included. They love to worship. We are always singing “10,000 reasons”. They love to pray and go into the word of God. There’s only three days out of the week that we don’t have church, a bible study, or a prayer meeting. It’s amazing. We also do a lot of bar ministry.

Thailand is full of red districts and we are living in one. We walk a mile to Bangla street which is the place people go to drink, see women pole dance, watch sex shows, and buy women. The street at night is loud, bright, and overwhelming when you first see it. Women are in boxes, signs for a sex show are shoved in your face, everyone is trying to get you to go into their bar and there are women pole dancing everywhere. In the afternoon it’s just a street full of bars and sometimes women are sold for sex in those bars but its not quite as common during the day. So almost every afternoon at 4pm we walk to bangla and go to the same bar to hang out with the same girls. They’ve become our friends. We love them, they are the sweetest and funniest people I know. They light up when they see us. We give our rounds of hugs and sit down, order soda waters or coke and just hang out with them. We stay for about an hour and head back. It’s nothing exceptional but no one else is doing it. No one else is sitting down and talking with them without wanting something from them. They are our friends. Today we brought them cookies and little notes and one girl told me she was going to put the note on her wall so she could remember it. Sometimes when we go it’s busy and we pray for men to leave and not buy them. But even if its busy and we can’t talk to them they like that we are there. We are a safe place for them and they always tell us how much they like when we come. When drunk men come in, we get to be an escape. Someone to talk to and look busy with. We get to tell them they don’t deserve to be mistreated. We get to love them and show them Jesus in a place that seems dark. When we visit bangla street at night we mostly prayer walk. We like to buy roses and give them to whoever God highlights to us and everytime I hand one out they light up. I’m not a man buying a rose and giving it to her so he can later purchase her. I’m a girl like her who is just giving her a rose and telling her she’s loved. I give my rose to the same girl every time and she has begun to smile and wave when she sees me. There are two or three bars/strip clubs that have eastern european women working at it. At these bars the girls are more than likely trafficked. We can’t do much but I can give her a rose and I can pray for her.

Being here can be overwhelming but God is on the move. Please join me in praying for the church, that bangla street would be shut down, and that the men and women who work or visit the street would find Jesus. God is bigger than red districts could ever be.