I have been praying about doing bar ministry since I saw this video almost two years ago and was introduced to this injustice.
In a week all the girls on the Immersion squad will fly to Phuket, Thailand and will spend three weeks in the heart of the sex trade. Essentially we will be going to the bars and making relationships with the prostitutes that work there in hopes that they will make the decision to leave, but ultimately just so that we can love them. Simply love them. So that they might actually have some hope in the world that there is something much bigger at work here than the hell they experience everyday. So that they know that they are created for greatness, and nothing less. So that while they are looked on with lust and groped by man after man, that they might just remember that they aren't forgotten, not even a little bit. Jesus, I hope they know that.
Here in Chiang Mai, my team has gotten to dig a little bit into this injustice. For the past 3 weeks we have been visiting the red light district here, and I can honestly say I have never felt more brokenness in my heart than when I walk down that street. But through the pain and the anger that wells up inside of me, I feel God's love raging in me that much more to see Heaven permeate through every part of this sick industry. And that's what he has been doing.
Her name is Michelle, and she is a ladyboy (Thai term for a transvestite). And man, God really loves her. So much. I can just feel his pursuit of her every time I'm around her, like nothing I've ever felt before. And I have learned more about Jesus in this Buddhist ladyboy prostitute than through most christians I have met, and I'm completely humbled at how much Jesus is revealing Himself to her through me!
Goodness she is so great! So sweet, so loving, so caring. It makes me sick to my stomach when I think about all of the chains Satan has on her and all the lies he has told her. I hate it! I absolutely hate it. Which makes me want to love her that much more. Most of my prayers in the last few weeks have been about her. And whenever we go to the Night Bazaar area in downtown Chiang Mai, I usually try to see her. This may look like sitting down and ordering coke at the bar she works at, bringing her flowers, or me and the team buying her and taking her out for dinner! Pretty much loving the crap out of her, every way we know how.
It's going to be hard to leave Abba House and say goodbye to this part of the trip. I have grown so much here in my faith, more than any point in my 18 years of life. I am going to miss the sweet girls that we live with, and I am going to miss the boys that we teach (however frustrating it is), I am going to miss the sweet, intimate times I have had with Jesus all over this property, and I am going to miss seeing Michelle, so, so much. It's hard because there is still so much change I want to see! But Jesus gives peace the transcends all else, and it's so comforting leaving knowing that God loves these people that I love so dearly infinitely more than I ever could. His heart breaks more for this place and this city more deeply than I could bear. And in that, I find rest.
This is my leader Patrice, Michelle, and I the first night we met.
