When I came to Thailand I expected to find a dark, heavy, oppressed place. I did not expect to find the light of Christ in a place filled with as much heartache, brokenness, and bondage as the Red Light Districts of Bangkok.
How wrong I was.
Sunday evening as I walked through the crowded streets of Pat Pong I began to pray, claiming the littered roads I walked along for Christ and Christ alone. I looked around wishing that the men and women in that place who sell their lives and souls for a few baht of pleasure could see the stars above or towering trees and budding flowers so that they would be surrounded by God’s creation which cries out His name.
Then my eyes began to open. While the streets of Pat Pong bear no signs of nature they are cluttered with God’s creation. The men, the women, the children, each of these are God’s most magnificent creation. Each person cries out, by His very nature, that God exists.
Suddenly I found myself in a place full of the light of His glory. The darkness and oppression I expected to find faded away as my heart opened up to God’s beautiful people.
I continued to walk, thanking God for being in this place, for going before me, and for opening my eyes to His Truth.
But God was not done showing me how full He is in that place.
I walked along catching the eyes of women who were both hoping to be purchased and longing to not be noticed. As I passed an open air bar I noticed it was filled with young faces, the faces of girls the age of my own daughter.
The Lord impressed upon our team to go and spend some time loving on these young women.
One young lady, with braces on her teeth and a much heavier set body than any other Thai woman I have seen, greeted us with open arms. She embraced each of us. She called us sister. She told me we were the same- larger than the rest.
I told her she was very “suay” (beautiful). She told me I was “suay” (beautiful.) She said “we same.” I said, “Yes, we beautiful.”
And she was.
There in that place, with women ranging from 31 to 16 some who had been working in the bar for years and others who were facing their first week, this young lady who did not fit the mold, held her sisters together. She laughed and brought joy to their lives.
And she did the same for me.
She brought Christ’s light, even though she does not know Him, in that place by being His very creation. She brought hope and joy to darkness. She brought peace and comfort to despair.
I was left asking myself, as one who has the light of Christ steeped deep within her soul, do I do the same? Am I a beacon of light in this world? In my community? My church? My home?
Do I shine even when darkness surrounds me?
Do I awaken the dawn in others?
If this one young lady can show me that Christ is in this place where evil seems to reign so freely, then how much more can I, in whom Christ’s freedom reigns, bring light to my world?
Psalm 108: 2b-5 (NIV)
I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens,
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and let your glory be over all the earth.
*Some faces blurred for protection
*Photos by Kristen.
