Love is the Universal Language – Written by Chanel
Photo by Connie Rock
Perhaps some of the greatest moments or encounters are those that even the savviest of wordsmith couldn’t adequately describe and I’m far from that but I’ll give it a shot…
This past week was my first missions trip and to be honest I wasn’t 100% sure what I was getting myself into. I knew it was something God wanted me to do and it had been on my heart for years but it was a specific type of missions trip I was looking for. I wanted something that fell in line with my passion of women empowerment so when I came across the Adventures in Missions trip to Thailand to work with women in the “Red Light Districts” I immediately felt peace and applied and I’m oh so grateful that I did. Little did I know, I was getting ready to experience some of the most simplistic yet beautiful moments ever. After 19 hours of traveling to Bangkok, Thailand and stopping in Dubai, we finally arrived and the beautiful adventure began. The nature of our work in short included partnering with Rahab Ministries and doing outreach right in the heart of Patpong. If you’re not familiar with the organization and the “Red Light District” areas let me quickly tell you a little bit more..
Every evening, 7 days a week, 365 days a year… what seems like hundreds of vendors set up in an area called The Patpong Night Bazaar and it seems like a perfectly normal tourist attraction from the outside looking in. The moment you step foot in this night bazaar it becomes clearly apparent that it’s more than just vendors set up to sell goods but a sexual tourism spot. There are even “sex menus” that immediately begin to be thrown in your face and advertised. While I was somewhat familiar with what went on in this area it became crystal clear just how much of a human rights issues this whole sexual tourism issue is seeing it firsthand. What I learned this week from personally speaking with the women and from our partner ministries is that a lot of times these women are convinced by family or friends to begin working in the bars and often times come from an extremely poor area and see no other way to care for their family and children.
Rahab ministries is such a light in a dark place and I fell completely in love with their mission. Rahab sits in the heart of Patpong directly next to all of the “popular” bars and they share the love of Jesus Christ, education and alternative employment for women currently in the sex trade. Through outreach, Rahab is able to connect and begin to build relationships with these women and connect them with the services they provide. We had the opportunity to go to Rahab one of the days for ministry and it’s one of my favorite memories from the trip. We arrived at Rahab to meet some of the women, have lunch together, enjoy each other’s company and actually make some jewelry with them. Of course as we walked in we did our introductions and there was one woman in particular that I drew to. We sat on the floor and had lunch together and communicated about a lot despite the language barrier. We made such a connection and it ended up being one of those “ah ha” moments for me. It become crystal clear just how universal love really is. It doesn’t need a translation, you don’t have to speak the same language…Love and acceptance can just be felt. It was such a beautiful and simplistic moment that I’ll never forget.
My we seemed so happy so that was a perfect time to tell her why. Connie began to explain the love of God to her the best way she could. Whether or not she understood it we don’t know but what she did understand was the love and acceptance we radiated. Before we left she told us “I feel so loved”. A simple 4 words that meant so much to me. Again, another example of how universal and simple love is. Love is simply caring, listening, being genuine and true. Often times we can complicate this Christian walk and what those two moments and one of the things the trip second favorite memory from ministry is being in a bar and seeing a young girl with such a blank and sad stare on her face. One of my teammates and I smiled at her at different times and she smiled back. perhaps the only two times she would have smiled all night but we wanted to talk with her more. We asked our trip leader, Connie if we could call her over and we did. After she sat down we asked her questions like what her name was, how old she was..the basics. Despite the language barrier we were able to get some basic information and give her one of the friendship bracelets we had been giving away all week. More importantly than that we were able to share love. She mentioned that taught me was that you can make a difference without saying a word simply by radiating the love of Jesus Christ and acceptance. My goal is to be much more intentional in my everyday errands and interactions. Everyday is a mission and an opportunity to make people feel even more loved, accepted, understood and heard. In addition, it has birthed a new passion for this human rights issue so I’m excited to hear from God on how I can bring change locally, domestically and internationally. This experience was nothing short of a blessing and I will forever carry the beautiful souls we met on this 8 day journey in my heart. Until next time Thailand. . .
Peace and Light,
Chanel
