Ministry is hard here.
It’s easy to start a trip like this with thoughts of grandeur and the need to resolve and defend. Quickly we find it’s more about the simple expressions of love that speaks volumes of who you truly ar. No one has ever been able to show me the love of Buddha. No one has ever been able to share with me how he died and rose again for me. No one has ever been able to tell me that he created me to worship him, that I was not created to be sold.
I look in so many eyes of women, young girls, children, and ladyboys and see no hope that anyone and any god can save them. I would even go so far as to say that I see some of that same desperation in the men who frequent the bars as customers. It just wears differently on them.
This is life, no less, no more. Which is why I believe simply loving on them without expectations is a huge testimony of how God loves us and calls us to share that love. No other god loves like that!
So when we walk the streets of Pat Pong, we walk with a purpose to be light and show love. We smile, say, “Sawatika”, give out friendship bracelets, and share however God leads us. Taking the time in a bar just to hear a girl’s story can be so powerful when it seems like most of her life revolves around pleasing others, why would we care?
Again, it’s simple, relational ministry. Are we moving mountains? Maybe not yet. But that’s the Lord’s job, not ours. We are called to worship, to be a Light, to love at all times… even to the men. The heart of our Savior loves both the women and the men equally … and so should we.
The gospel is not for the “cleaned-up, ready-to-go” soul. It’s for the broken, the lost, in need. For the girl forced to sell herself in a bar in Bangkok to the girl in Phoenix, Az waiting for the one man God has for her. In His eyes, we are the same, a daughter of the King. That’s what Love does.
I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself – Jeremiah 31:3
*Photos by Kristen and Connie Rock.
