…AND HOPE DOES NOT PUT US TO SHAME, BECAUSE GOD’S LOVE HAS BEEN POURED INTO OUR HEARTS THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO HAS BEEN GIVEN TO US.- ROMANS 5:5

I haven’t been able to adequately sum up everything I experienced in Pattaya last year–and before I start my next chapter of Thailand 2019, I wanted to close the door on our 2018 trip by sharing this essay I wrote for Freedom 4/24 for their blog.

As I began to prepare for my Freedom 4/24 trip to Pattaya, Thailand in 2018, the word “hope” rang in my heart. I had traveled to Thailand three times before, so I knew exactly what I would be facing—a city that in peak season, fuels human trafficking to the tune of 50,000 women being bought and sold for profit. I knew I couldn’t be a savior—but I believed that I was called back to be an agent of hope—a voice of kindness and compassion that broke through the immense darkness—a reminder that even the ones who felt the most forgotten and unloved were in fact, deeply loved by us, and most importantly, by Jesus.

It’s been almost six months since I returned, and I’ve still struggled to put into words what I experienced during the 10 days I spent in Pattaya. I came face-to-face with a city that is arguably more depraved than any place on earth—every corner we turned seemed to be a little worse than the one before. Our mission was simple: go into the bars, build relationships with the women working there, and invite them to a Christmas Party where they would be honored, celebrated, and shown a pathway to freedom.

In the days leading up to the party, we wrapped presents, we prayed, and we spent our evenings in the bars, making friends with women who often remained faceless in a country that turns a blind eye to their exploitation. In the middle of hopelessness, a dim light was beginning to shine.

The day of the Christmas party, our team gathered to set up a banquet hall, prepared for 80 guests. We hung twinkle lights, decorated Christmas trees, set out gifts, and set up games. We covered the room in prayer, and we went out in the evening heat to meet our friends at the bars, and to bring them back en masse for an evening of celebration. The tables filled quickly, and our friends kept coming in droves. The banquet staff added more seats and more tables—volunteers left in a tizzy to purchase more gifts, while dozens of party guests did the limbo, played musical chairs, and made handcrafted earrings. The party was in full swing, and women from all over the city were still arriving. We crowded around tables, partook in a banquet fit for the King himself, and heard a message of—you guessed it—hope. Our speaker for the evening, a woman who pastors a church in Pattaya, shared the message of the Gospel in their native tongue, and our hearts were overflowing with joy as many heard of the love that Christ had for them for the very first time, and were introduced to the hope of a life of freedom that could come through moving into The Home of New Beginnings, Freedom 4/24’s partner organization. The 80 guests we were prepared for? That number nearly doubled, and 153 women were able to taste hope and freedom that evening.

I’ve been asked many times “why would you use your hard-earned vacation time to go and do this work in Thailand?”. My best answer is this—I am reminded of the story in scripture of the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to go after the one. At the Christmas party, we are graced with a room full of “ones.” Women who are passed over, devalued, broken and afraid—but Jesus pursues each of them in the same way He pursues me. His heart is for them to know and walk in freedom that only He can give, and I am grateful to get to play even the smallest part.

We arrived in Pattaya on Friday to begin preparing for the Christmas party that will take place here this week. Pattaya is about 2 hours south of Bangkok, located on the Gulf of Thailand. Until the 1960s, it was a small fishing village, but during the Vietnam War, it became a desirable alternative to Bangkok for soldiers who were on R&R. Gogo bars started popping up, and today there are approximately 1,300 bars (not including massage parlors and rooms for rent) that employ close to 50,000 women working in the sex industry. In addition to being fueled by tourism, Thailand has special provisions for ex-pats who choose to retire here, bringing back many who spent their younger years in this very town. 

I’ve spent the last 10 years learning about the sex slavery in Thailand and I’ve spent time in some of its most notorious red light districts. I had been warned that what I had seen up to this point wouldn’t even hold a candle to Pattaya, but nothing could fully prepare me for this seedy beach town.  

Every street is lined with establishments selling sex—it’s in your face to the point of suffocation. The crowd is different than Bangkok- instead of rowdy party boys, the bars are filled with has-been baby boomers seeking another go-round of their glory days. It’s not just westerners here either, although that’s still the overwhelming majority. Sex tours come here from India, Japan, etc— bringing men by the bus full to live out their perversions. Here, it’s not uncommon to see a man walking down the street with multiple prostitutes he has purchased. I saw it today on my 5 minute walk back from Starbucks. How is this accepted as the norm?

As if the streets lining the beach area aren’t enough, Pattaya is home to Walking Street. I still haven’t been able to fully process what I saw, but it is what nightmares are made of. There are thousands of women for sale— and not just Thai women like most of the bars here. Women are trafficked from Eastern Europe, India, Nigeria, The Middle East, and sold each night in a smorgasbord of discos, gogos, and nightclubs— yet people parade down this street in tour groups like it’s Disney World. There was a palpable evil here- and ironically, one of the discos was named “Lucifer”. I imagine Satan himself has a field day on Walking Street. 

This town is disgusting. The beach is ugly, the water is polluted, the bars are repulsive, and the way women are treated here is unfathomable. My mind can’t wrap around a government that won’t advocate for its people, and yet Pattaya’s police force refuses to even admit that prostitution exists here. I find myself increasingly frustrated with the fact that my team and I can’t do anything to fix this problem at it’s root. 

In the midst of this overwhelming darkness, there is a light here. Home of New Beginnings Pattaya wasn’t part of the plan for at least 10-15 years, but through a set of circumstances that only God could orchestrate, they opened their doors last year. The property includes a house, a garden, and 2 shop-houses with room for 20+ women, and it’s located right across the highway from a vocational school. Their goal is to open a fully- functioning commercial restaurant on the first floor and have a training kitchen on the 2nd, with residences above to house the women who have escaped the bars to find a better life. 

We are believing this year’s Christmas parties will be the catalyst for many to come and experience a new beginning at HNB Pattaya.

Today, as you are waking up and getting ready for church, my team and I will be heading into the bars to do outreach. Our ultimate goal is to invite the women we meet to the Christmas party, and we will be doing this by building relationships, playing pool and cards, etc. Will you pray with me that many will be receptive to an invitation that can bring them new hope and a future? 

In my last post, I referenced Ladyboys, and realized afterwards that many of you reading this might not understand what that looks like, given our framework of transgenderism in America. Since this is a growing area of concern in Thailand’s red light districts, I want to take some time to highlight this issue.

Ladyboys, or kathoey, are quite common in Thailand. The term typically refers to a transgender female, although they can be at varying stages in their transition. There are three main reasons contributing to this, and often, it isn’t at the decision of the individual whose gender identity is in question. 

The first group affected are high society Thai who choose to make the transition, very similar to what we would see in the United States. In Thailand, female hormones are readily available over-the-counter at a pharmacy, so a boy will often begin taking them as young as 11 or 12, and will often begin the process of shaving down their Adam’s Apple, as well as getting breast implants. In high society, it brings shame to the family to become a ladyboy, so they are usually excommunicated. Still having educational goals and career aspirations, these individuals dance in the bars until the wee hours of the morning, taking customers as well, in order to earn enough money to put themselves through school. Many battle drug addiction, since they take stimulants to aid them in functioning on little sleep. 

The second group affected are from the rural villages of Isan. In Isan, the cultural belief is that the spirit is more important than the physical– so the buddhist priest may indicate as young as infancy that the child carries a female spirit, even if they have male genitalia. Once that indication is made, the child is raised as a female in the home. In a similar scenario in Isan, because women are expected to financially support their families, if there are no girls in the family, the parents will choose one son to become a female. They will pray the spirit of a dead female relative into them, and will begin giving him female hormones, as well as female roles in the home. When she is old enough, she is sent to Bangkok to work and provide for her family, sending money home to Isan.

The final group affected are those living in the Bangkok slums. In the slums, rather than viewing a ladyboy as holding a female role, they view it as an elusive third gender, and believe that it brings luck to the family, so they idolize having a ladyboy in the family and in light of this, will select a son to raise as female in order to bring the supposed good fortune. 

The Thai government does not have any statistics surrounding the abuse and emotional distress of the ladyboys, as the government here believes strongly in saving face. However, it is widely recognized that ladyboys are far more likely to experience abuse from a customer, especially if the customer does not realize they purchased a Ladyboy who still has their genitalia. They also have higher suicide rates than female prostitutes, and are more likely to contract STIs. 1 in 3 ladyboys in Thailand will contract HIV while working in the bars.  Ladyboys also face employment discrimination, forcing them to stay in the bars even after completing an education. They are viewed as some of the lowest of the low in Thai society, and are robbed of many opportunities because of this. 

Although this has been pervasive in Thailand’s sex industry until 2009, there were no organizations in Thailand serving these boys and girls. Fortunately, that has changed. Yesterday, the team and I got the opportunity to sit and chat with Celeste, an American missionary who founded Dton Naam, a non-profit that offers boys and transgender sex workers the opportunity to leave prostitution and helps rebuild their lives. Celeste and her team provide counseling, education, healthcare and vocational skills training, providing them with opportunities to overcome their desperate situations. 

My team and I asked Celeste how we could pray for her– and her biggest need is to have more staff. There are many ladyboys who want to join her program, but her current team doesn’t have the capacity to help all of them– so they are looking to grow in 2019. As you’re starting your day in the states, please take a moment and pray for Celeste, and for Dton Naam, that God would provide the resources necessary for them to be able to expand their reach next year, and to offer a better life to those being victimized. 

After a very long, uneventful 24 hours of traveling, we arrived in Bangkok late last night. We got a few hours of sleep– jet lag is a real and actual thing– and about 6 cups of coffee later, we started our day meeting with Bonita, the founder of The Home of New Beginnings. My trip roommate describes her as “a velvet brick”– and there couldn’t be a more accurate description. She is warm, she is kind, she overflows compassion– but she has a strength within that cannot be broken. Although she’s in her 70s, her resolve for bringing freedom to women in Thailand is as strong as I have ever seen it in almost 10 years of knowing her.

The landscape has changed here.  Since Thailand was downgraded on the TIP report 4 years ago, they have increased efforts to crack down on bars that were facilitating the sale of underage women.  While on the surface, we applaud this effort– the bars have instead moved girls under 18 into an underground network of sorts where they are still being sold, and we now have no access to them.

There is also a huge presence of ladyboy bars now– I’m not going to go into great detail, but in Thai society, these individuals are the lowest of the low. They are abused and exploited in unimaginable ways. It was a heartbreaking reminder of the depravity that exists here. 

Today we visited Nana Plaza– one of Bangkok’s three Red Light districts. There are an estimated 4,000 women who are prostituted in this complex, and the surrounding areas on Soi 4. While I was on the last leg of my evening at 9pm, the plaza was starting to fill up, and the night was only beginning there. 

• 

On our walk back from Nana Plaza, I found myself where I have on every trip– overwhelmed and helpless. But then there are the girls at the Home of New Beginnings. They light up the room with their energy and their joy. Their stories give them every reason to live as a victim, but they choose resilience. Tonight, one of the girls shared with us that she aspires to become a Thai Soldier, so she can fight for justice in her country. The problem seems too big– but I’m refreshed by every sweet face around the dinner table, giggling and laughing after a day at school, their day winding down when at one point in their life, it would have been just getting started. Then I remember the 8 women who have completed a university education since my last trip, and of the 4 who have completed a high school education and are now pursuing their Bachelor’s Degrees. 

There’s a quote that I’ve referenced many times, as long as I’ve been working in Thailand– “To succumb to the enormity of the problem is to fail the one, and more is required of us”. Can my team bring an end to human trafficking? No. Can we be instrumental in the life of one girl who is being victimized? Absolutely. And that’s exactly why we’re here.