I was in Pattaya and had the privilege to serve with Tina and Josh while our World Race team was in Thailand! I want to tell you a brief story about our time in the Red Light District.
I tend to avoid situations where I might be out of place. I hate sticking out or doing something or being somewhere that I don’t belong. Being a white American female, a missionary, and walking into a men’s Asian strip club is completely out of my comfort zone.
When I walked in with my friend Carsyn, the first thing I thought of was my AP English class from my sophomore year of high school. A theme of our class throughout the year was civil/savage and humanizing/dehumanizing. We talked about the ways that certain groups of marginalized populations have been dehumanized – that oppression often leads to taking away the human dignity of people – the dignity given to us from the Lord. What happens behind the closed doors of the Thailand night clubs turns girls, or guys, into products. It strips them of their identity. I couldn’t help but think about how that is what it means to go to work for many girls in Thailand. That just as casual as you would walk into a cubical in America, these girls put their bodies on display and work to be sold to men.
We were able to befriend the waitress and give her a bag of condemns with notes of truth and hope attached to them. It took her a while to read the package to figure out what they were, but she beamed with a smile and told us that she would give them out to the girls.
It was hard. It was tough. I don’t know what the end result will be of that night, but if one girl was brought even a glimpse of love, or if God was glorified in the process, then it was worth it.
-Mary K Squad World Race 2019
In His Heart Ministries 