It’s not to often that you are able to get 400+ non-believers from Bangkok, let alone Thailand, all together to hear about Christ.  A task that can be difficult in the states sometimes, but in Thailand-where 98% of them are Buddhist, is HUGE!  This week we welcomed these women with open arms, no strings attached, to an event in their honor.  Tonight was an evening of laughter and friendship and love amidst a country of sadness and hopelessness.  All to often these are things we take for granted, things that are so commonplace in our lives.  The soul yearns to have relationships with people that love us and truly care about our well-being, but oddly enough it is sorely missing from the Thai culture.

The girl sitting directly to my right is 16 and has been working in the bars for just a couple months, she is engrossed in a simple foam craft that we had for all the girls, and it dawns on me-she never did this as a child, her mom never sat with her at the kitchen table and spent time with her laughing and giggling while making a craft.  Instead, she was probably being neglected by her parents or hard at work in the rice patties or worse yet being physically or sexually abused by, quite possibly, multiple family members. 

The woman to my left is 21 and has been working in the bars for 5 years!  She has been servicing men since she was 16!!!!!   She wasn’t worrying about passing exams or getting her drivers license, she was more focused on coming out of that hotel room safely with money in hand to send home to her parents.

In my purse I have receipts for some of these girls that are at the party, receipts acknowledging that we paid a bar fee and she is allowed to leave because she had been purchased.  The receipt simply says “Food & Drink” and has the number “221” on it.  Can you imagine life where your self-worth has come down to a receipt and a number?!?!  You have been lumped into the category of “Food & Drink” and no one even knows your name???  It can be absolutely overwhelming if you let it take over your mind, but instead I choose at this moment to look up from my table and look around at the room FULL of young women and girls that have chosen to forego the money from a “customer” and spend their evening relishing in a moment of fun and friendship. 

Overall it has been a wonderful week, we have seen and heard a lot, but in the end we have been able to show a love to our new Thai friends that no one has shown them in a very long time. We had 2 specific nights of incredible blessings, 365 women heard, many for the first time, about our Lord and Savior and how wonderful then to see 57 of those girls, non-believers, “out-casts” of their society, take a step of faith and choose to further the journey of getting to know this Savior on a more intimate level.  Please continue to pray for these women that the Holy Spirit will fill their hearts and that for the Beginnings staff as they continue to reach out and love on them as they continue to learn more about this journey in Christ.