Mrriah Sunshine- She truly lives up to her middle name and so much more.
At night, Bangla Road becomes a Crayola Box stuffed with thousands of broken crayon bits disguised as tourists. Mrriah stands out- a full crayon- sunshine yellow. Just ask Guv, the bar girl who immediately pulled Mrriah aside to tell her that she saw a light in Mrriah that she had never seen before on Bangla.
Today, Mrriah and I were given the opportunity to prayer walk together. Both of us have been struggling to find joy amidst the darkness of Bangla Road. After witnessing my friend, Knit, getting purchased two nights in a row by an older man, I doubted my ability to maintain a Kingdom mindset when all I felt was enmity towards the demons lusting inside these men.
“Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning”-Ecclesiastes 11:7. Today, as we proclaimed a new day for our stuffed crayola box, God started bringing crayon bits together piece by piece. He allowed us to plant little seeds, and in turn He showed us a radiant bouquet.
As we wandered down each Soi adjacent to Bangla Road, speaking life over their imminent occupants, we were interrupted by a group of bar girls sitting on a mattress inside one of the open bars. One girl, Cheorrie, called out to us, “you’re beautiful!” We approached the group of girls, introduced ourselves, and asked where they worked. Cheorri responded that they all worked in “Diablo A-Go-Go,” one of the closed bars down the street- a bar that we are not permitted to enter because it isn’t safe for us. We felt like Gideon’s army, seemingly ill-equipped to battle a legion of demons, but God illustrated His faithfulness once more (Judges 7). He provided a way for us to meet and minister to the girls that we were not supposed to see.
Preoccupied by our brief discourse with Cheorrie and her friends, Mrriah and I felt called back to their bar twenty minutes later. We purchased a Fanta for Cheorrie and made our way back to Soi Sea Dragon. However, before we reached Cheorrie’s bar, we were beckoned by another group of bar girls sitting on a blanket. They were painting each other’s nails, and invited us to join. We indicated that we had no money, but they insisted on painting our nails for free. We talked to New* and Ong for over an hour, and we were even granted the privilege of painting butterflies (‘petesuah’ phonetically in Thai) on New*’s nails.
“Soai like a pete-suah,” (beautiful like a butterfly) we told her. She hugged us, and we promised to return tomorrow night and visit.
“No power in the sky above or in the earth below- indeed nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord”-Romans 8:39
Today, the Lord reminded Mrriah and I of His victory over sin and His throne over Bangla Road. His ways are not our ways, and His seeds may be small but they possess an eternal flame.
