Leviticus 19:28 {Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.}
Thailand is abounding in the wickedness that God is warning people about in the verse above. The enemy has so greatly made himself a foothold and filled this land with a dark spiritual warfare.
After leaving the mall today a couple teammates and I became slightly disorientated in our search for our bus “home.” We asked this one man we saw where we needed to go to be at a spot in which the bus would pass and he pointed us down this one road—easy enough right? Well as soon as we stepped onto this road to the bus I was immediately overcome with this great sense of darkness. I was terrified instantly.
Alexis pointed out that she recognized the statue that was right in front of us from pictures she had seen. This was Bangla Road.
For those of you reading this who do not know what Bangla Road is—it is the red light district in Phuket. It is roughly a five minute walk with a few small road offshoots connected. This small little area is made up of roughly 250 bars. It is literally bar after bar.
After the realization that this was in fact Bangla, we rushed back to our previous street in the midst of our suddenly brought on terror and fears. It was something we have watched numerous documentaries on and a topic we have essentially studied as much as we really could in the months leading up to this trip but nothing could have possibly prepared me for the dark cloud within that area. Nothing could have prepared me for the evil throughout that one road.
It is one thing to be angry at the men involved in sex slavery when they are only real on a screen, it is entirely another when they are standing all around you. It is one thing to feel the hurt and brokenness for the women trapped in this sex slavery when their stories are only real through someone else’s tale, it is another thing when you see them working in the bars and with the white men around this area.
We still needed to get back on the bus because we still did need to get home but there was a ton of searching done by us to try and find someone else who knew another way to the bus that did not have to involve the walking of Bangla Road. But each and every person we asked all provided the same answer so we realized this is what we had to do. We had to walk this road for the first time of what would soon be many.
The immediate feeling when stepping onto Bangla Road was utter hopelessness. Feeling blatantly alone. The enemy has been using feelings of alone and hopelessness to rule this area for too long. Each step I took was guarded with the prayers to my Jesus. Prayers to the Lord above who promised to protect us. Who promised to NEVER leave us. Each step was a call out of his great promises—and I can completely say he came through.
We serve a God who provides hope to the hopeless, a God who sends healing to the broken and love to the unloved. We serve a God who is ready to have his light shine amongst the darkness of Bangla Road. We serve a God who has sent another army to this red light district to break every chain and to set his captives, his beautiful daughters, free.
Continue to pray that God would prepare the hearts of each and every women on Bangla Road that he allows contact with. Pray that his promises would be called out so he can come through and work in his amazing ways. Pray that we, as an army of the Most High God would bring His BRIGHT light to this darkness.
