Several weeks ago my bar ministry team went on our first date with a bar girl. It was wonderful. By some miracle (and that miracle's name is Jesus), we found the place we were supposed to meet her. Seriously, it was a miracle because I'm still not quite sure how it happened. Once we arrived, we waited for a while and I prayed (really prayed, not just a figure of speech) that she would come. Several of our team members had had trouble with dates not showing up. Once about fifteen minutes passed by, I called her. She answered and said that she was on a moto taxi (a moto is a mix between a scooter and a motor cycle, everyone here has one!). She said that she would meet us in 10 minutes! My team and I were so excited! Then, a few minutes later, she showed up. She directed us to the restaurant and we sat down at a table that contained an oddly shaped bowl in the middle. Our friend, then walked over to a long counter with containers full of all kinds of uncooked meats, many of which I could not identify. She then handed us flat metal trays and instructed us to put the unidentified meats on them. So, hesitantly, we start placing the meat on our trays. We began praying that it was chicken, pork, and beef like she had claimed. She told us to put a lot on our trays and she explained to us that you can get as much as you want on your tray, but you can only fill your tray once. She helped us along by placing more meat on top of our already-full trays. Then, she started filling a basket with different vegetables and took it back to our table where there is now a strange bowl/dome. The strange bowl had hot coals in the bottom and then a metal dome with small holes over the coals. Water surrounded the bowl, which somehow turned into a broth from the different vegetables that our friend picked out. She showed us that we were supposed to put our meat on top of the dome to cook it and we begin to do so. She then took us to another table and removed the lids from several large metal pots revealing fried rice, french fries, green noodles, and what appear to be chicken meatballs. When we return to the table, our first round of meat was cooked. So, we took it off the bowl and tasted it. It was actually pretty delicious! We continued cooking our meat and she continued to help us and teach us. She was so sweet! She truly wanted to serve us throughout our entire meal. Soon into the meal she started telling us different things about her life. She told us that she makes no money working in the bar. She told us that she only makes money when she has “customers.” She told us about her two year old son at home. She showed us a picture and he looked so precious! She explained to us how she misses him so much and how she does not like living in Patong. She told us that she wants to move back home. She asked about our own homes, our jobs, and our boyfriends. She told us more about her boyfriend and showed us a picture. He lives in Sweden and he comes to Thailand every few months. He has lots of money, he is very fat, he is 40, and he is coming next month. She then told us about some of the bad men that come to her bar. She told us about a man who was hitting on her and calling her beautiful. She said he was trying to get her to come with him and she said, "No, you are a bad man." She is strong. She says no to men who she thinks are bad or dangerous. She told us about fights that happen at the bar sometimes. She talked about how her friend lives with a Thai man and gives him all of her money, and she told us that she would never do that. She told us that she sends her money back home to her family. She talked about how she wanted to learn English. We told her that we had friends who could teach her. She was very interested and said that if she had time that she would love to go to English class.
As we continued to eat, she pointed to a sign on the wall that said, in Thai, if you leave an excessive amount of food on your plate that you will get charged extra. So we had to eat ALL of our food. We continued cooking, eating and talking. We were there for over two hours, constantly eating. Once we finally finished, we walked with her down the street. As we were walking, our friend, recognized three men. They had been at her bar the night before. We talked with them for a couple minutes. One of the men asked if she was just showing us around the city and I told him that she is our friend. She later explained that he was at her bar and she made a bet with him playing a game. The bet was if he won that she would buy him a drink, but if she won, he had to buy her one. He had to buy her three drinks by the end of the night. She said that she wanted to walk us to our taxi to make sure we on our way home safely. It was so sweet to see the way she cared for us throughout the night. It was hard for us to say goodbye knowing that she was going to work at the bar, but we told her that we would come visit her soon. We also told her that we would love to have another date. As she turned away from us and began to walk to work, it took everything to not just take her back home with us. My hope is that maybe, just maybe, one day we will be able to.
a picture of us on our date
the bowl we cooked our food on
