winding down...

I have loads of time today and nowhere to be until outreach tonight and I don't really feel like blogging. I wrote a nice long update on the other blog yesterday (or maybe the day before? They all blend together now), so just go read that. :)

The team from NightLight USA (Los Angeles) leaves tonight. I have two more days here in Bangkok, whatever will I do with myself? I have LOVED spending time with these girls. Loved my roommate, Shirley - waiting for her to come visit me in Greece now! Some people you just have an instant connection with, and I feel a little bit like God sent her (and the group) my way this past week and a half. It's almost depressing thinking about being alone again, but I'm trusting for that to change soon.

The other night at outreach, I was sitting in a bar with a couple of the NL ladies watching drunk men throw ping pong balls at the girls dancing on poles up on the stage. I had noticed one girl in particular because she had glasses; that is unusual. When it wasn't her shift to be onstage, she wrapped herself tightly in a shawl and sat, very closed off, in a corner. Near the end of our time there, suddenly I felt someone plop themselves down next to me and lean on me. It was her. We chatted for a bit; her English was great. Her story is just like the rest: her husband left her and she is here working to support her kids back home. But this girl was 43 years old. She didn't look it. Her kids are in college and she's been here five years. She doesn't like it, of course, but "doesn't have a choice." Most likely she hasn't seen her family in all those years.

It's so sad! This whole place is sad. The attitude of many of the men coming for sex tourism is that this is what Thai girls are for, this is what Thailand is for. And it's not unusual to hear them say it. Yet for all the thousands of girls in prostitution for sex tourism, that makes up only a tiny percentage of the picture: 80-90% of prostitution in Thailand is domestic - for Thai men. So much a part of the culture, generation after generation.

I've learned a lot from NightLight and the other groups we've visited here. Much of it wouldn't work in Athens; the situations of the girls, trafficking, and the industry looks completely different here. But many strategies and especially their models for prayer and ministry are very applicable. There are thousands of trafficked girls here too, mostly from Eastern Europe - the approach with them is completely different and NightLight adapts to their needs when they are working with them. But their main ministry is to the Thai women in the bars.

I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do for the next two days; I have some options, and they are letting me stay at the guest house which is a blessing. We'll see...