Patpong Market, one of the most infamous Red Light Districts
in Bangkok, is a seven minute walk from our guesthouse. Literally across the
street from McDonald’s, where I ate a meal a day.

 

The thing about Patpong is that you wouldn’t know it was
there during daylight hours. Before four in the afternoon, it looks like this:
 
 
 
And then they begin the 3+ hour process of setting up. This is what it then looks come night.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our team spent a lot of time in Patpong, walking the
streets, meeting people, even going into the bars. Our focus is ministry to the
women and ladyboys. We’ve gone in with bracelets, given them out, and prayed
for those who allowed us to tie it on their wrists. We’ve order drinks (Cokes)
and watched the women dance so that we could spend a few moments talking with
them when they are allowed a break from the stage. So many of them wanted us to
pray for them. They wanted to share about their lives. When we told them in
Thai, “You are beautiful… Jesus loves you,” they’d smile, hug us,
and their eyes would light up – a completely different demeanor than what we’d
see on stage.

 

Every time we returned to Patpong, we see something new: the
sign, higher than all the rest, of Lucifer, watching down on the entire
street…the men walking through, looking at all the goods to buy and staring
openly at the half dressed women dancing on stage and standing just inside
doorways… western women walking beside their husbands/boyfriends…the Thai
children peeking out from underneath tables, sitting next to displays of
lingerie… and walking holding the hands of western men… the dwarf who works
outside of the German bar…the ladyboys forced to dance in a cage high above
the street, so that everyone walking can see them, the fetish bar complete with
a bright red metal cage and leather handcuffs hanging just inside the
doorway…. the heartbreak, the depravity, the darkness the desperate need for
Christ.

 
 

It’s hard not to be so angry and disgusted by the men. 60%
of Western tourists are officially here for “pleasure”, but there is
also a high rate of Asian men who are customers as well. And it would be easier
to want to punch someone in the face, to wish them ill… but they are broken
too. They need godly men to show them what true manhood is and isn’t. The same
for the ladyboys, who are officially considered Thailand’s “third
gender” – female from the waist up and male from the waist down, literally
with no place they can feel safe and as if they belong.

   

We are very limited in what pictures we can post, and
stories to share, because of the nature of the Red Light District. Hopefully
these pictures give a hint of what we’ve seen without being too risque.

 

It can feel overwhelming, seeing all the need and knowing
you have so little time. And we found we had a lot of questions on things like
“etiquette”… could we just walk into a bar and star talking with a
go go girl (dancer)? What do we say? What can we say? How can we best share the
love of Christ?

 

Here is a story from Kristen.

The
truth is, if we are open to where God is leading us, listening for Him, and
willing to obey, He will lead us to people to speak to… and bring people to
us. People like Nok Nok (below). Our first night in Pat Pong, I was wearing a
new pair of shoes I’d purchased just for this trip. Nok Nok came walking down
the street– big hair, hobbling on her heels as if she had hip pain, and a
tired face. She walked up to me and said, “I like your shoes”. That
opened a conversation for us. She told me her brother lived in Santa Ana,
California, and that she had been dancing at a bar for three months (for her
safety, I’m not going to say which one it is, but it’s name is one of the most
degrading on the street… not that they all aren’t in some way). “Many
baht,” she said (baht is the currency in Thailand). Soon, she had to
leave, but not before I was able to hug her and pray over her silently. I told
her I’d look for her whenever I came back and I have. The thing that scares me
the most–for her–is that the bar she works in starts on the second level of
the buildings. We aren’t allowed to enter a bar beyond the first level, because
the farther up you go, the worse the conditions/things you see are. What kind
of danger is Nok Nok in every night? What things must she do? Does she know
that God loves her?

 

The stories are endless. We came to build relationships with
the girls in the bars, but found new relationships everywhere. Women, men,
children…in the bars and out. They all need the Lord. I’ll be sharing more of
these stories over the next week.

 

A benefit to the flooding, Patpong had been virtually empty
of customers for many nights, meaning the girls don’t have their
“normal” work…and we were free to talk with them late into the night.
 
 Please pray for Patpong.