A Dark Closet in Thailand

The week after debrief, our leadership team took one week in Bangkok to pray, make decisions, and do some Spirit led ministry in the red light district and in the inner city area where we lived. 

Lindsey Kappler, one of the Squad Leaders who has been raised up from within the squad, wrote the following blog about an evening we spent praying in the strip clubs and bars:  

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After failing to flag down a cab on the street, we finally asked a McDonald’s employee if he could help us. He walked out to the street with us and we finally stopped a cab. The employee told him where we wanted to go.

Soi Cowboy. A bar that we knew was in the Red Light District.

We rode for longer than expected, stuck in Bangkok traffic. It felt like we were in a huge city back in the States. Sky scrapers surrounded us. We saw a McDonald’s or Starbucks every few blocks, it seemed. Digital billboards flashed their advertisements at us as we slowly creeped by.

We eventually made a U-turn and the cab driver pulled over. Confusion washed over our faces as we looked around on this normal city street. “We’re here?”

We got of out the cab, still confused as Austin pulled up his GPS. He guided us down a street off the main road, but still seemingly normal. We didn’t walk long before we needed to turn. We looked to our right down what looked like an alley from the street. But once you stepped in a few feet, you could see what it actually was.

Bars lined both sides with music booming and lights flashing. It definitely didn’t match the street we just left. We immediately walked by women working in a bar to our right. They were all dressed in the same attire that belonged on a beach. Each bar had their own uniforms.

We continued to walk in silence, overwhelmed (at least for me) by the reality of what I was walking through.

Some women were grabbing men by the arms as they walked by, trying to convince them to go into their bar versus the other dozen they could choose. Some were just sitting on the bar stools outside the bar, not interested in convincing anyone to walk in. Some were kinda dancing, but it was easy to tell that it was only because they were told to.

It took us less than a few minutes to get from one side of the alley to the other. All of this darkness was crammed into less than half a football field in length, completely hidden from the streets surrounding it.

We paused at the end of the alley to evaluate what we wanted to do. Amy, Chels and I decided to walk back through again. We prayed, both silently and out loud as we walked through the street. We made it to the other end and turned back around, walking to a “normal” sports bar where no women worked.

We sat at the almost empty bar and prayed. My back was to the street, so I turned around and observed what was happening. My heart hurt for these women. It was so incredibly evident that none of them wanted to be there. They were stuck.

But the longer I sat there, a shift in perspective happened in me.

As much as I hurt for all of the women who probably felt trapped in this job, I started to see all of the men who were choosing to be there. They actually had a choice in it, whereas the women probably didn’t feel like they had one (this is a general assumption – I’m sure that’s not true blanket statement).

I prayed for the men. I had an overwhelming realization that their choice to be there was the next level of probably years dealing with lust or insecurity.

Amy and I got up and walked again. We both prayed out loud as we walked. I asked the Lord to uproot level one in people’s lives, which in my mind, is pornography. This is where I personally believe it usually starts.

A child or teenager stumbles on their older sibling’s hidden images or links. A child or teenager potentially abused at an early age, awakening lust that should never be awakened. The exposure kids have to the internet. It’s so easily accessible.

And then there comes a point when the pornography doesn’t satisfy anymore. It isn’t enough, so they want more. And more spirals into more. And more spirals into traveling across the world to one of the most popular sex tourism countries in the world.

And the worst part is that what these people are seeking still won’t satisfy. It will leave them empty, broken, and potentially feeling so much guilt and shame. My heart hurts for them.

I want them to know that God is the only one that can satisfy. His love surpasses all other love and the mistaken lust we have in our flesh. I want them to know that He loves them so much, even in spite of the mess they’re in. He wants to pull them out of it and into the grace and mercy He has for them.

I ended my prayer by asking that the bars on that street would be shut down. I told the Lord that it feels like an impossible request, but I still am asking.

Lord, shut that street down, along with all the other streets like it.

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