The danger of "comfort"

So I've decided that Thailand is a very interesting place to do a missions trip, especially when you are doing it in Phuket, a world-famous tourist destination. At times I feel like I am here on "holiday" and other times I feel like I am walking around in the pit of hell. If India was like being in the church in the book of Acts, I think that being here is sometimes like being in Sodom and Gomorah. And the modern amenities and tourist attractions make it that much more subtle in it's deception.

I googled Phuket, and more specifically Patong, the area in Phuket known for it's red light district (and where we've been ministering), and it was interesting to see what came up. Nestled in talks of the beaches and nightclubs on wikipedia is the sentence, "Prostitution is culturally acceptable, especially on Bangla road where you will find many older Western men drinking and flirting with much younger Thai women and transvestites." As if this is just normal, acceptable behavior.

And I find that this is the overall atmosphere of Phuket. Perversion and sexual misbehavior is slipped almost discretely in with the beauty and relaxation of this island community. One must keep their guard up at all times here, and especially while in Patong, where it is so easy to get distracted by the 3 STARBUCKS, large shopping centers, and even the Cabaret shows of the "lady-boys" (transvestites). And then you walk past a sign like this:

as if a woman is a fair prize to be won, like a goldfish or a stuffed animal; or you get offered a pornographic flyer inviting you to a "ping-pong" show, and you are forcefully snapped back into reality. I was waiting on our team (that just left) one night to use the restroom in the mall across from Patong and saw this T-shirt displayed:

It seems as if the community is starting to realize that it is more than just coincidence to have so much devastation happening in one place. I think the Lord is trying to send Patong a message. Do you know that when the tsunami hit in 2004, Patong was one of the hardest hit areas? All the bars were destroyed. But they built it all back up again, and almost immediately. How many times will it take before they get the message to wake up and repent?

So here I am left to drink my Starbucks and go to the beach on my days off, but to also spend hours awake interceding in the night for all the horrors I have witnessed, and even worse, the ones I haven't but still know are occuring. I sit back at my, though modest, safe and happy "home" at SHE after leaving Patong, knowing the girls I just saw and shared a soda and conversation with may be living out their own personal hell on earth. They don't have the luxury to just go home to a peaceful place feeling whole and well-loved.

And that is the reason that I am here. Not that I am anything special, but I can't just sit by and have the knowledge that this is happening, and know the only One who can really fix it, without doing something about it. I know it often feels just like "chipping away at the darkness," but it has to mean the world to the ones who hear the message and make a choice to get out as a result. It's easy for me to be discouraged when there are well over 1,000 girls just working in that one strip of bars on Bangla Road soley as hostesses. But it is so worth it when I talk to someone with a team and the very same week she leaves that life and comes into SHE, and her entire countenance and world changes. Not to mention all the other girls who never end up at SHE, but after having a conversation with one of us realize they have a choice, and they leave the bars and go back home to start businesses or work at hotels or factories, or anything else, just to not be in that environment anymore.

Yes, the darkness is dark, but we are the light of the world; and even our one seemingly small light drives out darkness wherever we go, because darkness can not exist where there is light. And so I choose to shine my light in the darkness of Patong, because (as Jonathan always quotes),

"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
— C.T. Studd