I would preface this with a parental warning for any children reading this; however, the stark reality is that the average age of porn exposure is now ten years old. So, chances are, your kid has seen something more disturbing than this blog on the Internet.
Human Trafficking is happening everywhere and is no discriminator of race, religion, or socio-economic background. However, there are few areas that it is so blatantly emboldened as Pattaya, Thailand.
Pattaya is the number one destination for sex tourism in the world, which means that people from all over the world travel to this city with the sole intention of paying someone to act out their fantasies in real life. The dehumanization of the individuals is catastrophic, as 90,000 people are purchased for sex each night in Pattaya by the nine million sex tourists that visit Pattaya each year.
I barely made it inside my hotel (a very prestigious chain of resorts) before being confronted with the underbelly of Pattaya culture. At 11 AM, I watched a middle-aged white man stand in cue at the reception desk with a very young Thai girl in a tight, short dress and heels. They both giggled, and he kept pulling her close to him as she tried pulling away and sneaking around the corner. She finally tucked around the corner as he waited for whatever room request he was making. I’m sure her hesitance was because this behavior is a bit discouraged at this particular hotel. I was amazed that this was the meeting place of the global Freedom Business Alliance Forum, and there was sex trafficking happening in the very location where we were staying and gathering.
This is a bleak existence of day-to-day life in Pattaya. However, where there is darkness, the light will always find a way to shine. One organization, Tamar Center, exists to provide hope in a city full of red-light districts through love, counseling, education, vocational training, and job opportunities for girls leaving the bars.
Tamar Center operates two centers in Pattaya, one of which is an outreach center with a hair salon, English classes, a safe sleeping environment, and a house of prayer. This center is perched in the middle of Soi 6, one of Pattaya’s numerous red-light districts. Tamar’s director took groups to the center throughout the week, allowing attendees to experience the travesty firsthand, see the outreach center, and pray for the community. Throughout the week, I contemplated going and prayed that God would show me whether my intentions were voyeuristic or missional. The last night was my final chance to visit the center, and God sent me confirmation that I needed to go.
We set out on foot as the hotel was only half a mile from the district. Pattaya is a city of vibrant nightlife and incessant buzz, so there is constantly something to see. My surroundings were abuzz, with the night market on my right and the beach on my left. I noticed a young boy dressed in a dinosaur costume pushing a cart of ice cream for purchase down the street. I wondered if he was making money for himself or his family or if he was being labor trafficked. On my right, I watched a man roast a crocodile on a spit as people lined up to taste the delicacy. The beach in Pattaya seems never to sleep. Even at 6 AM, it was a constant stream of people and activity, and now, at 10 PM, it was as well. I saw a group gathered on the beach in lawn chairs, laughing, talking, and having a social gathering which was the first beach activity I had seen that looked similar to what we do at home.
We continued down the street, and as we rounded the corner, there was no mistaking what street we were on. Suddenly, the signs above the establishments were boldly written in English and bearing vulgar bar names that I will spare you in this post. Think SMUT and then multiply that by 10. Deafening music pulsated from each establishment, vibrating your chest and pounding your eardrums. Bright lights flashed to the beat of the music, creating a dizzying effect as we made our way down the street. Nine hundred scantily clad young girls lined the street, standing in front of each bar, beckoning the men to come inside. Some stood in the shadows as others aggressively grabbed the men passing by. Groups of men from all ethnicities roamed the street, some on foot, others on moped. One man slowly rolled by on his moped within arm’s reach of me. He paid no attention to me as he maneuvered his moped through the crowd, eyes fixed on one of the young girls outside the bar. I stared at the middle-aged, overweight man in front of me, shaved head with a grey mohawk, bulging belly protruding underneath his white tank top, sweat glistening off his greasy skin as he gazed on with what I can only describe as incarnate lust and perversion. Righteous indignation rose up in me, and with almost guttural anger, I had to restrain myself from physically throat-punching him and knocking him off his moped. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit reined me in and urged me to pray for him instead. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it was a less-than-holy prayer that involved being slain and not functioning…
Suddenly, we arrived at our destination. Right there, amid the girls gathering in the middle of the street and the men making their selections, the director rolled up a garage door to reveal a hair salon behind a glass storefront, nestled among the bars. He explained how the hair salon provides vocational training for the girls leaving the bars and a safe place where the working girls can come for beauty treatments and build relationships with the hairdressers. It’s genius. I mean, who do ladies trust more than their hairdresser?
We made our way to the next level, where multiple sleeping mats covered the floor. The director explained that when a girl goes with a man to his hotel for the night, they typically return before the bars open and need a place to sleep for a few hours. The girls live above the bars but are not given a key to the lower level because the bar owners fear they will steal the alcohol, etc.… So, Tamar Center provides a safe, clean place to sleep the night off. We climb the next flight of stairs to the education and prayer room. During the week, English classes and crafts are done in this space, and each Friday evening, they hold a church service for any bar girls who want to attend. I studied the girls’ artwork and wept, not over what I had seen. I was prepared for that. But over the artwork itself. I marveled over the beauty and redemption being created amidst the pure evil and wickedness at work.
We gathered on the rooftop, standing level with the apartments the girls live in, one level above the rooms where they work, and towering three levels above the bars and chaos of the street. As we observed the scene below, we listened to stories of various girls who had come to the center for rest and protection. I heard worship music in my spirit, and the lyrics sang of healing, breakthroughs, and restoration. I hummed the songs as I listened in disgust at the vile acts that played out in this district. We formed a circle and began praying together. We prayed that the girls trapped in this lifestyle would find freedom. We prayed for the buyers that they would be convicted and have a supernatural transformation of their hearts. We prayed for the bar owners to choose a different line of business. We prayed for an outpouring of the holy spirit, breakthroughs, revival, and restoration in Pattaya. Other girls in the group said they also had a stirring in their spirit of worship music. The director shared with us that Chris Tomlin’s God of This City had been written here.
You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You’re the light in this darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless
Those are good reminders in a seemingly hopeless situation.
How can you help?
- Support Tamar Center: www.tamarcenter.org
This is one center in one district, but multiple districts exist across the city.
The director said he needs a center in every red-light district in Pattaya.
- Pray for the Tamar team, that they would be strengthened and upheld.
There are only three organizations in all of Pattaya supporting these individuals.
3. Spread the word to any Thai-speaking friends who want to live missionally.
The greatest need is more boots on the ground.
And remember, Greater things are yet to come, and Greater things are still to be done.
