The Thailand Experience I

 

I. The Contacts - One Target, Two approaches

 

In the two days that Joy and I were in Thailand, we had met two different groups of people who are targeting the same group of people - former young prostitutes.  The first group was a foreign ministry that was supporting a local church for the work.  These Christians were reaching out to the girls, to train them in basic handcrafts to sell them in their country.  Although this was a positive transition into a new way of life that brought healing and dignity to the young girls there was also the downside that these girls often did not make enough money in this type of trade to provide for their families therefore many of them had to return to the life of prostitution. 

 

The second ministry that we had visited was led by a couple who came here five years ago from the U.S.  The man was a pastor who worked for a five star hotel as a manager trainer.  His wife graduated from Harvard Law School and has been able to use her knowledge to help protect the girls who have come out of prostitution.  Their vision however, is a ministry that would combine recovery of the whole person which includes the providing training of cooking skills so that the girls may be able to have a career in one of the five star hotels.  The Lord has blessed the couple with a 5 acre resort and the rent is paid by another ministry who was encouraged by their vision.

 

Needless to say Joy and I were much encouraged to see the ministries being developed.  We wish to begin to establish a relationship that “You are Beautiful” may play a part in the reconstruction of the girls’ lives for the future.  God has provided the vision and now we must wait on Him revealing the resources.  It is now up to us, the workers to pursue with faith and persistence going into the fields to win souls.

 

II. Background and the Strongholds

 

Thailand has millions of tourists coming from all over the world, among those; there is an average of 500,000 tourists a year that has visit prostitutes.  If you think this number is overwhelmingly large, hear this: There are also about 450,000 local men who also will visit prostitute EVERY DAY.  It has been estimated that 95% of Thai men over the age of 21 have slept with a prostitute.  The women of Thailand have most of the responsibility of the household.  They make the money and also handle the house.  This female dominated society has encouraged the irresponsibility of men and handicapped their level of maturity. As a result, “going out to visit prostitutes” becomes the way of leisure that men do not find at home.

 

I learned of a story that is common to them but seems very outrageous to us.  A local high school was traveling on a school bus as part of a graduation trip when the bus pulled over in a red-light district.  These areas are prostitution areas where the boys were let out of the bus and were told to be back in 45 min while the girls waited on the bus. The situation was set by the teacher to be a “Sex Education” to the girls, not boys in that girls were to acknowledge that in their lives, their future husbands will do exactly the same as part of the daily practices.  

 

The majority of the churches do not want to get involved with trying to help this problem for many reasons:  1. It is an embarrassing topic that they don’t want to talk about 2.  They feel that this is a woman’s issue and therefore is not considered to be “mainstream” in the typical church ministries where many people are getting involved.

 

According to my research and observations, there are three major strongholds relating to Thailand’s prostitution “culture”:

Stronghold #1. Poverty – a high percentage of prostitutes were migrated from rural area through human trafficking, family sent, or “American dreams-life” chasing. The income from prostitution is easily seven times over a typical job can per month in the same city.  The Government depends on this industry as a resource that can bring 4 billion US dollars a year. Short sighted survival mindset has blind folded the long term economic strategies that help increase the income for majority of the nation.

 

Stronghold #2. Lack of Manhood – Prostitution is not the “women’s” problem. It cannot survive without its desired customers - men. Like I said before, when men do not stand up and take their place in the order of the family and the society, the bondage will not break and the handicap with immaturity will not be free. It’s not uncommon to hear a young man wants to abandon their manhood and become a woman because he is so tired of seeing his “father’s” model while growing up. Complacency is the scheme of the enemy that disarms and subdues the mind of the man from stepping into the fullness that God has designed for them. This is done to this nation throughout generations. 

 

Stronghold #3. the Boundary-less in Buddhism Mindset  - Thailand is 94% Buddhist. It has long been a custom for Buddhist males over 21 to be ordained for a period ranging from 5 days to 3 months, at least once in their lifetimes.  Looking past the religious custom, the religion itself promotes philosophy in the way that no “line” is to be drawn. For example, “truth” is not taught because true truth is exclusive (outside of the truth is false) and therefore bring conflicts; human and animal shall not have lines because one might become an animal in his (hers) next life, or all the animals are in the same process of the cycle of destinies in this life; man and woman are different but definitely shall draw no lines because they are all living creatures. (You will see a very high number of transsexual persons populated in this country). Under the mindset described, moral stand, order in the house, fighting for life… are consider to be minimal significance or conflict with their belief system. 

 

Reference reading: “Prostitution History in Thailand and South East Asia” (also refer to bibliography of this paper for additional reading)

 

Conclusion

The strong man is huge; he is holding this country in his orders and with his weapons (the strongholds). But I also see the Stronger man Jesus is coming, with His Body, the fully awakened church, together they will prevail, bind the strong man, take away his weapons, and take back what has been stolen. This nation will be shaken, broken and rebuilt, for God has a full purpose while He created her. (Ref. Luke 11:22-23)