Hear Their Cries….

So many faces flood through my mind. So many relationships, so little time. That’s how I’ve been feeling with the end of MTS closer than I am willing to admit. How do I choose which relationships to pursue? I can’t choose all of them… but they all deserve to be pursued. In the bars I seem to click with a lot of the girls…but I want to get to know each of them, to hear their heart’s cry, to encourage them and to simply be friends.

But… there is someone who hears the cries of the afflicted…

“You hear O’Lord , the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and listen to their cry.” Psalms 10:17

 

Some days I just feel the weight of it all…. there is so much pain.  It seems like I could never pray enough. It’s not just the girls in the bars, its my family, its my friends at home, its my team and their families, it’s the trafficked and the trafficker. Health problems, drugs, relationship problems…. brokenness, the list goes on.

 And then these song lyrics hit me….like spoke to my heart….you could call it a revelation…

The truth is that God is wrapping His arms around the world every night, from my family in America, to this ministry in Thailand. He is drawing every last person to Himself.

 He is singing over my friend who just lost her mom while He is singing over Bangla Road. Even when we leave and relationships become long distance; the Lord hears each cry and He brings comfort. Jesus fills the gap.

 

 From babies hidden in the shadows

To the cities shining bright

There are captives weeping

Far from sight

For every doorway has a story

And some are holding back the cries

But there is One who hears in the night

 

Here are few of their stories, a few of their cries.

We met her while prayer walking one day, on a street we had never been to before… a completely divine encounter. I call her Freedom, because that is her inheritance and because she lights up every time it’s mentioned (isa la pop). She works in a bar off Bangla, a simple bar with one plastic table and chairs and a counter. We know where most of their business comes from…. We’ve had the privilege of many dates with Freedom, including her Birthday and many meals together. At her bar, they call us family.

She always tells us how bored she is, and on her Birthday with a look of desperation, she told me that she wants to leave, just leave and do life somewhere else. There is so much potential waiting to be unleashed.

If her visa is approved, she will be headed to Sweden after seeing her baby in Northern Thailand. She is leaving to open a bar with a “friend.” The situation seems dangerous, there is a possibility of trafficking… but all she wants is freedom.

God is wrapping His arms around her.

 

Great God

Wrap Your arms around this world tonight

Around the world tonight

And when You hear our cries

Sing through the night

So we can join in Your song

And sing along

We’ll sing along

 

She was wearing a baggy t-shirt, with sleeves rolled up, a plaid mini-skirt and fishnet stockings. The stark contrast between the baggy shirt and what she was wearing on the bottom half caught my attention.

She didn’t look a day over 18, but claimed to be 20. It was her third day working in the bars; still gleaming with innocence.  

 She smiled with a mouth full of braces and made a cross with her fingers when I said  pra’ jesu (Jesus). I lit up with delight. It was so encouraging to meet someone who has at least heard of Jesus!! She went on to spill her heart to me. We talked about Buddha, Jesus what I do, how she got there, some of her aspirations. And I know there is more just waiting to come out. In a thirty-minute conversation that felt like an hour, we became instant friends.

God is singing over her.

 

From the farthest corners of the earth

Still His mercy reaches

Even to the pain we cannot see

And even through the darkness

There’s a promise that will keep us

There is One who came to set us free

 

I sat down on the bus and the girl across from me struck up a conversation with my friends. She goes to school in Bangkok and is in Phuket visiting her boyfriend. She asked us what we were doing here and we told her that we are here to help women.

We got on the subject of Jesus and she explained how she wanted to be Christian, but her Buddhist father rejected such a thing. Woah. For the rest of the bus ride God opened the door for us to pour into her. We told her that the Lord loved her, had a divine purpose for her and that He would bless her for following Him even if her family didn’t understand. Divine encounter?? I think yes!

God sees the desires of her heart.

 

So let Your song rise

And fill up the earth

Let Your hope ring out

Let Your heart be heard

 

As I fall asleep singing this song after a night on Bangla Road, sick of the lights, sick of the affliction and sick of the pain that I see; I pray that the world would feel the Lord’s embrace.

God sees, He hears and He listens.