The Truth About Lanterns

Something that I always strive to do is be honest and real about my life. I want my blog and social media to tell the full story as much as a blog and social media can.

I’ve been in Thailand for a few days now and it feels so, so good to be back here and with my squad! The night markets and cheap noodles and rice. The Thai Tea. The motorcycles and tuk tuks. The people who are constantly smiling.

I got to spend New Year’s here which is truly a dream. I know and understand the gift that it is to be part of a lantern festival that is on all of the “lists” of things to do in your lifetime.

I also know the reality of the country that I am in.

That human trafficking and red light districts are the norm. That a lot of foreigners come here for more than just lanterns and cheap street food. That walking down the streets at night means passing countless bars with women all waiting to make a little bit of money.

Last night was one of the best of my life. Ringing in the New Year here while releasing lanterns and counting down. Being with people who I love dearly. But there is a brokenness that happened 3 years ago on my own Race while walking down the streets of a Red Light District that I can’t shake now that I’m here. (You can read about that HERE) One where I know what the busy tourist season means for those men and women looking for love, affection and acceptance in ways that are unimaginable to people.

As we were walking to release lanterns last night we passed a place where the women were all outside sitting in chairs waiting. I looked at my squad leader with tears in my eyes and said “gosh, for some reason this wasn’t at the front of my mind tonight.”

I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

I had a really great conversation with some of the women on my squad this morning about all of this and that we want to see big things happen while we are here in Thailand but how it just feels unattainable. We talked about how it feels daunting, this whole “buying women” concept. How in the world do we stop this? How do we make a change? How do we help both the men and women who are being bought or who are buying? Of course we tell them about Jesus but then what? For the ones working, it’s their way of making an income and surviving. How do you, in America, help to stop this if you can’t come to Thailand?

My girl, Camille, shared some wisdom this morning. She said “we all want to go evangelize to the traffickers and the pimps but why don’t we kill the beast that feeds it?”

That “beast” is the sinful nature that happens in every society in every one of us. The one that happened in Genesis.  The one where we all just want love and acceptance. The one where we don’t know our worth and identity. The one where we don’t know that we are Sons and Daughters who are deeply loved by the God who created us.

How do we stop this?

We lay down the judgement.

We bring it smaller—you know, into relevance in our own circles of life—and we share with humans that we meet this Gospel that we believe in.

We share with ourselves this love that gave His life for us.

Of course all of our wrestles of knowing we are truly loved come out in different ways. We aren’t all traveling to Thailand to find some form of it. But we are all looking for it in some way—some more subtle than others. It’s happening everywhere.Thailand just happens to be some of the outward expression of it all.

Of course we want the pimps to know Jesus.

We want the foreigners who travel great lengths to buy men and women to know Him too.

You live in America? Tell the Americans all about this Love and then we have hope that Americans stop coming to Thailand to buy sex.

You live in Germany? Tell the Germans all about this Love and then we have hope that Germans stop coming to Thailand to buy sex.

You live in Thailand? Tell the Thai people all about this Love and then we have hope that Thai people stop going down the street to buy sex.

You don’t have to be here to do your part in the fight against this modern day slavery.

We are all after one thing and it’s to know that love and acceptance. It’s to know our worth. It’s to know Jesus. Once we know we are loved then we can give away that truth to others.

I pray that you understand how worthy the Lord makes you. That He loves you so, so, so much and it’s not because of anything that you do or any way that you look. It’s just because you’re His.

That is the foundation of everything else that we do in this life.

And I pray that you go out and you tell people the same so that they can stop searching for acceptance in the way they look, the clothes they wear, the job they work, the women they buy, the parties they go to, the grades they make, the touchdowns they score, the number of Instagram followers they have, the number of texts they get in a day.

That you and I would dig our roots down deep in the Father’s love. That out of that love we would reflect Him. That we would stop striving for affection and attention.

We can change this world by letting Him change our lives.

It starts with me.

It starts with you.

And then somehow, someway it ends up changing the culture of a country where Red Light Districts are the norm.

This is a really great organization (HERE) if you’re looking to get more involved. The Super Bowl– the most trafficked event– is also in Atlanta this year and if you live nearby there are going to be a ton of ways to get involved!!