So today I did something that was quite different from routine...something I never would have thought possible...but it is something that mirrors the reason we are here and what we take action for...
Let me introduce you to Sir.
We ventured out to this marketplace today that is the largest marketplace in the world. It has 15,000 vendors in it and only opens on Saturdays and Sundays, this meaning that it is packed when open! As we were going vendor to vendor searching for Christmas gifts, we were finding some great deals and taking part in another Thailand experience. We each had a "buddy" that we went around with to make sure we were not alone, and were told to meet back where we started at a certain time. As Lyndsey and I went to find our way back, we actually got WAY lost.
We traveled into a section we had never seen and got sidetracked when we saw this little vendor with a sliding door that had some of the sweetest puppies inside. However, there were strict rules: shoes off, no touching, no petting, just look, and if you want to, buy. We fell in lovewith some adorable little guys that just wanted to be loved and cared for. However, knowing that we would never purchase a dog in Thailand, we left being saddened that they could not be loved by a willing passerby with the kindest of intentions.
We then continued to try and find our way until we saw dogs being lifted and talked to in Thai baby voices...we stopped to release our urge to give some love to these pooches. The closer we got, the more terrible it was... We saw dogs being flung from kennel to kennel, and heard cries that made me nauseauous to the point of gagging. They were being terribly rough with these puppies..ripping tape off of their clipped ears, throwing them around, and giving them food they could not even eat given their age and sizes. Placing so many puppies in each bin that they could not even move...they simply leaned on one another. There was no order, just chaos.
We came across this one little puppy who was extremely tiny. He was being pushed over by every other dog, not being able to get any food because they would push him, and having other dogs thrown on top of his drugged body. He could barely lift his tiny frame to walk at all or even stand. Helpless.
This is what we see all over this place that has our hearts: Bangkok.
I asked to look at him and gave him a gentle cuddle as my heart broke...
I then moved on to where Lyndsey was at where she was looking at a Siberian Husky....another terrible point, a Husky being side-by-side with other dogs in Thailand's finest 100 degree weather...not ok.
The actions that took place before our very eyes were worse than I have ever seen any animal be treated. There was cruelty and neglect. They were drugged and unattended to. Any puppy mills we have heard of in the states do not compare to what these people do so openly at a local market.
I kept feeling something just tugging within me. The more seconds that passed, the more I was being tugged. Each cry that I heard, each dog I saw thrown, led me to take action. I went back over to this other bin and asked how much. Not being near any amount that would even be placed, much less considered on such an animal in the states and with this man being able to change his mind to 1/3 less than he asked for, I stood with him near me just thinking and asking for confirmation...
One throw to this little guy and his neck would snap. More hard food for his unformed teeth as well as being pushed down, and he would starve. One too many big dogs sitting on top of him and his respiratory system would crash...at his mere price, and the peace to go through with it, knowing that I would find a home for him somehow...I took out my money and purchased him.
All day long we have been giving him the little water he will drink, and some milk, and detoxing his mal-nurished, bony body.
I have faith that the Lord will let me know what to do with him and where his home should be. Whether that means taking him to the states or giving him away to one or some of the girls here...there are many places here that have a store pet, so maybe that...maybe not...we're praying.
You may ask: Why?? What in the world?? Do you really think this will help? One is out and you think this can change it all? It will always still go on..This goes for the women as well.
If it only it were as easy to free these women as it was to free this animal..
Just as this animal cruelty goes on, so does the human cruelty we are surrounded by every single day. Bars filled with women induced by alcohol, being given a quick glance or sweet talk, being thrown around from one man to the other...a true mirror of this industry. And though we cannot hear their cries like the puppies, we can see them in their empty eyes. Both held captive and mistreated, but these women can choose "out". We are a factor in that process if we show God's love, and He moves in them for change. We are a factor when we purchase them for the night and treat them in the highest regards with selflessness. Sir was nothing to those vendor owners but another puppy to abuse, mistreat and make money from, just as so many of these women we have encountered are viewed at the bars...
Something striking hit me so hard with this whole fiasco. This is a mirror of what our purpose has been here. Do we really think purchasing one girl on one night will change her whole life? Maybe. And if there is something we can do, we must try with all of our might and use all of our resources to do so!
We will not always know the outcome, or she may not leave that life forever. However, for one night, she was free. For one meal, she genuinely enjoyed herself and laughed with ease. For once, she was not seen as an item but a dear friend. For once, she had no task to complete. For one imprint, it is all worth it. For one night, she was free.
We will most likely never see the finished product of our ministry, but we have to believe that the Lord will take care of that. In 1 Corinthians 3:5-23 it sums up being selflessly devoted to the cause of Christ and letting Him do His work both how and when He sees fit.
We are not the saviors of these girls, we are merely a tool in the whole process. "God is the one who made it grow."
We go out and we purchase as He moves us to do so, and we attempt to make a difference in whatever way we can, but He is the One who brings it into fruition and causes change to occur.
ONE BY ONE.
So why purchase this girl and not that one? Or why throw a Christmas party and only invite a couple hundred from a district and not be able to throw it for the thousands within? Why visit them day in and day out, only to have to leave them?
We do as we can...with our resources...with our support...with prayer....God moves. Even girls that have not been to the parties hear about it and know His fame. It is unbelievable the ladies we will meet and the stories they will tell and how they may know a piece of God (whether they know His name or not) even though we have never met them or shared. As He sees fit.
Tonight we purchased a girl that we had great conversation with at one of the pool bars. We took her to dinner and laughed and talked about so much. It was wonderful.
We wanted to purchase another that we had talked to, but she said we could not due to some reasonings with the mamasan, however, she wanted her friend to go.
Why not her? Why just the one? If we only treated her to dinner and not taken her to Beginnings to tell her again of the purpose, does it matter?
YES. God will use any act of kindness and His love to change this world as He wills it.
We found out later that she had gone to the Christmas party and loved it! This was God-intended follow-up at its best. As He saw fit...
Petting his petite and frail little body, I pray as I can feel each bone pertruding that God would be freedom to these women and children..little Sir is a symbol of their hurt and weakness...these women are the oppressed who do not have a voice or never knew there was a way out..This puppy in my arms is a symbol of the change that can happen. One at a time.
Weening him off of the drugs they have been putting into his little body and nursing him to health, just as we can help these girls escape the addictions of this industry, the money, the harm to their bodies.
This little puppy is sleeping with deeper breaths of rest as He is cuddled so close to my heart, just as the girls feel safe and peaceful when they are free.
This little puppy has been through much at such a few weeks of age, just as the girls have been sold, abused, mistreated, and held captive at their young ages.
Yes one is human and one an animal, But it takes one step to change both of their fates:To help. To love. To take action knowing that God will sort out the rest. I am one, but what I can do, I will do for Christ.
This is my mission to the oppressed....this is our mission in Thailand.
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James 1:27
In this we ask to, through us, "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of wicked."
Psalm 82:3-4
We will "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; for the rights of all who are destitute."
Proverbs 31:8
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