A YWAM team in Thailand ministers to male sex tourists in the red-light districts of Bangkok. They begin by conducting non-intrusive surveys of male tourists to find out if they are open to reading an “outreach pack” once they return to their hotel rooms. As the core team prays, they are led to specific areas of the red-light district and find men who are open to deeper conversations about life and spirituality. These are seen as confirmations that many men seeking sex in Thailand are also seeking something much deeper. Church groups and YWAM outreach teams assist the core team to reach these men with the Gospel. This is one in a series of regular reports from our team in Bangkok. – Editor, YWAM International Communications Network.
As we were doing surveys at the entrance to the Nana Plaza red-light district, we saw a man who looked really sad. We’ll call him Jack. We approached him and asked him the first question from the survey, “Where are you from?” He answered, “I don't want tell you" and seemed upset with us. We continued going through the survey, until we finished it and gave him an outreach pack. Then Jack said, “OK, that's all I have time for because I need to go."

I felt something inside of me telling me to share part of my life story with Jack, but I knew that he was upset with us,so I asked God if it was wise to proceed. I felt God tell me to wait until the moment Jack was going to leave. At that moment I said, “Jack, can I tell you a story from my life? I promise it will only take 2 or 3 minutes." Jack looked at me, smiled, and said, “Okay, but just 2 or 3 minutes." I proceeded to tell him my story. When I had finished, he looked at me, stunned, and said, “That is almost word for word the same story as my mother's!" Then Jack began telling us more about himself and we talked about God and shared with him more stories from our lives.

When we had spent about an hour with him on the street, Jack asked us “Why did you pick me?" I answered him, “We didn't pick you, but God led us to you and led me to tell you my story, which, as you said, is the same testimony as your mother’s." Then Jack told us that he had been walking around inside Nana Plaza looking for women with whom he could have sex. He told us, “You are really good people and this is a really great ministry for the men here. But does your ministry succeed?” We told him, “You can answer that! Do we succeed?" Jack smiled and said, “I was walking around here so dirty, so cloudy inside and you came as a light for me. Standing here, speaking with you is so much better than being with women!"

Since it was too late for us to keep talking with him that night, I told Jack we could continue the conversation another day. He said, “That's great! And I want to introduce you to my daughter!” Jack then asked for my phone number, but I couldn’t remember the number, so someone in my group called a co-worker and asked him for it. As my co-worker approached us, he saw Jack and said, “I saw you on the third floor in Nana Plaza and we prayed for you!” It was amazing to see how God was working in this man’s life. Jack and I exchanged phone numbers and prayed together in the street before we left for the night.

The next day, I went to meet Jack and his daughter, and he said, “I was so worried that you wouldn’t come!" He introduced me to his daughter and I could see that they are a great family. I felt a strong desire to keep praying that God would intervene in Jack’s life and rescue him.

I wanted to tell Jack’s daughter the reason I was there, but I couldn't because I promised Jack that I wouldn’t say anything about God or Christianity to her. We spent all day together as a family. Jack wanted to buy some electronics stuff and I told him I knew a company here, because I used to buy from them before I closed my business to follow Jesus. However, I still have a relationship with this company so we went together. Jack was amazed when he saw that I still maintained these friendships even though I no longer run my business. This confused him and he kept asking me more about my conversion to Christianity. His daughter was still with us so I couldn't speak about God, but during dinner Jack said, “I am still thinking about how you left your business just like this. Tell me about your work and your past life." I told them more about my life before meeting Jesus but I didn't say anything about my conversion to Christianity. When the day ended, I thanked Jack, and he asked me, “Would you please meet me again tomorrow if you have the time?" I answered, “Yes, of course I can!" As I was leaving, I told him to think about all that had happened the day before, and that it wasn’t by accident. He told me that he didn’t believe in coincidences.

Part two of Jack’s story will appear next week on ywam.org.

You can find out more about the Male Sex Tourist project by visiting www.mstproject.com or email them at – info@mstproject.com