A YWAM team in Thailand recently began ministering to male sex tourists in the red-light districts of Bangkok. They began by conducting non-intrusive surveys of male tourists to find out if they were open to reading an “outreach pack” once they returned to their hotel rooms. As the core team prayed, they were led to specific areas of the red-light district and found men who were open to deeper conversations about life and spirituality. These were seen as confirmations that many men seeking sex in Thailand are also seeking something much deeper and that YWAM needs to reach out to them on a regular basis. Outreach teams are now assisting the core team to reach these men with the Gospel. This is the first of two reports sent from our team in Bangkok. – Editor, YWAM International Communications Network

Patpong, Bangkok-- As we got off the sky-train and started walking to Patpong, we periodically stopped to pray for God's protection and leading and asking Him for wisdom as we hoped we would have the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart conversation with a male sex tourist.

By the time we arrived at Patpong, the night life was in full-swing and we tried to find a location where future teams can engage these men without subjecting themselves to the visual temptations that are around every corner. We came to this one "intersection" in the middle of Patpong and thought that this was as good a place as any to stop and talk to male sex tourists.

Now that we had found a place to stand, the time had come to start asking random men if they would be interested in answering our questions. The point of the survey was not to be overtly Christian, but to gather information on how to proceed in the future. Would these men read the outreach pack? Would they alter their behavior? Were these men married or single etc?

So, we went up to the first guy and he brushed us off, just as we had expected. Yet, the second guy stopped and was willing to answer our questions, and then the next few men as well. Here are the results of those interviews -

- The majority of men would read the information in the outreach pack, most likely once they returned to their hotel rooms.
- The majority of men would not alter their behavior the same evening that they received the outreach pack.
- A slight majority of men said that they would read some sort of religious literature if it was included in the outreach pack.
- The majority of men said that they would not provide any feedback if given the opportunity to do so (i.e. email).
- The majority of men said that the packaging would not influence their decision on whether to accept the outreach pack or not.
- The majority of men claimed some sort of religion - Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Atheist etc.
- The majority of men were single, although we did interview one divorced man and one married man during the night.

By the time we had gone through half of our surveys, we felt that it was time to head over to another red-light district, this time to Nana Plaza. Nana Plaza is just as famous as Patpong, especially as there are many bars, clubs, go-go bars and pretty much everything else one could imagine.

We hopped on the sky-train again and took the 15-minute ride to the other side of the town. We got off and started walking down the main street that leads to Nana Plaza. We were walking down the street when we noticed an outdoor bar where there were two men sitting on the steps. We looked at each other and decided to go up to these two men to interview at least one of them. We introduced ourselves and one of the men responded back by smiling and saying that his name was “Drew”.

Drew invited us to sit with him and then began to share how he had been beat up the night before by an elephant handler. Evidently he took offense at the way this particular elephant handler was hitting the elephant, and so in trying to protect the elephant he got involved in a fight.

Once we got this unique story out of the way, we began to ask him some questions from the survey. Now, usually after the survey the conversation wraps up and we move on to the next male sex tourist, however, Drew was different. He looked at us and asked us if we were Christians and we responded by saying that we were. He then goes on to share his life story of how his wife left him, how he misses his son, how coming to Thailand was a choice he wished he could take back - and how he longed to return home. He then looks at us and says - "Can you save my soul?"

We were both somewhat shocked by this question as it seemed to have come out of nowhere. However, we both responded by saying that we could not save his soul, but that God could! As we both proceeded to share about God and our own personal walk, Drew would interject how he doubted that there was a God, or that God could love him, or that God even knows that he exists. However, we continued to share our story and finally Drew just said that he wanted peace - peace in his life. As he shared, I sensed that here was a man that lost that which was dear to him, his wife and family, and that he was dealing with the hurt and pain that accompanies that kind of loss. While he said that he was not quite ready to accept Jesus Christ into his heart that night, he did ask us to pray for him.

So, my friend starts praying for him and in the middle of the prayer I look at Drew and I see him crying. Here we are in a red-light district - music blaring, drunk men everywhere, numerous girls looking for customers and in the middle of it all was a grown man crying as we were praying God's blessing upon him. That moment will forever be confirmation to me that there is a tremendous need among us and that we have a responsibility to meet that need.

Men, some married - some single - some with tremendous hurt and pain - some who are looking for love - all of whom come to Bangkok searching for something and having the opportunity to leave with the love of the Savior! That night I saw vision become reality - a vision to reach male sex tourists with the love of God!

Part two will appear next week in the news section of www.ywam.org.