It is beautiful outside. The sun is shining bright, beautiful clouds appear from behind the rolling hills. A warm breeze blows gently across our faces. The hustle of busy tourists brush past us as we slowly walk down the street.

I look down the road where we are supposed to turn. It is pitch black. I could not see 10 feet down the road. It was dark. It was scary. So we walked in.

The ministry we are at this month is called SHE. Our main outreach is going down to the red light district in Patong, Phuket, and talking to women who are in prostitution, and showing them that there is a way out. Showing them that they do not need to feel stuck, and giving them the opportunity to live and work at SHE.

During the day, two members of our team go down to the red light district and pray over the women, the men, the bars we will be going to that night. We pray off the darkness that surrounds the bars.

As we walked into the darkness of a street called Soy Tiger. As our eyes adjusted things started to become clear. Soy Tiger is a street I have been on twice already at night. At night it is loud, so loud you have to scream to have conversations and still often cannot hear. But at 2 in the afternoon, it was quiet. There were only a few workers on the whole street. I sat down at a bar that we had been to twice. And started to pray.

Then I started to listen. In this place that is so dark, filled with oppression, comparison, guilt, pride, envy and lust, that is when I heard God.

He shared with me, in a voice more clear than I have ever heard Him, how broken His heart is for this place. He let me cry with Him over the women and the men in this place. He told me that as dark as it is in Patong, that He still sees everything. And that when I turn my head because what I see is to hard to bear, He still sees.

His love for these women and men is so intense.

So intense that He will do crazy things.

Especially when we pray.

We started to walk out, and both of us felt like we needed to pray for this random bar. Neither of us had been there, but both felt so strongly that we needed to pray over this bar. It is called ‘No Name’.

We found out later that the other group had been there already. They told us it had been full, men and women sitting at the bars. Prostitutes dancing on most of the poles that were set up. Many men flocking to see them.

So we prayed. We prayed hard, not sure what we were praying for, but we prayed.

God lead our words and our Spirits to pray for this place.

When we went back later that night, I felt like I should go back to this bar. My group walked down Soy Tiger towards No Name Bar.

But when we got there, it was empty.

Not a single prostitute was there. Not a single tourist sitting at the bar with a drink. Not a single man lusting. Not a single woman comparing her body to the other women. Not a single person sat at the dark bar.

We prayed, God listened and emptied that bar.

________________________________________________________________________________

Our ministry this month is very spiritually dark. We are learning more and more about prayer and interceding for each other. But attacks from the devil are daily for all of us. Please pray for our strength this month more than ever.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James 5:16