The adventures of a God girl!

Joy Farrington

Joy Farrington is in her early 20's. Recently she shared with us a blog on her adventures following God into the darkness of the Bangkok sex industry and nightlife. It is a challenging chronicle of the level of brokenness that many lives are caught up in and the desperate need for the love and power of God to redeem. Joy is also an example of a deeply committed young person who is putting God first in her life and in simple faith and obedience is serving him with all she has. May there be many, many more Joys rising from the current youth generation willing to shine their light; and may Joy's story below inspire you to be one of them!

Our time in Bangkok was incredible and it has taken me a little while to be able to sit down and write this update as I've been heavily processing everything that I saw and experienced. I am still very much in a time of working it all through as my heart was completely broken by the trip.

Our team was made up of three men and four women who all go to the same church here in LA. Although there were some hard moments within the team, as our environment affected us personally, there was such strength as we led together and honoured each other in all that we got asked to do. I would happily travel with them all again!

Our time in Bangkok was split into serving two different non-profit organisations - Nightlight and Dton Naam. I already had some personal connection with Nightlight. Nightlight works with women who are working in the sex industry and offers them alternative employment so that they can leave the cycle of sexual exploitation. Dton Naam works with ladyboys and also offers them alternative employment, seeking to love them first just as they are.

Throughout our time in Thailand we were staying in the red light district, just around the corner from Nana Plaza which is kind of like the headquarters of the sex industry there. The Plaza is a courtyard area that you walk into with open air bars in the centre, then on all sides are three stories worth of strip bars and clubs. Lights are flashing everywhere, music is blaring and people with varying degrees of clothes on are beckoning you into the nearest door.

There are certain sounds from that place that still go through me. Into this arena we walked every night to meet with the women and ladyboys, to buy them a drink and in that short precious time love them for who they are and not what we could get from them.

There were a couple of nights that were particularly intense and we came back to debrief as a team in tears from what we had seen, but for the most part I managed to adapt to the environment quite well and felt very at home. When you stop looking at all that is wrong in that environment you begin to see the most precious, beautiful people that have just become lost in a rabbit warren of fantasy. It has only been since I have returned home to LA that I have realised just how much God broke my heart whilst I was there. I still feel broken and I don't think it's something that is about to heal quickly but I'm ok with that; it's not a bad broken heart but it enables my heart to remain soft.

One morning on the trip I lead worship for the women at Nightlight (57 women who have all been rescued from the sex industry) and we sang a song called Hosanna. The bridge of the song goes,

'Break my heart for what breaks yours. Everything I am for your Kingdom's cause. As I walk from love into eternity.'

As I sang that I felt a break appear in my heart but it wasn't until I got home that I realised how deep it had gone. It's a dangerous prayer to pray for sure!

Some nights our outreach would just be focused on going to the ladyboy bars where we actually were able to build up some great relationships with the men and women there and in one bar had real favour with the mamosan.

On our last night we went to go see them and some of the ladyboys were hanging around outside. When they saw us they opened their arms wide and gave us huge hugs. It was humbling to see how much they responded to pure love.

The nights that we weren't with the ladyboys would be focused on going to see the women. These nights I found a lot more intense as the women are treated a lot worse and the atmosphere of those bars are horrendously oppressive.

One bar in particular that we went into was painful to sit in. The women are treated like cattle. Their bodies are as common as meat in the supermarket and they are nameless.