AdamParker.org

The Place of Encounter

Filed under: Human Trafficking, Intimacy, Justice

I recently came back from a mission trip to Bangkok and Pattaya Thailand where we were doing ministry in the red light districts of those cities regarding the issue of human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children. While we were there we saw so much brokenness both in the women who were selling their bodies for a mere $4 or $5 per hour as well as in the western men who were looking to fulfill longings that they had obviously cultivated for many years before reaching the point of entering into this growing global trade of sexually exploiting women.

I had a chance to interview many of the guys who were coming in and out of these sex bars. Most were very open and glad to talk about being there at the bars, and about how this was just a great way to have fun and to be entertained. The girls in Thailand would ask “Are you Christian? Christians are our best customers, they are so nice and polite.” This longing and this desire for sexual pleasure has obviously been cultivated in the secret places in the west. They were not there by accident, they had to get a passport, buy a ticket and get on a plane to come to Bangkok or Pattaya. They were driven by desire for pleasure, to fill a void inside of them.

It’s not enough to be moral or to even declare our belief in Jesus and call ourselves Christian. We must be ones who set our gaze on Jesus every day and look to Him to fulfill the God-given longing for fascination. We must seek to encounter the superior pleasures of gospel in the place of communion with the man Christ Jesus and not settle for being entertained with the inferior pleasures of this world.

The God of all Creation longs to reveal Himself to us. There is no greater pleasure than when God reveals God to the human heart. We must set our gaze upon Jesus and give ourselves to the place of encountering Him. Only then will we find true fulfillment and be ultimately satisfied.

Tags: Human Trafficking, Intimacy, Justice, Thailand