Renowned worship leader and singer/songwriter Pete James recently got an insight into the ways in which sex, film, mission and music are being drawn together on the streets of Bangkok.Pete was part of a BMS World Mission filming team that recently travelled to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, often considered the capital of the world's sex-tourism industry, to highlight the plight of trafficked women and how their dignity is being restored. His reflections, and the music the environment inspired, will form the focus of an upcoming BMS video resource.
Prostitution was made illegal in Thailand in the 1960s, yet there have been few efforts to enforce the law. The trade is now entrenched in the cultural milieu. Estimates from 2007 put the number of sex workers in Thailand at over 2.8 million. A staggering ten per cent of tourist dollars are, according to some figures, spent on Thailand's sex-trade.
In this dark and seemingly hopeless environment, Christians are making a difference. Christians like those at BMS partner NightLight, a business that provides employment and a route out of prostitution for trafficked and at-risk women in and around the sex-industry. The filming team aimed to capture the ways in which BMS funding and volunteer support helps organisations like this to bring healing to the lives of thousands of women affected by the sex trade.
Though many of the women working as prostitutes in Thailand are not being coerced and have not been trafficked physically, personal poverty and a trade centred on denying women their basic rights has resulted, according to Pete, in very real bondage. This bondage is not merely physical, but spiritual as well. Pete sees this spiritual struggle as central to the work of BMS partners in Thailand, making reference to Ephesians 6, and the fact that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
"There is certainly a spiritual dimension to what is going on" explains Pete. "Many of the bars from which the women work are "blessed" before the evening begins in the hope of drawing in lots of men. Sex-trafficking goes beyond the physical problems."
Pete speaks of the veneer of cheerfulness exhibited by many of those most intimately affected: "You speak to the women involved in prostitution and many of them smile and giggle. This happiness is false."
But Christian work is truly transforming lives. "Through the work of organisations such as NightLight, demonic thoughts and activity are chipped away. Lives previously riddled with abuse are transformed. Women previously so lost are filled with an inner peace and a real joy."
Please pray that BMS support for women affected by the sex trade is not met with resistance, and that women involved in this industry may be open to help.