NightLight

Last Thursday we visited NightLight Bangkok, a ministry to women involved in prostitution. We were impressed with the ministry and the number of women they have been able to help. We met with a Thai woman named "Bang," one of the 5 founders of NightLight. The ministry was started by 4 American women (one of whom is our friend Natalie) and Bang. They all met through Rahab ministries, another ministry to prostitutes in Bangkok. Rahab is centered around the Patpong area of the city. These ladies had a vision to reach out to women in another part of the city, NaNa.

They originally started by going to the bars a couple times a week just befriending women that worked there. (That personally seems like a scary outreach to me. They aren't the kind of bars we go to in America if you know what I mean). The first night they went to the NaNa area a woman told them she wanted to get out of prostitution. They didn't have much to offer at the time but Annie, the founder, began meeting with her at McDonald's teaching her how to make jewelry. Annie made jewelry as a hobby anyway so it came naturally. Soon the ministry expanded from just one woman to 8 to 12 and so on.

Now the ministry is made up of about 75 to 100 women at any given time. They offer anyone a job that wants one or needs one in order to get out of prostitution. The salaries (which are fairly small) are paid from the profits made from the jewelry sold (which is mostly sold in the US or the UK) and through donations.

Through person-to-person relationships, NightLight's goal is to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of women in prostitution, their children, and those children brought illegally in Thailand to financially support their families by selling items in the bars and often through sexual exploitation. NightLight runs a center offering emergency aid, educational and employment opportunity, emergency child-care, language tutoring, literacy training, and biblical teaching and healing for their community.

Bang said the ladies work about 4 hours total everyday making jewelry. The quality of their work is pretty impressive. She said they have bible study every morning before work and that they all eat lunch together. In the afternoons they are learning English as well. The women I met were super sweet and loved Adelaide (Nong Lamai as they all call her). I didn't see her for about 30 minutes at one point; she was being passed around all over the building.

She said that even now not a lot of the women are believers but she said they just make the Truth known to them, love them, and let God work in their lives. Thailand is less than 1% Christian. Most Thais haven't even heard the name of Jesus so there are a lot of humps to overcome. Two women are available to counsel them if they want it or need it, and two Thai pastors work for NightLight full time.

Bang said about 30% of the women leave Nightlight. Some return to their lives of prostitution. Some find other jobs. Some go back to their home towns. The ministry no longer meets at McDonalds (that would be a tight squeeze). They now have 2 townhouses that they've turned into their headquarters. It was pretty cool to see how well run it is these days.

I was amazed that through every door there were more women doing different jobs-- making jewelry, taking inventory, silk screening jewelry bags, sewing, accounting, etc. Most of the women only have a 6th grade education so they would have a hard time finding a job in many places. It was great to see that NightLight has changed so many lives. They have a retreat every year and this year seven women were baptized!

I asked Bang about the needs and she said that donations are always needed to keep and help ladies out of prostitution. She said that the Thai government doesn't really allow them to have the same non-profit status that organizations have here in the States so all donations are run through America and sent on to Thailand. Buying their jewelry is also helpful. It's mostly sold through vendors but can also be purchased through these websites:
NightLight
Trade as One
Not for Sale

I was asked not to take pictures of the women's faces but I did get some pictures around their headquarters that respected their privacy.