You Can Help Write The Ending: Mae's Story (Part 7)

I would like to share with you a teammate's multiple-part blog about part of what God is doing here in Thailand. For more of her blogs, check out emilytuttle.theworldrace.org.




"Before reading this, make sure you read Part 1 through Part 6 of Mae's story. I know it's long, but I promise it's worth it.

There are more than 15,000 prostitutes in Chiang Mai alone. In all of Thailand, estimates run between 200,000 and 2.8 million. More than 500,000 people in Thailand are living with HIV/AIDS. These numbers are overwhelming. They are paralyzing. I'm just one person...what can I really do to help a situation this monumental? 

During our orientation at Lighthouse in Action, Emmi told us not to think about the numbers. After all, statistics dehumanize the pain of the individuals anyway. Instead, she encouraged us to pray for God to give us one person. Just one person to help. My team and I prayed that God would send us the one, and instead he gave us two. Out of the 15,000...the 200,000-2.8 million...the 500,000...we have Mae and Ning. They are our two.

If you haven't yet, PLEASE take the time to read their stories, told in this entire series of blogs. This is not the last installment. Things are still happening, and I'm writing the story as it unfolds. I don't know how it ends yet, but I do know that I need help in order to write the next chapter. 

This morning we had a meeting with Emmi to debrief our time in Chiang Mai and to plan the next steps to take in the plan to rescue Mae and Ning. Emmi's goal is to have them out of the bars and into a safe place by June 30th...five days from now. Apparently when God moves, sometimes he's in a hurry! The first step in the process is to get them both legalized in Thailand. They are Burmese, and both are illegal here. In a later blog I will share the details, but some amazing doors have opened up in the past 48 hours to help Emmi know how to get them legal, what to do with Ning's little brother, and how to treat Mae's HIV. God is so clearly guiding their journeys, and now it's my joy to invite you into the story.

My teammate, Tiffany, wrote a blog yesterday (tiffanyprater.theworldrace.org) that examines the harsh reality that often here in Thailand a human life gets sold for as little as $100. That's how much a person is worth in this industry. However, we know that as God's children, all people are priceless. Our real freedom was only able to be purchased with the ultimate sacrifice of the Son of God dying in our place. So that sets the bar pretty high for how much it might cost to free someone from sex slavery, right? When we first started all of this, I was worrying that we would get to the end of the road and then need a staggering amount of money in order to get them out. But it's really not that much, and since all the money in the world is God's anyway, we know that he is going to provide.

Here is what we need in order to give Mae and Ning their new lives:

$500 each for legalization/immigration procedures and fees ($1,000 total)

$300/month for a year to sponsor the living expenses and salary at the coffee shop or guest house for Ning

$400/month for a year to cover the same expenses plus HIV medication for Mae

And, ideally, $300/month for a year to pay for an on-site counselor to live with the girls and help them transition into this new lifestyle and learn more about God

The total need is $13,000 over the next year to give two girls their lives back. For less than it cost for me to come on this trip, two people can have their self worth, their dignity, their freedom, and a community that surrounds them with the love of God. Amazing.

IMPORTANT: The initial $1,000 that covers their legalization is needed IMMEDIATELY! Emmi is literally waiting on these funds to pull the trigger on getting them out of the bars and somewhere safe. If you would like to help with this and are able to give right now, please send me an email so I can give you the information about how to transfer funds directly to Emmi's account. My email address is emily.tuttle@my.wheaton.edu. This option for giving is not tax deductible, but the need is very urgent. 

If you would like to contribute to the monthly support for these girls, or if you would like to give a one time gift that will go into the account to fund their monthly needs, there are several ways you can do that.

Option 1-Donate online, go to  http://www.ywamsf.org click "Donate." Fill out your info, select "other," and designate it for "Lighthouse in Action--Mae & Ning." This option is tax deductible in the US.

Option 2-Donate by check, payable to "YWAM." Include a separate note stating it is for "Lighthouse in Action--Mae & Ning." Send checks to: YWAM SF Donor services, P.O. Box 60579, Colorado Springs, CO. 80960. This option is also tax deductible in the US.

Option 3-To donate in a way that will get the money to Emmi faster, you can use PayPal or make a one time or monthly direct deposit. To do this, email: khanthanak@gmail.com with your name and home address. We will have a form sent to you ASAP to get automatic monthly direct deposits set up. This option is not tax deductible yet, but it's faster.

Option 4 (for Canadians)-Donate by writing checks payable to "YWAM." Include a separate note stating it is for the "Lighthouse in Action--Mae & Ning." Send it to YWAM Donor Services, P.O. Box 57100, 2480 E Hastings Street, Vancouver BC V5K 5G6, Canada. This option is tax deductible for Canadians.

If you want more information or you want to review these options, they are all detailed on Lighthouse in Actions's website, under the "Contact" tab.

VERY IMPORTANT: No matter which option you choose or how much you wish to give, we need to know about it! As soon as you send in your gift, please send an email to emily.tuttle@my.wheaton.edu and lighthousethai@gmail.com with your name and the amount and frequency of your gift. We need to keep track of these gifts as they are being given since it takes awhile to get the money to Thailand and the plan to get the girls out is dependent on knowing that the money will be there.

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Thank you so much for reading these stories and for caring about these girls. What started out for me as an overwhelming problem and a list of horrific statistics is now an amazing story of how God can use people who are willing to make huge changes in the lives of people who are open to them. Mae and Ning are no longer just two in a string of numbers. They are my friends, and I can't wait to see how God finishes writing their stories. Thank you SO MUCH for your responses to these blogs and for praying us through this situation. We have been so encouraged by knowing that hundreds of people around the world are literally praying as things are unfolding here. We can feel your prayers, and I told my teammates last night that I feel like I've been living in a parallel universe this past week. My life feels sort of transcendent...I guess the best way to describe it would be to say that more than any other time in my life, I'm sure that I know what it feel like to live in the place where heaven invades earth. This week we've been constantly praying, "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," and we have been getting to see what it feels like to be there when heaven comes to earth for a moment and releases freedom. Your prayers have been a huge part of opening all these doors and releasing the Kingdom here in Thailand, and our prayer now is that your financial generosity would be the key to the next door that God is going to open."

...Loose the chains of injustice 
   and untie the cords of the yoke, 
to set the oppressed free 
   and break every yoke...

Isaiah 58:6

Pay It Forward: Mae's Story (Part 6)

I would like to share with you a teammate's multiple-part blog about part of what God is doing here in Thailand. For more of her blogs, check out emilytuttle.theworldrace.org.

"Before reading this, make sure you read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of Mae's story. I know it's long, but I promise it's worth it.

I want to take a short detour from Mae's story and tell you about another miracle that we've been watching unfold here in Thailand. Over the course of this month, our Real Life participant, Kayla, has been getting to know another girl in the bar, who we will call Ning. She is nineteen years old, like Kayla, and she is very beautiful, but also very obviously young and still mostly unaffected by the environment in which she works.

As soon as Kayla met her, she felt like she was supposed to help her, but we encountered a setback. Ning is Burmese, but unlike Mae, she has only been in Thailand for a short time and does not speak much English. After realizing this, Kayla brought our translator with her to try to talk to Ning. Unfortunately, she quickly learned that not only does Ning not speak English...she also does not speak Thai. Kayla was really disappointed because she felt very strongly that she was called to help Ning get out of this industry before she gets sucked in too deep, but without a Burmese translator that was proving to be impossible. So Kayla decided to simply love her and trust that God would use her wordless actions to show Ning the light. 

A couple weeks went by, and every time that we went to the bar Kayla would just sit near Ning, smile at her, and try to pay special attention to her, but she could not talk to her. After awhile, Ning started seeking Kayla out. She would grab her hand or kiss her cheek in greeting, and Kayla began to feel like they had established a real connection despite the language barrier. Her heart for getting Ning help grew even more, but there was still nothing she could do to communicate her real reasons for being in the bar at night.

Kayla voiced her frustrations to the team, and we prayed that God would just use her loving actions and that some seeds would be planted, even if we would never get to see the fruit. If we only knew then what a small prayer that was! Days went by, and the day of our departure from Chiang Mai got closer and closer with Kayla still being unable to communicate with Ning. Until one day when Mae decided that she wanted out. Mae sat in WonGen Cafe and looked me in the eyes and said, "Before I die, I want to help people." Suddenly, I realized something amazing. Mae is Burmese. Ning is Burmese. Mae can talk to Ning! Kayla and I talked about this, and we began to hope and pray that before we left we could at least encourage Mae to pursue a deeper friendship with Ning in the future. Again with the small prayers...

The next few times that we went to the bars we watched Mae and Ning's interactions. We saw them spending a lot more time together having serious-looking discussions. One night, as we were leaving, we went to hug them goodbye and we could see that Ning had been crying. The next time we came to the bar, I pulled Mae aside and asked her how Ning was doing. "She no happy here. She no like working here, but she have no choice." "You know, you can help her," I said to Mae. Mae's face lit up. "Yes, yes! I help her! I am helping her. I never stop helping until I die!" 

I walked over to Kayla and told her this was the night. She had been thinking about trying to have a conversation with Ning through Mae about getting out of the bars, and I told her it was now or never. We realized we might be in slightly over our heads because we had just brought Mae to Emmi at LightHouse, essentially dropping an illegal immigrant with HIV into her lap and asking her to figure out how to help her. What would she do if we showed up to our scheduled meeting tomorrow with two girls? We decided to go down the street and call Emmi first to ask her if it was OK if we invited Ning to WonGen too. Emmi didn't answer, but we left a message.

We returned to the bar, and Kayla took Mae back to the couches to talk to her about Ning. The rest of us prayed while we played pool, Jenga, and Connect 4 with the other girls, and we kept watch over the bar's madam, making sure that she could not overhear the conversation happening under her nose. Kayla and Mae finished talking, and Mae pulled Ning aside. Kayla and I watched as the two of them talked. Mae invited Ning to come to WonGen and see what a way out might look like. Ning told her to pick her up in the morning and bring her because she would love to get out. As this amazing conversation transpired, Kayla and I stood with pool sticks in hand, watching, and we realized that what had first seemed like the deal breaker to us ever being able to help Ning--a language barrier as high as the walls of Alcatraz--was turning out to be the very thing that allowed Mae and Ning to openly make their escape plans in the middle of a crowded bar, within earshot of the person whose job it is to keep them from doing that very thing. We thought that because she only spoke Burmese, we would never be able to help Ning. Instead, God had planned to let us help Mae and then pass the baton to her to give Ning a way out. Minds officially blown.

As soon as their conversation ended, Joy's phone buzzed. Kayla opened it and found this message from Emmi: "Bring her to WonGen tomorrow with Mae. I do not know yet what we will do, but we will help her. We will pray into this more. Praise God!" 

At the end of the night, we hugged the girls goodbye, I reminded Mae again to be very careful and not to tell anyone what they were doing. They promised to see us tomorrow, and we all went home to pray that that would indeed happen. The next day I sat in WonGen with Kayla and Joy, waiting. The girls were late, and we were trying not to worry. We all felt very strongly that there was something holding Ning back from coming. We knew she lived with her brother, and we worried that he might be preventing her from completely wanting out. So we decided to pray. Just as we finished our prayer, the girls walked in the front door, hand in hand. 

We took them upstairs, ordered lunch, and immediately sat down with Emmi to talk. Again, the conversation was entirely in Thai and Burmese, so Kayla and I could not understand anything that was being said, so we just sat and prayed for complete openness and honesty. If Emmi is going to be able to help them, she needs to know absolutely everything. After about an hour, she turned to us and said, "I think it is good. She is ready, and she wants out. The only thing is her brother. He is ten years old, and she is responsible for him, but if we can find a safe place for him, she is ready to get out. We will meet again to talk about getting them legal in Thailand, finding them a place to live, and deciding what job they can do here." We agreed to meet with Emmi the next morning as a team to talk about the next steps to securing their freedom. Both of them.

Mae got her wish. She got to help someone. Only four days after she told me that she wanted to do something good before she died, she literally got to lead her friend by the hand into freedom.

To be continued..."

The Heavens Declare: Mae's Story (Part 5)

I would like to share with you a teammate's multiple-part blog about part of what God is doing here in Thailand. For more of her blogs, check out emilytuttle.theworldrace.org.


"Before reading this, make sure you read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of Mae's story. I know it's long, but I promise it's worth it.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, 

their words to the ends of the world. 

Psalm 19:1-4

A couple days later we went back to the bar to hang out with the girls again. As soon as I turned the corner and Mae saw me, her face lit up and she gave me a huge hug. Her entire demeanor has changed, and she no longer fits in at the bar. She never really fit with the other girls, but now there is something visibly different about her. She smiles more, and she seems to walk around on air, like she's part of something greater than the pain that surrounds her. She secretly whispers in my ear that she's excited for another meeting with Emmi tomorrow, and I smile about the miracles being talked about right under the nose of the people oppressing her.

After a couple games of pool and some Coke Zero, I settled in with Mae on the couches in the back of the bar to talk more. After a conversation with one of my teammates that day, I was curious about why she picked me. Why did she come to me that first night when I was sitting on the couch and tell me all about her life? I asked her that question, and she smiled softly, looked down, and thought about it for a minute. "I'm not sure. I lay in bed last night thinking...Why I talk to Emily? There was a whole row of people on the couch...Why I choose her? Usually I get lonely so I like to find someone every night to talk to, but only about the weather, why they like Thailand, or what foods they like. I never talk about my life because it is too sad. It make people sad, and they no come here to be sad. But that night I feel something in my heart...I do not know what it was...but I feel something when I see you and I think maybe she can help me. So I sit and tell you everything."

"I know why," I told her. "We came here to help people. We didn't know where to start so we walked up and down the street for an hour, praying about which bar to go into. We felt like this was the right one, so we came in. I still didn't know what I was supposed to do, so I sat on the couch and prayed that if anyone here needed help, God would send them to come talk to me. And then you sat down next to me." "I no believe in God." I explained to her that she doesn't have to believe in God for him to love her. "God no love me. I'm too bad. He no love me." I told her, "I am more sure of this than anything in the world: God does love you. There is literally nothing that you could do to make him stop loving you, even if you don't believe in him." She looked at her lap for awhile. "You really think God can love me?" "Yes."

We talked for awhile longer, and then suddenly she stopped. "Are you serious about walking up and down the street, praying for which bar to go to? Are you serious that you sit here on the couch and pray that someone who need help come talk to you, and then I come? This really happen?" Yes, I told her. I'm entirely serious. I explained that she might not believe in God yet, but he is seeking her, and he loves her enough that he sent my friends and me halfway around the world to help her. He put me in that bar on the night when she needed someone to talk to, and he gave her the courage to approach me and open up.

"When I was young, I used to wonder about God. I grew up Buddhist, but Buddhism doesn't explain how the world get here very well. I look around and I see the mountains, the ocean, the trees, us...I know it's not an accident. It's all too complicated to be an accident...somebody have to make it. I used to wonder who made it all. I met a Christian, and she showed me a movie about Jesus, so I know about Jesus. I like Jesus, but I'm afraid of God. I'm not afraid of people, but I'm afraid of something bigger." "Are you afraid of what happens when you die?" I asked her. "Yes. I afraid of God. Jesus hate me." "Jesus does not hate you," I assured her. I explained that God loves everyone, no matter what we have done or will do. I explained forgiveness and becoming white as snow. I told her that when we accept Jesus as our Savior, God cannot see our sins because he sees us through Jesus and his sacrifice. "Really?" "Yes, really."

And then she dropped this bomb on me. "Jesus no love me. Jesus only love white people." Everything in my mind froze. I felt like I was watching a bad educational film that they show to Christian anthropology students to teach them about the horrific results of culturally insensitive missions efforts. Except this was real life. I was actually sitting on a couch in a bar in Thailand across from a Burmese girl who believed that Jesus couldn't love her because she was too brown. In a culture where their greatest desire is to be whiter, and where my pasty skin is the epitome of beauty, she came to understand somehow that Jesus is only for white people. Fail.

I smiled at her, and assured her that Jesus really, really loves brown people. "In fact," I said, "Jesus was born in Israel. I've been to Israel, and they're brown there. They look more like you than me there." "Really? Jesus was brown? He look so white in all the pictures. And all the Christians are always white." I explained that maybe she had just met a lot of missionaries from North America, but that there are actually more non-white Christians in the world than white ones. "Trust me," I said, "God loves people of every color." 

"I know that accepting the idea of God is a big step for you," I told her. "You don't have to decide anything tonight, but promise me that you'll be open to the idea and that you'll talk with Emmi more about it. She would love to talk to you about God." "I will. I want to learn more. I like this Jesus idea. I'm not really Buddhist anymore...I like Buddhists, but I love Jesus. And I afraid of God." I told her that where she is right now is OK. "As long as you're open and you know that God love you, you're going to be OK."

She gave me a long hug. "Thank you for help me. Really thank you. Usually I not like to thank people, but this time, from my heart, thank you."

To be continued..."

A Light Unto Her Path: Mae's Story (Part 4)

I would like to share with you a teammate's multiple-part blog about part of what God is doing here in Thailand. For more of her blogs, check out emilytuttle.theworldrace.org.




"Before reading this, make sure you read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of Mae's story. I know it's long, but I promise it's worth it.

The next day I waited at the coffee shop for Mae to come. I was worried that she would get scared of the potentially life-changing options this meeting would open up and not come. But then she walked through the door. She gave me a big hug, I ordered us some lunch, and I told Emmi we were ready to start.

Emmi came to our couches, sat down, and greeted Mae. From then on, I couldn't understand more than a few words that were spoken. I went from being the translator for the last five months to desperately wishing for subtitles myself. But this was the kind of conversation that I didn't really need translation to understand. The look on Mae's face and the tone of their voices spoke volumes. Sometimes she would look down at her lap for several minutes, and I would see tears falling and staining her jeans. Then Emmi would ask the same question repeatedly, and Mae would finally look up and nod tentatively. I can only guess that it went something like this: "Do you believe that you're worth it? That you can change? That God loves you enough to bring you something better? Do you?" "Yes."

After about an hour of this, a delicious plate of cashew chicken, and a smoothie, I was ready to know what was going on. They finished talking and Emmi turned to me. "I think she is good. Her heart is good, and she is ready to get out. She will come back Friday to meet with me again. Before that I will talk to my leaders and your team, and we will make a plan to find a new place for her." I looked across the table at Mae and smiled. She looked into my eyes, and for the first time since I met her I could see something more than desperation and desire. I could see hope.

I didn't know how the details would shake out, but from that moment on I knew that Mae would be free someday soon. She would not have to sell her body every night, potentially infecting dozens of men and their wives and girlfriends back home with HIV, just to earn enough money to eat. She would not have to downplay her natural sweetness in an attempt to be the seductive temptress that the bar owners paid for. She would not have to lie awake at night wondering if she could take another day of this torture. She would be free.

After Emmi walked away, Mae gave me a long, tight hug. She whispered in my ear, "Thank you for today. Last night I sleep good for the first time in a long time. Today was a good day."

After she left, I looked around at the walls of WonGen Cafe. I thought about LightHouse in Action and its wonderful ministry potential here in Thailand, and I realized that LightHouse is such a prophetic name for this kind of work. The sex trafficking industry is a dark, dark place, but people like Emmi are courageously shining a light into the darkness. They are a lighthouse. But the rest of the name is important too. This isn't the stationary kind of lighthouse that simply sits on a cliff above the ocean and guides ships to itself. This lighthouse goes out to the girls who are lost in the sea of sexual slavery, shines its light in the darkest places, and guides lost people who need help to a safe port. This is a LightHouse in Action, and I'm getting a front-row seat to see how it's all done.

To be continued..."

In Search Of Freedom: Mae's Story (Part 3)

I would like to share with you a teammate's multiple-part blog about part of what God is doing here in Thailand. For more of her blogs, check out emilytuttle.theworldrace.org.


"Before you read this, make sure you read Part 1 and Part 2 of Mae's story.

The next time we went to the bar to visit Mae, I knew I had to bring up the real reason why we were there. Other than telling her that we would pray for her, I had not mentioned God yet. I had also never hinted at the idea that I could offer her a way out of the sex trade, but this visit was going to be different. 

We got to the bars, and I sat down with Mae to talk like usual. Except this time she was drunk. Someone had told her that red wine would improve her health, so she had resolved to drink at least two glasses per day, and she was well on her way to completing that goal for the night. So, I decided that any serious conversation would have to wait. Instead, I simply played pool with her, and at the end of the night I invited her to come to WonGen Cafe, the coffee shop where we work, the next day for lunch. She agreed, I wrote down the directions, and she promised to see me tomorrow.

The next day I sat, somewhat nervously, in the coffee shop waiting. For hours. I concluded that she must not be coming, ate lunch, and continued waiting just in case. Finally, just before I was going to give up, in she walked, sweaty and apologetic. "I get so lost. I no realize that this going to be nice, big coffee shop, and I walk right by without seeing it. I ask everyone I pass, and nobody know. Then, finally I ask somebody and they have a little paper that somebody give them advertising WonGen Coffee Shop, and they show me where it is, so I find you." I smiled because what she didn't know was that the rest of my team was out at the university across the street passing out little flyers advertising the coffee shop. God uses teamwork, and God used their seemingly unrelated ministry assignment to direct Mae to me.

We sat down, ordered some food, and began to try to make small talk, which isn't really her thing or mine. Eventually she just picked up a magazine and began to leaf through it. I looked over at Brent and told him to start praying because things weren't going quite how I had hoped. I decided the time for small talk and subtlety had passed, and I decided to take a risk. "Mae, are you happy working at the bar?" I asked her. She stopped turning the pages in the magazine, but kept looking down at it. Finally, she answered me. "No, I not happy there. I no like working there." I asked her, "If you could work somewhere else and still make enough money to live on, would you want to?" She looked up at me and her eyes filled with tears. "Yes."

I explained that this was more than a coffee shop, and I was more than a casual acquaintance. I told her that I had invited her here to offer her a way out if she wanted it, then I told her about Emmi, the woman who founded and runs LightHouse in Action. I told her that Emmi grew up in a village in northern Thailand until her father murdered her mother, went to jail, and she was sent to an orphanage. When she was eleven, her best friend was sold into sex trafficking, and Emmi didn't see her again until they were adults. When she finally found her friend, she was dying of AIDS. Emmi stayed with her friend until her death and got to lead her to Christ. Watching her friend die inspired her to start a ministry to save other girls from a similar fate. As I told this story, Mae's eyes filled with tears again. I finished and I asked her what she was thinking. She looked down at her lap again, and refused to meet my eyes. Finally, in a barely audible whisper, she said, "I have HIV. I am dying. Maybe she will understand and can help me."

Suddenly I understood why she is so eager for help and a change. I understood why she holds my gaze until I promise her hope with my eyes. I understood why she found me that first night and opened up to me out of nowhere. She's dying, and she wants a new life before she loses hers. "I not know how long I will live, but I want to do something good before I die. I want to help people. I have a good heart, and I know that there are so many people who need help. Before I die I want to help someone."

We talked for a couple more hours. She cried more, and she told me more of her story. Before she left, I invited her to come back the next day to meet Emmi so we could see if Emmi could help her. "Will you come again?" I asked her. "Yes, I will be here." She gave me a long hug and walked out the door.

To be continued..."

An Angel At Border Control: Mae's Story (Part 2)

I would like to share with you a teammate's multiple-part blog about part of what God is doing here in Thailand. For more of her blogs, check out emilytuttle.theworldrace.org.

"Before you read this, make sure you read Part 1 of Mae's story.

Over the past couple weeks I have been getting to know Mae more and more. We go to the bar where she works every other night, and she and I usually spend most of the time talking. When we arrive she hugs me long and hard. I've never been the biggest fan of awkwardly long eye contact, but she is not afraid to hold my gaze for thirty seconds or more. In those moments I can see the pain in her eyes, and I know she is searching for so much more in her life. One night she told me that she usually does not open up to people, but occasionally she meets someone that she feels comfortable with. She touched her heart, and then reached her hand towards my heart..."I feel you. You like me. I talk to you."

Last Tuesday evening I ran into Mae with a man down the street from the bars a few hours before we were planning to visit her. She was excited to introduce me to her "new friend." She explained to me that they were going out of town for a few days. "He's going to take me to the north on holiday. I'm very lucky."

A few hours later they showed up at the bar while we were there. Mae was tired of trying to make conversation with the man, so she had brought him to talk to me because he is Italian, and she thought we could speak Spanish together. I tried to keep him entertained for awhile to give her a break. When I was standing with the two of them, the ladyboy who is in charge of the bar's bookings approached us. She took a wad of money from the man, handed a small chunk of it to Mae, and shook the man's hand. She was sold right before my eyes. 

Since Mae is Burmese and does not have Thai citizenship or immigration papers, my team and I were very worried that the man would try to take her across the border and she would not be back. I told her that she had to be safe because we had more to talk about when she returned. She hugged me for a long time. "I hope I come back safely." I whispered in her ear a promise that my team and I would pray for her safe return, and then I sat down next to the man and explained very firmly in a combination of Spanish, Italian, and his broken English that under no circumstances should he take her out of the country.

Four days passed, and we returned to the bars on Saturday. When I walked in I did not see Mae there, and I immediately began to worry. Maybe she had been deported and we would never get to finish our talks. And then I saw her sitting in the corner, waiting for me. She hugged me longer than ever. "Sit down, I have a story for you!"

She proceeded to tell me this amazing story:

The Italian man had taken Mae to a town in northern Thailand, up in the mountains for a few days of vacation. He promised that they would not try to cross the Burmese border, but she was still worried because northern Thailand is full of checkpoint roadblocks where immigration agents look for illegal Burmese immigrants and deport them. On the way there they saw a few roadblocks, so he promised to take a different road home.

On the way home she fell asleep. She awoke to police surrounding the vehicle, knocking on the windows. They asked for her papers, and when she couldn't produce any, they took her back to the city to the police station. They put her in a room and questioned her. She had no papers, no Thai identification, only her Burmese passport, which may as well be a deportation ticket. The Italian man offered to pay them a bribe, but they told him no. They had decided to deport her. "I tell them, just send me back. I give up."

Then a different man from immigration services walked in the room. "I want to help you," he said. She asked him how much money he wanted. "I tell him I pay you and then I just not pay my electric bill or buy food this month." He told her no, he would not take money. "I just want to help you," he said. She didn't believe him, but she went along with it. He asked her if she had anything...absolutely anything...with some sort of identification on it. That's when she remembered the paper. It wasn't an ID card. It wasn't even valid in Burma, but she had been carrying it for years. Some time ago, Mae had been in Burma and fallen ill. She needed a medicine that is only available in Thailand, so they had given her a pass that allowed her to cross the border to receive the medical care and then return. It had long since expired and was of absolutely no worth, but she was still carrying it anyway, and she went to the car to get it. The immigration agent looked at it. "This will do," he said. "You can go." "How much money do you want?" He told her, "I don't want any money--I just want to help you. Get in your car, drive away, and don't come back." So she did.

"I was so nervous. My heart was pounding, and I smoked a whole pack of cigarettes, but when he tell me I can go I was so excited. I was jumping up and down." She and the Italian man got in their car and drove away from the police station. She turned to him and said, "I have to tell my American friend! Before we leave, she tell me that she and her friends pray to God for me to have a safe trip and to come back safely. She will be so happy. This no happen for other people. I never see this happen before...everyone else get deported."

I hugged her, told her I was indeed very happy, and explained that God protected her because she and I have some talking to do. 

To be continued..."