Awake and Alive.

The truck chugged up Patong hill, wrestling gravity but coming out the victor.
We zoomed left and the right, then left again.
All around me, voices of those I've only just met rise in worship.

"Nothing can separate, even if I ran away.
Your love never fails."

I close my eyes and breathe in this moment.
The humid air beats across my face and I can't help but feel a little more alive every second.

The last time I was on Bangla Road, I wept.
I had found darkness thicker than anywhere in the world.
I had found the epitome of hell in the physical.
But I also found that in the darkest place I knew,
Jesus' heart met mine.

I walked slowly, taking it all in.
It's easy to get caught up in the music, the lights, the noise, the people.
But when you stand still, and you look into a woman's eyes, it's impossible to miss the devastation this place brings.
I'm shocked to find how much has changed.
I didn't think it was possible for this place to become any more like hell.
I was wrong.

One of the girls in my group stops to talk to her friend,
and I take the opportunity to watch a gorgeous Russian girl twirl aimlessly in her glass cage.
I watch two men give into the beckoning of the promoters and head into the club beneath the twirling girl.
I watch a family walk by, the children unaware of what their parents are blindly leading them into.
I watch a child selling flowers, desperate to go home but unable to do so until all her flowers are gone.
I watch as two women perform acrobatics on a pole.
Lyrics which came from my heart one year and nine months ago float through my head once again.

It's easy to see darkness while on Bangla.
But hidden behind all of the darkness is so much beauty.

The smile of the club promoter.
The genuine laugh of a bar girl.
The excitement and the hugs from friends we meet.

There is something about being on Bangla that wakes my heart.
And for the first time in months, I feel as though I am right where I was always meant to be.

I am still in need of $2,500 to be fully funded for the year. Please prayerfully consider donating by clicking the donate button on the right.