They brought the gospel to the Thai call girls
Sandy Dickson & Kelsie Newbrough

“I used to wonder what difference 10 days or two weeks in a foreign country could make I think I caught sight of that.” These are the words of Kelsie Newbrough who just returned from a two-week mission trip to Thailand.
It was prayerfully that a group of 10 women approached their upcoming project: that of a mission on which they were to embark to Thailand with the purpose of ministering to prostitutes. Kelsie Newbrough of Winthrop Harbor, Christian counselor with Compass, was among the ten, and relates her experience here.
The trip was sponsored by the Kenosha First Assembly’s Women’s Ministry called The New View. The organization that originally started by a Dutch woman who visited and saw the need. Youth with a Mission (YWAM) had also set up a mission there several years ago, and it eventually evolved from that group to any church who wanted to get involved. The idea is to send caring, Godly women over to minister in a loving manner to those in that lifestyle and to introduce them to other options. Mainly, they want these young women to become aware of Jesus, Who loves them through everything.
The group’s trek began on January 5 when they flew to Bangkok for a brief three hour hotel nap before being taken by vehicle about 100 miles from Bangkok to a resort area of Pattaya Beach where they stayed in a hotel. The Tamar Center is a Community Outreach Center that hosts organized Christian activities, even church services. After an orientation to explain a bit about the culture and what to expect, the most vital part of their mission was to begin.
They had learned that it was not uncommon in many families to raise and groom their young girls from an early age for this lifestyle with the idea that their girls will support the family for the rest of their lives, which is culturally accepted. These girls (probably the eldest in the family) support their parents and other siblings, often working with their mothers in the same profession.
When they work out of bars; a popular way of this life, they make $5 for an eight-hour day, and if they stay for twelve hours, they get a bit more. A bar serves as the meeting ground and the women are known as hostesses. They are assigned by a ‘mama-san’(madam) to join men at the tables while in the club, and the men pay for each girl’s time in their company at the table. If the man wants to buy her time out of the club, that’s another fee and that practice is common.
The team was made aware that even young boys were watched by their parents back in the tribal areas. If the family sees that their boys have become beautiful by the age of 2, they were raised as girls and given estrogen to develop a girlish figure. They become very effeminate and are referred to as ‘lady boys.’ They too, begin fulfilling the roll of selling their bodies, even as preteens like their female counterparts. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but they turn their heads to ‘of age’ prostitution, though try to crack down on underage prostitution. Newbrough saw a billboard on their way to Pattaya that said, “The land of three Ss: smiles, sun and sex.”
One of the women on Newbrough’s team actually got up at about 3 a.m. and went to the lobby of their hotel to see the demeanor of these girls at ‘quitting time,’ as they left the hotel. She saw them one-by-one leaving the premises: heads down, forlorn-looking as if they were carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders—(and they were.)
Newbrough said of the young people born destined to this lifestyle: “Isn’t it a shame that they don’t even have a choice? In this country we can decide what we want to do and become, but they can’t even do that there.”
The team’s first encounter basically begins with each member assigned a Thai-speaking interpreter each night and outing. Each pair goes to the bar district and enters a random bar, though they feel sure it is Holy Spirit led. They took small 3 x 3 inch pieces of paper to discretely hand to each girl inside. These bore the days, times and address of an English class at the Tamar Center. The two-hour classes three days a week are followed by an optional Bible study. The first following their initial bar encounter was attended by about 10 girls and most opted to stay for the Bible study, which is conducted in Thai language by other Thai women on the Tamar Center staff who had come out of that life style and interacted with the girls each time the girls were there. This staff made it known that God loves them and the missionary team is in the room smiling a welcoming love and support. This is where they bond with the girls and build relationships.
Pattaya is a popular tourist area for families looking for some beach time, and also prostitutes who line the narrow walkways during the day to look for their daily work. To say 20,000 prostitutes are in that area may be conservative. Newbrough saw one young lady under an umbrella looking very sad and the interpreter agreed that they should stop and talk to her. They found that the woman was age 30 and had six children and that each day, this lady and her husband were working this area together; he with men and she with men to support their six children.
Their visits to the bars occurred Monday and Wednesday and back on Thurs. evening to recruit the girls for the Tamar Center party, which could only be accomplished by buying their time out for the evening for $20 apiece, which they did. Each team member was given a limit of five and each did their best to revisit those they’d had by now made friends of on previous nights. Some madams there were compliant about letting their girls out, some were not, in which case the recruiting pair went to another bar.
Newbrough described her encounter at the first bar. After the madam of the bar realized she was part of the missionary team who had paid the girl’s way out on a previous encounter, the madam went and got three bar stools and arranged them in a circle around Newbrough, had the three girls that Newbrough had been talking to sit down and then said to Newbrough, “Now pray.” Newbrough was delightedly surprised, and feels from there it was Holy Spirit led.
“I told the girls they didn’t have to shut their eyes, because I didn’t want to draw any more attention to them more than what we already are. I took their hands and locked eyes with them. What came out of my mouth was not me, it was God’s word. It was ‘I’ve known you since you were in your mother’s womb. I have a plan for you; a plan not to harm you, but to prosper you, give you a hope and a future…’
“His words continued to pour out of me and even though they knew little of the language, they wept as I prayed God’s word over them. The madam stood there listening, so I reached for her hands to pray for her too, but she said, ‘Oh, no, I’m Buddhist.’ So I asked permission to hug her, and she agreed, then I whispered to her, You know, Jesus loves the Buddhist too.” I walked away feeling like the Buddhist madam had called the prayer meeting.”
The number of girls attending grew with each English lesson, with most choosing to stay for the Bible study. The English lessons are held on an ongoing basis at the Tamar Center and these girls are welcomed and encouraged to attend at any time. Some of the lady-boys attended also.
The guests found the party room at Tamar Center decorated in wonderful party fare, with colorful balloons and crepe paper. Inside the party was a tower of door prizes and tables laden with food delightful to any Thai pallet, with Thai soups, noodles, rice, fruits and even gorgeous European pastries. They sang festive but Christian songs and played Thai games foreign to the missionaries, but familiar to the Thai girls, who laughed and became the little girls the never got the chance to be. There was also a skit about how earnestly we work at trying to get someone to love us.
Testimonies were given by staff women who got out of that lifestyle through the Tamar Center and as the missionary team leader got up to speak, she was so touched, tears came to her eyes and she couldn’t speak. However, this gave the Thai girls, whose culture demands stoicism, permission to cry as well. It was a time of fellowship and great sharing. For the Christian group, it was like saying, ‘Here we are for you, God allowed us to come and have a party for you, but our hearts are broken for what you have to face each day.” And the girls seemed to realize that.
Newbrough said many of their lady guests wept for long periods of time, and the people that spoke their language in the room, whether they were missionaries or staff members, sat down with them, put their arms around them and talked to them very seriously. “While we were not pressing them for these decisions, we were instructed that we had to wait until they felt these marvelous relationships and could see God’s hand allowing it to happen.”
The Tamar Center was able to offer them an alternative if they choose to get out of their current lifestyle. Newbrough says, “They aren’t sweat shops; the working conditions are really very nice and comfortable and I saw some of the bedroom accessories being made at the Tamar Center. The cards are also very creative and artistic.
There are five businesses on the Center premises which each girl can chose to become a part of, depending on what she feels drawn to. She is trained for whichever role she chooses: that of working in the beauty salon, the bakery coffee shop, card-making shop where they are very artistic and also cover journals for sale in church book stores, or the silk bedding store, Issan Inspirations whose unbelievably beautiful products are available on line. The web site is: iisilk.com. YWAM’s website also has additional information concerning their mission: ywamthai.org
The group of ten also witnessed a regularly held sidewalk Sunday school. A missionary team drives to a slum area, spreads a large tarp on the sidewalk as 25 or 30 excited children join them on the tarp. Their parents are watching and listening on the perimeter. The missionaries first clip the fingernails and toenails of the kids, so that if they have any mosquito bites or wounds, they won’t scratch them and spread infection. When done, the Bible stories, games and prizes begin. At the end, each child receives a box of prepared rice or noodles to take home. At this time too, the staff has tried to notice any wounds or medial needs that need tending, and they are attended through YWAM.
When asked how the experience changed Newbrough, she said, “I believe I will be a better listener and I think God has been honing my listening ear. I will possibly approach each of my clients with more respect and less judgment. I would like to think I love better. I will attempt to be more Christ-like in my dealings with anyone I pass in life.
“As far as the wonderful team of women I traveled with, none of us feels like we are done with Thailand. We believe God will allow us to return. When that happens, we pray that we will be recognized by the young women residing at the Tamar Center, in response to our efforts last n=month: women that we met on this trip. Until then, we will continue to shower more of Jesus’
Love on all of those we meet.”