The night before the Amazing Love Festival kicked off, BGEA partnered with NightLight International in a street outreach event featuring longtime BGEA friends and musicians Dennis and Danny Agajanian in the Nana Red Light District of Bangkok.

NightLight International is an organization that helps rescue and minister to those trapped in sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. In Bangkok, NightLight operates a coffee shop in the heart of the Nana District. The night of the outreach, the front wall of the coffee shop opened up, allowing the Gospel-centered music to resonate up and down the busy street. NightLight staff and volunteers conversed with men and women passing by, inviting them to the Festival, answering any questions they had and sharing the love of Christ.

Although Thailand is dubbed “the Land of Smiles,” sin and brokenness are everywhere in this popular tourist destination. Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, but related laws are often ambiguous and unenforced. According to Annie Dieselberg, founder and CEO of NightLight, some 90 percent of Thai men visit prostitutes regularly, and six out of 10 foreign men who visit Bangkok will participate in the sex industry. 

Shining the light of the Gospel in the darkness of the Thai sex industry is not an easy task. Poverty is the primary factor pushing women to sell their bodies. Most sex workers are poorly educated and often have several family members they are supporting financially. Prostitution is the most lucrative form of employment for them. But Jesus is near—and people like Dieselberg won’t stop helping these women find their love and worth in Christ. 

“I’ve never been exposed to so much evil as I have since I’ve been doing this,” Dieselberg said. “But I’ve also never had such opportunities to see the hand of God at work—to see the power of the Name of Jesus, to see the power of light, to see the power of love.”  

To learn more about NightLight International visit: NightLightInternational.com