When we met David (not his real name) late on a Wednesday night in Bangkok’s red light district; he was quietly making his way through the crowds of people. We politely asked him if he would be interested in taking our survey to which he quickly answered, “Are you the guys with the black packets?” This was a perfect lead into our second-encounter survey! This began a 20-minute conversation between our group and this wounded man. David is married to a woman back in Europe and the father of a young girl. He has a troubled and distant marriage. This broken marriage has led him the place where he would rather seek intimacy and affection in all the wrong places; through a vast array of girlfriends all over the world and many brief purchased sexual encounters.

Our conversation with David was mainly focused on him; his needs, desires and disappointments. David seemed to have nothing good to say about his relationship with his wife. He painted a picture of a wife who was over-weight, depressed and rather hard to get a long with. In view of these comments and complaints I asked him, “What do you believe are your wife needs from you?” I sought to draw his attention off of the ways in which his wife wasn’t meeting his needs and focus it on her needs as a woman and wife. His reply was short and not very sweet, ‘sex.’ As a man I can hardly believe this is what his lonely and emotionally neglected wife could be longing for.

At the close of our 20-minute conversation we were delighted to find out that David would be open to making an appointment with us. This was nothing short of awesome! Our prayer is that he would pick up his phone and follow through on that desire. It would be a chance for us to listen in greater detail to his story, desires and brokenness. To these words we could answer with ‘the words of eternal life.’ There is such a need in this man’s life and marriage for restoration and redemption. Our goal and driving force is seeing those desires of Christ being formed in his life.

NOTE: David did contact us again and we were able to have a very good and personal follow-up meeting. A blog about the night will be posted shortly.

Written By: Will S.

(the above conversation took place May 5th)