Pattaya the Beautiful

''Pattaya is an overwhelming mix of beautiful and ugly things''.

That's what I wrote on my Facebook page. On this, my third trip to the city, I saw beautiful things.

The ministry of Tamar Centre has always been beautiful. For 20 years now, Nella Davidse and her team have held out a hand of compassion and hope for the city's beleaguered bar girls. I have been on some of these outreach sessions with XP Missions and Tamar and I have more than once heard Nella tell the story of how and why she came to live and work in Pattaya. The no-nonsense integrity of the woman, and the warmth in her piercing eyes, even when she is tired... this is beautiful.

This time I sat in an audience at a graduation, listening, with a warm heart, to the testimonies of two new graduates of the three month Tamar training programme. This was the 17th Tamar graduation, and we were celebrating the achievements of eight young people. All eight had come out of dangerous exploitative situations; all eight had new qualifications, smiling faces and hope in their eyes; all eight were proud of what they had achieved... this was beautiful.

The graduates had been given gifts and flowers along with their certificates, and I watched one of the girls try to give her flowers to Nella, who lovingly but firmly refused them: ''This is your day...'' The interaction was warm and honouring and swift, and I was moved by it... this was beautiful.

After the ceremony, we had supper together and there was time to meet people and chat. I met a group of fresh faced young women, some from the USA and one from Holland, all of whom were giving up three to nine months of their lives to learn and to serve the women of Thailand. I looked deep into their innocence and their purity and I was amazed at their willingness to get involved with intervention in this, the most un-innocent of female activities. I was reminded of the slogan of the women's conference I had attended with Malina: ''Together, we are stronger''... this too was beautiful.