Joy Farrington shares with powerful honesty

Joy Attmore

I want to start by telling you a story from a recent trip of mine to Bangkok where I was doing outreach work into the sex industry at Nana Plaza. It was one of our last nights of outreach and myself, and one of my other team members, were making our way out of Nana Plaza when I got stopped by an Australian business man that I had met a few days earlier whilst on a crazy tut tut tour.

At this point I would like to say that Nana is somewhere that you don't expect to meet someone that you know, or at least you really pray that you don't!

My internal thought processes quickly caught up to the present situation and I began to engage in conversation, covering up my surprise and sadness to see him in such a place; to be fair though he seemed equally surprised to see me and asked what I was doing out here.

'We have friends who work in the bars here so we've come to visit the girls and buy them a drink. What are you doing here?'

It really does take some skill to try and have a normal conversation in the centre of Bangkok's internationally known sex industry!

'I've been out with some friends from work and now I'm here getting a drink.'

'Oh cool...so how do you find it here...honestly?' I found myself asking him directly, making it clear that I didn't like anything about our surroundings.

He looked around us as he began to answer and I could tell that the reality of where he was began to seep back into his vision. 'Well, it is pretty crazy isn't it?'

'Yes it is. It's crazy that sex is nothing more than a menu here.'

Our conversation continued on for a bit and then we parted ways. I was hesitant to let him go as I found myself wanting to bring him out of that place and back into where he really belonged. He didn't belong there.

But I had to let him go; I had done my part in that brief encounter. I had reminded him of purity. I had held the standard of sexual purity and for a moment he had stood under it and felt its touch.

Sometimes our presence is more powerful than our words. It impacts beyond intelligence and speaks to the soul.

I want to engage you in conversation on sexual purity but not just a conversation of words but one that carries into your heart, where the true power of purity is revealed.

I'm 23 years old and have spent the last 13 years of my life on a journey of discovering the power and importance of sexual purity. It has taken me to places of deep brokenness and pain where I have encountered glimpses of hell and it has also brought me to places of beauty, beauty that will make your eyes glisten with joyful tears.