This is the first story in a series about Pattaya, Thailand, one of the major prostitution cities in the world. Join a group of visitors, both first-time and seasoned, as they give their impressions of this city that is part paradise, part tragedy.
The neon green chairs are the first thing you notice when you walk into Maew’s salon just off Walking Street, along with the diminutive, smiling Thai woman who offers up the radioactive seats to anyone who comes in the door. 
The whole salon buzzes under fluorescent lights, in green, pink and orange. Maew moves like a blur through her domain, which makes it all a bit dizzying. When asked about her color choice, she laughs.
“Right now I am living in a garden of God,” she said. “That’s why I chose these colors. God planted me in this place, and I am growing strong.”
Maew’s life has not always been this bright. At one point, she was one of the thousands of women working as a prostitute on the streets of Pattaya, Thailand.
“I was working on Walking Street, not even able to buy food,” she said. “I was in a very bad situation.”
Jessica Mock, a missionary working with Bridges to the Nations, summed up the hairdresser’s life as a prostitute.
“How can I describe her? She was crazy, dirty, stinky, smelly, crazy in the head,” Jessica said. “Some of the women working as prostitutes try to take care of themselves. Maew was beyond that point.”
An encounter with Rahab Center, a Christian ministry in Pattaya, brought about the drastic change one sees today.
“They invited me to learn how to work in a beauty salon. Honestly, I didn’t like doing it, but I was desperate to do anything so I would have money for food,” she said.
“Then one day some pastors from the church came to the salon, and while I was talking to them, I felt something warm in my heart. These people were different than other people I had met in the bar.” 
After getting more salon and Bible training with Tamar Center, another ministry in Pattaya that reaches out to prostitutes, Maew went to work at a salon.
She became a mother figure for many of the girls that came to her to get their hair done before hitting Walking Street. It took some time, but she started to enjoy the work, and she had a vision of starting her own salon.
“After working for a while, I decided I wanted to own my own business, so I started raising money,” Maew said.
The circumstances surrounding her acquisition of the salon were a miracle orchestrated by God, Maew said.
“At first, the owner wanted to sell the business for 150,000 baht ($4,400 US), and I only had 50,000 ($1,400),” she said.
Maew approached Bridges to the Nations for a loan.
“Then when she talked to the owner again, I guess he lowered his price,” Jessica said. “She had enough money on her own, so we committed to help her buy some new things and fix it up instead.”
That’s where the neon green chairs come in.
“At first I was like ‘Oh good Lord,’” Jessica said, laughing. “But I really wanted to bless her in a way that was going work for her, not fit me with my Western ways of wanting everything be toned down and earthy.
“Maew told me she heard from the Lord that the salon needed to represent renewal, rebirth and new life. So I said, ‘You go girl, bright green it is!’”
The salon has become part business, part ministry for Maew, since it sits in an alleyway right next to Walking Street, where most of the prostitutes work.
“She’s such a mom to all those girls,” Jessica said. “She is so sensitive to what spiritual state they are in, and will take a different approach with each one. Sometimes it’s just ‘God bless you, God loves you,’ and other times, she takes a direct approach sharing the gospel.”
“My personality is not very wide open,” Maew said. “It’s not always easy to speak or to help or to give people money because I grew up in a family where there was no love or generosity. I give thanks to the Lord because he changed me into a kind and generous person.
“I am here in this place because I understand these girls and where they come from. Every person that comes in here is a broken heart, and I used to be just like that. I want to see them change, to shine with God’s love.”
Just like Maew and her neon green chairs.
Maew works in close association with Tamar Center, Bridges to the Nations’ Pattaya Project and True Friend Fellowship, a church which opens its doors to prostitutes and ethnic minorities in Thailand. You can learn more by visiting the links.
