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In 2001, the Crawfords relocated from Southern California to direct the Thailand office of International Justice Mission (IJM) in the lush, mountainous city of Chiang Mai.

They were drawn to move to Thailand after a short-term mission trip to Asia. Christa, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was dissatisfied with corporate law and had been providing legal aid at the Union Gospel Mission in Los Angeles. Mark had been pastoring a growing multiethnic church while completing a master's degree at Fuller Theological Seminary; he was preparing himself to fulfill a call to minister to prostituting women.

When the couple began advocating through IJM for underage girls in forced prostitution, they noticed women over 18 who were "voluntarily" prostituting themselves. They lacked other viable options for supporting themselves and their families. Many women told Mark that they chose prostitution, but, he says, "When you ask them what their choices were, they had only one choice." This is why many refer to them as "prostituted women"—to highlight the forced nature of their work.

Thailand's neighbor to the north, Myanmar (Burma), has been under a military dictatorship for years, and its people have endured human rights abuses and a breakdown in the national economy. Consequently, an estimated 350,000 people have fled to Thailand, where they are considered illegal immigrants. Some 40,000 of these are women and girls exploited in Thailand's sex industry, many in Chiang Mai.

Lisa Thompson, the Salvation Army's liaison for the abolition of sexual trafficking, says media attention on sex trafficking has "captured people's hearts and [their] desire to help those perceived as poor, 'innocent' victims—those trapped in brothels, held at gunpoint, or locked in somebody's basement.

"But Christians tend to split prostituting women into two categories: the good prostitutes and the bad prostitutes. The good ones are victims of forced prostitution; the bad women are voluntary prostitutes and whores."

The problem is that women on street corners appear to be acting freely, Thompson says. But passers-by are blind to the chains that bind woman to prostitution: poverty, a lack of education, early drug use, a parent in prostitution, childhood sexual abuse, and the abusive tactics of traffickers and pimps.

In a survey of prostituted women in nine countries including Thailand, the United States, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey, nearly nine out of ten said they longed to escape.

The women the Crawfords talk to in bars, massage parlors, and karaoke venues prostitute themselves to provide for parents and children. While it's normal for sons or daughters in Thailand to offer a portion of their income to parents or grandparents, Mark says families of prostituting women often demand 50 to 100 percent of their daughter's income.

"Filial piety is an admirable Asian cultural value that's been perverted here by dysfunctional families and a changing society," he says. The need for money leads women into the sex industry. They stay in prostitution because other available unskilled jobs pay significantly less.

Few Christian organizations were reaching these women in Chiang Mai. So in 2003, the Crawfords decided to pioneer their own outreach, Just Food, Inc., representing "Justice and Food."

Western-style cafes are popular among locals, the large expatriate and missionary community, and the city's 3 million-plus tourists each year. Christa designed a menu full of the California cuisine she craved, and they opened a modest café housed in a bookstore, featuring items like Southwest chicken wraps and tandoori chicken pizza. They trained women—former prostitutes and those at-risk of entering the trade—to make tortillas and gourmet coffee drinks, to serve customers, and to run a kitchen.

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January 2007, Vol. 51, No. 1