This month our squad is all together. We have 42 beautiful people of L Squad staying at Zion Cafe in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s great getting the opportunity to do ministry together this month! God is moving in our squad. He is pulling us closer. Closer to each other. And closer to HIM. We have worship each night as a squad in preparation for a couple of the teams to go out to the bars each night to minister and build relationships with the women there. The vulnerability, openess and honesty of the squad each night is intense and incredible! I love the people that God specifically hand picked to be with me on our journey for His Kingdom!
Our squad is divided into 6 teams. Six awesome teams, I might add. We have Team Burning Joy (the awesome team that I’m apart of), The Conquerors (AKA The Conquering Squirrels), Boldly Present, Anathello, Teleo and Hungry Youngsters. This month, two teams have been paired together for the ministry that they are to do. We have three groups for ministry.
There is ministry in the Cafe that we are staying at: This looks like
serving customers that come into the cafe- washing dishes
- cleaning the hostel that is a secondary part of the Cafe(sweeping, mopping, windows, dusting, laundry)
- sweeping
- washing dishes
- mopping (a lot of the time it is finish mopping the cafe and then mop the entire thing again)
- washing the windows (we use newspapers as the ‘paper towels’)
- frying eggs
- peeling garlic… Garlic FOR DAYS
- marketing for the Cafe- designing flyers, websites
- washing dishes
- setting up and running karaoke/games nights at the Cafe
- building relationships with the beautiful women that we work with (most of whom have found a refuge in Zion from the streets)
- teaching English to the women
- washing dishes
*This is what my team is doing and that is how I can give such a detailed list of what we do*
There is ministry to the children in the slums, also including Monk chats: This looks like
- talking and building relationships with the Monks that go to the chats
- learning about Buddhism and the culture
- building relationships with the children in the slums
- loving on the children in the slums (the slums is where a lot of prostitution starts)
- playing games with the children there
- Hungry Youngsters and Boldly Present do this ministry. I’m sure that one of their blogs has more info on it www.nicholasthomas.theworldrace.org, www.katieallen.theworldrace.org
There is ministry to the women that are trapped in the Red Light District
*whether forcefully, physically trapped or culturally trapped- they are still trapped*
This looks like:
- Intentionally praying for intercession for these women, for the ministering teams
- Prayer walks- where the girls walk up and down the streets and intentionally pray for their ministry
- building relationships with the women
- playing games with them
- singing with them
- going to eat with them
- showing God’s love to them
- The Conquerors and Teleo are the bar ministry teams this month. I’m sure one of their blogs have more info on them: www.lyndawatson.theworldrace.org, www.vanessawelsh.theworldrace.org
I will post more specifically in a couple of days! I just wanted you all to know what we are doing.
*Also- and I CANNOT stress this ENOUGH*
When you look at pictures that my squad posts- Facebook, Instagram- PLEASE understand that we obviously have our cameras handy when we have our ‘off day’ of the week. We are in God’s creation in other parts of the world, of COURSE we are going to have our cameras to document the fun stuff that we get to do in His glorious creation. This DOES NOT mean that we are just having a ‘vacation’ around the world. We would love to have tons and tons of pictures to show of our specific ministries, but A LOT of the time, it would be SO INAPPROPRIATE to be taking pictures of what God is using us to do. THESE are people’s lives. We cannot capture when Emily talks to Aom about the beautiful daughter of Christ she is. We cannot capture the tears that come because of the Father’s love that she sees in Em. We cannot capture the picture of Martha having a random break out dance session with the little Thai girls. We cannot flash pictures of conversations with Monks in the Buddhist temples. And pictures of bar street and doing ministry there? Forget that. This is not something that I necessarily would have thought about before coming on a mission trip. But, truly, Facebook and Instagram DO NOT show the whole story of our lives on the Race. They don’t show how God is using us.
Please, please know that.
God is using L Squad in awesome ways, no matter if you see it all or not!!
<3,
Ash
