This past month in Chiang Mai, Thailand was incredible! My team worked with a ministry called Lighthouse In Action (specifically we worked with the LoveActs ministry branch). The founder of Lighthouse in Action, Emmi Khanthana, is an amazing example of obedience to God's calling and her story is full of reconciliation and redemption.
This month my eyes were opened wide to the Father's love for those that the world has labeled unworthy of love. Our first task was hanging out with some kids with very tough exteriors in a neighboring slum. My team and I spent time reading bible stories, coloring, singing, and playing hot potato with these children. The first few times that we went, the kids were not very engaged by our presence in their field (basically most of them ignored us). But on our last visit, My teammate Diane and I had a great time with the children. We got to experience some of their real emotions and they even wanted us to join in their games with them. It was so cool to see that the love God poured out on His children, through us, made a tangible difference in just the few weeks that our team was in the Chiang Mai slum. Please pray that future teams will be sent to continue to pour out God's love on those kiddos!
Through bar ministry this month I became friends with prostitutes in the red light district of Chiang Mai. After a few rounds of Connect Four, Jenga, or pool, these women and lady boys would open up to me and share their stories. They showed me pictures of their children. They expressed their different desires to do something more with their lives… to be artists, to be hair stylists, to be fashion article journalists, to be restaurant owners. However, they all shared a sense of hopelessness that was so heartbreaking to witness. All of these women and lady boys that I encountered in the bars were being held captive by the spirit of rejection, and by lies from the enemy.
(Som Po and I)
But because of Emmi's obedience to God's calling to start her ministry, the red light district in Chiang Mai is being transformed! Hope is being brought to hopeless. Light is piercing through the darkness. God's powerful truth is overcoming lies. Please pray with me that God's love will bring radical change and redemption to the women and lady boys in Chiang Mai. Pray that they will come to know their true identity in Christ and experience His freedom!
Emmi was just given (yes given…like for free), a six story building that she will be calling Zion. Zion is just outside of the red light district. It will be a coffee shop with open mic nights. It will be a place for girls to come and learn English. It will be a dormitory for women who need a safe place to stay. It will house future World Race and YWAM teams. But most of all it will be a safe place. A place of God's presence. Our team had the pleasure of helping Emmi clean and completely move in to the new Zion building last week. It was incredible to see the transformation that took place! All 5 girls teams that were in Chiang Mai participated in a 24 hour worship burn at Zion to set the foundations and to claim the new building as a place of God's presence. During the worship burn, God gave me a word for what Zion will be to the community in Chiang Mai. He directed me to Isaiah 35:9-10, "No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Please join with me in prayer and expectation that the Lord will fulfill His promises about Zion.
Here is a video about LightHouse in Action. Please watch this video (as well as the many others) on the website (www.lighthouseinaction.org). If the Spirit leads you to donate to Emmi and her ministry, please do it! She is looking for 50 people that would be willing to partner with her ministry by donating $60/month to cover rent for the new Zion building and to further the LoveActs ministry.
I have been so, so blessed this month! God is doing a great work in Chiang Mai! He wants us to partner with Him in taking back all that the enemy has stolen and to see it be transformed for His glory by His redeeming love.
Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement!! Love you guys!!
<3 Cassie
