(This was written last week…)
It’s our last night here in Thailand before we leave to continue onto our next country, Vietnam!!! Here’s what this past month looked like…
Here we had an all squad month… this means all 42 of us stayed in one hostel and did ministry together! We stayed at Zion Hostel in Chiang Mai and worked with Pi Emmi and her girls on their 3 part ministry! Here’s the breakdown…
Bar Ministry
This team of people we out to the local bars each night to build relationships with the prostitutes there. You see, there is more to a prostitute’s story than just a bad upbringing. These girls are often taught at a young age that their worth is in sleeping with a man for money. If you talk to these girls, they will admit that they don’t really want to be there, but they feel obligated to in order to feed their families. Most of them start at a young age with the encouragement of their parents.
The World Race team went out to build relationships with these girls. They didn’t go in to tell them that there is a better life after prostitution or that what they were doing is wrong. They went out to love on these girls, to show them that there is a God who cares and that they are worthy of love. True love. Not they kind of love that has to be bought.
Café Ministry
This group worked in the coffee shop below our hostel. They worked along side girls who had made the decision to get out of bar life. Once a girl gets out of the bars, there is a 96% chance that she will go back. It is hard enough for the girls to leave the bars, and even harder to stay away. This is why a relationship with the girls is so vital.
Monk / Slum Ministry
This is where my team was all month. I enjoyed this so much and am so sad to leave! We got to go to the nearby temples everyday and build relationships with the monks. I learned so much about Buddhism and how it has been misinterpreted by the world. Buddha never wanted anyone to build statues of him and he never claimed to be a God. Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion. Monks were actually very interested in us and our beliefs, so we had many opportunities to share our lives with them through questions they asked.
Going to the slums was very interesting and very simple. We went there to play with the kids and hopefully made a lasting impression on their minds. This is an area that is at a very high risk for sex trafficking victims. These kids are sold into the industry at a very young age sometimes. One kid in particular was very hostile towards some of us at the beginning. He made crude sexual gestures to one girl and told her he would kill her. The first thing our host Emmi brought to our attention was ‘what is possibly going on in that little boy’s life to act in such a way’. This turned my mind from ‘we should avoid the boy’ to ‘how can we be the best example possible to him’. We continued going to the slums and on the last day this same boy was playing with everyone and showing that he really trusted us.
Highlights of this month:
Monk asking “What is yellow snow?”
At the beginning of this month my team was not connecting well with one another… after a little talking and much love, I now look forward to spending time with them… mostly because there is so much more freedom and our time outside of ministry is spent laughing… a lot. Also, having deep conversations about pretty much anything.
- Going to a lantern festival where thousands of lanterns are being sent off
- Sleeping on the roof of the hostel, in my hammock, under the stars
- Picking corn for two days in a village a few miles from Burma
- Taking a 3 hour ride in the back of a pick up
- Laying hands on an elderly man and praying for him as he was sitting on the side walk and had trouble getting up
- Being with my entire squad all month in the same hostel! (This means instead of the 7 of us, it was 42!)
- Watching as relationships were being built with girls who are prostitutes at the bars and are now able to see someone show them how valuable they are
Next, we’re off to Vietnam! We will be working with an American couple who started up a coffee shop that guarantees there to always be at least one person in there to teach English at all times… (that’s us!). This is all I know about next month… I also know that it is a closed country, so we have to be very careful as to what we say about God!
