Last month was different than ministry that I have ever done before. There are many things I can tell you I learned but first let me tell you what ministry looked like for me during my time in Thailand. A huge part of doing ministry in the red-light district is prayer. There is such heaviness and spiritual warfare going on we are told that the most important thing we can do is pray and pray often. In fact if we don’t pray during the day we are not allowed to go into the bars at night because Emmi, our host, wants us to spend that time preparing our hearts for what we might encounter when we go out at night. So everyday we would walk around the bar street and pray. We would pray for the women in the bars, the Johns (people who buy the prostitutes), the lady boys (guys who dress up as women and sell themselves) the bar owners, the tourists who have no idea what’s going on in this area, specific people we have met along the way, for divine appointments, for protection when we go out, for Gods presence to be clearly evident, for the Holy Spirit to fill the streets and the places we pass and what ever else we felt led to pray. There were two times during the day we would go out and try to build relationship with the bar girls, in the afternoon and at night. In the afternoon bar girls are cleaning up and getting ready for the night, because they aren’t busy with customers we have more of a chance to talk and hang out with them. At night we go out to the bars and talk to the girls over cokes. We would pretty much go and just form friendships. Some of us made friends with the bar girls, some with the lady boys, and even some with the Johns. Whether you go out in the afternoon or at night the other half of the team stays back and does intercessory prayer for you. Emmi owns a coffee shop and hostel where if you are talking to a bar girl and they want to leave, she can help them and find them a job with either with her or with a different ministry.
The coolest thing for me to see was that in a place where no one expects God to be, He is all over! He has been sending World Racers and YWAM missionaries for years and each time there is a group it’s the same mission to go out and love these people. God is always moving and pursuing the same people He is just using different people to shine that light every time. We are picking up where other missionaries have left off and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to get to be a part of His work and get to know the people behind the labels and stereo types.
This month was different than I expected. I thought I was going to form my stronger friendships with the bar girls but God had sent a Muslim man from Kashmir to me instead. During a prayer walk one day (while praying for divine appointments) He came out of his shop and invited me and my teammate Laura in for tea. After finding out that we are World Racers he invited us to tea everyday because He had formed friendships with World Racers in the past. After our first time with tea with him it was clear that God has been pursuing this guy for a while now and that He wanted us to continue the work He was doing so we agreed to come back and have tea. We ended up going back a couple times a week. Every once in a while we were joined by one of his friends or a family member. Throughout the month we had really good conversations some about WWE, some about the culture and economy in Thailand, some political, and some about our different beliefs. I have to say I learned a lot through these conversations and I can now say that I have a new friend from Kashmir now!
Last month was really impactful and a huge month of growth. God continues to show up and blow me out of the water. This seems to be an ongoing trend.
Thank you again for continuing to follow along with me on this journey and support me financially, through prayer, and through continued encouragement.
