I’m sitting here on my bed, trying to process what to say to you at home so that you can get a glimpse of this past month’s ministry in Thailand. I must admit, I am struggling to find the words. Incredible- hard- heart breaking- transforming- angering- powerful….a million words and stories are floating in my mind. Bangla Road was described as the pit of hell by our contact. He isn’t far from the truth. Bangla Road has over 200 bars and 2000 girls that fill them. My squad-mate Marlena paints an accurate picture in her blog: Strobing lights. Pulsing music. Scantily clad women dancing on bar tops. Streets teeming with empty-eyed men, strolling tourists, families with small children gawking and laughing at the spectacle. Thai women line the streets at the open mouths of the bars, beckoning men and women to come inside and enjoy the revelry their bar has to offer. All the while men wave cash at the bar owners, exchanging a few hundred Baht for a night with one of the employees……Just another typical night on Bangla Road, the street that never sleeps or closes.
And I wasn’t prepared to see the amount of God’s grace so freely lavished on the streets of Bangla Road.
The first night out, God gave me a word for a guy I saw on Tiger Street. Long-story short, It launched into one of the most beautiful encounters I have had. You see, this typical looking guy from Melbourne ended up being a Muslim and didn’t believe Jesus was the Son of God. His knowledge easily trumphed mine. As he was yelling in my face due to a little too much alcohol, spilling his logic everywhere, I felt God saying “be still, stand firm.” So I stilled my mind and strengthened my spirit-not worrying about countering his logic. I knew God was fighting for me, I just needed to obey. And then God spoke in the midst of his talking- “You are going to have an encounter with Jesus that will blow your logic out the window.” After a few seconds, he answered with surprise in his eyes, “I believe you!” 🙂 I got to talk to Terry more about why I was there in the bars, and the message of freedom God has placed in my heart.
During the conversations, I saw Terry’s eyes change. No longer were they alcohol induced- but they were raw…real…unveiled. God’s spirit lives in me- he enables me and fights for me- and in that moment, Terry met my Jesus. I’m not saying he converted, but he encountered. In his words- “I came here to get f** up, and I got preached to. I truly will never forget you.” And I will never forget Terry, for I know deep down in my spirit, that I will see him again in the kingdom!
This month has been full of stories like Terry’s. Man after man that I encountered lived by logic and reasoning. They lived by the law of pleasure and happiness. Every conversation was filled with reasoning of why they didn’t believe in God or why they thought they were actually helping the bar girls- not hurting them. Through the many conversations, I learned just how marvelous this concept of faith was. I don’t have all the answers about God or life. His ways sometimes defy logic. Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5:
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
and again in 2:14-16:
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
This month, I saw God fight for me. Gone were the insecurities of not attaining enough wisdom. Gone were the fears of what man would think of me. I am learning more and more that my Abba God loves me and never leaves me. He equips me when I feel inadequate. He is my strength when I am weak. He is my God, and I walk by faith- not by sight.
I am walking away from Thailand with a new perspective, a deeper love for my God, an increased faith, and a greater zeal to see the chains fall off of my generation!
Father, I am so amazed at the transforming power of your love. I am amazed that you care about transforming every part of our being until we resemble you. Oh how you love us! Thank you for your grace! Thank you for never giving up on us- even when we sometimes give up on ourselves! Father pour out your spirit into Bangla Road. Breathe life into the dry bones! I pray that you would encounter the hearts of the men and women, that you would break their chains, and free them from the demonic strongholds and addictions in their lives. I pray that you would use future teams to show them the way to you! Father, I pray for the lost boys. I pray they would believe in you and know your love for them! Father, I pray my generation wouldn’t find satisfaction in anything but you! That they would know you are the one true God and that the only way to you is Jesus! I pray for more open doors for the women to escape the life of bars and prostitution. Thank you Father God for answered prayers! Thank you for freeing us, for loving us, for pouring out your grace and mercy in our lives! Thank you Father for this past month, and for showing us more of your power and your fierce pursuit of us!
