Can you believe it?!?
We're in Phuket, Thailand!!!
After many hours of travel, we finally made it here to Thailand. Jeremy and I are both so excited to be here. It's such a drastic change from Central and South America, but we were ready for it. Our ministry this month will be very different from what we've done before. We're working with SHE Ministries, going into the bars in the Red Light district, talking to the men and women there. SHE Ministry's goal is to get the women out of the bars/prostitution and to teach them English or a trade such as making jewelry or giving them hotel training so that they can find another source of income. Through all of that, they are able to share the Gospel and have seen salvation come through it. They're able to disciple the women, helping them to grow in their relationship with the Lord as well as teaching them a skill or trade.
So we'll be coming alongside them and being their hands and feet in the bars. We had our first night of minsitry on Monday night (we're 12 hours ahead of Central Time) and it was definitely intense but really good. We had good conversation with a woman there and are working on building a relationship.
We're also helping in the manual labor department in helping on SHE's new piece of property that they'll expand onto. We're doing anything from painting to weed pulling to breaking up concrete.
WE NEED YOUR PRAYER!!!
This is an intense ministry and takes its toll on us. We need you to pray for us and our teams as we're out in the bars sharing Jesus' love – if you think of us from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M. please pray as that is the time we'll be in the bars since we're 12 hours ahead in time. Also, please pray for our marriage. We need to have a strong marriage to be effective and we don't want anything breaking us up! 🙂 Pray that the women would want to leave the bars (which they are free to do at any time) and that bars would just shut down. We're excited to see what God has here!
P.S. As an update to anyone who read our blog about Raquel….we ended up meeting with her on the very last day we were there. We actually had our bags packed and were ready to leave and she showed up at our house. We were able to give her information about a church that had an organization for teens like her and was willing to take her in. I have not heard yet if in fact she did go, but we were just so excited to see her alive and well and we're trusting God to do the rest in her life! Thank you all for your prayers as they are powerful and effective! Praise be to God!
