For Month 9, three of our five D Squad teams partnered with Emmi Khanthana’s Lighthouse in Action ministry, supported by Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Thailand. Emmi oversees three ministries within Lighthouse in Action: X-Life, Love Acts, and WonGeneration. She also helps manage Lighthouse Guesthouse, a short-term lodging for missionaries staying in Chiang Mai. For more info, check out: http://www.ywamthai.org/lighthouse.
Lighthouse Guesthouse
Emmi would be considered a “radical Christian” because she has a huge heart to advance His kingdom throughout Thailand, a country deeply entrenched in Buddhism. Her main focus is loving on prostitutes and the gay/lesbian community as well as reaching out to university students and young workers. I loved Emmi’s style of evangelism in that we were to show Christ’s love through our actions; she is a huge proponent of relational ministry and rapport building.
Emmi was a joy to work with, and she is by far the most goofy and hilarious contact I have had thus far on The Race! She always had a huge smile on her face, and her trust and dependence on the Lord was incredibly beautiful. Part of her ministry is Wongen Kafe, a coffee shop in downtown Chiang Mai that is also home to an English club and hosts local bands and concerts. The third and fourth floors of the building comprise a dormitory for missionaries and some of the coffee shop workers, too. She refers to herself as “just a coffee shop owner” because the ministries she runs becomes unsafe for her if certain people find out what she is doing, especially in the bar scene.
Emmi and I
Wongen Kafe
Emmi’s Ministries:
WonGeneration:
Sammie Jo’s team lived in the guesthouse above Wongen Kafe for the month and worked in the café alongside the regular staff. They built relationships with Chiang Mai students and other coffee shop-goers and helped teach English classes.
English students
One of the workers at Wongen
Love Acts:
Kate’s team lived at Lighthouse Guesthouse for the month and went out to the bars/clubs each night to build rapport with prostitutes and show these women what it means to be loved by the one, true God.
One of the Lighthouse Guesthouse rooms
One of the bars Kate's team went to
X-Life:
Month 9 ministry was a unique and atypical experience for our team. We drove 3 hours north of Chiang Mai to live in a rice field village in Mae Ai, where Emmi’s father’s home is. A large portion of prostitutes originate from villages because young girls are forced to leave their families to earn money at the bars and clubs. Emmi’s vision for us was to live and serve alongside Buddhist families in the village and demonstrate Christ through our day-to-day living. Our main ministry was manual labor in the mornings and children’s ministry in the afternoons.
Our schedule from Monday through Saturday (Sundays were our free days):
7:30 AM – breakfast at our host family’s home
Our host parents: May Dang and Paw Long
8 AM to 12:00 PM – manual labor (working in the rice fields, painting a house, cutting garlic, hunting for crickets in corn fields)
One of the rice fields
Cutting garlic with some village women
Painting the door frame
Gin's new house
Searching for tunneled crickets in the corn fields
12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch at our host family’s home
1:00 – 4:00 – free time
4:00 – 4:30 – team prayer and intercession
4:30 – 6:00 – play with the village kids (VBS, games, drawing, basketball, badminton)
Drawing with the kiddos …
they were quite good at drawing the village moutains!
Badminton!
Basketball time!
6:00 – 6:30 – Dinner at Emmi’s father’s home with the whole team
Emmi's Dad
6:30 – 7:45 – Team feedback meeting
Even though we were not living in the lap of luxury by any means, I thoroughly enjoyed village life. One of the huge blessings was being immersed in beautiful scenery. Every day when I was walking in the village, I would tell God, “Ahhh! I get to look at your beautiful creation every day! So cool!” We also feasted during every meal. No ministry contact has made meals this legit on my Race, and I did not take them for granted. God also blessed us with great host families; they cared for and protected us like we were a part of their family.
The room Sisk and I slept in … not devoid of lizards, ants, mosquitoes, and other giant flying things
Beautiful Mae Ai
Alys, Jo, me, and Sisk with our host families, Emmi's Dad, and Mam, our translator
Good food!
If I had to sum up the month in one word, I would say it was a time of just “being" … being sons and daughters of the Lord, living life, and loving others. It's that simple.
