Wow! Ok, I know it’s been a while since anything has surfaced about Thailand. My apologies, it’s been crazy.
Let’s get things up to speed:
We’re now in a Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s a pretty big tourist location in Thailand. It’s surrounded by beautiful mountains and were tucked away in a street corner very close to the Red Light District here in Chiang Mai. Prostitution is a HUGE industry in Thailand and Chiang Mai is no exception.
It’s All-Squad month! This is the month on The Race where the whole squad stays together in one location. We all have different ministries we are involved in. We stay together and get to build relationships outside of our teams inside of the squad.
Each month carries its own challenges and definitely this month one challenge is to maintain relationships with your teammates while still engaging with the squad. It’s difficult because it’s so easy to run off with your squad ages ALL the time rather than having a balancing act.
We’re staying in a coffee shop/hostel called Zion Cafe. It is a coffee shop run by a women named Emmie. She is a native Thai who uses the coffee shop to give girls an alternative to working the bars and becoming prostitutes. We have three areas of ministry and since we have six teams here on All-Squad month, we have two teams for each ministry.
Here’s a outline of each ministry:
1. Monk-Chat/Slums:
This ministry alternates between attending “Monk-Chats,” which are temple sponsored times in the day where the monks facilitate conversations to anyone who wants to come, it’s somewhat like a panel I believe. You can ask them literally anything so it’s a great opportunity to build relationships with the monks and show them Jesus’ love.
Slum ministry is very simply loving on the kids of the slums to show them they are not condemned to what they believe they are doomed to, which for most of the girls is prostitution. It’s a preventative ministry.
2. Coffee Shop Ministry:
Coffee shop ministry is where two teams help work in the coffee shop with anything the owner or employees need. It could be serving guests, taking orders, washing dishes, rearranging closets, cleaning the hostel everyday, painting walls, creating a media base for the cafe… It’s literally anything that they need.
A bigger part of this ministry though, is loving on the employees that work at Zion. They are Emmie’s ministry. They are either former or potential victims to being prostituted. This is where my team is working. It’s loving on these girls and SHOWING them the love of Jesus rather than preaching at them. It’s showing them that it’s worth staying for, as many of them can still be pulled into prostitution.
3. Bar Ministry:
Bar ministry is just like it sounds, you go out to the bars with your team and build relationships with the girls, ladyboys and patrons of the bar scene. It’s all about loving them, showing them who Jesus is rather than telling them. They don’t need to hear about it, they need to see it. I could go on about the bar ministry. I love the hearts of our two teams going out and loving these people. It’s what Jesus did, it gets me so pumped to know Jesus is about loving on sinners rather than preaching at them.
But, I can go on, but it’s going to be more powerful if you watch a video. It’s called Nefarious. It shows this world of prostitution for what it is. I can’t tell you where to get it, but if you really want to know, I’m sure you’ll find it. 😉
Now for a couple interesting things that have happened in Thailand!
A group went cliff jumping!
I got in a sliiight moto (moped) accident going up a mountain! Yea, that happened. (I’m good, simply put…God is the ultimate protector!) lesson learned.
We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last night by playing soccer at 1am in a parking lot!
I have literally never seen so many pairs of Beats headphones in my life… They’re all fake! haha!
We visited an international church Sunday. SO GOOD!
A group went Elephant riding. Wish I could’ve gone! So cool…
There will be more blogs to come. I promise. I’m getting better at blogging. I love everyone who’s joined me on this trip! If you haven’t yet there are plenty of opportunities. Prayer, support, sharing the word. It’s awesome! Love you guys!
