Oh yes it has been a while… we left
Costa Rica the 2nd of December and arrived in Nicaragua
for our debrief. We spent a few days resting; well if you want to
call that rest. We had worship most nights or mornings along with God
pouring more of himself into us. We had times of prophesy, times of
uprooting, times of unloading burdens, times of tears of joy and
tears of sadness. I am coming to understand every month I will have a
hard time leaving the relationships I had built. But God is good and
is enabling me to travel and build multiple relationships around the
world. We left Nicaragua and began the grand journey to Asia. We flew
a total of 27 hours and had about 9-10 hours of layovers. YUM. Best
few days of my life. Kidding. We then spent 2 days in Bangkok,
Thailand to get oriented into the culture and have an orientation
about YWAM (youth with a mission). YWAM is the organization that
provided our contacts here in Thailand.
As for team Increase we were split up
girls and boys, all the men are in northern Thailand this month doing
village ministry and the woman are split up into groups of three all
doing different things in different cities. The girls on my team
joined the girls of Logos and we are in Pattaya, Thailand. Our
ministry varies daily, but our main focus is the women in
prostitution here in
Pattaya. There are several streets lined bar
after bar after bar, filled with woman selling themselves to survive,
pay for food, provide for their children, or fund their families who
live in the villages. We also will be doing prison ministry, handing
out bibles to Chinese tourist and english classes for woman. We are
working with the Tamar ministry here in Pattaya. A group of woman
living by faith and revealing the light of Christ to a hurting city.
The way Tamar works is incredible. I will do my best to explain how
things work; the workers at Tamar (and us) go out into the bars and
create conversations and friendships with the woman, we tell them of
free english classes provided at Tamar. We also tell them of job
opportunities other than prostitution. Tamar has a bakery, a hair
salon, and a card making job. If the woman choose to come out of
prostitution they are given 3 months of training for their new job
and also receive prayer. Several times during their training Tamar
brings in speakers who tell about Christ, salvation, freedom,
redemption, and true love. Most of the woman who have come out of the
bars and into Tamar have received Christ!! YUP. I know this is a ton
of information and most of it is all jumbled together but the gist is
not to shove Jesus in their face, but to love them and tell them of
more opportunities to provide for themselves and their families. Once
they choose out, then they have opportunities to hear Jesus and
receive Him. The things I love about the Tamar center is how they are
going to love on these woman and accept them no matter if they want
Jesus or not.
Our first night here in Pattaya a few
of us went out into the streets where we would be working. An
estimated 60,000 woman in Pattaya are in prostitution, and I felt I
carried the burdens of most the woman I saw that night. I could
hardly breath, I felt as if someone were sitting on my chest. I saw
men who were lonely, drunk, and searching. I saw woman who were
hiding behind a barbie doll image. Most of the men in the streets are
westerners, some doctors, some family men, some young, most older.
But praise the Lord who speaks, the God who longs to give us
revelation of who he is and how he loves. God spoke about those men
and woman, they are all his. Each person in those bars were
hand-crafted by our King. If God didn’t have a plan or purpose for
them, they would not be here on earth. Praise God that He is bigger
than my imagination, praise God for a life filled with new
revelations. How thankful I am that I serve a God that is not made
from human hands, or of metal and gold, but I serve a God who speaks,
moves, heals, loves, and lives!
Just a few prayer points
Thailand is around 95% buddist. No
Christ, no God who speaks and loves.
Woman in Pattaya in prostitution about
60,000
Men and tourist coming to Pattaya, that
God would rest in this city and the men would feel the presence of
the King while they are here.
Tamar, for rest for the employees/for
God to continue speaking into their lives/for exponential growth of
the woman coming into Tamar
Pray for our team here, to have the
eyes of God and not our own. To feel and see what He sees in this
city and not play off our own human feelings and emotions
Pray protection
Pray guidance and for the Spirit of God
to blow our minds
I apologize for taking forever to write
another blog! Hopefully I will be able to write more soon! Thank you
all for every prayer and thought. Happy Holidays!!! LOOOOOOOVVVEEEEE
KINGDOM COME
