I have a few confessions to make.
Confession: Asia wasn’t a continent that I was super excited for. I never really had Asian friends growing up, and wasn’t as interested in Asian culture as I was in other cultures. I knew nothing about it coming in.
Truth: One day in, barely even leaving our new home, I fell in love.
Confession: I was looking forward to Africa so I could hold the precious babies that I had grown to love.
Truth: I want to take home as many Asian babies that will fit in my backpack.
Confession: I wanted to work within the sex trafficking ministry in this country in order to love the girls and men into a better life. I got put in coffeehouse ministry with college kids.
Truth: I was teary eyed through our entire orientation talking about the various ministries they do around Chiang Mai and am thrilled to work wherever the Lord leads. Loving college students in a coffee shop is a lot of what I did at home, and I get to do it now in another country.
I have fallen in love with Thailand. We have the incredible opportunity to work with Lighthouse In Action through YWAM this month in the city of Chiang Mai. There are 2 ministries that branch off from this, Love Acts and Won Generation. Both ministries are all about sharing the love of Christ through actions. The primary religion in Thailand is Buddhism, and only about 1.5% of the people are Christians. Christianity has been preached here for nearly 188 years, and still, that statistic remains. People understand the love of Christ here through how people live better than through what they say.
Love Acts: This ministry goes into bars to build relationships with women and men involved in prostitution and who have been victimized by sex trafficking. They go there many days a week to just love on these people to show them that they are seen, that their lives are worth more than how much someone will pay for them for a night, they are worth death on a cross. Their value cannot be bartered, it was settled by Jesus, they are invaluable. They are consistent in meeting with them in hopes that one day they can share with them a better life and get them out of the bar scene. There are also kids on the bar strip that are in forced labor starting as young as 3 years old. They build relationships with these kids and allow them to be kids again. They also work in the slums loving kids and sharing the Lord with them. Many of the kids that live on the bar strip, also live in the slums.
WonGeneration: This ministry is actually run through a café called WonGen Kafe, across the street from Chiang Mai University. Here, they build relationships with students, share Christ with them through their lives, teach English, etc. They also have a dorm above the café where students can live, and some of them even come from the Love Acts ministry. WonGen is the central hub where the whole organization comes together. The café is a wonderfully inviting place where students, travelers, anyone can come to be loved and invested in.
I thought coming into this, that I would want to be working with the Love Acts ministry, but as always, the Lord knows better. It has been a joy to go to the campus to meet people, tutor my English students, and form relationships with the people that do life here. I have made some Thai friends and hung out with them and it’s been a privilege to share the Lord through my actions.
I love that ministry is not a step-by-step thing here. It’s not boxed in. It’s just dropping our expectations and doing life with people. It’s investing and loving through who we are in Christ and letting that be example enough. The people will see the hope and joy in us, and they will ask questions without us ever having to say the Lord’s name because they will see the Lord in us.
To learn more about Light House in Action, watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erv-4z8uK9w
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