I am excited for ministry this month. It is manistry/womanistry month! That means the men are all off doing their own ministry together and all the women have been put into new teams to do ministry together. The men of my team, Jay and Kent, will most likely come back to us as a team in Malaysia – unless there are team changes. For now, the women of my team have combined with the women of the Vagabonds and are one amazing team of 9 beautiful women. We have thought of many names to call ourselves for this month so there isn't a divide in the team, but we haven't agreed on anything yet.
We are going to be in a village doing outreach ministry. We will be living with the village people, working with them, and gaining their trust. We wont be able to share the Gospel for a few weeks until we gain their trust, but we will be able to hear some amazing stories and share our own stories.
After 100,000 hours of travel, ok that might be a little embellished, we arrived in Chiang Mai and will spend a few days in the city living in a coffee shop and having orientation. This orientation is such a blessing. We are learning about the culture and customs, which is great because this culture is so different from any other I have been to. We are also learning some basic Thai phrases and learning about the country. In a few days we will head out to live in the village and do some pretty awesome life out there with the people.
We will be farming and teaching the people about alternatives to putting themselves in the sex trade. I will find many people who embrace prostitution and will say that they want to be there. This is because Bhuddism operates on a system of kharma. If the people have good things happen to them it is because they did something good in a previous life. Same for bad things, they did bad things in a previous life. So the people in the sex trade believe they just need to deal with the cards they were dealt because they deserve them. Also, they believe that they are working for good kharma by sending money home to their families and helping them live better lives.
I will be able to show them that that is not the case. They don't deserve anything such as prostitution or working other horrible jobs. They don't need to subject themselves to such things. They deserve the Love of the Father. They already have the Love of the Father and just need to be shown that.
The hard part is that many of the people I will talk to have absolutely zero background knowledge of the Bible.
In Central America, most of the people are Catholic. So I just had to teach them about Jesus and that they didn't need to do works to earn God's love. Now, I will need to start from creation if there is to be any understanding at all. I am not in the Bible Belt anymore…..
So, we could really use some prayer. This will be a challenging month. Some specifics to keep in your prayers:
The people we talk to will gain our trust so we can share the Gospel.
These people will have hearts to hear and to receive the Gospel.
My new team will be united.
We will be able to understand the culture and not do things that are inappropriate or offensive.
We will be able to glorify God in all we do.
We will love well.
Much love,
Malerie
