Written on 01.19.13
We just had our debrief with Emmi (our contact for the month) and I'm super encouraged about how we spent the month. I said my highlight was doing something new/ something I would never do on my own. I lived with a Buddhist family out in the country and worked in the bean and rice fields alongside them. I said my lowlight was not feeling the same passion about the ministry I was doing versus the ministry being done in Chiang Mai [lighthouseinaction.org –Love Acts, the bar ministry]. I also couldn't see how our ministry was on the prevention side of human trafficking, which Emmi spoke directly to when she told us that he finally agreed to give her 1 of their 6 acres to try out holistic farming! We lived down the street from him and had our team dinners at his house. 🙂
Why the excitement behind this? 1. She has been praying for this to happen for 3-4 years now & 2. this is a form of substainable farming, which is exciting far beyond how good it is for the fields. Emmi enlightened us with what this meant for the village. She told us how there is a 3-4 month period after you plant the rice until it's time to harvest. In this time people look for extra work, and traffickers offer that (particularly when their crops fails and they lose money from that). They offer supplemental income for the price of their daughter (or son, in some cases). But with holistic farming, there aren't these waiting periods and if one crop does poorly, they have the others they can sell instead! It's perfect! Emmi emphasized how huge this was and how it could totally change the community, farming wise and in preventing trafficking.
She encouraged us so much, as many of us were left wondering if we even made a difference and she reassured us that we did and her dad called us really hard workers. She told us that even when we didn't know what we were doing or making an impact that's when the Holy Spirit worked and did things that we could not see, using our faithfulness and obedience for His glory. Emmi also pleaded with us to pray for the Thai people to have a changed mentality. Frequently the Thai people have a skewed perception about foreigners, particularly white men. They believe these men are the answer to their problems… if they are able to marry one, they will live happily ever after.
Also, often parents think they are catching a break when the traffickers come around offering work and a better life. She told us to start praying now because now is the time when traffickers start going around (now – April is a major time). Emmi also told us that traffickers often come around when kids are graduating from 6th and 9th grade! [6th grade?? That's 11-12 years old!]
The other week when she went to another village with my squad leader, Carly, a woman came up to her asking if she wanted her daughter to work for her since the woman saw that she had a "farang" (white person) with her. It broke my heart, even more so when Emmi told us that her stepsister is a trafficker. She thinks "I help them and they help me."
Emmi always brought it back to Jesus though; she didn't leave us in the state of heartbreak and hopelessness, where I would naturally tend to stay after hearing these things. She reminded us that just our presence in that village made a difference, as we were lights in a dark place. We brought hope as we know hope Himself.
[a section of "Bar St"]
Please join me in praying for these sweet families that we lived with, who don't know Christ yet. Pray that the substainable farming flourishes and leaves no opportunity for traffickers to offer an extra income to families. Ask Him to convict the hearts of the "John's" [the male customers] on Bar Street. Pray against the injustice of human trafficking and call on the Lord to be a refuge for those already being trafficked.
[Hebrews 11:27 & 2:8-9] <3
