Last Thailand blog! I can’t believe how FAST it has gone by! I am SO sad to leave this family! They are like my own now :o(…but I HAVE recently found out where I am headed to next! Out team will be staying in Sa’ang Cambodia and working with two different ministries, one is called the Center for Hope and the other is the Center for Peace (http://www.coporphanage.com/), they don’t give us a ton of details, but we will be doing anything our contact needs us to do in regards to the children-teaching English, life skills, and whatever other needs arise…and most of all LOVING on them as most are orphans…I am SO excited! Please start pre-praying for the kids we will work with!
As for Thailand…God has laid such an incredible and Spirit filled foundation in just a few of the families we have had contact with, as a team we have truly had the vision that God is going to use these few Christian families and ministries in a POWERFUL way and like yeast they will spread throughout their communities! Please continue to pray for Thailand to know Jesus! The people and children (especially) are so LOVING both with words and actions…my spirit has been truly blessed just sitting in their presence. Many of the young girls here in Chaiyaphum are recruited into the sex trade industry (with a promise of a life of beauty and glamour) and so I am SO blessed and honored (as I type this I cry…) that God would trust me and my team-mates to pour love and affection into these precious girls, tell them of another Love so much greater than what we are capable of showing-whether it just be standing and hugging or sitting and coloring, you should see the gifts of candy and hair clips and letters and pictures they bring to us after school each day, how they fight for our affection and know us each by name (hmmm….sounds like my heavenly Daddy :o)). Work is hard to come by here and SO much more physically exhausting just to put food on the table, many of the Mom’s of the girls that come to see us each day live far away just to find work for the family and so these girls are raised by neighbors or grandparents…they soak up all of our affections like sponges, and trust me they give much more than they realize. It’s hard to see the eternal impact we’ve had on them, but I pray over each of them and that they are able to find work that doesn’t involve selling themselves. One of the ministries my sister is working at (http://www.shethailand.org/) actually teaches jewelry making for free as an alternative to the prostitution ring (I thought you would like that Carol!), check out their site and PRAY for them! I also wanted to say that Ram’s brother in law goes out each night for hours to set nets and then gets up at 4:30am to pick them back up (and it’s a DIRTY job) to catch maybe 10-15 fish for dinner. Today (and yes I actually PRAYED to get muddy-God answers prayers!) we went fishing in a rice field, this requires scooping out most of the water from one section of field to be able to catch the fish with your BARE hands!!! As a team and along with our fabulous squad leaders…we caught probably over 50 fish, not to mention the BARBED (ouch!) catfish…oh yeah, ya’ll aren’t going to recognize me when I get home! Haha! I’ll let the photos talk :o) LOVE you all!
“My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” ~1 Corinthians 15:58
