“For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place.”
Psalm 132:13
Pi Emmi (PEE Em-EE) had operated the Won Gen Café for four years, serving as a safe haven for the nearby University students. After studying in America, she realized how much people liked to gather in coffee shops, and the beautiful, healthy sense of community they created, so she started one of her own. Won Gen Café, she named it, establishing a “Won Generation” for Jesus. She marketed her café towards the University students, giving them a safe, Kingdom focused place to gather, away from the temptation of bars and nightlife.
However nearly two years ago she felt called to take her ministry to the next level, and pursue what was really on her heart. Bar Street. The Sex Tourism here tugs tremendously on Emmi’s heart. She’s watched the industry take over the lives of close friends and family. She wanted to move her café closer to bar street, she wanted to create a safe haven for not only the university students, but for the women who were caught up in the night life. A place where they could go and experience what real community was, what real love was.
She found a businessman who was selling his six-story storefront location, right at the end of bar street. It was perfect. Big enough to house a café on the bottom floor and several rooms for lodging above. It was right next-door to a nightclub and a two-minute walk from the rest of bar street. However, he was asking $40,000USD and she could not afford that. Emmi shared with him her heart for Thailand and it’s people, her heart for this ministry and the girls, and after hearing her story he decided to cut the price; $15,000USD and the property was hers. The man gave her 6 months to raise the funds. Friends began to fundraise, churches started to donate, Emmi was very confident and full of hope. However, as the 6 months quickly came to a close, things started to fall apart. Partners began to leave the ministry, donations stopped coming in, and Emmi began to question if she should continue. Everything began to fall apart around her, and she considered walking away from the ministry all together. Then the man called her.
“Alright Emmi are you ready to move in? Come pick up your key!”
Emmi was humbled instantaneously. “I don’t have it,” she confessed. But she offered to pay him everything she had to compensate for the time he waited.
“Emmi” He said, “I don’t want your money, I want you in the building.”
Just like that God had picked her up off the floor. When she thought it was over, when she thought she had gotten it all wrong, the Lord confirmed every dream, every word, every hope she ever had. This is where she was supposed to be, this is what the Lord had planned for her, and He had His hand and His blessing all over it.
The coffee shop needed a new identity, a new beginning, Zion Café, she decided; the footstool of God, the place that cannot be shaken. This was her new shot, her second chance, to follow God’s plan patiently, rather than race ahead anxiously.
“Passion, without wisdom, is stupid.”
Emmi and her staff have been here at Zion Café for almost two years now, and the ministry continues to grow everyday. She has World Race, YWAM and other ministry teams flooding through her hostel doors on a weekly basis; helping around the café, ministering to girls at the bars, visiting the nearby slums and investing in the local monks. The name of the actual ministry is Lighthouse in Action; spreading the Light of the Kingdom with their actions first, rather than their words. Emmi has taught us how to love well, how to love on these women at the bars, to show them their worth and their value. Ask “how are you?” instead of “how much are you?” Invest in them as human beings, and the beautiful daughters of God they truly are, instead of the degraded products society makes them out to be.
Emmi has touched my heart in more ways than one. I am so inspired by her story and her heart for this ministry. In fact, Emmi and Zion Café have struck a special chord and passion inside of me to create a similar ministry of my own, (I will touch on that in my next entry).
I love Emmi, I love this ministry, I love the girls here, the staff, Chiang Mai, I love Thailand and it’s people. This will be a hard month to leave. I will miss being greeted by Pi Emmi’s big smile each morning and being encouraged by her words of wisdom. I will miss the morning hugs from Pi Neuk (PEE Nook), Mai (MY), Aom (OM) and the rest of the staff. I had been asking God for a community that I could invest in and that would invest in me, I had been praying for a ministry that would tug at my heart and ignite a passion within me, and in one very short month, God answered all those prayers.
I am so thankful for Emmi and Zion Café, Lighthouse in Action, and the rest of this beautiful staff. I will miss Thailand and these people more than I can say. But I am walking away from this month with more passion, insight and direction into my future. May God bless Emmi and this Café abundantly; make them the beacon, the light in this dark place. Make them the hope for this area, and extend their prayers further than they could ever imagine.
If you’d like to learn more about Emmi, Lighthouse in Action, and Zion Café, please visit their website at www.lighthouseinaction.org .
