Sawad De Ka (Hello) from Thailand!
I hope your 2016 is off to a great start! It is so crazy that we are already heading into Spring! Last month marked the halfway point of the world race and I am now almost at the end of month 7…Time is flying by! It seems like every month goes by more quickly. I remember this time last year when I was praying and waiting for God’s provision for this calling to be fulfilled. It’s so beautiful to look back on that season, now that I am living in the fruit of that provision. I just want to take the time to say how much I appreciate your support! I have been able to experience the Lord’s heart for the nations in so many ways and be the hands and feet of Jesus to those His heart burns for with love.
Last month I had the privilege of partnering with a local pastor in Cambodia! Pastor Somnang is a man on fire for God who is constantly doing the work of the Lord in many different facets. His family owns both a small outdoor restaurant and a clothing store through which they empower local women with service and textile skills. In addition, he has created a home environment for a number of abandoned children from Thailand. We spent the month pouring into the kids through teaching English, VBS, and fun field trips. These kids exuded the joy of the Lord and embraced us from the very beginning. One of our favorite pass times outside of the classroom were tickle wars and volleyball, which actually involved a flat soccer ball and laundry rack :P. Since we were living in the slums by the railroad, we also had many opportunities to build relationships with the kids in that community. On the weekends, we got to take all of the slum kids over to a nice soccer complex! They may be small, but that didn’t stop them from kicking my butt! Overall, it was an amazing month filled with a lot of joy and laughter. The more time I spend with kids on the race, the more I have begun to understand why the Lord says we must make ourselves like children to enter into the Kingdom of God. After all, He is the Father.
Fasting forward to the present, I am currently in Thailand!! The beginning of the month I joined a team to do sex trafficking ministry in Pattaya, Thailand. Pattaya, Thailand is one of the largest sex trafficking hubs in the world. I’ve never been in such a spiritually dark and heavy environment before where women are being sold everywhere and men stand on the streets passing out menus with the women on them. Advertisements fill the streets offering any “type” of women you could imagine from Asian, to Indian, to Russian, to Persian…..the list goes on. There was a mix of women who were voluntarily stuck in the industry due to difficult and manipulated circumstances, women who would employ themselves to often fund their drug addiction, and those who were involuntarily trafficked in which the businesses were enclosed. There isn’t a single area of that city that isn’t saturated in sex tourism and that shockingly isn’t an exaggeration. I’ve never seen so many older, white men tourists all in the same city walking the streets alone with lifeless gazes as they seek out women as purchases like they don’t possess any real sense of humanity. There was just so much brokenness. Broken women and broken men. While it was heavy to do ministry in this area, it was beautiful to see the Lord’s light breaking through the darkness of sex tourism. I got to partner with the Tamar Center which is a program that offers free English, textile, cooking, and beautician skills. The Tamar Center owns a café, hair salon, and gift shop through which, after providing skills training, they employ women in the sex industry to provide an alternative way of making money.
Furthermore, they also provide counseling so these women can not only recover financially, but also emotionally and spiritually. We spent our evenings going into the bars and building relationships with the women. We got to learn about their lives and speak encouragement over them. Before leaving we would invite them to check out the program which starts out with free English classes. One night we also bought roses and passed them out along with the program information to the women who line the streets on Beach Road, who employ themselves often due to drug addiction. It was so beautiful to see these women, who appear to be so detached from a distance, come alive when they realized we weren’t engaging with them because we wanted something from them. All of the women have stories worth hearing and hearts worth seeing. I got to really feel the Fathers love for His daughters in that week. His love is so unconditional and there is not one of these women that goes unseen by Him. What an honor it was to get to be the eyes in which some of these women got to experience that.
The second half of my time in Thailand is being spent in Bangkok, where I am currently! The rest of this month I am working and living in a refugee community in the outskirts of the city. This is a part of the city is known for its outcast community. Refugees, specifically Vietnamese refugees, are shunned by society here in Thailand. The majority of these refugee families came here after being persecuted for their faith. Many of these families have suffered trauma and imprisonment from the Vietnam government which lead them to flee across the border to Thailand. Currently, many of these families are waiting to be approved for refugee status by the Thai government. Because these families are unable to work without refugee status, they are living in very harsh conditions. We have the privilege of helping implement free educational programs for the children in this community so they are able to learn despite their circumstances. In addition, we do a number of home visits which are primarily for the sake of encouraging and praying over these families as they wait for their status approval. Given the circumstances, the environment is easily plagued with discouragement, so any way we can bring fun and positivity to the community, we do it……and sometimes it involves a food fight with cake and a lot of frostingJ! Despite the difficulties these people face, it is beautiful to see how strong of faith they have. The houses are constantly filled with songs of worship….the kids, adults, and elderly all join together in singing almost every day. This community has really shown me that our joy does not hinder upon circumstances when it comes from a God who is constant through it all.
Next month I will be going to Malaysia, our last country in Asia! Still can’t believe it will already be month 8! Thanks again for your constant support and prayers—if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here!
Prayer Request:
SLEEP!: While this has been an awesome month, the 90 degree weather with no Air Conditioning has made it almost impossible to sleep at night. I’ve probably been averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night…so if you could just be praying for rest, that would be great!
Thanks with lots of LOVE!
Mardie 🙂
