After training camp and launch we had two weeks left in Thailand to do ministry. This month partnered with Lighthouse in Action – which is run by a wonderful woman called Emmi and has three main outreach programmes:
Zion Cafe
Love Acts
X-Life
Love Acts
During our first week of ministry we stayed at Zion Cafe in Chiang Mai and did a variety of the Love Acts ministries.
Prayer Walks in the Red Light District ?There are over 5,000 male, female and child prostitutes in Chiang Mai. One team would go out both in the morning and evening to pray over the bar streets – praying for both those working in and visiting the bars. In the evening one team would also stay back at Zion and intercede for the teams who were out in the city.??Monk Chats?We would go into the temple during Monk Chat and get to know the monks, their way of life and Thai culture – they are incredibly open to talking. The majority of the Monks have gone down this path to enable them to get an education.
Slum Ministry?Many of the children in the Red Light District come from the slums. We would go into the slum area of Chiang Mai to build relationships with the children – love on them, teach them English, play games and sport with them.
I enjoyed the variety of the ministry but found myself wishing we had more time to minister to these people.
X-Life
We then headed out to villages for our final week in Thailand – the villages are part of Emmi’s ministry and are what she calls X-Life. Jayu Warriors and the Overcomers headed to a village four hours north of Chiang Mai called Mae Ai. This is Emmi’s hometown and where her father still lives.
Whilst in the village we helped to create ditches in rice fields to drain one field and flood the next. We also built up the sides to rice fields and cleaned the streets of the village. We lived with a host mum called Jaan and she was one of the cutest ladies I have ever met. On the first day we went out to the rice fields she gave me and Victoria P a hat to wear because neither of us had one. I also had my first experience of using a squatty potty – which was not as bad as anticipated!
Again, the week was over far too quickly and I would have loved to spent more time in the village getting to know Emmi’s father, Jaan and the locals better. However I feel privileged to have been a part of so many different ministries in Thailand in the two short weeks we had after training camp and launch.
Whilst in the village the Jayu Warriors came up with a creed for the team.
As part of this team I will strive to remain joyful, prayerful and thankful for this is God’s will (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
With Christ as my example, I will love you like he loves me (1 John 4:16, Hebrews 13:1).
Led by the Holy Spirit I will sharpen and refine you because I love you (Revelations 3:18-21, Proverbs 27:17).
Be strong and do not be afraid because God is with you, God delights in you and God rejoices over you (Zachariah 8:13, Zephaniah 3:17).
You can find out more about the work that Emmi and Lighthouse in Action does by visiting their website: http://lighthouseinaction.org/
