13-hour flight to Tokyo.
6-hour flight to Bangkok.
12-hour bus ride to Chiang-Mai.
Welcome to Thailand.
The first week in Chiang-Mai has been a week of orientation to both the World Race and also the culture of Thailand. We are really blessed this month to be living above a coffee shop. Meaning that we can come down and get awesome coffee and food whenever we want. We also have beds this month! But…it’s 90 degrees and 500% humidity, and no air conditioning, so it’s pretty miserable. Welcome to the World Race.
I was walking through one of the central streets in the red light district of Chiang-Mai yesterday to get a Coca-Cola. It was in the middle of the day, and even at this time, girls were trying to entice me and one of my teammates to purchase them. The human trafficking industry is multi-faceted. You have some girls who have been tricked into moving across international borders for a fake job offer, and end of being so poor and lost that they are forced to prostitute themselves. There are girls who have been stolen from their home countries and are being forced into sex-slavery. Then there are girls who have chosen to enter into the industry. You can’t always tell which girl falls into which category. Why? Because they can’t get out, no matter how they got in. I feel saddened for these girls, and then I begin to feel anger as I look around at the men who are walking around purchasing these girls. They are young, they are old, they are foreign, they are locals.
Where is the justice on these men? Where is the justice on this industry?
Then God reminds me that he has given the world mercy. There is still time. There is still time to have grace on these people, and to introduce them to this abundant love that God desires for them to experience through a relationship with Him.
Financial Update: I have a third deadline coming up on October 1st where I need to raise another $2,800. Please pray about partnering with me in this ministry and help me continue to establish and grow ministries in countries all over the world.
