Month one, Thailand, has come and gone. How did that happen? With the first few weeks dedicated to training, we ended with about a week and a half of ministry.
This month, our ministry included a focus on a few different areas, and was split up throughout the day. We were partnered with Emmi, who is the founder of Lighthouse in Action. See her video below to see more about this incredible woman’s story and her heart behind her organization.
Monk Chat!
In the morning, we walked to a Buddhist temple, Wat Chedi Luang, for Monk Chat. This is a 2 hour window, twice a day, which the temple sets up for Monks to speak with tourists to practice their English. We went every day from 10-12 in an attempt to build relationships with the same people, instead of starting over again with different people every day.
We were able to meet up with Savonn multiple times. Savonn has been a monk for 9 years and was a novice 3 years before that. During one of our conversations we were able to discuss the similarities between the 10 commandments and the 5 most important rules, known as the 5 precepts/virtues of monkhood. They’re surprisingly very similar. The 5 precepts are don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal, abstain from sexual misconduct, and don’t drink. We appreciated Savann’s interest in learning more about Christianity, and desire to share his knowledge about Buddhism.
Prayer Walking!
In the afternoon, we would walk to a bar street in the slums. A typical type of ministry in Chiang Mai is bar ministry. Teams head out to the bars in the evenings and build friendships with the ladies working in the bars. The ultimate goal would be to get the connected with our ministry contact who can offer them other opportunities for work. Before our ministry contact is comfortable sending out teams into the bars, the street/bars must first be prayed over for several years. The current street that has been approved for bar ministry has had teams praying over it for 4 years. It was only just recently that this street was actually opened for bar ministry.
My team was the first team sent out to pray over this new street. It’s interesting to think that it will take several more years of teams going in as we did before anyone can go in for actual bar ministry.
Something I’ve struggled with throughout the month is understanding that what we are doing really is ministry, even if it doesn’t necessary look like my pre-conceived notion of what ministry is. It’s also hard not seeing direct results of our work. Our squad mentor, Daniel, said it best when speaking on our Prayer Walk ministry: We can bring light to these places simply by being present. We each have the Holy Spirit inside of us and can bring God to some of the (spiritually) darkest of places.
