Greetings from Chiang Mai! It’s been a WILD month and one that has I am SO excited to share about! Between splitting our time between two ministries in Thailand and taking a week of regular ministry off to serve with our parents, Thailand has by far been the busiest month of the Race. And I’m going to be honest; I wasn’t too excited for the two weeks we’d spend in Chiang Mai. Having left an incredible ministry in Southern Thailand after only a week and eagerly anticipating the arrival of my mom, I wanted to be everywhere else but where I was. Not surprisingly, I was quickly proven wrong and am now entering into a season of ministry that gets me HYPE.
It all started with ATL. To introduce you to a common World Race term, ATL is Ask the Lord. Essentially, ATL is ministry in which you, as you can probably guess, ask the Lord what He has in store for You. This can look like prayer and intercession, worship, door-to-door ministry, talking to customers at the local coffee shop, etc. It’s a dedicated time of complete obedience.
I’m going to be completely honest and tell you that for the first half of the Race, ATL FREAKED me out. To not just listen to God’s voice but obey it? No matter where it took you? This was a concept that was foreign to me. It was an action that required a confidence and faith in God that I simply didn’t think I possessed. I needed ministry with a clear plan and structure, thank you very much. But this time, something was different.
Before we even sat down for the first day of ministry, I had a feeling music would be an integral part of the next step of this Race; on the first day of ministry, this impression only solidified itself:
“Speaking to one another with songs, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” – Ephesians 5:19
“Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts” – Psalm 105:2
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” – John 4:24
Verses about worship were right in front of me, occupying every bit of my mind. And it became clear: worship was my ministry this month. There was instant clarity of how God wants me to spread joy through music; to bring joy and love to people who need it with a language that has no barrier. This was my opportunity to invite the Holy Spirit into places it hasn’t been invited into before – to stir hearts that haven’t been stirred before; and to do this through the gift God has given me confirmed that THIS was God’s calling for me this month.
I ran this by some squad mates who wanted to go into these unreached places with me and before I knew it, we formed a band! (band name tbd). In the midst of trying to figure out what performances would look like (street performing? Coffee shops? Going to the slums of Chiang Mai?) we took a break to drop another teammate off at a coffee shop. And as a result of getting extremely, extremely lost and walking through a part of the city we never would’ve touched had we gone the right direction, we came across the Praise Café, a coffee shop owned by a local Thai Christian. With a name that sparked our interest, we walked into the café and walked out of the shop having our first gig!
The next day we set up shop, bought our Thai Milk Teas (my new favorite drink that I blame any weight gain on) and jammed and worshipped in a coffee shop for over two hours.
Of course we threw in some guilty pleasures of our own like “Free Fallin,’” “Send Me on my Way” and “Un Poco Loco” from Disney’s Coco but for a majority of the time, here we were in Thailand, worshipping in a local coffee shop. WHAT?! Local customers were watching us praise the Lord, taking pictures and videos and at one point, we were even joined by the owner himself on our cajon (pictured above). To have live music fill his shop, music that glorified God and invited the Holy Spirit into this space, which is just a year old, was the greatest blessing to this man. Just as God promised, our gifts were used to invite the Holy Spirit into unreached places of Thailand. Asking the Lord led us to bring His joy to a place we never would have found on our own. God’s will was being done.
And with less than a week of ministry left, our band has picked up two more gigs! (one of which is at Into the Woods Café and has asked for a hybrid of worship and…. Wait for it… DISNEY MUSIC) The opportunities to worship throughout Chiang Mai and constant confirmation that the Lord is using music through us to stir up hearts and open ears; and it’s exciting! To so confidently use the gift God’s given me to follow Him brings me an excitement and ownership of my identity in Him that I haven’t experienced before. These three gigs are just the beginning of Asking the Lord to lead us to unreached places, confidently letting Him use us to speak a language that has no barriers.
It turns out, ATL done right isn’t scary at all! Because when we allow His perfect love to take control, He casts out all fear.
