The sun is soaking in my skin, I have to squint my eyes to protect them from the brightness of the day. I can’t believe that I’m in Kenya, sitting in the sun and enjoying a good book. A new month brings forth a new country, unfamiliar to the country I was just in a few days ago-Thailand. Thailand feels unfinished, relationships built with the women in the bars unfinished but I find comfort in knowing that the Real Life girls who will be there for two months bring joy into those bars and God’s love. I find comfort in knowing that the women we met are left in good hands, great hands even.
What was Thailand like for me? Thailand was wonderful. I felt in my element with the ministry-going into the bars and ministering to the women working in them, building relationships and bringing the Love of God into those bars. I am a relational person, I love building relationships with people and I love pouring into people, just as much as I enjoy being poured into. I was also able to build relationships with some of the shop owners at the front of the bars, two of which were named Juan and Phi. Both boys are from Nepal, Juan who is 16 years old lives in Thailand with his sister who is 23 years old and pregnant. He works every day to provide for him and his sister. Phi is 21 years old and he lives in Thailand alone, he has lived there alone for four years. I was able to build friendships with both these boys. They were searching for more, hungry for love. Both lonely and in an unfamiliar place to home. I feel like I left a little bit of my heart in the shop that they worked at. I made it a point to visit them as often as possible, even though sometimes I seemed more like an annoyance to them then anything. Ha. The last night we were on the streets of the Red light District I was able to prayer of the boys, I am now trusting them in God’s hands.
God gave me a vision for the Red Light District in Patong:
The shop owners and workers at the front of the bars were coming to know the love of God. The love of God was sweeping through the shops like an ocean. It was spreading. Fast. The women and men working at the bars and the tourist going into the bars were being swept over by the love and grace of God without even knowing. The shop owners were at the front of the spiritual battle taking place in the bars. How beautiful!
Thailand also proved to be the hardest month for me, I felt more stretched in my faith then I ever have before. God told me at the beginning of the month to read through Job, he was getting me prepared for something big.
On June 12th I got an email from AIM saying that I needed to contact home as soon as possible. I had found out a few days before that my Mom had a lump under her left armpit that she thought was an infection. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, something wasn’t right. I called home and found at from my Dad that the lump under her armpit was cancer-melanoma. My heart sank. I began to cry. Helpless, I felt helpless.
“I lean not on my own understanding, my life is in the hands of the maker of heaven.” Just a few days after they found out about my Mom’s cancer, my parents were suppose to leave for a month long mission trip to Peru but they had to cancel it.
On June 23rd I got an email from my Mom that said the MRI of her brain showed a “tiny” melanoma on her brain. Surgery to remove the cancer in her lymph nodes under her arm was postponed to do radiation on the melanoma in her brain.
June 24th was our last night of ministry and I was wasn’t feeling like going out after hearing the news of the melanoma on my Mom’s brain but I knew that God wanted me to. Justin, Daniel, Melissa, and I had become friends with a guy named Chris from Australia who worked promoting a disco bar for tourist. We would go into the bar every night and use the bathroom so that he would get commission off the cards that he gave us for free entry. On our last night of ministry he told us to go in and say hi to his girlfriend and mother who were sitting in the back of the bar. We went in and met Julie, his girlfriend and his Mother who was named Linda. I felt an instant connection to Linda. I told her that we were going to leave for Kenya in a few days and she told me about when she visited Kenya many years ago and how much she loved it and longed to go back. She told me all about her life and her great loss that she had experienced, her husband’s death and son’s. Her demeanor reminded me so much of my Mother’s. I told her about my Mom and her cancer. I was able to prayer over her and encourage her and she poured into me. I felt so close to her. I knew this was the reason that God called me to go to ministry that night. God always honors our obedience to him! Our God is such a good God!
“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, Move from here to there and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
Matthew 17:20
Brothers and Sisters, join me in prayer for my Mother. On Monday the 11th at 2:00 pm my Mother is scheduled for surgery to remove the cancer under her arm, then they will start radiation after the cancer has been removed from under her arm. Our God is a God of miracles. Our prayers are powerful, your prayers are powerful!
Shout out to my Momma-I love you so much Mom and I am praying for you all the way from Africa! I can’t even come close to imagining how much the Lord loves you considering he loves you about a billion times more than I do…and I love you A LOT!
