My team of ladies. Doin' some dancing in the bean fields
Wake up at 6:30 am.
Eat white rice and veggies for breakfast.
Get dressed. Put on our sweaters, rice hats, and scarfs.
Venture out into the cold to meet up with the rest of my team in preparation to head off to work for the day.
What work looks like, We never know.
One day we slop around in mud, the next we dig up fields with hoes, and the next we are scooping and spreading poop for the day.
Definitely not what I expected GIRL month look like but I'm learning that nothing is ever what we expect it to be on the race. Thankfully, I actually enjoyed the manual labor a lot of the time.
Despite it being a great month with the girls, I had a hard time staying motivated because I really didn't see how we were spreading the gospel or spreading God's Kingdom in a place where we couldn't talk about the gospel, We didn't speak each others languages and despite the many many teams that had come in and out of the village over more than 3 years there were still ZERO Christians in the village.
I was so glad to finally get back to WonGen Cafe in Cheng Mai for our debrief with Emmi, the head of Xlife ministries and daughter of one of the families we stayed with in the village . However, I wasn't expecting what we were about to hear.
This was our little brother for the month. His name is Ohm 🙂
She asked about our month, asked for highs, lows, and feedback. When we were finished telling her what we liked and our common feelings of not feeling like we were doing anything for the kingdom she told us
that the week we were leaving was the first week of "buying season" CHILDREN buying season.
It broke my heart to think that some of the children we just spent a month with could be getting sold into sex trafficking as you read this. Then, through tears she began to tells us what God had done through us this month.
For 3 years, Emmi has been praying that her father would listen to her ideas about trying sustainable farming aka basically rotating crops in a way that would allow the locals to profit from their farms year around rather than just one season a year. In turn, families wouldn't need to sell their children to traffickers in order to sustain their income.
We were the first all girls team that has been in the village. After Emmi's dad saw how hard girls can work he e-mailed her to say he decided to let her use part of the land to try sustainable farming!!! It was a complete surprise to Emmi and she said this is the biggest break through she has had in her ministries in over 3 years.
This could be the beginning to the end of trafficking in Mae Ai Village. I hope you will join Emmi and our team as we begin to pray for the new project that will soon begin in Mae Ai. I also hope that this can serve as just as much of a reminder to you as it has to me that God is using you for something great even when you least think so.
UPDATE i STILL NEED TO RAISE $4,165 BY THE END OF THIS MONTH. That's just a couple weeks. SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP ME STAY IN THE FIELD PLEASE CLICK THE SUPPORT LINK HERE. EVERY BIT COUNTS!!!! click here to support —–> Send Support
