Her
name is Sam. She is 25 years old.
She has a 5-year-old daughter.
Her favorite color is blue.
She loves spicy food. She
is Thai. She wants a foreign
husband. She lives in Chiang
Mai. She works at New Star bar
& she is a prostitute.
This
week I have been dating a girl named Sam.
As a part of our ministry, we have been forming a relationship with her
by asking her to hang out with us.
This week we went
to the pool, got massages, & went out to dinner.
We got to hear her life story and why she moved to the city. She told us that her dream is to open
up a beauty shop. She told us, “I
don’t plan on working at New Star all my life.”
Her 5-year-old daughter does not live with her because she
wants to have a better job first and does not want her daughter to see the
ugliness of her life. She wants a
better job, a better life, and to be a better mom.
At the bar playing jenga with the girls
But as
we visit her in the bars at night, she is desperate for a “customer“. She constantly says hello to foreign men in effort to get
their attention. & when
there are no takers, she slumps down and says that no one wants her. Her value is rooted in whether or
not someone buys her.
God has been teaching me a lot about planting, watering, and harvesting
seeds.
Last
month another World Race team was here and working in the bars. One of the girls named Jess had been
building a friendship with Sam.
She told Sam about God and about His plan for her life. She told her that even though she had
to leave, other “friends” would come see her in the months to come.
So after I visited the New Star bar for the third time, Sam asked me if I knew
Jess because I reminded her of Jess.
I began to realize that Sam saw the same Jesus in me that she had
seen in Jess.
Not only that, but the seed that Jess
had planted, I was now watering.
This
realization encouraged me. Because
I knew that the ministry I am doing here will be continued. The doors that have been opened for me,
will allow someone to go further than I have gone.
Maybe you are like me and can get discouraged by the lack of harvest in your
life. You want to see change, you
want to see movement, and you want to see people move forward.
But
sometimes you are there to plant, pull up weeds, remove stumps, and clear the
path for someone else. Sometimes
you are there to water, prune, care for, and grow the fruit for someone
else. & Sometimes you are
there to harvest, reap, and receive the blessings of someone else’s hard work. But remember this….
All
3 are important & all 3 are needed in order to reap the harvest.
Her name is Sam. She is a
daughter of the most-high King.
She has been paid for in full by Christ’s death on the cross. She is redeemed. She is His beloved. She is His bride. She once was lost, but WILL be
found.
Another girl from the bar
Helena was afraid to go next
Us with the bar owner
We are going to be awesome at pool after this month!
The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.
John 4:36-38
It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have-Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:7-11
