Won Generation (Won Gen) is a ministry located just outside the big, beautiful campus of Chiang Mai University. I had the opportunity to work with the team from Won Gen for some of the time that we were ministering in Thailand in the month of April. Each day for lunch myself a few other Racer gals would go to one of the school’s cafeterias and meet students attending summer classes there. Through the initial meeting, we would then invite them to come to the Won Gen that evening to meet up with us again. Let me confess that I have never done this kind of ministry before and I’m not usually the type of person to strike up a conversation with a total stranger. So, needless to say, this was a bit outside my comfort zone. My first attempt at meeting students did not go so well. Anna and I spotted a couple of girls that had full plates of food and asked if we could sit at their table and they said it was okay. It didn’t take long for us to figure out that the two young girls were not very fluent in English as I had mistakenly assumed that all Thai university students would be. Each time we attempted to ask them a question such as “what are you studying?” or “how old are you?” we would get a response of giggles. What little bit of information we were able to pull from them was that they were first-year freshmen studying business. Unfortunately, the conversation didn’t really take off from there and the girls eventually finished their meal and departed. It was my first try, so I tried not to get too discouraged. As the days went by, some promising connections were made and invitations to Won Gen were handed out. At times we were ignored once seated. Other times we were not even permitted to sit with them. Our last day on campus, we left the planted seeds in God’s hands. After all, this was His ministry, not ours.
What is Won Gen? It’s a hangout targeted for college students where they can have a shake, play some table tennis, listen to music
, or just chat with other people. The hope is that the staff or volunteers, such as we were, would build relationships with the students that come into Won Gen. All of the staff are Christian and have a passion for young people and sharing Christ with them. Each day at 4:30 in the afternoon, we would sweep and mop the floors, wipe down the tables, and set up the furniture for the opening at 5. Sadly, we happened to be in Chiang Mai the same time as the students summer break, so the influx of people was small. Even still, we enjoyed our time with the Won Gen staff and meeting some of the local students. There are plans in the making to expand this ministry so that it stays open everyday, all day. In the future, the staff would partly consist of women that were once working in the ‘red light district’ and have decided to earn an income through alternative means. There is a lot of potential in this ministry because it reaches out to multiple demographics. Please pray for Won Generation and for the faithful staff, that God would bless them and their ministry to reach more people than they ever thought possible.
