Thailand was a month of arts and crafts, bar ministry, amazing food, English and Thai lessons, bilingual church services, testimonies of redemption and restoration, lifelong friendships and so much more.
We spent the month working with a ministry called Samaritans Creations in Bangkok, Thailand. The ministry offers women leaving the sex industry an alternative means of income and skills that help them pursue their dreams and goals.
Their vision is to empower the women to not only support themselves, but eventually return to their villages to be catalysts of change and economic renewal in whole communities. The women are trained to create a variety of products that are then sold to help them move closer to financial independence.
During our stay with Samaritans Creations we taught the women in the program English and learned Thai everyday! Then for the second half of the day we worked on producing handmade dolls. Initially the ministry was commissioned to make 1,500 dolls representing various countries around the world. Every face was hand drawn and every strand of hair was individually stitched onto their little heads. The clothes were designed and sewn in the studio and hours and hours of work went into each doll. The work gave me a much greater appreciation for handmade crafts, to say the least. By the end of the first batch, the ministry was commissioned to do an additional 1,500 dolls so overall roughly 3,000 dolls passed through our hands during our month long stay.
Once or twice a week we went on bar outreach and loved on women still working in the red light district of Bangkok. We would visit one or two of the bars in areas known for prostitution and buy the women drinks to buy their time and tell them how valuable and loved they are. It was especially cool to see Thom, one of the women who had gone through the Samaritans Creations program go back into the bars where she once worked to tell others that they are worth more and that there is a way out if they want it.
Towards the end of the month, a coup d’etat was declared in Thailand and the country implemented a curfew. We were downtown at the bars when it was set in place. Traffic halted to a stand still and we had to walk 2 miles towards home before we finally found a taxi willing to drive us the remaining mile before the city shut down. It was amazing to see how instability in the government affected an entire city, and nation. As we rushed home that night I felt the panic in the atmosphere as commuters tried their best to get back to their homes, some as much as an hour or two away.
Another highlight from the month was the amazing food that we tried. Pad Thai was $1 at almost any of the street vendors. Almost everything was fried. I tried bird egg on a stick and octopus. It was also where I ate my first cricket. The fruit was super fresh and readily available from men who wheeled their carts up and down the streets with bells that drew people like the music of an ice cream truck.
Another fun fact for the month: I got my first short haircut, and a fish pedicure 🙂
Thanks for following my adventures! God Bless! 🙂
~Chelle
