Let's start at the beginning of the month. Our ministry here in Chiang Mai, Thailand is called Love Acts. Love Acts is just a one of the five ministries that they do here in Chiang Mai. It is run by a half Thai, half hilltribe woman named Emmi whose journey to Christ is nothing short of astounding. I will tell you about that sometime, but today is about the fruit of her labor. Single handedly, she has started Love Acts, which goes into the bars and builds relationships with the women, Wongen Cafe, which does outreach to the college students, X-life, which sends missionaries into the homes of the people in the villages to share their lives and do trafficking prevention, the Change Program, which sponsors the women wanting to get out of prostitution, and yesterday she put a down payment on a house to start a boys home.
As you know, my team has been working at Love Acts with three other teams. Four days a week we go into the bars just to talk with the girls, play pool with them and show them that there is real love out there. We were specifically told not to evangelize. Not because we're afraid of the world, but because in Thai culture, if you don't have a relationship with someone, it's a major turn off and they will immediately write you off and can cause problems with the bar owners. However, we are encouraged to share that we are Christians anytime, and to share our faith if the girl brings it up. So naturally, we've been praying for opportunities.
So far we have been able to have a conversation with two women about Jesus. One wasn't even one of our girls, but another teams. We were passing by and stopped to talk to our friend from A squad, when Ping* invited us in to come and pray for her. That was awesome as she is a devout Buddhist and knows that we pray to Jesus. The second time was the night before last.
We have had a busy week, and I mean busy. One day, after we had been out all day with Not*, we were actually headed home at like 7. We get almost all the way back and Travis pipes up, "I want to run something by you. I really feel like I need to go back and talk to Not tonight." Both Caitlin and I stared at him for a minute. My feet felt like they were falling off (it's about a mile or so to bar street and we walk it down and back about three times a day), I couldn't think, and I wasn't sure how long my eyes could stay open. Still, I had told Travis just the other day that if he really felt the Lord laying something on his heart that he should speak up and not just pray silently that the Lord tells Caitlin and I the same thing. So I told him I would go with him even though I did not feel the same tug (and wanted to cry at the thought).
Thankfully, the Lord had it all worked out. One of our squad leaders, Lindsay, came by our room and asked me if I was going out again, since I was changing. I told her the story and she volunteered to go instead. Can I just say, thank you Lord? Lindsay got to go to the bars a second night, and while she was playing pool with the bar owner, Travis had the opportunity to talk to Not one on one. He just came right out and started talking to her about her faith. See, she believes in everything, so that she's covered. She has a Chinese talisman around her neck, Buddhist tatoos, and used to wear a cross too. Lead by the Holy Spirit, Travis just came right out and told her that Jesus was the only God and went on to share his testimony and how much He loves her; that He sees her as beautiful. She broke down crying and said that she's been thinking about Jesus for a while, that she has known Christians and thought before that He is different, but that she was too afraid to do anything about it. She told Travis that no man has ever shown her love in the way that Travis has, and she believes him that it's from Jesus. Right there she prayed to accept Christ. This precious 40 year old woman, who has two kids, and has been working in the bars for years, but has a dream of cooking in her own restaurant, has hope. And not just the hope of something better, she has the Living Hope inside of her now.
I am sorry I missed it, but I know that the Lord tugged on Travis' heart and not mine for a reason. Not needed to hear it from him, she needed to hear from a man that she was beautiful, one whose walk she has seen and whom she trusts not to abuse her. Today we are taking her to lunch at Wongen cafe, and she's going to get the opportunity to talk to Emmi about joining the change program (which also teaches Bible classes). And the icing on the cake? They are in desperate need of a cook 🙂
*Name changed for privacy reasons
(Second pic – Not yesterday, a changed woman 🙂 Last pic – the first day we saw Not. Temple pics – first is one of the oldest, second one is pretty new. There are over a hundred of these in the city proper alone; Buddhism has had ahold of this culture for a long time)
