Thailand, the place I have begun to embrace throughout the past twenty days. Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles, but I believe their smiles hide a lot of pain and display a sense of lost innocence, emptiness and desperation. The laughter that is heard displays a sense of falseness and overall there just seems to be a heaviness that hangs over this country.
The first week, our entire squad spent our second debrief in Pattaya, Thailand. Pattaya is a beach city and is a major tourism destination for many. However, it is known primarily for its nightlife and notorious red-light districts. Although this week was more of an opportunity for us to get refreshed and refueled for the next couple months of ministry, we didn’t allow that to hold us back from allowing God to use us right where He placed us. During our stay, we discovered that the song “God of This City” by Chris Tomlin was originally written in a brothel in Pattaya, Thailand. Our squad had the opportunity one evening before session to sing a declaration that greater things were yet to come for the city of Pattaya, outside of our meeting location surrounded by various bars, brothels and street vendors.
Since debrief, we have found ourselves in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a prominent sex tourism destination that is home to at least 5,000 male, female and child prostitutes. We continue to find ourselves surrounded by the red-light district which bears a sense of darkness and hopelessness. A place where victims are stripped of their identity, battered into gruesome submission and made to perform humiliating sexual acts beginning at such young ages. Some are abducted while many others are lured out of poverty or sold by their families.
We are working with Lighthouse in Action this month throughout their various ministries. My team is specifically spending time interacting with monks and visiting the ‘slums’ weekly. Ministry this month is really about loving on those we come in contact with and showing them Jesus by our actions. Emmi, a native Thai is the founder of Lighthouse in Action. I would encourage you to listen to her incredible story and heart behind the ministry online.
We have about a week and a half left here in Chiang Mai and I would ask that you be lifting us up in prayer as we continue to bring glimpses of light to a city of darkness. Please pray for:
- Divine appointments and conversations that we would be open to the Spirit’s leading whenever and wherever He may call us to go.
- Protection and a sense of peace as we are out and about.
- The Holy Spirit to continually guard our hearts and minds with pure love.
- Secure identities in who we are—spiritually, emotionally and physically.
- Sweet sleep and for our dreams to be of purity, the Kingdom and light.
