One hundred and ninety-eight days…
For being a girl who has lived at home all her life and the longest she’s gone without seeing her parents was 14 days, 198 days is a long time without them.
The World Race offers racers to extend an invitation to their parents so they can join them on the field for a week somewhere between months 7 and 9. For my squad, we were able to invite our parents to join us in month 7 while we were in Thailand!
I asked my dad and he said YES!
So on August 6th, 2016 in Atlanta, I said see you later until February 20th, 2017 in Chiang Mai.
During the Parent Vision Trip, we had the opportunity to do different types of ministry. There were three days and two nights of ministry. During the day, we could choose between slums ministry, monk chats, and ATL [Ask The Lord] treasure hunts. And during the night, we went to the local bar strip to do bar ministry since Thailand is such a massive hub for sex trafficking.
Naturally, I wanted to take my dad to the slums for the first day of ministry so we could play and love on the children there. To my disappointment, most of the children were still in school so that left about 25 racers and parents to play with 3 little kids. Well, our parents got a taste of race life and realizing that nothing ever goes as planned lol…
Later that night, we were able to visit the bars. After a quick walk through of the area, I thought my dad was going to say that he didn’t feel comfortable being there [which I later found out was right] but he didn’t say anything. He noticed a bar called “Dee Dee Bar” and felt called there because that’s what my nieces and nephews call me. We sat down and ordered some cokes but all the girls were busy with the only man seated at the bar. My friend, her mom, and I decided to start playing a game of pool one of the waitresses while my dad and some other parents sat back and just prayed over the area and night. During an hour and a few games of pool, we were able to really get to know and love deeply on one waitress. When we told her that we would be back the next night to see her, I started to see tears form in her eyes.
The next day, I really wanted to do a treasure hunt but when I tried to explain what it was to my dad, he didn’t sound convinced. But he allowed me to lead and do what I wanted to show him. There were 6 of us that showed up for that ministry. So we got together, prayed and asked the Lord to give us clues so that we could find the treasure that He wanted us to find. After we gathered our list of about a dozen clues [green, #32, tall brick wall, marble floors, many different animals, etc.] we set out on our hunt. We searched and were led around the city for almost 2 hours before we walked into a spa and found our treasure. No, it wasn’t massages although that would have been really nice. As we walked in, a sweet Thai girl came up to us and started asking questions about us. We then started asking her questions and found out that her name was Tip, which meant angel from heaven. We told her that she was our treasure that God wanted us to find that day and that she is beautiful, precious and loved.
Later that night, we went back to Dee Dee Bar to hang out with our new friend. As she was reminding us of how to pronounce her name, she let her real name slip. [If there is one thing to know about the sex trafficking industry, real names are rarely ever given out. Ever.] There was also another girl working that couldn’t have been over 15 years old. We tried to ask multiple people how old she was but they have all been trained to say 21 years so that it can seem legal for her to be there. Just like the night before, we played pool and just talked with the girls so we could get to know them better. The night came to a close, well for us at least, and we started to say goodbye to our friends. They were sad to hear that we wouldn’t be coming back the following night to see them again. As I gave them hugs, I reminded them that they are beautiful treasures that are precious and worth more than money can buy but most importantly, loved more than they could ever imagine. My heart goes out to these girls as I don’t know where life has taken them but I can only pray that someone else came along and shared Jesus’ love with them again and that they would want out of that job.
The last day of ministry brought monk chats where we were able to go to one of the 1,100 temples and sit down and question a monk about literally anything.
Back in Nepal, we were able to both ATL treasure hunts and bar ministry but to me then, they didn’t fill me. I left the treasure hunt feeling like we didn’t accomplish anything and left the bars very sad and like I didn’t do anything. However, the Lord is crazy good to his children and is also the Redeemer. He knew that I did not have the best experiences with both types of ministry and allowed me to experience them again with my dad. And this time, I fell in love with both of them.
The week came to a close and it was time to say see you later until the end of June. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word “bold” come out of my dad’s mouth anytime during the 24 years I’ve been alive. One of the final things that he told me was that he was so proud of me and that he can clearly see a new boldness in me. What he didn’t know was that 3 months earlier in Cambodia, I had that word spoken over me for this season in my life and that I was going to grow in my boldness.
This week was easily one of my favorite weeks on the race because I got to experience my Heavenly Father in new ways with my earthly father. I mean, riding an elephant with my dad was pretty awesome too…
Thanks dad for an unforgettable week in Thailand and for traveling literally around the world for me.
