Okay so I don’t even know where to begin…apologies probably would be best.
I haven’t been able to/been too lazy too/any other excuse you can think of to write out my life via blogs so everyone back home can be a part of this craziness. I’ve updated my facebook stuff but have yet to really sit down and blog about it. There have seriously been at least 20 times that I’ve sat down to write something and I immediately become overwhelmed with what to write and how to articulate what’s going on. So here’s a brief rundown of the last few months of my life and my New Year’s resolution is to blog at least 2 times a week…IMAGINE THAT, we’ll pretend like I haven’t supposed to have been doing this for the last 7 months right??
First off, I’m a squad leader now…surprise!!! haha if you are asking yourself “what does this mean”…it means I need a lot more prayer. I was a team leader but God has given me the opportunity to lead the squad with two other flipping amazing people who need the prayers too (Aly and Nathan Salley)
Okay so I finally made it out of Africa and into the beautiful country of Thailand! It was absolutely gorgeous and our ministry was amazing for the month. We were able to work and do manual labor during the day outside of an orphanage and at nights we would hang out with the girls from the orphanage.
These girls were at high risk for being sold into the sex trade so the orphanage was set up as place for them to go, grow in a Christian environment, and be able to attend school. The girls were anywhere from 4 to 18 years old and they absolutely stole my heart. It was so hard to leave them and I would go back in a heartbeat to see these girls again. If you want to see what Christ looks like on this earth go to Chiang Mai, Thailand and hang out with these girls for a month. I love them…
If you want to know more or are interested in sponsoring one of the girls go to www.remembernhu.org I can vouch for the organization because I’ve seen the orphanages and what a difference it makes in these girls lives. I’ve often joked that I never wanted to have girls as a father but these girls changed my mind big time. Beautiful…
So we were also able to go out into downtown Chiang Mai and prayer walk around the bars and even go in and talk to some of the women that are already caught up in the sex trade. It is one of the most awful things I’ve seen face to face and was really hard to deal with. These women in one way or another are forced to work in these bars at night and “service” customers to support their families and they seemingly have no way out. We were able to go and just encourage them and really just try to give hope to a hopeless situation. I found myself many times getting really angry at the men who were there…some travelling from all across the world just to participate in the sex trade but God really showed me that they were just as lost as these women. It’s an awful awful situation and I encourage everyone to really do your due diligence and educate yourself about human trafficking because before seeing it firsthand I had NO CLUE…rough stuff for sure.
On a lighter note I ate some of the best chicken curry on the planet, had fish eat the dead skin off of my feet and rented a scooter for a few days andddd almost died a few times…sorry mom and glad I’m in the palm of His hands for sure. Also never realized how popular 7-11’s were in Thailand…there was one on every corner and I’ve been to it more in Thailand than my 23 years in America combined. Also celebrated Christmas with the girls from the orphanage…one I’ll never forget!! That’s pretty much the whole kit and caboodle for Thailand…
