So far Thailand has been completely different from Malaysia. I don’t mean in terms of environment or what we are doing for ministry, which yes, is very different, but rather spiritually speaking. As soon as I got off the bus in Malaysia I felt a heavy burden. I knew that something was not right, especially after coming from Japan where I was truly awakened to God’s presence. Christianity is a closed religion in Malaysia. You can be arrested for evangelizing to Muslims and a very small percentage of people are Christian. Actually, the past few months have been like that. Japan 1%, Malaysia ~9%, and Thailand 2%, give or take a few. The primary religions are Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. With Japan being the lowest, you would think it would feel like the most oppressed spiritually, but that isn’t so. Being in Malaysia wasn’t just spiritually tough for me, it seemed like there was a pattern throughout everybody on the squad. For the first time on the race, the group pretty much as a whole was unable to sleep most of the time and had vivid dreams and nightmares. It was interesting to find out that it wasn’t just our team. Even physical health was a continuous issue. With that said, the church we partnered with was full of the Spirit, and the people we met were amazing Christians. We really loved loving on the girls at the orphanage and enjoyed our time during the month. With that, again, we struggled spiritually. Something just didn’t feel right. Then came Thailand. We had all been praying for more unity and joy within our team and for a deeper month with God. We arrived to our ministry sight on January 5th. We are staying with a Pastor and his family in Tak Fa, who is partnered with YWAM. It is in the central region of Thailand. Our main ministry is going into schools and teaching English from anywhere from 80 to 200 children and then in the afternoon sharing the Gospel to the same group of children. We also will be helping with the church, helping out with community events and outreach, and leading youth services. Day 1 before ministry even started, our host invited some of the younger folks from the church over. We all sang together and then they sang in Thai, which was beautiful. Then we all prayed together, at the same time. The Holy Spirit was moving up a storm in that room and all of the sudden, BAM! I started speaking in tongues. The next day, one of the men who is 29, came by our house. He is so sweet and sadly he lost his leg 5 years ago due to diabetes. His family is not Christian, and he struggles with them over coming to church. Even though they don’t condone it and it is difficult for him to get here, he still comes. Amazing! He came by just to see what we were up to and Rachel invited him in to hang out and listen to some worship music. She then got prophetic words and prayed over him. During this time, two other members of my team spoke in tongues for the first time. Rachel and Bethany both have been speaking in tongues for a while, so Rachel hosted a tongues talk for us that night. We had one member left in our team who had not yet done it. Rachel explained what it was, why it’s important, how it’s used, etc… At the end we laid hands on the last person and sure enough, she began speaking in tongues. Our entire team now speaks in tongues. All within 24 hours of arriving at our ministry sight. Let’s just say that our prayers worked for a deeper month with the Spirit and as a team. There has also been so much laughter and joy and our host took us to a monkey sanctuary and sunflower fields. I am so excited for what is in store this month. The people we have met so far are so Godly, the food is amazing, our ministry tasks are so fun, and we are just all so ready to move, be broken, be restored, love on some people, and share that Good News.
