This month we have many types of ministries we can be involved in. We work in the coffee shop and invest love into the girls who work there who have given up their lives of being bar girls and now walk in the light of Jesus love. We also walk to a near by slum and play soccer with the kids in the afternoon. We can go on Saturdays to monk chat where we literally get to sit and talk with a monk about anything. We have formed a marketing team to help promote the shes worth more campaign. And then at night time we walk one the street over and walk into the red light district of Thailand. We go into the bars and show every girl, lady boy and man the love of Jesus. One of our host requirements that we follow this month is that before we do bar ministry at night we go on two prayer walks that day. To be honest when the month first started I wished that I could just use that time playing with a child in the slum or serving in the coffee house. But if there is one thing I have learned this year is that God loves to surprise me.
Prayer walks have now become one of my favorite parts of the day. During our morning prayer walk a few girls and myself go to a lake and run laps making it a prayer run. I must say every day I am amazed at the strength God has given me to be able to run and surprise myself.
But right as we start running I set a goal for myself. And I am always nervous that I won’t be able to reach the goal I set even if I have done it before.
Well this morning, I was finishing my first goal of running one lap around the lake without stopping when I heard God say “keep going. You are not done yet”. So I did! I nearly doubled the goal I had set for myself.
At the end of the run I set one last goal for myself of running from point A to point B. Well as I neared point B I heard God ask me “why do you put limits on what I can have you do? Keep running. So I did and again I was amazed at the super natural strength God gave me. I know that strength did not come from me. As I finished and grabbed some water Jesus told me that I need to stop setting limits on how he can use me in the bars. God knows no limits, so who am I to set one for what He can ?
Ministry at the bars does not stop to showing love to the girls caught in the sex trade industry. It pushes past the limit and means ministering to the man trying to buy her. It means showing love to her pimp who sits in the corner and watches girls be bought like objects. Just like my run does not stop when I say it does, or when I reach my purpose, ministry does not stop at what is easy. It pushes past all limits and barriers of man and goes deep.
We are called as followers of Christ to go deep and go wide. Break every chain. Knock down the limitations set by the world and let grace and love overflow into the lives of those we meet. Whether it’s the young girl being sold to fill someone else’s void. Or it’s the man so lonely and in need of some type of attention he buys a girl to fill that void. Even if it is the pimp in the corner chasing after money and wealth to fulfill a void in his life. There is no limit on who to love when it comes to brining the kingdom of heaven to earth.
What limit have you put on God? How can you rely on His strength to push past it?
This is the running lake.
Also to know more about our ministry this month and the she’s worth more campaign check out http://www.lighthouseinaction.org
