Note: This
blog was started on 12/11/10 and is just now being posted. Sorry for the delay!
There are a bunch of blogs I began in Thailand that I never finished or posted,
so they’re gonna be coming up soon. Don’t worry, I’m still in Cambodia… but
these are a few stories from last month that never got told. 🙂 Enjoy!
We’ve been in Pattaya, THAILAND for about a week now and my
heart is already ignited for the land and its people. This city is in desperate
need of redemption and God has been giving me His eyes and heart for
individuals and issues here. I am broken, passionate, and ready for more. I’ll
go into more of all of that soon, but first here is some background information
on the city and the organizations we’ve been working with.
Pattaya, Thailand:
The city stretches 15 km along the Gulf of Thailand and is
located about an hour and a half south of Bangkok. It began as a small fishing
village but greatly expanded when it became an official tourist destination for
American armed forces during the Vietnam War. Shops, services, bars, and hotels
grew to meet the demand and it’s now one of the most urbanized cities in
Thailand; it’s also an international hot
spot for prostitution. Over two million tourists visit the city each year –
the majority of them traveling to check out/ experience the infamous “nightlife�
it has to offer. Numerous slum communities are hidden in the pockets of Pattaya
as well, where there’s a striking disparity in the standard of living and many
of them have little education or hope. It is a city in darkness and in
desperate need of the hope, healing, freedom, redemption, light and LOVE of
Christ to flood its streets. That’s why we’re here… to bring KINGDOM to this
land. 🙂
We’ve been partnering
with a few different organizations while here:
Step Ahead –
Pattaya
Our main ministry this month is with Step Ahead – “a Christian-based integrated community development
organization, focused on partnering with the working poor to see comprehensive
and sustainable transformation� (www.stepaheadmed.org).
Step Ahead has projects all over Thailand but the one in Pattaya is a
micro-financing business designed to help women get out of poverty and
prostitution by making high-end ITSERA leather purses. “ITSERA� means FREEDOM in Thai, and that’s exactly what these bags
represent. The women are hard workers and extremely talented; the designs
they produce and the quality of their hand-made bags are remarkable. Check out
their website if you’d like to learn more or purchase one!
Our team actually lives upstairs from the
factory so it’s nice to be able to see and visit with the women each day. In
the mornings we have a devotional together where we worship, share testimonies,
study God’s word, and pray with them. We also teach English three times a week
and practice having conversations with them… it’s a lot of fun! Most of them
are new believers so it’s encouraging to see them pressing into all the Lord
has for their lives. They’re precious!
Project LIFE –
Pattaya Slum Ministries
This organization is associated with YWAM
Thailand (Youth With A Mission) and is located right next door to Step Ahead. Their
heart is for reaching the needs of vulnerable children and families in the slums
of Pattaya. Many adults work either collecting recyclable garbage or working in
the bars, often leaving children neglected and unloved, so their primary vision
is to see children transformed by God’s love. Check out more here: www.projlife.com/pattayaslumministries
We’ve visited a few slums with them so far and
it’s been awesome! They go to a different slum each day of the week but are
consistent in their visits, so the children know when to expect to hear God’s
word, feel His love, and get some nourishment. We bring toys, clip their
fingernails, bandage any wounds, and then tell them about the Lord! We sing Christmas/
worship songs in both English and Thai (they get a kick out of that!), play
silly games, share Bible stories, give out Christmas presents, and feed them
dinner. It’s so fun to see the joy in their eyes and simply love on them.
They’re beautiful.
Last night we went to three different slums
singing Christmas carols and handing out tracts explaining the true gift of
Christmas and how much Jesus loves them. It’s been sweet to love on these
children and families and try to show them how precious and valuable they are
in the eyes of the Lord; they are not
forgotten. I learned how to say “Jesus loves you� in Thai (Pra-Yesu
ra-coon) and now it’s my favorite phrase wherever I go. I can’t say much, but
telling others about the love of Christ is enough. 🙂
Project LIFE –
Tamar Center
The Tamar Center offers hope, healing, freedom, and a new
life to girls and prostitutes in Pattaya. They partner with different churches
to show the love and compassion of Christ by going into bars where women are
selling themselves and tell them about God’s love and the opportunity to change
their lives. The center provides a way out of this destitute lifestyle by
offering various jobs in their card-making program, hairdressing salon, bakery,
restaurant, and other income-earning activities. They also train the women in
life skills by offering English lessons and Bible classes.
The vast majority of women in prostitution here come from
villages in northeast Thailand (Isaan). After experiencing freedom and
transformation through Christ, these women requested that they go back to their
villages so their families could be changed as well (since young girls are
often raised with the mindset that prostitution is their only option and an
acceptable profession.) After two years of working with those families and
villages to build relationships, seek reconciliation, and start children’s
programs, the center has opened their first Prevention Center in the Isaan
region – praise God! The center will initially offer childcare for single
mothers, followed by job training and education – all with a Godly foundation. Check
out their website for more information, sweet testimonies of what God’s been
doing, and the ability to buy some of their beautifully crafted hand-made
greeting cards: www.projlife.com/tamarcenter
We’ve visited the center a few times, worshipped and prayed
there, spoken with the leaders and women, and enjoyed some delicious baked
goods. 🙂 They’re doing some amazing work and it’s so encouraging to be a part
of it!
PHOP – Pattaya House of Prayer (associated
with Project LIFE and the Tamar Center)
This place is legit! It’s an (upper) room anointed with the
presence of God located on the fourth floor of a building in the center of a
street of bars, prostitution, and darkness. Every Thursday night they have
prayer meetings where people can come and worship together, speak out
prophetically about what God is doing/ saying, declare freedom, life, and
redemption over the city, and simply soak in the Lord’s presence. It’s an
incredible place.
We met up with a missionary couple from Canada (Craig and Sherri) at the first prayer
meeting we attended and were able to work with them sporadically throughout the
month after that. They are simply incredible – Spirit-led and passionate about
the Lord and His kingdom coming to earth. They do weekly outreaches/ “treasure
hunts� on the streets of Pattaya and we were able to join in for one of them. Treasure
hunts are a form of prophetic evangelism and basically consist of praying about
what God wants to do with you that night/ who He wants to bless, going out and
looking for the “clues� God has shown you about specific people, and then
speaking life, truth, Christ’s love, and anything else the Lord is telling you
over them (and praying with them too!) The night we ministered with Craig and
Sherri God showed up in crazy ways and it was a phenomenal experience to be a
part of; it left me longing for more. (See my blog “Treasures on the Street�
for more stories on this night.)
The PHOP became like a second home while in Pattaya; we were
often there and ended up doing a period of 24-hour prayer in the room leading
into Christmas Eve. God again showed up in BIG WAYS (see my blog “Confirmation
in the Spirit�… that amazing act of God happened in the PHOP!) Craig and Sherri
prayed and prophesied over each one of us as we were kicking off our 24-hour
prayer session and it was a remarkably powerful experience. During our prayer
time I experienced new levels of freedom in worship, went outside on the
balcony and prayed/ prophesied over the city streets, received visions of the
redemption God’s bringing to the people and country, and simply had some
incredible time with the Lord. Yea, the PHOP is anointed… and God is on the
move in crazy ways. 🙂
Christmas Crusades/
Outreaches/ Parties
Yup, we had a lot of these throughout the month! We
basically traveled to different villages, schools, cities, and churches to
share the love of God, give our testimonies, do some skits, and sing Christmas/
worship songs in both Thai and English (yea,
we learned how to sing in Thai! See my Christmas video blog and you’ll get
a sneak peak of Team Beloved’s Thai singing skills in action, haha.) We
preached about the true meaning of Christmas, gave out presents, and shared
about the greatest gift of all: JESUS!
It was incredible to witness people experiencing/ receiving the Lord for the
first time in their lives and to see the joy, life, and freedom come into their
faces, hearts and lives. Praise the Lord for transformation and His unfailing,
revolutionary love!
Orphanage/ Home
Visits
Mercy House –
This is an orphanage we were able to visit a few times during the month; we
played with the kids and showed them the abundant LOVE of their heavenly Daddy.
They are precious!
Agape House –
This is a home for people living with HIV/ AIDS; we were able to visit the home
and sing Christmas songs in Thai, share some scripture, encourage and tell them
how much they’re loved, and pray for them. It was a blessed opportunity to love
on these beautiful people that Christ has not forgotten about, even if most of
society has.
As you can see, God
is doing a lot in Thailand. That’s a little preview of what we’ve been up to
but more in depth stories on some of these experiences to come… stay tuned! 🙂
