Women of Refuge

Women of Refuge
 
            Thailand was such an amazing place. For our squad Thailand was month 9 on the race and used as “manistry” month. “Manistry” on the World Race just means that it is a month where the men on the squad go and do ministry without the women. This month and the way our guy to girl ratio is on our squad, all of the men on the squad went to one place to work in Phuket, and all the girls on the squad got split into 6 different girl teams 5 of which were working with the same ministry in Chiang Mai.

            My team was one of the 5 girls teams in Chiang Mai, and we were working with Lighthouse in Action ministries.  If you had asked me 6 months ago, I would have told you that I hoped there was never a “manistry” month. Being as an all girls team scared me. If you are a girl you understand the fear of drama, and just having a group of girls around all the time. I was also a first time team leader, which put a little more pressure on me enjoying the month. Looking at the month I see how much of a blessing having an all girls month is. Even though I dearly love our men on our squad and missed them every day, I really saw the fruit of being able to just be around the ladies for a month!

            In Chiang Mai, we were working with Emmi Khanthana, who is the head of Lighthouse in Action ministries. There are three parts of the ministry and our teams were split through out all three of them. We worked in bars in the red light district, in a café across from a university, and also a village to build a rehabilitation retreat center.  Emmi was such an encouragement to us all. The very first day we arrived she challenged us to really seek the Lord for what work He was leading us to for the month. She has such a passion, and desire for her community. She is very loving, and caring and her greatest desire for us this month was to truly press into God into a deeper relationship with Him.

            It was interesting to know that the work she really craved to be done this month was a lot of manual labor. She was praying for teams with men, and wound up with teams and a total of 28 girls. Lets just say, I think she was a little disappointed when she first looked at the group and the tasks at hand, and got a little discouraged…
            But I was not. I had full trust that this group of Godly women could pull off anything. This month helped me see the power and the strength women really can have. I have always been an advocate about women and being able to do the same things as men, but this month went beyond the physical. This month we all became women of refuge. I saw so much encouragement, so much love, and so much just passion from all these women. The teams that went out to the bars did just that to the women, lady boys, and “johns” they met, the girls at the coffee shop shared their joy and love with the guests that came in and the girls that worked in the café, and especially the team out in the village, they too showed so much encouragement and love to the people they met in the village.  They not only showed these things to the people at their ministry sites, but to the whole group, we all lived with or near each other, and just came together as one body, and really honestly showed refuge to everyone.

            This month was a really powerful month, and I was so thankful for it. I had a great team, and great teams surrounding me. We did a lot of work, and really fell in love with Chiang Mai, and the people we met.

            Here are some things us women got to do 🙂