Thailand
A country full of non-believers, a country full of monks, a country that sells their children when they need more money, a country that worships a statue.
Thailand was such an incredible month words just can't describe it. My team's ministry in Thailand was a variety of things including VBS type slum ministry, English teaching to children who work the streets down by the bars, and bar ministry, working with the women who work there and the men who visit the bars. Every time I walked into the Red Light District, while most people felt heaviness, I felt so much joy and hope of what is to come for these people. I was so happy every night I was able to go out and really just be a light for God in such a dark place. I have so many amazingly awesome stories of just how God showed Himself to me as we were out in the bars, like the time He romanced me through a man from Dubai, or when He gave me compassion for a drunk man that a friend and I talked to one night, or when He shut down the Red Light district.
Yup, you read that correctly, He shut it down! It was the last night we were out in the bars and before we left we were praying and one of my squad mates prayed that God would shut the district down. We were all like yeah that would be awesome! Those of us that were going out left and I was partnered with a girl who had never been out to the bars before and was a little nervous. We decided we would walk down the main street for a while and just pray before we walked into the area with most of the bars. As we were walking it started raining, and getting harder and harder as we walked so we decided to stop and take cover and wait out the rain. As we stood under the cover of a massage parlor and shop area we both asked God why He wanted us to stop there, were we supposed to talk to the guys that had also taken cover in the rain? Where we supposed to talk to the storeowner? Why had He stopped us?
As the rain came down harder and harder we prayed that He would show us what we were supposed to do that night in the Red Light District. Then we heard a loud thunder clap and the lights went out. I looked at my friend in awe, she looked at me and just exclaimed that God had shut it down, the power was out! He had shut down the Red Light District! We sat there in awe of what God had done, in awe of the prayer he had answered.
God is so amazing and He hears our prayers, no matter how ridiculous we feel they may be, He hears them and answers them according to His plan for our lives. It has been amazing to see His plan slowly start playing out in my life and in the lives of my family, and I know He is doing the same in yours you just have to take the time to stop and watch; something Americans have never been good at. So I challenge you to take some time to just stop, and just listen to God, listen for His heart beat, don’t talk just sit and listen to Him and what He has to say to you and reflect on the amazing things He has already done in your life.
