Update from Patong…aka Party Central

Wow…it has been a long time since I have updated last, so I am going to try and bring you all up to date with things. Last time I left you all, we had just left our wonderful island where we lived like Survivor for 5 days and we “won” our race to Phuket. Since then many things have happened. Being on the WR you never have down time and when you do, you still find tons of things to blog about.

 

We hung out in Phuket for 3 days. One of the days was the Thai New Year. This is a huge holiday that everyone celebrates by throwing water on each other. There are huge buckets of water on every corner, trucks full of people with water, and tons and tons of people out to do nothing but get each other wet…so we participated in this event and it was alot of fun…though I have to say that it did get a bit “old” by 6pm when the people were still very faithful to the tradition and were throwing water.

At the end of this day, we all headed to the beach and some of us decided to go and watch the sunset…on the way up Jessica and I were on a motorbike that stalled and flipped…so we bruised our butts pretty badly (if you have been keeping up…this was accident number 3 for me…hahaha). Regardless, we made it up the hill and got to watch the sunset and it was beautiful. Later that night we had a wonderful candlelight dinner on the beach. 

 

That was a much needed relaxing and fun day. The next day all the teams split up and were off to do their ministry. Our team was sent to Patong beach to prayer walk the streets and minister to the bar girls and entertainment life here. During our first five days here, we gathered information as we ministered that we later took back to share with the rest of the group.

 

During our days of research we found out many interesting things such as: the girls are here for the older men that come to buy them as wives until they die, as long as the money is coming in the girls are faithful. You will be surprised at how many guys are “girls”. The fact that this is a huge tourist city known for the night life, the people here have a “bad” taste in their mouth about foreigners, but they are all “okay” with it since they bring them money. Though the do not always agree with what the girls are doing, they say that at least they are not being lazy like the men.

The people here say they are “religious” but they are not serious about their religion. They would much rather work and make money and maybe find  some free time for religion later. The girls here are very persistent and will not give up until they have their man for the night. The tourists that come here are a mix of friends, girlfriends and boyfriends, old men, families…many times the families will come and when they leave they go home and get a divorce.

We went to church on Easter and the “Christian” church was still very full of Thai tradition. They even celebrated family day, instead of celebrating Easter. They had a group of girls come and dance a traditional Thai dance and at the end the elders in the church were honored by everyone washing their hands. 
 

This place is the lions den. When we were sent here, we came with the passage Luke 10 and we have truly been the sheep among the wolves. We do everything we possibly can to set ourselves apart from the other tourists. When we go out at night we do not “participate” but observe and order cokes. We are here to try and turn the light on in this dark dark place.

 

We look at this situation and see all the hopelessness and darkness and we are so thankful that we don’t have to do any of the work, and know that the Lord is completely in charge of everything. We know that it is by His power and His Spirit that these people will be reached.

 

Last night we gave our presentation and have decided to come back to Patong and minister for another 5 days. We have met our man of peace here. He has such an awesome heart for these people. His story is completely amazing and to see the way the Lord is using him and has used Him is awe inspiring.

We went into the slums today and ministered with him. He has reached several people here and we got to visit with them and hear their stories.

One lady has lived in the slum area for many years selling flowers. After her husband died, she felt very alone and sad. She was caring for a drug addicted son and she had to give her daughter up for adoption 20 yrs before. She gave her daughter to a “Christian” couple and she has never heard from them since. She worked in the bars and “knew” and heard about God but did not believe… but after many visits with our man of peace (sorryI can not say his name) she believed and came to know the Lord in a new way. We got to visit and pray with her. She is still struggling with her son and misses her daughter very much.

 

Another lady worked in the bar for almost 7 years. Her sister also worked there and they made alot of money together. They thought they were happy, but they weren’t. Three years ago her sister came to know the Lord and went back home. Two years later, she also came to know the Lord. Now…with the help of her sister and God’s grace, all of her family are Christians. She now owns a laundry service and makes money doing that. She continues to live among the bar girls and ministers to them and is an example to what God is doing and has done in her life. As we sat on her porch, she had a friend there that is not a believer, so we got to talk with her as well.

 

The Lord is doing such amazing things. We find ourselves not getting much sleep, trying to experience the day life and minister then and also try and minister and reach the night life. God has been so faithful and the way that He is bringing people into our paths is so amazing.

Where many bar girls live.                                   Of course…I love the kids!!!!

I can not put pictures of the ladies that we ministered with today or our man of peace…but please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we minister during the day and to the bar girls and entertainment crowd at night.