Where do I even begin about Thailand and its adventures. To be honest, my first week of Thailand I hated it. I hated the city, I hated Pattaya, and I did not want to be in Thailand. God though, always has a plan of working things out. When we first arrived in Pattaya, I booked us the only hostel I could find that was cheap but it was still over our budget and we would soon have to leave that place to find another. So imagine…we’re in this hostel, in a city where we have no contacts, in a city where we don’t know any places to stay and have no people to help us out. We were all alone and dependent on God to get us through cause we needed Him to come through for us. So the next day, we were going to head out and as we step out of our hostel to go look for other places in front of us was a cross and a sign that said Rodem house. So we go to look and it’s closed we thought by the look of it, it is a church. So we go eat and Julia calls a pastor of a church near by and we talk to the pastor who directs us to a guy living near by named Jack. Jack comes by the restaurant and he starts talking to us as he takes us to his hotel that he owns. Now this is God’s work already but He has more dumb founded awestruck looks to give. Jack turns out to be the connecting guy to almost all ministries and churches in Pattaya. Wait! What! He is the guy who knows all the people, knows what’s going on, and this guy is with us right now. But wait there’s more! Jack proceeds and takes us to RODEM HOUSE. It’s a place created for missionaries to stay at very cheap price. We found a house to stay that even has a/c, wifi, kitchen, beds, showers, toilets and for a price LOWER than our budget. We found all the contacts that we could ever want and ministries to do. God is faithful, loving and unpredictable. What was going to be a challenging month in finding people turned out to be the easiest thing. God handed this month to us on a silver platter. Now it was challenging in other ways which I’ll get to, but for the purpose of why we were here in Pattaya, it was simply done by God before we even stepped foot in Thailand.
Now as I said before, I hated Thailand and couldn’t wait to leave, but little did I know that was going to change, and change drastically. Within the first two weeks of meeting people, I got to preach, swap stories and hear how the lives of men and women of God are impacting the city of Pattaya. It was the ministries here that changed me and made me fall in love with Pattaya. It wasn’t the food, drinks or even the beach with all its glory. It wasn’t when the sun sets over the ocean or times of quietness in the still ocean at night. It was simply the people that made me fall in love with this place. I’ve met many people in my time, but here I have meet people whose actions have changed my life. Who expresses Jesus Christ and the love of the Father. Men and women who are not given praise for what they do but simply do it because of their overflowing love for people. I’m going to tell you about these radical Christ followers and give them honor, for they are deserving of honor and more.
Nella has a heart for sex trafficking ministry. Pattaya where we are currently at happens to be the number one sex trafficking city in Thailand and possibly the world. Her vision is to get the young and abused girls out of the bars and to teach them skills and crafts that they can use to make a living rather than selling their bodies. She has a ministry house called Tamar Center. She goes to the bars and buys a soda to sit and talk with the girls. If she can get a girl out of the bar, she will bring them to the Tamar Center. Here the girls have a place to stay and learn how to work at a coffee shop, restaurant, bakery. These are just some of the things Tamar Center provides the girls with, a means of living out side of sex. She endeavors to make a home for women, and transgender individuals. She has a heart so passionate for the woman of Thailand and it was an honor to get to know it. She has blessed our team with her heart and telling us of the things God has done in her life. She also allowed our girls the opportunity to do bar ministry. Oh, and know she has a precious spiked hair Thai son who she just adopted that keeps her on her toes everyday. If anything, pray for her, her ministry and that God keeps blessing her diligent heart as she get the daughters of God out of sexual bondage, abuse and identity crisis. Thank you, Nella, for all that you are doing, and from Beloved Warriors, we see you bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Pattaya.
Serapon is a pastor of 2 churches in Thailand. Before I met this guy, I heard about him through other Thai people about how radical and loving he was. Let me tell you, the rumors where true. He is a loving, caring, gentle and wise man. We sat for hours at a restaurant, listening to him talk about how God called him into ministry to preach and to bring revival and Christ to the people. What I love is after talking he always proceeded to ask us about ourselves and our passions. Currently his church is growing and he’s in the process of building the second church. He hopes to keep filling the churches and making more not because of religious church but because he longs to shepherd people in truth and Spirit. To build them up into men and women of God who love people and love Christ. He was a joy to get to know because he genuinely loves God and people. He showed me his first church which is in a house attached to the house he stays in. Even though it’s small for our standards, it is full and full of life. In fact, it’s grown so much he is in the process of looking for a more permanent place for his church. Pray that God brings leaders for him and the new church he is building. That his preaching encourages and convicts the people of Thailand. Pray for his family as his other church is far from his home, so he is gone a lot. Pray that all construction and funding needed is in God’s hands and that no worry will be upon him or his team. Thank you Serapon for your encouragement, your love, your care to be relational towards us and God, and to want all men and women to have a fruitful and deep relationship with Christ.
Digma is a beautiful lady I met at pastor Charles’ church. Let me tell you, she’s an elderly woman who has a spirit of a young buck. She would put us younger generations to shame. Seeing her worship is what drew me to her. In front of everyone, she just got up to the front and danced and not just danced but her heart was controlling the movements. When the song said breaking chains she broke those chains. No fear, no worry. To her, it was just her and God and she was going to put on a show for God. A show of song, heart, worship and dance. Like in the days of fathers when there young daughters danced around in front of them wanting his approval and delight. I know God delights in her and she delights in Him. It was a privilege and a honor to see her act of worship. Not only that but after talking to the pastor, he tells me, that she sets up the church herself every Sunday and takes it down at the end. Sure enough, I look after my talk with the pastor, and there she is, putting chairs up. Humble, diligent, loving, bold, fearless and above all wild. Wild in God and wild in spirit. Digma, I pray God blesses you for you diligence and that your fearlessness is something we all seek to have. I want it, I crave to dance and sing like that before God and even though you’ll never read this. Your actions without words cause me to strive ever more for that boldness. Thank you!
Ping Cha is another beautiful lady I met while I was cleaning a street with all the churches. We cleaned a street called Walking Street. Walking Street is the biggest area for bars, strip clubs, go go dancers and more. Most sex trafficking happens on Walking Street. As I was scrubbing the street I look over and I see this woman, pig tails, glasses, crazy hat, a smile on her face with a broom in her hand. I go to talk to her and from that moment I fell in love. She’s from China and came to Thailand 15 years ago. She got in a car wreck which left her with brain damage and nerve damage. But she loves God and stayed here to, and I quote, “Love people, love people, love people.” Many find her disabilities weird and she gets pushed to the side, but God opened my eyes to who she was, and God thinks highly of her. That next day we went to a Christian worship session by the beach and we were already friends from cleaning the street. As the worship music was going, she grabbed me, took me to the front of all the people, and started to dance. After Digma, I don’t want to live in fear. I want to be free and wild like Digma and Ping Cha. So I just danced with her, for an hour, praising and I would look at her and that smile, that heart. As the song plays, she screams and shouts the lyrics, raising up the name of the Lord. People would turn and look at her oddly but in that moment I realized something. It wasn’t Ping Cha with a disability, it was all of us. Fear of screaming at the tops of our lungs for Christ. How many times have we, have I raised my voice when the musics loud but as the music fades so my voice fades? Only loud enough that no one hears. Fear of failure, fear of what others think, fear of odd looks from people, fear to be different and above all fear of standing out. Fear is our disability! I don’t want to live in fear, in fact, all I want is to be different, to stand out for Christ. Christ who was and is misunderstood, who is judged, who was different. Ping Cha, I love you. You are misunderstood, and judged, but more like Christ than anything. You’re unique, passionate and fearless. You taught me as your friend to be fearless, to be passionate, to be so wild for God I get odd looks and thats perfect. To love God and people so radically that people can’t comprehend it, it leaves them dumbfounded. I pray that God continues to show His delight in you. That you are fearfully and wonderfully made. That the joy of Christ and the peace that surpasses all understanding rest on your soul. After worship was done we said our last goodbye, tears welled up in her eyes and we hugged a while. I don’t cry much but my heart broke for her, and I was on the verge of crying. My friend and my sister. Leaving her would be one of the hardest things I am leaving in Thailand. But leaving all the great men and women here is hard. The people are what makes this race great. The people are what impact me the most. I fell in love with Thailand because of the people. God and people!
