In our first few days in Chiang Mai, we had a meeting with our contact, Emmi. These beginning of the month meetings are pretty typical on the World Race. We arrive in a new country, know nothing about the people or culture, and rely on our contacts to fill in all of the blanks before we begin our ministry. Emmi’s briefing included her sharing her testimony, which you can hear in a video in my “Meet Emmi” blog. She also filled us in on the state of Christianity in Chiang Mai and what ministry would look like because of that. My team and one other team were to be working under the branch of her Lighthouse in Action ministries called Love Acts. Love Acts was a ministry which focused on building relationships with the prostitutes in the bars and, eventually, being able to share the love of Jesus with them. In her briefing, Emmi had one major piece of advice for us: “Pray and ask God to give you ONE person, and focus on loving that person well.” Easy enough.
My team and the other team went out to the bars on alternating evenings all throughout the month. While one team would go out for ministry, the other team would stay home and intercede for them in prayer. We prayed every night that God would give each of us “our person”. I was amazed every time I saw or heard about someone finding the person who they knew would be their “one”. It was clear in every situation that God’s hand was heavy upon us. It seemed that these women and ladyboys would gravitate to certain members of our teams as if pulled by the Light that our girls carried.
I can’t say that by our second week I wasn’t a bit disappointed that I hadn’t found my “one” yet. Still, I made some great friends in the bars. My co-team leader, Payton, and I made 3 friends in a bar called “Small World”: two prostitutes and a midget Muay Thai boxer. We had fun with them and loved being able to show them that there were people who just wanted to spend time with them without having another agenda. However, their English was so limited that it was difficult engage in conversations and take the friendship beyond playing board games and dancing like fools. I made a sweet friend named Ann who was older than most of the girls in the bars, and called Carmen, Mary, and me her “falong babies”. I watched the way that she unexplainably connected with Carmen and could not seem to take her eyes off of her (in a completely maternal way). I got to go with another friend of mine, Hannah, on several different occasions to the bar and to coffee with a girl who she had become good friends with. I was able to sit with her as she watched her sweet, young friend do her job by flirting and ultimately going off with much, much older men. I got to see the ways that she and Hannah interacted. It was as if Hannah gave her the opportunity to be her 21 year-old self and be silly and laugh and talk about her Australian boyfriend.
It took me longer than I’d like to admit to put aside my pride and realize that I had actually not been overlooked or forgotten by God. Eventually, I was able to see that I was playing a crucial role in supporting the relationships that these other girls were building. When we went out to the bars, we were not permitted to go alone. If God had given me my “person”, I wouldn’t have been able to be the extra person who went with the girls on my team so that they could invest in theirs.
In the bars in America, there is a concept of a “wingman”; someone who goes with their friend to help them pick up a girl. They are not at the bar to find a woman of their own. Their whole purpose is to support their friend. Though this may not be the most wholesome example, I believe that God chose me to be His wingman for these girls. At some point, I stopped looking for my “one” and started focusing all of my energies on helping my friends build deeper relationships with the people God had put into their paths.
Once I realized God’s purpose for me this month, I was able to embrace my position as Wingman for the Kingdom. I was no longer jealous of the girls who were able to find their “one”. I was honored to be able to be the person who supported them through these crazy, God-appointed friendships. I realized that this is what being a Christian is about. Sometimes, God drops an incredible opportunity in our lives, but we know that we can’t do it alone. We require people who are willing to stand behind us; to be our wingmen. It’s these moments that we need to remember when God calls others into something for which they will need support. God will never give us our golden opportunities if we are never willing to support the ones He gives to others.
So, on that note, I want to thank each of you who are reading this for being God’s wingmen for this opportunity that He has given to me. As this 11-month journey comes to a close, it has become more and more clear how much I could not have done any of this without you. Every single prayer, financial donation, encouraging e-mail or blog comment has been, whether you know it or not, a direct blessing from God through you, to help me reach the finish line. I want you all to know how thankful I am that you said yes to being God’s wingmen and I pray that I will be able to do the same for each of you one day.
If you just happened across this blog, know that it is not happenstance that you have read this LONG entry (sorry) in its entirety. It may be that God is using this blog to call you to an opportunity that He has already given you; to reassure you that He will provide His wingmen for your situation. Or maybe he is calling you to be a Kingdom wingman for someone else’s adventure. Whatever it may be, I encourage you to listen for what He is saying about how you can bring glory to His name today. Right now. Because, while your typical wingman assists his friend in what would most likely result in short-term pleasure and heartbreak, being a wingman for God will always lead to planted seeds for eternal joy and healing.
