Little did I know that meeting Kenny Sacht (of Wipe Every Tear and Adventures’ Philippines base] on my Race in Hua Hin, Thailand would become much more than a brief, blessed encounter. I was pleasantly surprised to connect with him again in Gainesville when we had our L Squad reunion and Project Searchlight. It was then that he became a tangible conveyer of my heavenly Father’s presence and love for me. Kenny represented a hope I held onto for my own father.
After having kept in touch for a few months through prayer requests and updates, Kenny e-mailed me in early December. I’d just decided to remain in CGA (meaning that after all I would not be going to the Philippines with Kingdom Journeys Women to work with his ministry).
“Two or three weeks ago during a time of prayer, I SAW you leading worship at the Girls Getaway on a Puerta Galara beach. This happened two or three times. It was wonderful seeing you lead. You were smiling and enjoying the Lord as you were leading.
… … …
Anyway, even though you are no longer going to be joining them, for some reason, I saw you at the Girls Getaway. I’m not sure exactly what that means.”
Only Jesus knew what that meant.
I took it with a grain of salt, tucked it away in the back of my mind, and moved on with life in Georgia for the next few months.
As the Lord brought me here to Korea, Kenny’s word resurfaced several times. The more I prayed, the more I felt God had already invited me back in December and I could now just fly a few hours over to the Philippines and be a part of this amazing trip!
From May 27 to June 7, I joined Kenny’s team and got to help make history for not just Wipe Every Tear or the Philippines but for Kingdom.
Our team was quite a spectacular and eclectic mix of women. It felt like a powerhouse, not because of any woman’s own strength or experience but because of each one’s willingness and openness to partner with Jesus. True beauty in its raw form.
We ranged from high school students as young as 17 to a few married women, including a mother! Coming from Idaho, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Colorado… just to name a few.
We started the journey with worshiping through singing and praising the Father, and we continued the journey this way. Prayer and worship were the foundation, not the frantic afterthought upon attack from the enemy.
WORSHIP IS OUR WARFARE, we declared and sang. And it was indeed true. Even the first morning, I felt dizzy and nauseous with a headache, but I decided to sing and lead worship anyway. After that hour, I felt completely better!
The first part of our trip was spent in a famous red-light district, prayer-walking and bar-hopping to reach out to some of the 15,000 girls that occupied this one street. We befriended them, spoke life into them, prayed with some, and invited them to come with us on this ‘Girls Getaway’ retreat at the beach. It was an invitation to a 5-day vacation, all expenses covered and even a stipend provided. But they, having been trafficked or taken advantage of, had absolutely no reason to trust us besides the Holy Spirit moving. The Spirit nudged them to leap into the unknown, believing at least with an ounce of their being that we were not bad people trying to trick and harm them. Many had been told by friends and bar staff that we’d kidnap them, hurt them physically, even kill them. But they certainly didn’t know what goodness from the Lord was about to hit them!
Our last night in that area, I didn’t feel peace about going out as usual to the bars. I wondered if it was just my own tiredness and I tried to fight it off. But as I prayed, it dawned on me that I should stay back to worship and intercede! Another girl felt the same way, and once we decided this, we received confirmation from so many teammates. Many of them had felt spiritually attacked that day, not feeling the same hope and unhindered fire to go out boldly. Upon realizing this corporate attack, I felt an even stronger need to worship over the night.
The two of us stayed in my hotel room, praising the Lord for victory and covering our girls and the girls they were about to meet in the bars. We both had expectancy for wonderful testimonies the next morning.
Surely enough, at breakfast the next day, we heard so many cool stories! Our team’s filmmaker was able to capture at least an hour of footage in a bar, in front of the bar manager. (That’s unheard of because usually any hint of a camera can get you kicked out.) How miraculous! And joining us at breakfast was one of the girls straight from a bar, who’d been ripe for the picking and boldly decided to leave the bar for WET’s safe house and the Girls Getaway. She knew this hope was real, and she wanted out. She wanted a new life with God and she wanted to finish her education, which is exactly what WET safe houses provide for!
God showered us with story after story of favor and openness from that night. His presence truly invaded the red-light district! And I once again got to live out a dream- worshiping to establish a dwelling place for the Lord and then seeing things shift in the natural realm to reflect His glory hitting that place!! The former I’d done, but the latter I hadn’t experienced much. Thank You, Jesus!
[[continued in PART 2]]
