Hello friends!
this is my 3rd attempt at this blog…maybe I won’t erase it 🙂
After a 12 hour bus ride we finally made it to our ministry site! We are partnering with YWAM this month and working directly with an American missionary couple. Dana pastors the church and his wife is an English teacher at 2 of the public schools. We are staying in a small village called Thachatchai, Thailand in the provence of Phuket. We have nice accomodations. We are staying in a duplex right next to our contacts. We have 2 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen (yay!) and a bathroom with a western toilet (not a squatty!) Below is a picture of our first meal that I was able to prepare along with 2 other teammates 🙂 We had a little chicken stir-fry and all the ingredients were purchased at the local street markets!
Our ministry this month will vary. Dana goes around the neighborhoods each morning and does yardwork. This is how he meets people in the town and builds relationships. We will be doing some of this on the mornings that we don’t teach English. We actually did some of that this morning. We raked the side of the street that he had mowed the day before. We also cleaned out some of the gutters in the street. Not the most glamorous missionary work! 🙂 We will also have the opportunity to help in the schools. Our contact told us today that in one of the schools she teaches in, they do not have teachers for many of the grades. This means the kids basically run around the classroom and go outside to play because they have no adult figure in charge to watch over them and teach. That is heartbreaking! Thailand does not pay their teachers well…they pay even worse than America! Please keep them in your prayers. On Saturdays they have Kids Club in the afternoon. They teach a Bible lesson, play games, sing songs, do an activity and work on their English. We get to help out with this as well.
The other type of ministry that we will get to do once or twice while we are here is working in the red light district. The red light district is where all the bars are. We will have the opportunity to minister to prostitutes and those who are trafficked in. Human trafficking is a 9 billion dollar industry! Also, 37.5% of the victims in Thailand’s sex industry are under the age of 18! Please be in prayer as our entire squad will be ministering in red light disctricts all across the country. All the men from Q squad are up north and the womens teams are all spread out across the country. Please pray that we will be able to show the love of Christ in such a dark place.
Also, please continue to pray for my finances and that I would become fully funded! My next support deadline is December 13th. I have to have $10,000 in my account. I currently have just over $9,000 so it’s getting there! 🙂
Much love from Thailand!
Michelle
