The past week has been simply incredible. From riding Elephants to eating amazing waffles to learning about our upcoming ministry, everything has been new and exciting!
Since we have gotten to Thailand we have been living above a coffee shop learning and growing in our faith and community. My entire squad of 52 people live in this six story building.
As for living situations we have it pretty cushy though. Sure we don’t have air conditioning, our showers are hand-held, and we never stop sweating, but the reality is that we are very well taken care of. We never go hungry, we have wifi access, and we are allowed to travel around the city.
It really is pretty great living here in Thailand right now but it is also very challenging.
Today we will all be starting our respective ministries and my team and I will be doing bar ministry. Bar ministry is a ministry where we go into bars at night and we talk to people. Pretty simple but here is the kicker.
In Chiang Mai, and Thailand as a whole, the bars are filled with women who are prostituting themselves out to potential customers. Our goal is to go in and love them and show them the love of Christ so that they would have a desire to follow after him. Not only that but we are also trying to reach out to the customers as well.
This is extremely difficult though because it is so ingrained in the culture and the enemy is so prevalent in it all that people think it is normal and fine.
They are living in spiritual poverty and they are all destined to die without hope of ever being with Jesus Christ in Heaven.
So we are going into these bars to bring the hope of Christ to them.
I just want to be honest with all of you though that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing!
I have never ministered to a prostitute nor the man trying to buy her. I have never walked into a situation so dark that you can actually feel the demonic power present in the room. I have never performed any form of ministry like this and I absolutely need God’s direction and guidance in all of this.
God has to be the one to take the lead in this and to give me and my team the strength and knowledge of how to minister to these people. We cannot do this well on our own. I need to rely on him in this with all that I am, and then, and only then, will he show up and do a work in the hearts and minds of these people in desperate need of him.
Please pray for me and my team as we embark on this ministry and I look forward to telling you all more about it later.
God Bless
PS as for elephant riding check out this video 😉
