Today has been a weird day mainly due to one reason: May 28th, the day I was supposed to return home to my family in America. My squad’s been posting Instagram posts, stories, and blogs all day (not gonna lie, it made me a little emo). It’s been rough coming to terms and processing all that happened within the past 7 months of my life… a life lived in Thailand, Malaysia, South Asia, and Costa Rica for a mere 2 weeks. I’ve learned that it’s good to ya know move on from a past season, but it’s also reeeeally important to process and sit with the Lord. To have some legit quality growth, you gotta balance the reflection/processing of the past season with the moving forward of the new season.
I’ve been home now for 2 1/2 months. The Holy Spirit has inspired me to sit down and type out story after story after story of God’s goodness, love, faithfulness, etc. The Lord has laid on my heart to tell his stories, and what more fitting way than to share them with you amazing people? (:
~ THAILAND ~
The Light Kingdom vs The Dark Kingdom
For the entirety of those 2 months in Thailand my team taught English at a Buddhist school for kids ages 2ish- middle school. The school’s neighbor was a giant golden Buddha statue, his excess of polished metal fat spilling over his crossed legs (FUN FACT: this Buddha statue had disturbingly very erect nipples). This Buddha statue was a part of a large Buddhist temple bordering the school. To our knowledge there was one singular Christian Thai there, the rest were Buddhist. One afternoon in between classes, I asked the Holy Spirit what the spiritual atmosphere was like here. I immediately registered that the school grounds was covered in a dark, soupy fog. Curious as to where the sinister-looking fog was coming from, my gaze tracked to where the fog looked darkest- the spirit house posted at the main gate. The fog pulsed outwards from the spirit house, a poisonous thing. I knew instantly that this fog represented something demonic/bad/whatever you wanted to call it. Before I could feel any dismay at its presence, a schoolkid’s burst of laughter filled my ears like sweet music. Much to my awe and wonder I watched a burst of pure light penetrate the dark atmosphere as yet another child laughed… before I knew it, over 20 bursts of light accompanying a child’s laugh were EXPLODING all around me! I remember how I myself burst into laughter as the sheer AWEsomeness of the whole thing!
As I was sitting there, the little girl my team and I referred to as the “little mermaid purse girl” walked by me. The 8year old kid had her straight black hair always in two braids, an absolutely joyful smile, and a jeweled mermaid purse ALWAYS slung across her chest (hence her nickname since we never could understand the Thai kids’ names). As I watched her walk by me I noticed two things about her- a golden crown spun slowly above her head, and an angel walked beside her. This child belonged to God, he had her in the palm of his hand despite her attending a Buddhist school, living in a Buddhist country, and probs living in a Buddhist family. HE is the one in control! I turned to look at the rest of her class and was astonished to see that EVERY child had the same golden crown floating above their head. It was a beautiful and encouraging sight.
“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'” (Matthew 19:14)
He Leaves the 99 to Save the 1: S3x Tra77ick1ng
One night was devoted to human tra77ick1kg in Thailand. Danielle, one of our base’s hosts, talked to us about what it was like. One story she told was this: There’s a city in Thailand called Pattaya; aka “Satan’s Playground.” This city is blatantly full of everything sexual under the sun, including human s3x tra77ick1kg. An little-known Australian Christian band came to Pattaya and booked an entire night at one of the bars, determined to bring God’s presence into this dark city with seemingly no light. As the night went on they sang song after song, hour after hour. Eventually they ran out of Christian songs, so the lead singer prayed to God… and the Holy Spirit let out a prophetic song through this band, “God of this city.” In a place of darkness, God prevailed. ~
By the end of this story I was in awe of the Lord… as we went into a time of worship, I wept tears as my lungs burst with song- I prayed fervently for the little schoolchildren my team taught every day who were vulnerable, for the trafficked boys who made up 55% of trafficked victims in Thailand, for women I knew who were freed, and those who were still trapped in this hellish circle. Then out of nowhere a vision came over me-
I see the city of Chiang Mai, her streets are covered in darkness. The only light spills out of the windows of bars and massage parlors. In one of these non-descript streets I see Jesus holding the hand of a woman dressed in white out the front door of a bar; she is a prostitute. The woman has decided to leave, and Jesus is the one leading her.
In real life I jump up, dancing before the Lord as somewhere in that city at that exact moment one woman is free.
~ MALAYSIA ~
Planting Seeds
My and the guy’s teams were helping build a school for future refugee children + a thrift shop below the school to help support it. We helped build this beautiful place physically and spiritually- armed with markers we covered its walls with Bible verses, worship music, and prayers. Once our month in Malaysia was over, we left trusting completely that the Lord would hold this school and its children in the palm of his hand. We left not knowing what would happen to the people, school, and kids…. lo and behold, I found out today the school & thrift store were finished (4th pic is store), that in January about 30 kids had been enrolled in the school. You guys, I cried. I cried because I was overjoyed at the Lord’s goodness in giving these children a hope and a future, that he loved them unconditionally! I cried because I was so so so relieved… one of the hardest things on the race was leaving a country knowing that some of the children we were with weren’t loved, weren’t fully cared for, or didn’t have education. The Lord is GOOD and he is FAITHFUL!! Only HE is worthy of praise!!!
Bringing the Temple Down
One night as the squad was out on the streets praying, me and my fellow prayer intercessor buddies got a “Jesus tingle,” the Holy Spirit pulling us towards a Chinese temple across the street from us. So we followed His call, and three of us walked into the courtyard of the temple and asked a man there if we could go in… he said yes without hesitation (which was TOTALLY a God thing!!). As soon as we stepped past the doorway all three of started jumping and dancing around, proclaiming the name of Jesus over the temple and shouting His praises! I felt God impress upon my heart the story of the battle of Jericho, in which the Israelites walked around the enemy city 7 times and shouted aloud, and then the city walls collapsed. SO I started walking circles around the giant center god, 7 times. On the 7th time the Holy Spirit filled every inch of me and I SCREAMED the name of Jesus as loud as my mortal body could give!!! As I screamed I felt absolutely 100% positive that the temple walls were about to come down; all that went through my mind was, “oh crap I need to MOVE I need to get out of the way!!” SPOILER ALERT: The walls didn’t come down physically that day, but the walls DID come down spiritually in that moment. ~ My God is the one and ONLY true God. My God is ALIVE, and He will destroy every. single. idol. One day every knee shall bow and proclaim the name of Jesus.. and I’m gonna be there when that happens.
~ SOUTH ASIA ~
Humanity: God’s Creation
One AWESOME day the squad headed out to do what we call “house ministry”- it’s where we split into smaller groups and go house to house to pray, drink tea with, play, or talk with the locals. After about 2 hours of my team doing this, we came to the last house for the day; the home was situated on a hill. This particular house was home to a Hindu family (this village had 3 different communities: Hindu, Christian, and Muslim… it made for some interesting times (: ). By the time we all had trekked to the top of the hill, we were astounded to see that the Hindu family had seen us coming and had brought out AND arranged chairs in a circle. Without either party being able to speak each other’s language, we spent the next 30 minutes just being with each other! The whole family–from the little toddler to the matriarchal grandma–remained standing while they insisted with their hands that we sit down. They brought out cookies and gave us tea, the young women in their colorful saris and young children alike giggling and smiling at us as they watched us eat.
Despite my group and the family being completely different in every way imaginable, we were connecting as human to human. We were from opposite sides of the world, cultures, religions, and languages… yet we loved on each other the way God intended his creation to love- all as a part of the same family of God’s making.
BONUS: The grandma (and also the matriarch of the family due to our observing) took a liking to all of us, but ESPECIALLY to my dear friend Sarah Goodwin. The grandma was dressed in a beautiful blue green sari, her long thick black gray hair tied back into a low bun. I think my favorite part about her was that she smiled with everything in her… but she had no teeth! Yet her grin was the most beautiful thing about that day. My team pretty much all agreed that the grandma and Sarah had the same personality, cause they became bffs on the spot! They both giggled, the grandma cackling away at everything. They even did a photo shoot together: the grandma at the end pulling one of her relatives to take a picture of her posing in front of flowers (it was so awesome). At the end as we were leaving the grandma came up to Sarah, stopped in front of her, and cradled her face with her worn wrinkled hands. We left to go back down the hill, both parties waving wildly at each other- It was a picture I will never forget as long as I live.
Regan
