The beaches were exactly what I was hoping I would get to experience. The coconut curry was just what I had been craving but never knew it until I tried. The children were so beautiful and charming it took restraint and squad mates telling me no, in fact, they did not think it a good idea for me to measure the size of my pack and eyeball the possibility of coming home with a new friend. The ministry was challenging, tiring, but so rewarding. Thailand was a good time.
SHE Ministries has existed there for over six years now and has been in partnership with Adventures in Missions, especially the World Race, since its inception. Its founders, Mark and Sharon Biddell, are an incredible example of a couple living life for our King in obedience. Raising four children in the field and literally always hosting a volunteer team from somewhere in the world, the way they balance life blew me away and served as amazing examples of modern day disciples to us young missionaries who need to learn the ropes. The 21 P Squad women who served with them in April were able to make some solid connections with bar girls we met from Patong’s red-light district and bring encouragement and hope for a better future.
SHE’s focus is to empower impoverished women, whatever the need may be. In Phuket, their focus is on those in the sex tourism industry. Besides spending our nights forming relationships with these women, we worked in the daytime on a plot of land SHE is preparing to break ground on for a new center. This will serve as home to the Biddell family, offices for SHE, a training center for the English classes offered to bar girls, a site for the hotel training program they also offer as prevention from prostitution, and a place to reach out to the local community through various farming projects. It truly is incredible how this ministry operates out of the passion God has laid on their hearts, and the visions they catch from Him.
I am now safely in Penang, Malaysia for MONTH 11 of ministry. I am certainly in the home stretch, already submersed in our new ministry here for the month. I have exciting things to share about how God is shaping my future post-Race…but we’ll save those for another blog. Please continue your prayers for Team COOL. This final month is keeping us busy serving at a homeless shelter, fundraising for childrens’ heart surgeries, teaching English to children, and warring against the jumbled spiritual climate of a predominantly Muslim/Buddhist nation. Can you believe it’s the 25 day countdown until I’m back on U.S. soil?
Worship on the beach in Patong before we began night ministry. God is so good!
