So we made it out of our closed country, our 9th month of ministry, and onto THAILAND! Thailand, a beautiful tropical country often called the “Land of Smiles” due to the friendly nature of the Thai people. This country holds a special place in my heart, and I have never even been here before. Back in month 4 of the race, when we were in Romania, God promised me something special in Thailand. He didn’t tell me what, but I knew it was going to be something good!
My team will be in Phuket (pronounced poo-ket), Thailand, working with S.H.E. ministries. S.H.E. ministries goes into the bars and brothels of Phuket and Patong and seeks to form relationships with the girls working in prostitution and sex trafficking, and through these relationships show how much God loves them. They help create opportunities for the girls to provide for themselves after leaving prostitution; job training in jewelry making creates a valuable source of income and English lessons give them the chance to break into innumerable jobs in the tourism and service industry.
I feel so blessed to team up with this ministry this month. So many of those women are held in bondage by the enemy, locked in a lifestyle of sorrow and pain, feeling the pangs of rejection, isolation, fear, lonelinesss and hopelessness. I have felt the weight of those emotions before. And I know that none of God’s daughters should live their life in a darkness such as that. My team will be working with the girls from four other teams… That’s right, just the girls. For this month, the men have what we call “man-istry” in a different area of Thailand. We do this both to honor and protect our men from the sights of the red light district of Patong and to protect the girls that we will minister to. But I will have the opportunity to walk alongside 20 other amazing women as we shine the true light in the streets of Thailand.
So I eagerly anticipate the beginning of our 10th month of ministry. I know I only have two months left… The time goes by so quickly. Believe me, I will be so happy to see my family again! But I’m gonna run this race with endurance. This is gonna be a hard month, the battle will rage into areas that none of us have been before, it’s gonna break hearts and break people. But the Lord is my strength and my song, of whom shall I be afraid? My whole heart already belongs to the girls of the streets of Thailand. So let’s go out and meet them.
Please check out this website to see more about what S.H.E. ministries does to help the women of the red light district escape a lifestyle of prostitution.
