I am currently in the middle of our month of “man-istry” in Chiang Mai, Thailand… a time to be on a team of just guys without any women in our midst and an opportunity to experience some freedom finally. Ironically, in this month of freedom, 60+ young girls are put in our lives for us to love, adore, and cherish. In such a crazy situation, I am finding this month to push and challenge all of us us to recognize what it means to be men of God. Furthermore, there have been more than one time where my heart has just been broken over moments that I have seen or experienced as I spend time with these girls.
This month we are working with Remember Nhu, an organization working to prevent at-risk girls from being sold into sexual slavery. We are working with the two group homes, consisting of 30+ girls each ranging between the ages of 5-17. There are two folds to our ministry during our time here. The first is working on the group homes doing maintenance, construction, and whatever else is needed to improve the facilities. The second is to simply hang out with the girls every day. We share meals, play games, sing praise songs, and anything else we can to simply love on them. It was amazing how in a few hours they were so open and comfortable with us.
Playing games with the girls.
One of my favorite moments so far was taking the girls our to get ice cream on Sunday. All of us guys really desired to give the girls an opportunity to get off of the compound and go hang out somewhere else. We took 30 girls to lunch and Dairy Queen. It was incredible to see the girls getting excited over ice cream or even more so riding on the escalator. We all jumped on together and rode the escalator up and down over and over. It was like a roller coaster to them. We found out at the end of our time that it was the first time for four of the girls to have ice cream. Small experiences like that really hit home and put a lot of things in perspective. Definitely is another reminder for me to recognize all that I can be thankful for.
Enjoying Dairy Queen!
Check out: http://remembernhu.org/
