I am SO grateful to have so many people who love me and feel protective of my safety. However, I am regretting writing my last blog. My intent of the blog was not to sound unaware of my surroundings. A story that was supposed to be funny came across like my partner and I are oblivious to what’s going on around us, and I promise that’s not the case! Let me explain to you what’s happening this month:
Our squad has “manistry month” which means that the guys on our squad are all together doing the same ministry, while the girls are doing other ministries. My team is partnered with another girl team. Our contact has a three-part ministry here in Thailand. She owns a coffee shop that has teams come in to work there and teach local college students English. Another part is working in rice fields in villages helping to prevent people from entering the bar business. My specific ministry is making relationships with people working in bars. We don’t go into bars witnessing to people right off the bat. That would scare people off. We find a few bars we believe God has called us to and we begin to build friendships with the girls. We order sodas, play games like pool, Connect Four, or Jenga. We talk with them about their lives, families, that sort of thing. If we make good connections, we can ask them to hangout outside the bar like take them out for lunch or something. Once we establish a relationship, we can hopefully share God's love with them.
We go out to the bars every other night with our partners. While we are out, the other half of the partner teams are at our house praying and interceding for us the entire time. We meet at the end of the night and talk about our nights, see connections made between the house and people going out, and close the nights in prayer. During the day we have prayer walk around bar street from 9-11 am. Then in the afternoons from 1-3, we follow up/visit people who are cleaning and preparing the bar for the next night.
We aren’t even the only teams working here. There are a few other teams here from other places in the States working with this ministry also. It’s actually kinda cool to see the other teams out and about on bar street with the same mission. It’s like we’re God’s undercover agents. (Sounds corny, I know. Lol)
Yes, there is darkness in these places. Yes, there is always a need to be cautious. Despite how my last blog sounded, I know how to act in a bar. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve spent time in bars. I know what to look for, and I know all the “bar safety rules”. We will need prayer for extra protection, because this is a spiritually darker place than most ministries. Please don’t worry. Trust God. He’s taking good care of me.
Here’s a video of our ministry for this month:
http://vimeo.com/46796433
