This past week our ministry was working alongside Lighthouse in Action. Lighthouse in Action’s goal is to change the culture of Thailand through love and compassion. They strive to bring girls out of prostitution by changing the mind sets of the village families who sell their children, witnessing at bars to give girls hope for a different life, and providing education and job opportunities for girls who decide to leave the bars.
Even though our time here has been short, this great organization and the people of Chiang Mia have surely captured my heart. We had a packed schedule which started at 8am and ended at 11pm with something scheduled every hour. We split our days between prayer walks, ATL (Ask the Lord), slum ministry, monk chats, Tha Phae gate ministry, and intercession.
Prayer Walks-
For prayer walks, we walked around the bars and certain areas in the city and prayed for God to bring His presence and for the people of the surrounding areas. My favorite prayer walk was when we were praying on the “naughty” street of Chiang Mai during the early evening and decided to stop at one of the bars to get a snack and tea. We met a girl that I will call, Jessica. Jessica had sunglasses on, though the sun was coming down. She walked with a slight limp and you could see through the sunglasses that her right eye was swollen shut. We invited her to sit with us and chat. The women at the bars speak good English since most of their customers are foreign men. English is the business language of the world… prostitution is no exception. The girls know English to interact and engage with their clients.
We asked Jessica about her family and friends, where she was from, and what she was up to in life. Her blunt and nonchalance answers surprised me but more so just made me sad. This was her explanation of why she sat all alone at a table in an empty bar. “I am here so that if the men want to sleep with me, I go sleep with them. But if they do not want to sleep with me, I go home and dream.” Very well put isn’t it. Very simple. That is her job in a nutshell. At one point during our time there two men walked by and sat down at one of the tables. Jessica jumped up to greet them. One of the other girls went up and handed them a menu. Jessica sat back down with us and said over her shoulder, “Okay okay, if you want to sleep with me let me know. I’ll be here.” You see, it’s not everyones job at the bar/restaurants to be there for sex. The other lady that handed them a menu, sex was not her job. She waited tables. Jessica’s job was to draw in the men and if she was desirable, for sex.
We continued to pour out love onto Jessica telling her she was beautiful and played Jenga (we did really good!). When we got up to leave she gave us big genuine hugs and told us she loved us. We ended up seeing Jessica a few more times that week. She lit up and ran out to hug us and say hi. We never wanted to stay too long because we saw her later at night which is the prime time for her job. If we would have hung around and played games with her then, we would probably have been kicked out after about 15 minutes. I wish we were staying here longer. I wish I could pour more into Jessica. Tell her that she has a bigger purpose and that there is more she could be doing with her life instead of letting men use her body. I only hope that we were able to plant some truth into her and that someone will come up behind us and water and harvest the thoughts of hope and love we planted in her.
Ask The Lord-
For ATLs, we ask the Lord what he would like for us to do. One time we asked God for a place and ended up going to a Buddhist temple. When we arrived there we felt the Lord saying watch, listen, and learn. We found someone who spoke good English and he was able to explain the meanings behind what was going on at the temple. We sat and watched the festivities: the releasing of animals into the river, the lighting of candles and incense, and writing onto a rooftop. We prayed that God would bring His presence to this place. That these devote people of Buddhism will find the overflowing joy, hope and love of God. Other times we asked God to reveal to us a word for one of our teammates and we were able to speak life over and encourage each other.
Slum Ministry-
Slum ministry was going into the poorest part of town and playing with all the kids. The slum is a part of town where the government owns the land and many people who cannot afford better living conditions are crammed in a small area in makeshift houses. Since they do not own the land they can be kicked out at any time. I played soccer with the kids. At first I was a little unsure. Unsure how rough to play, unsure that women here are even suppose to play soccer, and unsure how to communicate with these Thai boys. Soon all of those uncertainties went out the window. I started getting a little bit competitive (they were very competitive!), I started playing well, and started to realize that there is a lot to communicate without words. I even was told by a little Thai boy that, “you very good”. YESSS! Finally accepted and getting some street cred from the boys! 😉
Monk Chats-
The Buddhist temples have a program called Monk Chat. Anyone can come and sit with a monk and talk about whatever they want. We were able to do this twice this week. It was great to get to ask him about himself, see why he became a monk, and learn a little bit more about Buddhism. The monks do not view Buddhism as a religion they believe it is a life style. (Wow!! That is how I feel about Christianity. At least how it should be! There is a lot to be learned from these monks.) For this reason I believe that Christ can easily come into a Buddhist life. For the Thai people, being Buddhist is to be Thai. To be Thai is to be Buddhist. The culture is so entwined with Buddhism it is often hard to separate out which is Thai culture and which is Buddhism. Lighthouse in Action’s approach is to not change the Thai culture but to keep as much of Buddhism culture that can be redeemed for Christ and include a relationship with Jesus Christ; which brings so much life and love! One day I hope the people of Thai realize they can be both Buddhist and Christian. That they can hold dear their culture and traditions and have a personal relationship with their Savior who loves them dearly!
Tha Phae Gate-
The Tha Phae gate is one of the main entrances to the center of the city. Each night two teams went to the gate, one team went to the bars, while another team stayed back and interceded for all the teams who were out. My favorite night at Tha Phae gate my group was in charge of doing an interactive worship session while another team was there for prayer. My team decided to worship through the creation of art. We set up on the gate a big white sheet of paper and drew a brown tree. We brought blue and green paint in order to paint the leaves on the tree and the blue sky behind the tree. Our idea was to get the passer-byers to stop and add their finger print in either green or blue to finish the painting. We made such a fun night out of it! We played music, danced, played games and just brought excitement and light to the area. We received so much positive feedback and everyone was very willing and eager to add their mark on the tree. We even had them sign above their fingerprint after they were done.
I decided to take on the roll as a ‘fetcher’ , so I called it. I approached people passing by and said hi, asked them a little bit about themselves, and then explained what we were doing and asked if they wanted to help us finish the painting. I LOVED it! Approaching a stranger and starting a random conversations is definitely my thing. I had so many great conversations and connects with people and loved getting to talk with them, learning about them, and sharing what my group is doing for this next year.
Even though this seems like a simple thing, something very amazing happened. I could see the peoples intrigue with what we were doing, then I could see the anticipation as soon as they decided to add their finger print. Some people waited in a line of ten people to add their mark. The joy and happiness that came from such a simple task was astounding and so beautiful to watch! It is so amazing how a little bit of artistic fun can brighten someone’s night. People left with their spirits lifted and a laugh on their lips. Of course the main reason for their uplifted spirit was the Holy Spirit changing the atmosphere. We were able to talk to many people as we drew them in to paint their fingerprint. People wanted to know why we were doing this. My answer to that questions was for fun, and to spread some joy, happiness, and love. And that is exactly what we did!!
