Little girls giggling all
around me but my eyes remain shut. They wake me up early every morning. I don’t
want to get up yet. They continue to laugh and speak in their beautiful
language. I thank God, like every
morning, and ask Him to lead my day.
I quickly crawl across the beds chasing the girls and tickling them. We live in
a small room with 40 bunk beds crammed together and there is no room to walk.
It is fun living with all these beautiful girls. When I look at each one of
their faces, I am reminded of how God rescued them. We all run downstairs to
eat breakfast. O rice, we eat you every meal. You are the only consistency in
my life. We laugh and talk and head off to work.
Each day, we do manual labor.
We mix cement and dig trenches for hours on end. It is hard work but I am so
blessed to have 10 amazing women to do it with. We laugh, sing, and talk about
life. Some of our conversations are so girly and funny and others are deep and
motivational. Today, we worked hard again and everyone was pretty positive. I
think it is because we have all realized we are working for God not for men. We
had a break because we ran out of cement. Did we really take a break?? No. We
did “Insanity,” an exercise regime, in the heat of the day. We are crazy. We
finished the work, cleaned our tools and headed to lunch.
I spent some time with a
beautiful girl named Pim. We talked about God and our families. We read the
Bible. Pim has an amazing smile, she is always helping others and is an example
to the others girls here at the Remember Nhu house. We sing together a lot. She
is very special to me.
We all hopped in the back of
a pick-up truck to go into the city of Chiang Mai for Songkran- Thailand New
Year/water festival. Just thinking about it makes me smile. This week long
festival gives you the excuse to pour water on anyone and everyone. As we drove
through town, people sprayed us with squirt guns and dumped buckets of water on
us. We feared red lights. People would unleash bucket after bucket with joy in
their eyes. The traffic thickened and we started going slower. Everyone from old
men to little children doused us. All of us girls were dying laughing. One
time, a man ran towards me with a bucket and I didn’t care because I was
already soaked. Little did I know he had just melted a block of ice into the
water. The water hit me full on in the face and chest and took my breath away.
He smiled. I smiled. God smiled.
We got to the Lighthouse,
another amazing ministry that helps with sex-trafficking intervention, soaking
wet. We put our stuff down and headed back into the madness. Just walking
around is madness. Just think about it. It is a nationwide waterfight!!! And we
were defenseless. You can’t run from it and no one has mercy on you, no matter
how dressed up you are. It is just part of life. I loved watching little kids
or adults spot us, and prepare. Their face would light up as they filled their
bucket or super-soaker. People on motorcyles were especially targeted and it
was so hilarious to see them get hit with bucket after bucket of water. You
could not take the smile off of my face. Many times, I tried to figure out how
I could possibly bring this amazingness to the hot summers of Phoenix, Arizona.
Wishful thinking.
We ate dinner, shopped, and
continued to walk around as night approached. Natalie, Sarah and I split off
from everyone else to explore and hopefully talk to people. While trying to
find a bathroom, we stumbled upon a stage.
So we jumped up on the stage and
began to sing random songs that came to our heads. All of a sudden, a full band
started playing a long. It was so funny. We danced and sang to various songs
like “One Love” and “Your just to good to be true.” This was one of the busiest
nights because it was the first day of the festival and Chiang Mai is the place
to be. What started crazy singing, ended with us worshipping God and
prophesying over the city of Chiang Mai. We got off the stage and people were
clapping and smiling. And we continued on with our night…
God brought people to us as
we walked. We got to talk to so many foreigners. As Natalie and Sarah talked to
a couple from Ireland, God brought me a couple from Argentina. The Lord knows I
love speaking Spanish, so I felt so blessed that God entrusted me with this
couple for an hour. I was able to share God with them and about a relationship
with Him; an invitation to REAL Life. The conversation ended with happy tears
and hugs.
We continued our journey down
the Red Light district with the couple from Ireland. We talked to people along
the way, prayed and encouraged each other. I could not believe how many old
white men were there. There were so many men. They were all with women who
could have been their daughters or granddaughters. I was dumbfounded and
heartbroken. Part of me wanted to punch these guys and rescue the girls. Then I
looked into their eyes. I saw boys.
Hopeless little boys who have never experienced love.
We continued on to the
“backpackers haven”: an area with tons of foreigners, dancing, and live music.
If you know me, I love these things! A reggae band played in one area and a
rock band in the other. I met and talked with people from Sweden, Mexico,
Africa, Thailand, New Zealand and more. Amazing conversations were had. When I
looked around, Natalie, and Sarah were both talking with people as well. What
an honor that God would use us. God brought us to that place to bring light to
the darkness. To bring peace to the reckless. To bring hope to the hopeless. To
bring healing to the broken. To bring True Love.
As we walked home, we were
all amazed. God had done so many great things and we got to be a part of it. We
walked for a long time, asking directions from numerous people along the way.
After over an hour of walking, this guy ran up to us and showed us the way to
go. I am convinced he was an angel. He
said it was his birthday, but I felt like today was my birthday.
I look back on April 12th
and smile. We got food, we spent time with girls who God has rescued, spent
time with the Lord, prayed, had a water fight with hundreds of people,
encouraged believers, danced, sang, shared the gospel, and so much more.
The best part was that it was
all God.
All I did was pray for God to
lead my day.
He led and I followed. I
should do that more often!
