Finishing our time of ministry in Thailand and walking away from SHE, I was left with two dramatically different women on my heart. The first is a woman named Le. Her picture was in my first blog – she’s the one in orange. She is 45 years old and works with her older sister at a bar on Soi Lion in Patong – the one street that this ministry has never seen anyone come out of. We became friends the first week I came to Thailand, and immediately she responded when I told her of the opportunity of coming out of the bars and learning to do something different. She looked at me with a new found hope in her eyes that maybe, just maybe there was hope for her and her sister. We tried day after day to arrange a time for her and her sister to come by the SHE house to meet the other Thai ladies who work there. Every time though, s
omething would get in the way. Her sister would not make it back home in time to come…someone would be sick…always something. The first night that we didn’t come by to see these sisters, her sister called me in the middle of the night. She speaks very broken English, and was clearly drunk (as she is every night in order to cope), but what I could make out was that she didn’t like the bars, her family didn’t like that they were there, and that her mother was sick. Of all people to call in a moment of desperation and loneliness…she called me…a stranger whom she had only known for a week. It broke my heart, and also encouraged me, knowing that this friendship was impacting these women. We continued to try to meet up during the day, but a nasty eye infection that Le got kept her at home recuperating for the last week I was there. The sisters never came, and I thought I would leave Thailand without having that final conversation I wanted to have with Le. So, I went down Soi Lion one last time on our last night of ministry, having no expectation of seeing Le or her sister – but they were both there. We stood and hugged, we talked…I told her that there was hope. She began to cry and tell me she was tired…so tired. Her sister is older, but relies heavily on Le – and she feels the weight of the burden to not only help herself, but also her sister who is at the mercy of her own coping mechanism. I was able to pray with her there, to tell her again about the SHE ministry, which exists to help women exactly like her. I held her, I encouraged her, I spoke truth over her…she buried her head in my shoulder and cried. It was heartbreaking.,,and then…I walked away. How do you walk away from someone so desperate for help, and so close to accepting it – someone who saw hope for the first time in a very long time in those 3 weeks you’ve known them. God knew it would happen – He brought me to this woman and had me pour into her these three weeks – and He will bring another to love on her some more. I only planted the seed…
“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” 1 Cor 3:5-8
But, praise God, I also had the opportunity to water the seeds of another. The second woman who captured my heart was named Ice, or Ae, as we came to know her. The World Race team who worked at SHE last month met her in the bars and introduced her to SHE, and she moved in early on in their month of ministry. 
Holli Lewis’ blog recounting her story is a fantastic preface to the story I will now share. One of the things our team shared with us before we went to SHE was that Ice was so close to coming to know Jesus, and that we needed to call them IMMEDIATELY when she became a Christian. Our team immediately fell in love with this woman when we arrived at the SHE house. Her sweet spirit and gentleness made it so hard for us to believe that only a month before she was working in the bars and selling her body for a living. We celebrated a birthday with her – in true American fashion…with burgers and chocolate cake! Our team spent afternoons laughing and talking with her – sharing about our faith, and each night she would watch our team go out to visit the streets she used to work on. Her curiosity about Jesus was so evident as she would ask questions in broken English, and every night we’d see her reading her Bible. The other t
eam was right, she was so close. Then one evening, Ae and two other Christian Thai girls and Jenni sat down and began praying together and studying the Bible together. As I observed the meeting they were having, it was clear that God was definitely moving in an incredible way. That night, 4 of us were supposed to go out to ministry– but of those 4, one had a migraine, one had a hurt foot, and another was not feeling well. So for the first time, we decided to not send out a team to Patong. Instead we decided to get together as a team and pray for the conversation that Jenni was having with Ae in the next room. An hour later, Jenni came bounding into the room announcing that Ae had just accepted Christ! Praise God. We all went in and gave hugs and sat and talked with her – it was amazing! Three days later, she was baptized in the ocean…at Patong Beach. The place that tainted her soul was the place God used to show the wor
ld that she has now been washed clean, white as snow. It was so beautiful. As we drove away on our last day, I held her hand as she walked behind the truck we were riding in until she had to let go. My heart was so sad to leave her – such a new Believer that needs great encouragement and protection as she learns how to have a strong relationship with God in a culture that is far from God. But we did our part…we watered the seed that the last team had planted. We saw the amazing fruit of the labor of those who came before us…and someone else will come behind us and water this young Believer so that she grows strong and close to the Lord.
God is so faithful…all the people He sends in order to pursue one person…it’s beautiful. He did the same thing for me before I knew Him. So now I tell other about the love and hope and joy that I have in my life through Jesus Christ. Sometimes I get to see the fruit, sometimes I water the seeds of Truth others have planted, sometimes I leave the seed and pray for the next person or team that God will send that person’s way…because I know He will send another, He always does.
