January 24, 2015
So ends our first week of ministry. This will probably be a long blog, and many of you may already know these stories from other blogs. Sorry that I haven’t been on—I couldn’t not get internet and could not blog!!! I ask that you all please pray that my little asus will work well, that I would know how to use especially when dealing with my new finance role, and that I would be able blog regularity! Poor little asus computer ha ha. It and my other electronics have prayed for and anointed many times!
We are staying at a place called Zion, run by a brave woman called Emmie. She has an amazing testimony, but I’m not sure that it is mine to tell. I believe you can find her story of Zion on youtube or you look up their website lighthouseinaction.org.
Emmie has her hands in many different ministries here in Chiang Mai, including partnerships with other organizations. She started Light House in Action and form which has three different ministries that she runs; X Life, Zion Café, and Love Acts. From Love Acts, we have ministries such as Bar ministry, Monk chats, and Slum ministry. Slum ministry is where we play with children and interact with families living in the slums. Monk chats are actually put on by the monk school so that the Monks can better their English. They are always very open to talking with strangers about a variety of subjects, but mostly about religion. Bar ministry could mean intercessory prayer down the bar streets, talking and having a relationship with girls who work at the bars, or even letting Emmie know we find any suspicious behavior that might reveal coerced trafficking.
The Zion Café houses and provides work/raining for men and women coming out of the bar life, as well as discipleship and training for those going into ministry and are housed at the Zion Hostel, directly above the Café. X Life is going to the villages and sharing the gospel there, going to the root of the problem of some sex trafficking and darkness by shining a light. Emmie also wants us to do ATL prayers (Ask The Lord) which has us ask God “Who is on your heart today?” After that we take time to pray and try to be led by the Spirit as to where we should go and who we should meet.
Emmie is an amazing person but she also holds her ministries very loosely in her hands by allowing strangers to work beside her in the ministries and to constantly take our actions before the Spirit. She also frequently and sternly tells us that the people we are coming in contact with are not another picture on our facebook, blog, or Instagram. They are not something we do to promote the World Race or to reassure our supporters. They are people, each one a son or daughter of the most High God, and most don’t know their daddy.
We have had a chance to do all of these ministries, and we are actually leaving Zion to do X Life in the villages on Monday. Each ministry looks different every day for every team. Many times we would do intercessory prayer for other teams out doing ministry or as we walked along the bar streets ourselves.
One time God led us to buy ice cream for a little girl and her mom selling trinkets at Thai Pae (spelling?) gate. We also bought some Disney princess crafts, and we sat on the street and played with the little girl. It must have been such a strange occurring because people would stop, stare and watch us, including three military men. I looked up once while shaking off glitter from a “Frozen” craft and saw one of the soldiers smiling at us, and then look up at his friends as if to say,” Hey, they are weird, but I think they are all right. Kind of cool.”
One of our first ATL’S brought us to a Flower Massage Parlor where we fell head over heels in love the women who worked there. God opened doors so much in that initial meeting that one of the ladies who was massaging me, bent down and gave me a hug, and all of them shared stories in broken English of their lives and family life. We ended up bringing them coffee another day and having lunch with them. And still another day, one of the woman came to our worship night, and we got to dance with her, as well as sing worship songs in both Tha and English. I even got to share a little of my testimony with her. Many of the women at the massage parlor are leaving the same weekend we are, so it was by divine appointment that we all got to meet each other when we did.
For our Monk chat days, God allowed us to talk to the same Monk, Sadat, three times on three separate occasions. Everyone one else talked with multiple monks. Sadat is 24 years old, originally from India, and has a true and sincere seeking heart. We asked him about his life and Buddhism the initial visits, and he loved opening up about himself and his beliefs. On our second visit, Sadat told us that he is reading a book called “How to argue and win” in English and that he sometimes frustrates his teachers because he asks them hard and challenging questions about his faith. He wants to know the truth, he said. We asked him what he knew about Jesus, and low and behold, Sadat not only knew His entire story, but shared with us that his favorite Jesus moment in the Bible was when he helped the woman who was caught in adultery. He said that he liked Jesus very much and thought that He was a good man. Sadat even has three Bibles that were given to him; one in Thai, one in Hindi, and one in English.”
All of this opened up a door for me to ask him an interesting question. Before starting I asked him it if was ok that I ask him an argument and he said that he appreciates conversations like these. So I proposed to him the question that C.S Lewis once asked in the Narnia series and in his lectures; How can Jesus be a good man if He was who He said He was He couldn’t, because along with preaching on love and compassion, he told people to follow him to death and to worship because he was the “Only way.” This isn’t a good man if it is not true. We are only left with 3 options: That He was kind hearted but a little crazy, that Jesus was a liar, or that He was who He said He was. With so many people following him day in and day out, and with the most intelligent men of the day constantly trying to trip Him up, I believe that if He was insane that it would have manifested itself or as brought to the light in some way. If He was a liar, why go through the torture and death on a cross? It only leaves on option.
I presented this before Sadat and he asked me to restate the entire thing. Sadat then asked for a moment to think on it. After a minute or two, he went through each option. “I no think Jesus was crazy…He was no liar. He would not do and die like He did…so yes. Maybe He was who he said He was. Maybe some truth there.”
What? We were amazed.
The next meeting we continued talking to him about himself, his faith and our faith, and we even got permission to take a picture with him. I am so excited to see how Jesus has pursued this man and how much Sadat yearns for truth and peace—He just doesn’t recognize that it is Jesus. YET. But he just gained 5 girls who are going to continually take him up before the Lord! He is going to be my brother in Christ someday!
Please pray for Sadat, for the women in the massage parlor, for the people we met on the bar street, for kids playing the slums, and for the villages that we will be living in this next week. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Please also continue to pray for my health. The headaches have come up frequently this past week. God bless!
~Tori
