We are staying at Step Ahead-an organization that helps women out of the slums or sex trade by teaching them English and by teaching them how to make leather bags they can sell. There are ten of us girls living here together, each team in their own room.
We are working with BELOVED which has been great! When we arrived we went over the ‘schedule’ for the month. Schedules are always changing and usually never ever stay the same, its part of the fun! But our schedule was a lot of skits and songs for churches and Christmas parties, or Christmas crusades. So… we have gone to five different Christmas parties so far. We usually recognize at least one or two people at each party. The churches here seem to join together and work together to bring people to the Lord, not necessarily their specific church.
It’s nice to see the churches working together-that’s a rarity in the states. The Christmas parties/crusades have been great, our skits have gotten much better too. When told we had to do skits all month, we all looked at each other with horror at the thought but it actually has turned out pretty funny and fun (Thanks Lord) Our first skit consisted of a beggar-Ashley- trying to get Jess to give her something and
Jess ignored her, then I come along and give her a jacket and leave, but an angel persists on me going back to do more- and so I invite her to dinner with Jess and I and we read and discuss the verse- “whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.”
Mind you, this is all nonverbal until the end because we do not speak the same language- it was real BAD! I totally wish someone would have taped it, I’m sure it was hilariously terrible- and we performed this skit three times, getting better each time. Then we figured we should do a new idea since the same people are seeing our same skit over and over. It turned out great! YAY!
So, we arrived at a school with over 100 children at it, we were to perform a skit and sing our Thai songs. We were able to witness to a multitude of children who may or may not have heard about Jesus before! It was amazing, some stood up for prayer at the end. We were able to party with these kids and love them. They had a Christian band playing- lol- all the girls loved “jean jacket man” SO FUNNY!” He’s making the rocker symbol below 🙂
We had crazy fun with them, we danced like fools, did some ‘stanky leg’ with BP- did the “papa Nusz” (when you go on your tip toes and bring your knees together repeatedly-it’s a sig move of BP and I) I call it the Papa Nusz because my friend Aubrey used to do this dance which was inspired by her father…love you girl! All you hear is an uproarious laughter from the kids when you start dancing!
We ate school Thai lunch food with them-Yum yum… keep in mind I never ate American school lunch food past middle school. The kids loved take photos with us and at the end we handed out a small gift. All in all it was super sweet and def worth four hours! It was amazing to see a generation rising up for Jesus in a country that is 94% Buddhist. And we weren’t done yet, we had another party to go to later.
This was a party that everyone of the neighborhood was invited to, so they could come hear the word of God, learn about Christmas and celebrate with us! It is a great outreach! SO HERES THE PLAN! Dinner, two testimonies, a skit, three songs, a raffle, worship, video clips, mingling and more. But it started to rain… 
Honestly, I thought we would just pack up and leave considering we were far from home and really could not do much because of the rain- we were worried everyone would just leave and the party would be cancelled.
God had a different plan- our teams started to sing Christmas carols and we continued to go about our business as if the rain was not happening. Jenny shared a testimony of a man we met in Ireland and rocked it! She invited people up who wanted to accept Jesus and 20+ people came forward!!!! Some thought we were crazy, but they were intrigued and stuck-(thank you Holy Spirit) They did not want to leave, and after the prayer, they all received Bibles!
They were so excited! They were flipping through them, and showing their friends, it was amazing! The Lord is always doing crazy things-but this night was divine, and although we prayed for the rain to stop, the Lord used to rain to bring people to Him in a powerful way-the tears were flowing, the Spirit was moving, and we were singing in the rain-Praising the one God who will never let us down! It was incredible, wish I was a better writer so you could get a better picture of how the Lord is working here.
Then He blessed us again- we were soaking wet and not looking forward to a 4 hour bus ride with damp clothes… a woman there offered us all T shirts and pants/skirts to wear home, fully knowing we would not be able to return them to her-she gave them with a willing heart!
Their Christmas parties are huge events, they have speakers, dancers, singers, food, disco balls, bubble machines, smoke machines, dramas, raffles, and gifts!
Thai dancing is really beautiful…and again these parties are never exclusive-they always invite the community in so that everyone has a chance for a good meal, entertainment, and the best gift of all, hearing the story of Christmas!
Who knew that we would just have to party for a lot of the month to bring people to the Lord!
Chow lok tung lei, Chen Jai Yen Dee, Me Pra Ra Cha Brasoot, Ker Prayesu Sadet Long Maa, High rau rong plang sun sern, High rau, high rau rong plang sun sern!!! JOY TO THE WORLD THE LORD HAS COME! LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING, LET EVERY HEART PREPARE HIM ROOM, AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING, HEAVEN AND NATURE SING, LET HEAVEN AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING!
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