For the 3rd month, the men will be serving
separately from the women. The women will head into red light districts to
reach out to prostitutes, girls who work in bars-women who do not have options.
While our ladies tackle this physically, emotionally and spiritually daunting
task, the 15 men on our squad will have what’s called “Manistry.”
For the most part, that entails taking a red-light bus 9 hrs
to arrive at 5:30am and not having anyone pick us up for 2 hrs, then driving up
4.5 hrs the next day to another city in 2 pick up trucks with all our luggage
through winding mountain roads, to arrive at dusk, set up tents in the middle
of a land of palm and banana trees-land purchased only a week before us
arriving, with only light coming from our headlamps, waking up in dampness from
the morning dew, clearing the dead tree limbs, about 200 dead fallen coconuts
(no exaggeration), chopping down huge dead trees, have ants and bugs get in
every imaginable things, pulling dead weed from a dried up pond, pumping water
back into that pond from the river, then burning up ALL dead things in bonfires
that became infernos, digging two holes 6 feet deep that would be septic tanks
for bathrooms for the refugee camp that would take in both Burmese and Thai
children, then walking about a 100 m through cornfield to arrive at a river to
shower with 14 other men, some losing their soaps in the current including me, then
after dinner, share our thoughts and pray with the men, only to head back into
your tent that isn’t as clean or dry or warm as you’d like it to be.
It’s not all as glamorous as I describe it. One night we had
to endure eating at a buffet with endless meats you cook at your table for the
equivalent of $3. Another time, we hiked to a giant secluded cave that only a
few know about or visited. The gov’t tried to make it a tourist destination,
but because the only road in is through a small village, the villagers would
always remove the signs to the cave so that visitors would not be able to find
it. This cave is pretty much a tunnel with river rushing through it. Thankfully
when we were there, the water was only a few feet deep. But during the rainy
season, it can rise up to 5 feet or more. Inside you see the most interesting
rock formations, bats, exotic spiders, but only if you bring a light source,
because it’s completely dark.
We also found ourselves playing soccer against what seemed
like 20 Thai kids on a full sized field. It was the most difficult game of
soccer I’ve played, especially when the sun set, and all I could see was 20
feet ahead of me, never really knowing where the ball was until it was coming
at your head.
Please pray for the work we’re doing. The land we’re working
on used to belong to animists, who are people who worship spirits in animals,
trees, water, etc. We’re physically and spiritually taking back the land that
was used ungodly and claiming it in Jesus’ name. It may sound dumb, but when
you worship and pray over the land that you’re working on, whether it be land,
or workplace, you are bringing God’s kingdom.
My next blog will talk about a prophecy spoken over me.
