The Story of the Spirit moving in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Part 1 of 3)
Thank you Tony, for giving us the opportunity to experience the Spirit with you in so many ways. In only two weeks, I watched your entire street change because of Him.
This is a true story that only the Spirit of Truth could allow to happen. There are a few names and places in this story that have been changed to protect identities of these individuals. Please keep in mind before reading this that neither Zac Blankenship, nor anyone on my team, or on my Squad had anything to do with the spiritual awakening of any individual in this story, but it is only the Spirit Himself who wakes those in the deepest of sleeps. As of now, you as my reader know where I am spiritually or at least have the opportunity to experience this truth through previous blogs and videos, so this story again is not about me. For if it were not for Him, I myself would still be asleep somewhere else, completely unaware of who I am and missing out on what life is all about. I will attempt to get Parts Two and Three of this story up as soon as I can. However, we are extremely busy in Cambodia so it may be difficult and I don’t want to miss any details. If you have time read this blog, it’s a great story.
Please read before sharing with children.
On our first day of ministry AIM made a connection that allowed team Holla-Lujah to have the opportunity of being love towards the people in the slums of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our contact Emmi, challenged us on Day One to find “the one” who the Spirit had ordained for us to meet. After listening to this challenge I asked the Spirit to show me who my one was. He placed an image of Jesus dying on the cross for my sins and said, “I Am.” With chills running down my body I knew that He had bigger plans than just one, but none of them would be revealed if I was not guided by The One who created who I am and from Whom all opportunities flow.
On the way to the slums, a man cut off our team on a motorcycle. I could smell that he had been drinking, and from my personal experience with alcohol, I could tell he had been drinking a lot. He was wearing no shirt, no shoes, and dirty, muddy jean shorts. I felt frustration from this man. I didn't like the way he was looking at Megan, he almost ran over my toes, he was in the way of me having the opportunity to love the children in the slums, he was white and American, and to me, he seemed like a waste of my time. My first reaction was to push him off his bike, then, drink the rest of the beer he had in his backpack. Then kick his gas tank. In his drunken stupor he asked us to come to his bar and he said several times, "Everything is free." When he said free, he meant free; t v., Wi-Fi, drinks, food, two sets of bunk beds to stay the night and anything else we wanted. I immediately felt the Spirit fill my entire body with His presence as He whispered in my ear, "This is the one I brought you here to love. This is the man I created and I have big plans for him. Don't judge him. Love him. Don't persecute him. Seek to understand him. Don’t miss this. Be guided. Do you not hear the desperation in his voice? Do you not feel his loneliness and pain? Are you better than this man? Do my children in the slums need me more than this man? Don't get ahead of Me, Zac. For if you have faith in Me, you will do what I did. In fact, Zac, even greater things you will do than I, for I Am with my Father.”
Guided once again completely by the Spirit, I spoke and told him I'd be by his bar the next morning because I needed to be available to the kids at the slums and the night market. That night after an incredible experience with the children, I listened to the Spirit tell me, "If you believe with no doubt in your mind, seeing with My eyes and My Spirit guiding your heart, I will reveal just how big I Am to you."
I've never slept in more peace.
The following morning I asked my brother, Jakobus, what he had planned today. With no hesitation he said, "I'm going with you to love Tony." I received confirmation that the presence of truth was with us and I responded, "Let us be guided."
On the way there, Jako, and I both experienced a lot of stares on the street. We did not think much of these stares for we know our joy is not dependent on people. For if it was, we would have been feeling a lot of loneliness and discouragement on this street. What we did feel is the Spirit telling us not to talk at all.
“For those who know, do not have to talk. And those who talk a lot, do not really know,” He whispered. In these past five days of silence of words, but full of love in actions, we learned so much about this man Tony.
In fact, he truly is one of the most interesting men I've ever met. Tony told us the following about his life. He told us that one of his first memories was his first day of kindergarten. Whereas most kids are excited about the first day of school and receiving homework, Tony was more of a realist. So in just his first three hours in school he realized he had enough. He walked out of his classroom and jumped the playground fence and started to walk home. On his way home, he was picked up by the Resource Officer at his school. This would become the first of 20 times to date, that Tony was “picked up” by police for breaking the law.
However, Tony also became the law. After he dropped out of school in 9th grade he started traveling across the country with just a backpack. In this time he taught himself everything he felt would help him survive in life. In 1980, he enlisted in the navy. After two years of hating the Navy, he dropped out and became a street bum for a year. After another year, the Navy found him and gave him an option to either go on an aircraft carrier to a place he would not enjoy or rejoin the Navy and go back to what he was trained for. Once again Tony found himself in the Navy and living a life of complete loneliness. However, Tony had a boss that believed in him. One day his boss called him into his office and asked him, "Tony, what do you want to do with your life?" Tony said, “I want to be a Navy Seal.”
During this time of waiting for his opportunity, Tony trained to be a triathlete. In fact, in 1981, Tony was training with some of the original triathletes of the world. People like Mike Pigg, Scott Molina, Scott Tinely and Julie Moss. Tony became ranked Number 5 Triathlon Athlete in the World by 1983.
Then in 1984, Tony was given the opportunity to be one of 138 to go through training as a Navy Seal in Class 132. He was one of 12 to graduate. Not only did Tony graduate number one in his class, but he also broke every single record, including testing as a genius on an academic level. He served for 22 years and for me to tell all the stories I heard from those 22 years, even I would face legal trouble for talking. However, in this time Tony did get married and had two studs as sons. He also had several boat and car wrecks, three helicopter accidents and one airplane accident. After the Seals, Tony moved to Richmond, Virginia. He was still in the best shape of all Navy Seals at Coronado Base Camp. He became a trainer. Within the next 20 year's Tony transitioned out of the seals into owning two companies, while writing 8 books, and trading information for any government agency that needed his expertise. Tony was the CEO of both "Super Garage" and "Hurricane Trimming." Within 10 years Tony was a multimillionaire and could buy anything and everything he ever wanted. On the outside, it seemed like Tony had life in the palms of his hands. He had a beautiful wife, great kids, owned 11 houses, and had more money than he knew what to do with. On the inside, Tony was dying quickly. In this same time of success he became addicted to many drugs. Because of the respect people had for Tony and his work ethic, the people that knew never seemed to care. Even the Seals were so satisfied with his work that he stayed exempt from all drug tests. However, as we all should know, life is a wave.
The wave that hit Tony was more of a Tsunami. In 2006, Tony's wife left him, the kids were gone and drug addiction had finally caught up to him. Months later in 2006, Tony woke up to the voice of God saying, "You're done." He felt like God was telling him to sell everything he owned, get sober and get his book written and only then would God release him to die. Within four months, at the end of 2006, he got sober and sold everything he owned except for a Humvee and a shed of tools. He found himself in Lineville, Alabama, at a missionary home. The only problem with this home was the people there thought they knew Tony. What they didn't know, was Tony had sold almost everything he owned and now had no money. When the mission home would go out for dinners they would never pay for him. When there was work that needed to be done around the home, it was Tony who was always told to fix it up. After 6 months Tony found himself in a familiar place…lonely.
He yelled at God that night, "WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?!" God responded, "I didn't. You did this yourself Tony. I told you to get sober, sell everything you have and get your book written. You ahead got ahead of Me." So, after 8 months of sobriety and a half-finished book, Tony left the home and took a lot of resentment with him…resentment towards missionaries, Christians, and mostly God. Out of this resentment he did sell the car and the tools and even the shed. He used that money to leave everything behind and start traveling the world to discover what life is truly about.
In the next six years, Tony met a girl and she joined him on this adventure. When I say he traveled the world, I mean he visited 135 countries within these six years. His girlfriend moved back to Panama to help her sickly family, but that was too hot of a place for Tony. Because of his history with drugs, Tony knew that he didn’t want to go back to those places. So he turned to alcohol for his happiness. Through many trials and tribulations with the harsh realities of life, Tony found himself in Thailand. He lived in 150 cities before finding himself in Chiang Mai, in February 2012. During this time, Tony lost two bars he owned to debt, and after opening his third (The Bumblebee Bar) history seemed to be repeating itself once more.
That is the history that brings me back to the day after God spoke to me about Tony. When Jakobus and I got to The Bumblebee Bar, where Tony lives, we looked around. We did not see Tony. But, what we did see were mice, frogs, trash everywhere, empty beer bottles, dirty dishes, and fleas all in the bathroom. As we started to leave, Tony pulled up on his bike and said, “What’s up guys? I was getting a beer. I got run over by a car last night after being raped by three lady boys.” So naturally, I responded like anyone else would to that and said, “Word,” not encouraging nor judging, just simply listening, and letting him know I was. He experienced grace from Jakobus and me. He enjoyed the grace so much that he continued to tell us more and more about his life. Only now, as he was speaking, his attitude changed. It was a sudden switch. We learned that he was not raped by the lady boys, but in fact, it was consensual.
He helped us to understand the Lady boys and how the majority of them came to becoming Lady Boys. The culture of Pai, Thailand is for the women to make the money. They bring in the cash by selling themselves at a young age. However, being born a boy is frowned upon. So, the majority of these boys agree with their parents at a young age to become “lady boys.” At age six, they begin to inject a serious of steroids over a course of a year. This allows them to grow into their bodies by age 12. Because this is such an unnatural procedure the lady boys grow over 6 ft tall (much taller than the average person in Thailand). At 12, they receive breast implants and are sent off to Bangkok. Here they work for four years having sex with as many people as they can so that they can get as much money as they can. At the end of four years, they give every penny to their families and are released to live as they please. Because of such unnatural procedures and such promiscuous lifestyles, the average life expectancy of the “lady boys” is 30. Keep in mind that this is no one’s fault. Some of you reading this even right now may feel resentment towards the parents, judgment towards the Lady boys, or even anger towards me for how I am defending them. That’s ok, I told you from day one that I am not here to change anyone, but simply describe the obstacles to truth. There is only unawareness to blame for this.
The parents of the lady boys have been brainwashed by their culture to believe this is not only ok but it is normal. The Lady boys themselves have been brainwashed from birth to believe they were born unloved, undesired, and a mistake. The majority of the Lady boys are brainwashed to believe that their only purpose in life is to get a sex change and start having sex. This makes it very difficult to live “as you please,” at age 16, when the only life you have ever known completely revolves around sex. This is why one in four bars in Chiang Mai, Thailand, are what the locals call “Lady boy bars.”
Tony introduced us to one of the most popular Lady boys in Chiang Mai. She too, was born and raised in Pai before moving to Chiang Mai at age 17. Her name is Mot. Mot is in her 20’s. She is not popular because she has had lots of sex, but rather because her character and age. She is tall and very funny. She loves Celine Dion. She is more aware than most Lady boys, whether or not she’ll admit it. Mot wasn’t very sure of Jako and me when she first met us. We later discovered this was because she had never experienced our kind of love before. Her entire life she has only experienced judgment from foreigners. We loved her without wanting or needing anything in return from her. For how could either of us judge her for being unaware? It’s the simplicity of spirituality that makes others so attracted to the lifestyle. Mot is on the right in the picture below.
By the fourth day of hanging out with Tony, a few of us pulled together to help fix up his bar. I would like to think we cleaned it up pretty well. We threw a party that night and had a blast. I look forward to sharing with you Part Two in the very near future. Until then check out this video.
