Today was a really good day. On Wed, we met some girls when we were ministering in one of the bars and the Lord really opened some good doors with them to share about SHE and the work they are doing there. More and more the women we talk to are so quick to share how unhappy they are doing what they are doing. So these 3 particular girls at one bar were really interested in leaving their current work and coming to SHE so we gave them contact info and invited them to call and come have lunch with us. No calls on Thursday. :(
So today, I just felt like we should call one of the girls - I'll call her Penny. We called, and she answered and agreed to meet us for coffee that afternoon. Coffee ended up becoming lunch with her out at a restaurant, but she was so interested in getting out and coming to work with SHE that we brought her back to the center with us, and she was offered a job on the spot working mainly in the office with SHE (a real blessing for them as well, as this has been a great need for them too). This girl is sharp - degree in business and bery professional, plus a great sweet spirit. She only recently started working in the bar (for about a month only) as the economy has been bad and she has to take care of her elderly mother and desperately needed the money. When she found out she got the job she was grinning from ear to ear, and looked so thrilled, as she had shared how horrible she found the work in the bar and wanted to get out of it so bad. She is moving in to the center or Sunday and starts work on Monday! Praise the Lord that this girl got out before she got more heavily engrained in it all. This was such a fast process of planting a seed, watching it grow right before our eyes, and reaping a harvest, all in just a 3 day period. Also, she was supposed to be working in the bar tonight, but we were out ministering, went by to see her and they said she didn't come in (another huge answer to our prayers!), so we were thrilled that she really is done with that life! Let's pray it's this easy with more of the girls we minister to!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Some Thai Pics
Here are some pics so far from Thailand:
Some of the Thai girls and I took a walk from SHE to this nearby dam - very pretty. I need a tan. haha
Helping the ladies at she bake cookies (their newest business addition is baking)
Leading morning Bible studies with the women at SHE
Praying over the bars when they are closed
Playing Jenga at one of the bars with our new friend. She's 20 years old, and she works at 2 bars. She told us that her mother works down there in the bars as well. She has a 9 year old sister, and I feel so burdened to pray that her sister does not follow in their footsteps as well. We will continue to go back and visit her during our stay in Thailand.
Some of the Thai girls and I took a walk from SHE to this nearby dam - very pretty. I need a tan. haha
Helping the ladies at she bake cookies (their newest business addition is baking)
Leading morning Bible studies with the women at SHE
Praying over the bars when they are closed
The beach at Patong - part of what pulls in all the foreigners...
Prayer walking the streets during the day when the bars were closed.
The ladies at SHE making jewelry.
Playing Jenga at one of the bars with our new friend. She's 20 years old, and she works at 2 bars. She told us that her mother works down there in the bars as well. She has a 9 year old sister, and I feel so burdened to pray that her sister does not follow in their footsteps as well. We will continue to go back and visit her during our stay in Thailand.
More to come! If you like this, send me a comment!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Battle for Thailand
Well, we just got back from another night of ministry down in Patong, the Red Light District area of Phuket, Thailand. Our time here has been intense and different than expected. This was our 3rd full day at the ministry site in Phuket. Let me explain a bit of what we are doing here.
This area of Thailand is well-known for its beaches and sex-tourism. There is a ministry here started by a British missionary family that reaches out to the girls working in prostitution in the bars that gives them an alternative to what they are doing. The ministry is called SHE (self-help and empowerment) and offers them training in making jewelry, chocolates, and baked goods, while also offering them a place to live and Biblical teaching.
Right now there are about 18 girls working for SHE, about 7 of which live at the site, and the others travel here each day to work. While the team is here, we have been getting up in the am to lead their morning devotions at the start of their work day. Then we help them do their work - making the jewelry or baking the cookies (yum! my favorite job...), etc. While we are doing this we have the opportunity to have conversations with them. Many of the girls who work here are not yet Christians. The only condition for them coming to work for SHE is that they aren't working in the bars. So there is quite a mix of spiritual conditions here. Some of the girls have become Christians and have been baptised, some have gone through YWAM Discipleship Training Schools, others have just left the bars a few nights or weeks ago (we got a brand new lady who moved in today!).
Then some afternoons we go to Patong (the red light area) and prayer walk through out the areas.
In the evenings we have more chances to talk with and disciple the ladies who live at SHE. Many of the later nights (9-12 or so) are spent out at those same bars, engaging in conversations with the girls.
The bars have "bar-girls" that are employed by the bars and they are basically hostesses. There job is to get people into the bars and to spend money. Most of these bars do not pay the girls a salary, but they are provided free housing that indebts them to work as hostesses. They rely on other things to make any money. They get comission off of certain drinks they sell, or get to keep their tips, or they can arrange to go with the men that want to purchase them. The sad thing is though, that without doing those things, they aren't making any type of a salary, so the girls often seem to feel really trapped. Most of them have children that are living with the girls parents, and Thai culture says that these girls need to financially take care of their parents. Add that in with taking care of their children and themselves, and these girls feel a lot of pressure to do whatever it takes to make money.
So we go into these open-air bars (nothing behind closed doors - many awful things happen in those places and this ministry doesn't feel released to go there yet) and sit down for a soda with one of these girls. Their job is to talk to people, so it's easy to have conversations with them. They have lots of games they play, like Jenga, Connect 4, etc to help break the ice too. So it is easy to converse, and you just look for openings to talk more meaningfully to them. One easy thing is just asking them if they like their job or are happy doing what they do. 9 times out of 10 they say no and start going into reasons. We can then tell them about SHE, invite them to come for lunch here, etc. Whatever the Spirit leads.
We've seen some amazing things come out of those conversations. But we see a whole lot of really hard stuff down there as well. The atmosphere is just so dark and perverse. So many strongholds and demonic activity. And as we are combatting all of that in the Spirit, it means a lot of personal spiritual attack. I feel it a lot more than I did in India (not that it wasn't there in India too, but for some reason it is felt more here). I know we are doing so much good for the Gospel, but it just looks really different than many other traditional types of ministry. And the things we are exposed to open us up to a lot of attack. So please pray hard. I will talk more about the spiritual warfare soon in another post, as this one is getting really long. :)
This area of Thailand is well-known for its beaches and sex-tourism. There is a ministry here started by a British missionary family that reaches out to the girls working in prostitution in the bars that gives them an alternative to what they are doing. The ministry is called SHE (self-help and empowerment) and offers them training in making jewelry, chocolates, and baked goods, while also offering them a place to live and Biblical teaching.
Right now there are about 18 girls working for SHE, about 7 of which live at the site, and the others travel here each day to work. While the team is here, we have been getting up in the am to lead their morning devotions at the start of their work day. Then we help them do their work - making the jewelry or baking the cookies (yum! my favorite job...), etc. While we are doing this we have the opportunity to have conversations with them. Many of the girls who work here are not yet Christians. The only condition for them coming to work for SHE is that they aren't working in the bars. So there is quite a mix of spiritual conditions here. Some of the girls have become Christians and have been baptised, some have gone through YWAM Discipleship Training Schools, others have just left the bars a few nights or weeks ago (we got a brand new lady who moved in today!).
Then some afternoons we go to Patong (the red light area) and prayer walk through out the areas.
In the evenings we have more chances to talk with and disciple the ladies who live at SHE. Many of the later nights (9-12 or so) are spent out at those same bars, engaging in conversations with the girls.
The bars have "bar-girls" that are employed by the bars and they are basically hostesses. There job is to get people into the bars and to spend money. Most of these bars do not pay the girls a salary, but they are provided free housing that indebts them to work as hostesses. They rely on other things to make any money. They get comission off of certain drinks they sell, or get to keep their tips, or they can arrange to go with the men that want to purchase them. The sad thing is though, that without doing those things, they aren't making any type of a salary, so the girls often seem to feel really trapped. Most of them have children that are living with the girls parents, and Thai culture says that these girls need to financially take care of their parents. Add that in with taking care of their children and themselves, and these girls feel a lot of pressure to do whatever it takes to make money.
So we go into these open-air bars (nothing behind closed doors - many awful things happen in those places and this ministry doesn't feel released to go there yet) and sit down for a soda with one of these girls. Their job is to talk to people, so it's easy to have conversations with them. They have lots of games they play, like Jenga, Connect 4, etc to help break the ice too. So it is easy to converse, and you just look for openings to talk more meaningfully to them. One easy thing is just asking them if they like their job or are happy doing what they do. 9 times out of 10 they say no and start going into reasons. We can then tell them about SHE, invite them to come for lunch here, etc. Whatever the Spirit leads.
We've seen some amazing things come out of those conversations. But we see a whole lot of really hard stuff down there as well. The atmosphere is just so dark and perverse. So many strongholds and demonic activity. And as we are combatting all of that in the Spirit, it means a lot of personal spiritual attack. I feel it a lot more than I did in India (not that it wasn't there in India too, but for some reason it is felt more here). I know we are doing so much good for the Gospel, but it just looks really different than many other traditional types of ministry. And the things we are exposed to open us up to a lot of attack. So please pray hard. I will talk more about the spiritual warfare soon in another post, as this one is getting really long. :)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
First night on the street
Just got back from Bangkok where we had our first night ministering on the streets to the Thai girls. We met these young girls and were able to share the love of Christ with them as we treated them to a meal. Got about an hour of time with them talking and sharing. Such bondage and perversion in that area. It is hard to describe all that we saw in just a few minutes...
This was when we first saw them, just working the streets. I just so happened to take this photo not knowing we were gonna have a convo with them.
These girls said they were 18 but looked much younger. The one furthest from me has a one year old baby boy. Please pray for them. My heart breaks when I see all this happening everywhere. There is so much more for them...
Friday, June 5, 2009
Welcome to the Land of Smiles!
Well I arrived in Thailand after a very long day yesterday. We were doing things in the hospital for Sarah's SCH kids until time to get my stuff and head to the airport, for my flight at 8:45 at night (was what I thinking when I booked that one?). Connected in Mumbai at 1:00 am and landed at 7ish am Thai time. I was up for over 24hours before getting to the YWAM base, where I got just a 2.5 hour nap before lunch and running some errands with the translator. Boy am I gonna sleep well tonight. All in all though, life is just so much smoother and calmer in Thailand (at least so far). It doesn't have the same kind of business that comes with over a billion people roaming around all the time. And I forgot how clean it is here. Plus that motto "The Land of Smiles" - makes me smile when I read it...the mental image I get is quite humorous. So now I am trying to catch up on a few GI things (see Jonathan?) before Marilyn's team gets in around midnight (we'll have another late night - there's no rest for the weary...). I am so excited to see her! Forgot also about the mosquitos here too, but got to the store and picked up more of my baby bug stuff (lol) - I love that stuff. Haha. Well there's the latest. Maybe you'll get something more intelligent out of me when I've had more than 2.5 hours of sleep. :) Maybe...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Hyderabad
I'll keep posting about the village services, but what's happening in "real-time" is that I travelled to Hyderabad on Sunday (about an 8 hour ride on bumpy roads) and am here until Thurs when I fly out for Thailand. I am helping Sarah with more stuff for her SCH kids and getting them surgeries. Her kids are also up here as well as her mother-in-law, Diamond, so some of the time I am spending with them as well. So far so good. We've had two days of some hospital stuff. 2 of the kids that were up here last time came for some post-op stuff, which seems to have gone well and they are done here now and heading back down tonight. A whole new load (I think 7 more kids) are on their way up here tonight, so it will be a busy time here! 2 more says in India and that's all! Can't believe it.... It's so bittersweet. I'm trying to transition my mind to Thailand now, but am struggling to do so. Please pray for me to get some refreshment and renewed vision for Thailand as I am heading out for round 2 (I think my body thinks it's done and heading back to the states - it's in for a shock). Also pray that the Lord gives me wisdom and direction about how I need to stay connected with India in the future. I'm not sure that my work here is done.
Village Outreach #3 - The night I wore pants
So it may not seem like that big of a deal that I wore pants to a church service, but in India it is. Sarah took me shopping though for some Indian shirts and assured me it would be fine to wear them with pants even to a church service, as I am a foreigner and no matter what I do, they will look at me funny. Haha. She also says they need to be broken out of some of these things. So I happily listened to her and was so comfortable! :) This service was on outdoor one under a tent - a three night mini-crusade of which this was the second night. I spoke on prayer and the way the Bible tells us we can use it - for forgiveness, provision, faith and revival. The Holy Sirit was there in a tangible way. A couple women got saved, several (probably over 100) prayed for, and one woman got released from some demonic strongholds. The pastor's family fed me, as usual, along with the team and were so greatful for the service. They kept saying why can't "the woman of God" be here every night of our crusade? This made me so happy but was so humbling as well. Who am I for them to call me "the woman of God?" I don't feel like anything special, especially as I am surrounded by these pastors that are tending these flocks on the front lines of battles every day. God is so unbelievable to use me and have it make such an impact on them. Maybe it was the pants... ;)
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