My prayer

Tomorrow I fly to Bangkok to meet a Global Infusion team that's coming out from Sterling College (along with my good friend Anne). They are actually in the air right now, so pray for their travelling mercies and a safe arrival. We'll spend Tuesday and part of Wednesday in Bangkok before heading back to Phuket Wednesday evening. I'm believing for great things while they are here!

Here's a passage that's been on my heart lately. The first few verses are very familiar to us, but I like the verses that follow as well:

Jeremiah 29:11-14
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
Jeremiah 30:17
"But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds," declares the Lord, "because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares."
Jeremiah 31:3-4
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful."

This is my prayer for the women here. Will you believe with me for this?

Moving forward

Well, things didn't end up so great in KL. I went back the second day after getting the paperwork they needed scanned and emailed to me from Thailand, but got the same woman again, who said there was nothing that could be done - they were already processing my visa for a 60 day tourist visa, and it couldn't be changed. Blast.

Oh well. At least now I'm back in Thailand, and can stay for sure for 60 days, then should be able to do a visa run for at least another 30 (hopefully I can do that twice for 60 days each though, and not have to worry with it again...). But I'll concern myself with that when the time comes. Now I focus on what lies ahead. Monday I leave for Bangkok to meet the second GI team that is arriving. We come back down to Phuket on Wed. (I'm getting tired of all these quick trips and am ready to be settled here for a while). I'm so ready for the team to be here!!! :)

When I got back from Malaysia, Laurie had gotten some furniture from her friends that are moving back to England and, after scraping the mold off of it (haha, I love that the phrase" scraping off the mold" involves things that are now living in our room!...), had it all set up in our room when I got back. It really feels homey now. Thanks Laurie! :)

Things are not going well...

Well, we need to up the prayers... Things are nor going well, at least as far as the visa is concerned. I got to the Thai Embassy first thing, was the first person in line, and the lady asked me for my documents. I gave her everything I had, but she just kept asking for my documents. When I asked her what I still needed she said I needed the registration for the foundation in Thailand (which is not listed ANYWHERE on the website or any of the other MILLION websites I checked as a requirement for the Thai visa, nor has Mark ever had anyne need this when they were applying for the same visa as me). She said if I couldn't get them that all she could give me was a tourist visa. Time then was almost 10:00am and the visa window for applying for a visa was only open until 11:30. I raced accross the street to a hotel, asked if I could receive a fax there, called SHE from some calling center at that hotel (because my Thai number doesn't work here, not to mention I can't charge my phone and it's dead because the plugs here are different and I don't have a Malaysian adaptor), told them what I needed. SHE doesn't have a fax machine, so Mark had to go off site to fax it. Told me it could take a while. I realized I had very little cash left, and all these extra things (faxes, phone calls, etc.) were gonna cost money, so I raced to the nearest ATM, which wouldn't allow me to take out money (darn Regions, I think they only have me registered for being in India and Thailand, not Malaysia). So then I had to find a currency exchange. Found one, but no one was there. Found the worker, got some cash changed. Raced back - still no fax. Called Mark back - they couldn't get that fax number to work. Verified the fax number with the hotel. It's correct. Called Mark back (every one of these calls costing money). Can you please try again. He said he would. It's now 11:05. By 11:20, still no fax, so I just had to go back to the embassy. I hoped and prayed I would get someone else who would just approve me for the visa. Nope. Same girl. Same answer. So I'm getting a 60 day tourist visa. That's all she will give me. She said it can be renewed once for another 30 days. Not very helpful. That puts me to the end of Sept. So if nothing changes, I will not be able to stay until November. I'm so frustrated. I'm still praying for a miracle that when I go to pick up my passport they will have given me the ED visa. I know it's a longshot (especially since I didn't pay for an ED visa), but I am still believing for it! Otherwise I will believe for favor that they will extend it for longer after the 60 days are up. The only bright side of this is that the 60 day tourist visa doesn't cost anything, compared to the 550 RM's (about 150USD) that the one year visa would have cost me. Of course I've had to purchase a flight, two nights in a hotel, several trips in taxis, food, etc.... :(


So frustrated.

K.L. Survival

I'm in Kuala Lumpur now. Got up at 5 am to catch my taxi to the airport (grrr...I don't like the day before 7 am), and had a smoothly successful flight, after a much needed cup of coffee. I had the nicest taxi driver from the airport, which was great since it took almost an HOUR to get from the airport to the city (apparently they thought the middle of nowhere would be a good place for the international airport, go figure...). I got to my hotel early, they let me check-in and upgraded me to a nicer room! How thoughtful. :)

I walked down the street to some type of restuarant (still not really sure) where I was met at the door by a woman who handed me a huge plate of rice and told me to scoop what I wanted onto my plate (not the everyday restaurant greeting, but it worked). There were several different buffet style dishes (not sure what any of them were), so I "eenie-meanie-miney-moe"d my way through it and ate a pleasant collection of unidentified things, paid my 5 Ringgets? (ringlets? something like that...they keep saying it, but have accents, so I'm not entirely sure what the money is called...but it was about a buck fifty USD) and went back to the hotel to nap, where some Indian sounding child kept thinking my room was his room and he would repeatedly try to open my door. Oh well, the nap was a good idea at least... :)

That brings me to now, when I plan to find the Thai Embassy (at least on a map) maybe explore until it gets dark and get ready for visa fun in the am. Keep up the prayers - they are working thus far! (as if they wouldn't ;)....)

Be flexible, cause the plans will change

I have an unexpected trip that has come up in the next few days. As some of you know, I want to stay longer than I initially thought, and my time allowed in country as a tourist is almost up - my first 30 days here is up on July 4th (hard to believe). So I thought I was just gonna do a quick visa run so I could have another 30 days to figure out the visa process, but was advised to not blow the $50 or so dollars on a visa run only to still have my longer term visa to sort out (which costs a lot more, and I don't have $50 to waste).

So Monday I am flying to Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia to apply for a visa. I booked the airfare and hotel today, cause unfortunately the trip isn't as simple as jumping the border, getting a stamp and heading back. The Embassy part takes 2 days, and with flight times you can't get an early enough flight to get you to the Embassy at 9 am the first day, so it turns into a 3 day journey. Which means I'll be staying 2 nights in a hotel there, and will have some down time to check out the sights while I wait. To say I'm just a little nervous would be an understatement. For some reason, traveling to India and Thailand by myself was not as scary as this, maybe since I knew I'd have people waiting for me on the other side that could help me if any issues came up. Maybe because I knew it was for a mission, so I just bit the bullet and did it for the greater cause.

Not for this though. I have to navigate a new country and city on my own as well as hoping I have all the visa stuff correct that I need (there are some conflicting reports on the web). And entertain myself those 3 days. ( I know what you are thinking: "You're an only child - you should be great at entertaining yourself..." and I am, but I've done my time alone, and now want to be with people! :) )

I am a big girl, so I will go and do it, but I would appreciate your prayers for my safety and for favor in both managing to get around and get what I need in country and with the visa. Also, combining flights, 2 nights of hotel stay, transportation and food while away, and the $150 visa makes this a rather expensive process (about $500 USD), but worth it when I think of all that will be gained by being able to stay in Thailand longer.

If you would be interested in supporting me financially while I am away, you can give securely online at www.globalinfusion.org (just specify my name when you give), or by mailing a check to Global Infusion, 4422 Timberlake Dr., Louisville, TN 37777 (put my name in the memo section of the check), and they will be sure the money gets to me. The costs of being here, especially for a longer time period are adding up, so any gift would help! I know that I am called to be here, though, and the Lord will make a way for it to happen! The harvest truly is plentiful here, and I want to be one of the workers in this vineyard.

Also please pray as I've been in a bit of a funk here the last couple of days. The emotional toll of all this travel and what I'm experiencing has been catching up with me, and I am missing friends and family from back home a lot right now. There are great people here, but they aren't familiar people. So just pray for renewal and for the Lord to meet my emotional needs, because I know He can and He will. Any type of encouragment you can post is also appreciated! :)

The danger of "comfort"

So I've decided that Thailand is a very interesting place to do a missions trip, especially when you are doing it in Phuket, a world-famous tourist destination. At times I feel like I am here on "holiday" and other times I feel like I am walking around in the pit of hell. If India was like being in the church in the book of Acts, I think that being here is sometimes like being in Sodom and Gomorah. And the modern amenities and tourist attractions make it that much more subtle in it's deception.

I googled Phuket, and more specifically Patong, the area in Phuket known for it's red light district (and where we've been ministering), and it was interesting to see what came up. Nestled in talks of the beaches and nightclubs on wikipedia is the sentence, "Prostitution is culturally acceptable, especially on Bangla road where you will find many older Western men drinking and flirting with much younger Thai women and transvestites." As if this is just normal, acceptable behavior.

And I find that this is the overall atmosphere of Phuket. Perversion and sexual misbehavior is slipped almost discretely in with the beauty and relaxation of this island community. One must keep their guard up at all times here, and especially while in Patong, where it is so easy to get distracted by the 3 STARBUCKS, large shopping centers, and even the Cabaret shows of the "lady-boys" (transvestites). And then you walk past a sign like this:

as if a woman is a fair prize to be won, like a goldfish or a stuffed animal; or you get offered a pornographic flyer inviting you to a "ping-pong" show, and you are forcefully snapped back into reality. I was waiting on our team (that just left) one night to use the restroom in the mall across from Patong and saw this T-shirt displayed:

It seems as if the community is starting to realize that it is more than just coincidence to have so much devastation happening in one place. I think the Lord is trying to send Patong a message. Do you know that when the tsunami hit in 2004, Patong was one of the hardest hit areas? All the bars were destroyed. But they built it all back up again, and almost immediately. How many times will it take before they get the message to wake up and repent?

So here I am left to drink my Starbucks and go to the beach on my days off, but to also spend hours awake interceding in the night for all the horrors I have witnessed, and even worse, the ones I haven't but still know are occuring. I sit back at my, though modest, safe and happy "home" at SHE after leaving Patong, knowing the girls I just saw and shared a soda and conversation with may be living out their own personal hell on earth. They don't have the luxury to just go home to a peaceful place feeling whole and well-loved.

And that is the reason that I am here. Not that I am anything special, but I can't just sit by and have the knowledge that this is happening, and know the only One who can really fix it, without doing something about it. I know it often feels just like "chipping away at the darkness," but it has to mean the world to the ones who hear the message and make a choice to get out as a result. It's easy for me to be discouraged when there are well over 1,000 girls just working in that one strip of bars on Bangla Road soley as hostesses. But it is so worth it when I talk to someone with a team and the very same week she leaves that life and comes into SHE, and her entire countenance and world changes. Not to mention all the other girls who never end up at SHE, but after having a conversation with one of us realize they have a choice, and they leave the bars and go back home to start businesses or work at hotels or factories, or anything else, just to not be in that environment anymore.

Yes, the darkness is dark, but we are the light of the world; and even our one seemingly small light drives out darkness wherever we go, because darkness can not exist where there is light. And so I choose to shine my light in the darkness of Patong, because (as Jonathan always quotes),

"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
— C.T. Studd

My Unbelievable God Story

Ok, so I have chill bumps right now.

Last week, there was a new girl that came into SHE. She said that someone had talked to her at one of the bars about getting out and coming to SHE, but none of us recognized her, so we just figured it was one of the teams before us. We'll call her Soy. Soy has been super sweet and has connected well with the girls at SHE and our team.

Fast forward to today.

We are hanging out with the girls at SHE, and Marilyn and I were here last November, so she pulled up the pictures from our November trip on her laptop to show a few of the girls here. I was upstairs, but they started hollering my name to come downstairs because I needed to see something. Some of you will recognize this picture as it was taken the same night as the pic on my prayer card. Same group of girls - this shot just shows a few more of the ladies we had been talking to that night.

To refresh you on that story, we had been walking around the streets and got into a conversation with these ladies. The power of God was really strong and we got to talk to them and even pray with them. While we were praying one of the ladies (the one on the far left) started to cry and we could tell the presence of God was really moving on her.

Marilyn had this picture up on her computer when I came downstairs, and her and Soy were looking at it. As soon as I saw it, what they had already noticed hit me. The lady on the far left of the picture was Soy!!! We had sowed the seed into her life 6 months ago, and had been praying for her ever since, and now here she was sitting at SHE after just having left the bars last week! It is no coincidence that she came the same week we were here! She was crying as she looked at that picture and heard us say that we have been praying for her since November. What an amazing opportunity for us to see the harvest come from the very seed we had sowed 6 months back. Praise the Lord! How amazing!

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