Sawadeekha Thailand
After a wonderful 12 hour plane ride filled with movies, a Thai woman vomiting, and an hour and a half of sleep we arrived in Bangkok. We stepped out of the airport and WHAM, Hello humidity! We get in the back of a truck and drive to the YWAM Thailand base where we stayed the night. All I have to say about that is "Thank God for fans!" We had our orientation and then that night we were off, again, for our 12 hour bus ride down to Phuket. We arrived in Phuket about 7 AM and our SHE contacts picked us up and took us to the ministry base in Katu, which is a little town inside Phuket.
We are currently sharing the space here at SHE with 36 World Racers..........................they leave on the 29th. When we arrived we were able to shower and rest then we had lunch and then we had our first half of orientation part of which included us being driven over to Patong (where we do our ministry work) to see what the bar scene looks like in the day time.
Patong in the day time looks like a ghost town. The hardest thing was seeing these old western men walking hand in hand with these young beautiful Thai girls. But the scene would only be intensified with the setting of the sun (wow that was retardedly poetic). But it did. We arrive and the crowds were so thick and the bar streets were flooded with women prostituting themselves and scattered all around were men eager to buy them. I wanted to bawl my eyes out and just weep. My heart was so incredibly broken for what was going on here. However the middle of Patong is not the best place to weep for a broken city so we continued on and we ended up going into 3 bars and talking to the girls. We would order a soda and ask to play a game. The girls are very eager, surprisingly, to play a game with you and are very easy to talk to (providing they can speak enough English). They play games like connect four, jinga, and other kinds. So we would just play games and while we played games we would talk to them and thus beginning a relationship with them. Some of the questions that we'd ask them were; "Where are you from?" (most girls are from the NE part of Thailand which is the poorest part. So most of them have come seeking a Westerner to sweep them off their feet or seeking a living to make ends meet.) "How old are you?" "How long have you been in Patong?" "Do you like your job?" The first woman I talked to said that she didn't like her job. And we're told that most women don't enjoy what they do but that they just put on a face and cope. Some girls we talked to were young! One girl was 17!!! This should not be happening. Oh I just wanted to weep. But I'm glad to feel the Father's heart for this place. I'm glad that I'm not immune or callused to the things that break His heart. But it is hard to feel that and I know that it won't be this hard forever; not that the feelings will go away but that the feelings won't dominate or overwhelm.
Last night they had a special event where the world race team played worship in one of the bars for several hours. It was really cool that they had that opportunity and the opportunity is still there for us if we want to do it after they leave. We didn't hang around to worship, we went around and talked to some girls and we walked around and prayed. The first night we were taken out on some of the more "spiritually easy" streets, where the spiritual climate isn't quite so hot. Well last night we weren't on those streets, we were in some very dark places and the demonic presence there was very evident. My team and I had to call it a night early, it was just too much to handle; we were tired, still feeling overwhelmed, it was only our second night, and being on the more intense streets just made it all a little bit too much for one night. I kept thinking last night, "I don't know how we're supposed to do this for 3 months." But right now there are just a lot of feelings and as Josie was telling us last night, we're going to need to learn to push through the feelings to do what needs to be done. So that's what I'm going to be working on. One thing that was different last night was I really began to see how incredibly lonely these men must be and I really had compassion on them. So that was an improvement.
On a much lighter note; yesterday we went and ate at this place called "The Blue Hut" which is neither blue and it's not really a hut.....but it was delicious cheap food. I got a whole plate of crispy pork, white rice and some kind of veggie for 40 baht which equals out to a little over a dollar......AMAZING!!!!!! Things are really cheap here and it's a welcomed comfort. I actually bought a couple pairs of shorts that I thought would be cooler in this climate but now I look like Aladdin. I just want to sing, "Prince Ali fabulous he, Ali Ababua....." every time I put them on lol.
Another note; if you ever come to Thailand and they offer you to come to a "ping pong show", they are not talking about the paddle sport.....................yeah.
You all may be wondering what the weather is like; it's off an on from being cool to "Oh my God!" throughout the day. And the scenery, where we are, is beautiful! There's a lake nearby and we're surrounded by mountains. In the morning you can see the clouds grazing over the summits; it's so beautiful. It's all very green and very tropical. I'll post some pictures soon.
That's all for now. You guys can definitely be praying for me and my team in how we approach the bar scene and that God would really speak to us about where He wants us to go at nights, also that we would begin to walk in His strength and victory, knowing that the battle for Patong has already been won. Thank you so much for your prayers up to this point!
We are currently sharing the space here at SHE with 36 World Racers..........................they leave on the 29th. When we arrived we were able to shower and rest then we had lunch and then we had our first half of orientation part of which included us being driven over to Patong (where we do our ministry work) to see what the bar scene looks like in the day time.
Patong in the day time looks like a ghost town. The hardest thing was seeing these old western men walking hand in hand with these young beautiful Thai girls. But the scene would only be intensified with the setting of the sun (wow that was retardedly poetic). But it did. We arrive and the crowds were so thick and the bar streets were flooded with women prostituting themselves and scattered all around were men eager to buy them. I wanted to bawl my eyes out and just weep. My heart was so incredibly broken for what was going on here. However the middle of Patong is not the best place to weep for a broken city so we continued on and we ended up going into 3 bars and talking to the girls. We would order a soda and ask to play a game. The girls are very eager, surprisingly, to play a game with you and are very easy to talk to (providing they can speak enough English). They play games like connect four, jinga, and other kinds. So we would just play games and while we played games we would talk to them and thus beginning a relationship with them. Some of the questions that we'd ask them were; "Where are you from?" (most girls are from the NE part of Thailand which is the poorest part. So most of them have come seeking a Westerner to sweep them off their feet or seeking a living to make ends meet.) "How old are you?" "How long have you been in Patong?" "Do you like your job?" The first woman I talked to said that she didn't like her job. And we're told that most women don't enjoy what they do but that they just put on a face and cope. Some girls we talked to were young! One girl was 17!!! This should not be happening. Oh I just wanted to weep. But I'm glad to feel the Father's heart for this place. I'm glad that I'm not immune or callused to the things that break His heart. But it is hard to feel that and I know that it won't be this hard forever; not that the feelings will go away but that the feelings won't dominate or overwhelm.
Last night they had a special event where the world race team played worship in one of the bars for several hours. It was really cool that they had that opportunity and the opportunity is still there for us if we want to do it after they leave. We didn't hang around to worship, we went around and talked to some girls and we walked around and prayed. The first night we were taken out on some of the more "spiritually easy" streets, where the spiritual climate isn't quite so hot. Well last night we weren't on those streets, we were in some very dark places and the demonic presence there was very evident. My team and I had to call it a night early, it was just too much to handle; we were tired, still feeling overwhelmed, it was only our second night, and being on the more intense streets just made it all a little bit too much for one night. I kept thinking last night, "I don't know how we're supposed to do this for 3 months." But right now there are just a lot of feelings and as Josie was telling us last night, we're going to need to learn to push through the feelings to do what needs to be done. So that's what I'm going to be working on. One thing that was different last night was I really began to see how incredibly lonely these men must be and I really had compassion on them. So that was an improvement.
On a much lighter note; yesterday we went and ate at this place called "The Blue Hut" which is neither blue and it's not really a hut.....but it was delicious cheap food. I got a whole plate of crispy pork, white rice and some kind of veggie for 40 baht which equals out to a little over a dollar......AMAZING!!!!!! Things are really cheap here and it's a welcomed comfort. I actually bought a couple pairs of shorts that I thought would be cooler in this climate but now I look like Aladdin. I just want to sing, "Prince Ali fabulous he, Ali Ababua....." every time I put them on lol.
Another note; if you ever come to Thailand and they offer you to come to a "ping pong show", they are not talking about the paddle sport.....................yeah.
You all may be wondering what the weather is like; it's off an on from being cool to "Oh my God!" throughout the day. And the scenery, where we are, is beautiful! There's a lake nearby and we're surrounded by mountains. In the morning you can see the clouds grazing over the summits; it's so beautiful. It's all very green and very tropical. I'll post some pictures soon.
That's all for now. You guys can definitely be praying for me and my team in how we approach the bar scene and that God would really speak to us about where He wants us to go at nights, also that we would begin to walk in His strength and victory, knowing that the battle for Patong has already been won. Thank you so much for your prayers up to this point!