Last week, CARM DTS loaded up the vans and trucks and headed to Pattaya for a week. Pattaya is a beach about an hour and half away from Bangkok where human trafficking is huge. We went here for a week of lectures and also mini outreach. After an insane bus ride with pouring rain and hundred mile an hour driver, we thanfully made it safely. We stayed in the middle of a concrete building, imagine a parking deck but all the levels above ground are mostly building. It was a strange set up. I was in a room with Kayla and the two Thai girls, Pim and Wongduen, they were awesome roommates for the week because they are very chill and neat. We stayed on the fourth floor which was a hike up the steep stairs so that was what my exercise of the week was. It was so fun being at the beach for the week. Compared to the beaches in the states, it was very dirty, just trash everywhere, and weird rocky sand, but the sunsets over the water and being there with amazing people was perfect.
We were being lectured on evangelism during the days preparing for our street evangelism on Thursday night. We also had a workshop on Monday learning about how to evangelize specifically to children and what that looks like. That was very interesting and a definitely a good topic for us to be learning about. On Tuesday was my ministry day. We went to a Pattaya slum and taught about 15 kids about God's love for them. We sang a song, made a craft and gave them food after. It was so fun, and those kids were amazing. They were so excited to learn and meet us and just to be with us. I really hope that God plants a seed in those children and that it will continue to be watered and that one day they will truly understand and what to follow God!
On Wednesday night, we had small group. My small leaders are Jing (China), Dillon (Missouri), and Bec (Australia) and in my group is PJ (Perth), Grace (Brazil), Paula (Finland), Brandi (Nashville), Hannah (Arkansas), and Manit (Thailand). And I adore my small group, we are only supposed to have it for an hour each week, but we find ourselves staying together for like 3 or 4 hours just talking, laughing and having a great time. This week, we decided to take advantage of being a Pattaya and go have small group on the beach. We sat on the sand, Manit played worship music on the guitar as a few of us sang, some threw the frisbee around and walked around in the water. Then we came together and talked about the task ahead of us for the next night - street evangelism. We talked about how some of us had been hurt by evangelism in the past, or our fears, or our disagreements with us, and then we prayed them out. Just asking God for the words, and the ears to hear what He is telling us, and who is He telling us to speak to, we ask for boldness and just to take away any fear. I felt so much better after our time in prayer, I has been feeling nervous and just being too scared to approach complete strangers in fear of rejection or judgment. After prayer, Bec pulled me aside with a word from God she had received for me. She said to me "You have value, you have worth, you have wisdom. You think you don't because of your age or your past or something, but you do have wisdom, you just need to believe that God is speaking to you and He is using you already." That was awesome, struck a nerve and served as a great reminder as I went into the next day.
Around 5 o'clock in the evening we loaded up the sung tao to head off the the red light district of Pattaya. We got subway for dinner which was a nice surprise. Then we walked down a back alley behind the main road of the red light district to go to a communal worship time.It turned out to be only our team and two other ladies, but it was awesome. We sang out "Be bold, be strong" as we all split into our groups and headed out into the crowded streets of Pattaya. In my group was me, Meyho (Northern California) and Joy (Malaysia) \, all three of us were pretty nervous but out we went. The song God of this City (which was written in and about Pattaya) rang in my head. I kept singing it over and over, praying for a picture of someone or a sense of who to talk to. Nothing. We spoke to one lady who moved to Thailand from Russia with her boyfriend, but now she just works all the time as a travel agent and has terrible hours. We spoke to her about God and His love for her, she seemed interested but it was hard for her because was in the middle of working. So we gave her Joy's number in case she ever needed to call with questions or just someone to talk to and walked away. We continued to pray and we just walked to the mall a few blocks away from the beach. We walked through and saw two eastern men, and both Meyho and Joy felt like we should talk to them. We smiled and follow them outside the mall, where two other men joined them. Turns out they are from Pakistan and Iran and just visiting Pattaya for a vacation. We told them where we were from and when I told them I was from the States, the man standing next to me gave me a very excited, creepy look. I immediately backed up, but another guy was standing there. Meyho and Joy continued to talk to the other men, while this man pulled out his camera and insisted I take a picture with him. I refused many times but he touched my arm and my back trying to get me to come over to him. I backed up and walked over to Meyho, telling her I was very uncomfortable and wanted to leave. We ended the conversation and walked away. I didn't like that at all, I was pushed way out of my comfort zone, in a bad way, and I just wanted to go back and sleep. I was done. I felt self-protective and just violated. We were walking down by the beach again and we stepped aside and prayed for renewal of the night, just for it to be restored and for God to give us one more person, so thise night wouldn't be left on this awful note.
Out of a darkness, we saw a lady sitting on the curb by herself. We all felt like we should go speak to her. Turns out she was a prostitute, in a broken marriage and her children living away from her. You could see the sadness and destruction in her eyes, and my heart began to break. She didn't know how to get out of her current situation even though she wanted to so bad. We told her how much God loved her and she said she knew that all but she can't do any good works for Him to accept her but Buddha asks all these things but she can't measure up. But I told her, I have done a lot of dumb things in my past, and God still stood there with His arms wide open ready to catch me when I came running to Him. We told her He accepts you for everything, you've done and He loves you more than you could ever know. And God, He does what, to us, seems impossible, He can fix your family, He can reunite you with your children, He can get you out of this job. She thanked us, and we gave her the card of a lady who works in Pattaya and would be able to get her help if she ever needed it. As were were leaving she began to cry. We prayed over her that the Lord would just flood her with His love. It was so incredible. Needless to say, the night was restored.
