First four days in
Pattaya, Thailand - first chance to blog.
Thanks for praying.
It is the most amazing place to be -- with so much of God needed here. Thousands of men and women (and small children, unbelievably) walking the streets of
Pattaya each night surrounded by bars and drunkenness, bawdy entertainment, decadence and sex.
Our six men
(Joe Emery, Chris Karnowski, Steve Dutler, Justin Miller, Tom Bonner, David Border) have been incredible in their heart for the lost and their focus to reach men. Their prayers each night before and after the evening ministry have been passionate.
God has given us the opportunity to do many things while we've been here - with each night ending on
Walking Street, the place made famous for girls selling themselves each evening. It is there that they endeavor to connect with men and share the love of Christ. It is hard ministry.
So far, our daytime ministries have been:
- To disabled children's homes to pray for them - give them food - sing to them - love them. Extremely moving moments.
- To a Thai jail, where two of the guys
(Justin Miller & Joe Emery) gave their testimonies and we saw six men come to faith in Christ. We brought lunch and handed out newly bought underwear to the prisoners. Great to see the huge smiles on their faces when they saw the underwear.
- To 'THE BRIDGE'
(www.GCAwareness.com), a new ministry in
Pattaya started by
Jason & Sarah Ricketts. Their dream is to care for the young children at night and in the early hours of the morning whose mothers are out 'working' the city each night. Our team spent the morning and afternoon cleaning, grinding metal, priming, painting, sewing (the ladies, yeah) and a variety of other tasks they need to get done in order to open THE BRIDGE to the public. Love these guys, the
Ricketts.
Our group of ladies (14 of them) have also been serving on their own. Some of their individual ministries while in
Pattaya have been:
- A prayer walk down
Walking Street during the daytime.
- Praise & Worship at the
Tamar Center.
- To the bars, dividing up, and start relationship building with the bar girls, telling them about
Tamar Center.
The two teams together ministered on Sunday at
Pattaya Full Gospel Church, where I was so blessed to be able to speak. Their pastor is so very gracious - a lovely man. The young female interpreter was an absolute joy and I think she preached my message better than I did. Pretty sure about that. The team sang a special song all together that we had worked on and the ladies team ministered an amazingly beautiful song in sign language. A woman came to faith that morning, completely sold out for Jesus.
The two teams also did a beach party with the slum children on Saturday. The men were in charge of it and it was great to see our guys organize beach games
(Justin Miller) for the kids - play with the - throw beach balls and footballs - and play in the ocean with them. One of our guys
(Chris Karnowski) gave the Gospel presentation to the slum children. Great, fun day.
The teams have worked very hard so far -- this evening, we're gonna ride some elephants.
Tonight the men leave the ladies' team and drive to
Bangkok, where we will finish our ministry here in
Thailand. The ladies will meet up with us there on Friday before we fly home.
O yeah -- I ate a scorpion and a grasshopper too. Big ones. Scorpion - unimpressive - like crunching metal. Grasshopper? Not bad actually - not for an insect, if you know what I mean.
Again, keep praying.
And be blessed.