All by Himself

“This is what the Kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain …” Mark 4:26-28.

For more than a year our little group of women has been sharing the Gospel in the red light districts of our city. Those seeds are beginning to sprout and grow. Last week, the assistant manager at one of the shops where we teach English told my Thai colleague, “I prayed and my prayer was answered.” We don’t know exactly what she means, but all by Himself, the Holy Spirit is slowly changing lives.

English classes are continuing at three massage parlors and we are preparing for teams of volunteers to help us this summer. We are also working to micro-finance a business for one man – a new believer. Please pray for us as we seek God’s wisdom in all these areas. Pray especially that we will continue to be faithful to share the Gospel widely in these areas.

Thanks for your prayers!

 

 

Pray for Pichitra*

Please pray for Pichitra*, a woman from the red-light district who has been diagnosed with an ovarian cyst. Two of our colleagues went with her to the doctor Thursday. She is scheduled for surgery Sunday at 8:00 a.m. (Thai time) and some of us will visit her on Sunday afternoon after the surgery. In the past she has been antagonistic toward our message. Now she is very afraid and grateful for our presence. As I read Psalm 18 this morning, I prayed verses 4-6 and 16-19 on her behalf. Please pray that she will recognize that Jesus is the only source of healing and that she will call out to him. Pray that our team can be His hands and feet for her this weekend and in the days ahead.

Thanks for your prayers!

Psalm 18:4-6, 16-19

The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

*Name changed.

Just keeping up!

Often we talk of being afraid of “running ahead of God.” At this point, God is running ahead of us!  So many exciting things are happening.

Although the team that travelled to the village initially thought our friend from the red-light district was not a Christian, they realized into the trip that she has been a Christian for two years. (Hers is an amazing story which we will share later.) Although she needed our help to share Jesus with her family, the “Kingdom of Heaven” advanced last weekend because of her and because of your prayers.

“From the days of John the Baptist until now,” Jesus said. “The Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it.” (Matt 11:12). While we aren’t sure what the phrase, “forceful men lay hold of it,” means, we do know that the Kingdom of God is “forcefully advancing” among exploited women because so many of you are advocating on their behalf.

Of course as the Kingdom advances, the enemy becomes more active. While we’ve not experienced any overt spiritual attacks, we realize the need to keep our guard up. Please pray that we will be strong and courageous and that we will keep our eyes focused on God.

When can I be baptized?

“I’ve been searching for God but I didn’t know how to find him until you came,” our friend’s mother said. When our team shared the story of the Ethiopian eunuch she said, “That is me! When can I be baptized?” My co-worker thinks they may have as many as four baptisms when they return to the village in March. Thanks for your prayers for our team that traveled to the village this weekend. We will post more details over the next few days from those who made the journey.

Please also be in prayer for some who seem ready to leave the red-light district for a different kind of work. We have seed money for micro-financing and are praying about how best to approach them with these options. Ultimately, we want them to have “ownership” of the business plan so that the micro-financing will result in a sustainable livelihood rather than charity. Please pray with us as we begin to pray about how best to approach this.

News from the trip

For those praying for our team in the village, things went very well. Apparently our friend from the red-light district is not yet a Christian but wants to become one. In this culture, that is easier if the entire family chooses to follow Christ together. That is why she asked our team to share Jesus stories with her parents. The mother told of how a shaman asked the demons to heal her of an illness. The demons healed her, she said, but have now returned to taunt her. Our team shared stories from the Bible of how Jesus has power over demons. The team arrived home safely yesterday. More details to come …

Head for the mountains

Please pray for one of our groups heading to the mountains this weekend. They are visiting a remote village at the request of one of the women we’ve come to know in the red-light district. The young woman is a Christian and she asked the team to visit her family in the mountains to tell them about Jesus. The team will spend two nights in a village with no electricity or running water. They must hike in because roads are impassable. Several on the team have been dealing with health issues the past couple of days. Please pray that they will have safe travel, opportunity to share the Gospel and good health.

So much to pray for!

So many things have happened within the last few days. We need your prayers!

  1. First, I want to pass along this urgent request from one of our Thai partners: “Do you remember Khun Pichitra*?  Before, Khun Pichitra didn’t like Christians, and when we went to teach English, she told us directly that she wouldn’t study with us.  She seemed to be quite unfriendly towards us.  But around November Khun Pichitra started to change.   She seemed to like us more and she decided to study English with us.  However, in December, she went to work in a different massage parlor, so we hadn’t seen her for two months.  Today she came to our English class, and she seemed very upset.  When I asked her what was wrong she started to cry.  She said she went to the doctor and he found a tumor in her ovary.  She is supposed to go back to the doctor on Thursday, Jan. 19, to find out whether or not the doctor feels that she needs surgery.  She is really scared to find out what the doctor has to say — scared she might have cancer and scared she might die. We offered to pray for her and she was eager to let us.  We also told her that she herself could talk to God and he could hear her.  She wouldn’t need to bring him offerings or incense – just speak to him and he would hear. Please pray for Khun Pichitra.   Pray that God will use this new openness to draw her to Himself and pray for healing from the tumor and a good result when she sees the doctor.  This is a great opportunity to minister to her!
  2. Yesterday, we received this sad news and request from our prison ministry team: “Nissa*, a lovely, sweet, quiet girl died this morning. As a result of good behavior she had been allowed to visit her family for the past ten days. She is from a hill tribe in the mountains. They were bringing her back to the prison this morning when they were involved in an accident. Nissa was the only one killed. Three other members of her family were hurt but are not in danger. The family is taking her body (home) this evening where they are having a private family funeral. She had come to prison July 2010 on a three-year drug sentence. Please pray for the girls, the guards and for our team. We are so sad. Nissa was not part of the Bible study but had certainly heard about God’s love and his gift of salvation. We will miss her. She was part of a tight group of friends and so they will feel it badly. The girls often fear evil spirits who might come to them through dreams. They believe these spirits are the cause of car accidents. When Dok* died three years ago there was great fear in prison that the evil spirit would ‘jump’ on to them. Please pray for us as we gently comfort these girls and that we can tell them the truth – that perfect love drives out fear and that GOD is LOVE.”
  3. Finally, pray for a team of women and their husbands who will travel to a remote village with one of the women, a Christian, who works at a massage parlor in the red light district. They write: “This Saturday, we will be traveling to Kalaya’s* village.  She is from a local tribe and really just wants us to go meet her family to share the message of Christ with them. They are illiterate and so communicating might be challenging. Pray that the message of Christ will be clear to their hearts. Pray for us as we travel. She tells us the roads are steep and not good. We have to stop one to two kilometers before getting to her house and walk because the roads are not passable. There is no electricity, running water or bathroom. She asked if we were ok putting on a sarong and bathing outside. I think this will be very interesting. :) I have done this before, but it has been a while. :)  Pray for us too in what we eat. I have been to almost 20 countries and eaten a wide variety of things that I wish I hadn’t but I am a little nervous about this trip. Pray they are NOT serving up bamboo larvae and fried roaches with fish sauce. I really don’t want to make a scene! :)  And pray too that the enemy will be at bay. I am certain he does not want any part of us going to this place sharing the love of Christ. I am thankful to God for this opportunity and I know He has every detail worked out already. To Him be the glory!”
  4. Today (January 11) is Global Human Trafficking Awareness day. Stories of our work are featured on AsiaStories.com. Please visit Reaching Asia’s Exploited: Part 1 and Reaching Asia’s Exploited: Part 2 to read more.

Thanks for your prayers!

*Names changed.

So much has happened!

Thank you all for your continued prayers for our ministry among our city’s exploited women and children. So much has happened within the last week!

  1. A group of about 15 went caroling in the red-light districts on Dec. 15. We distributed about 250 gift bags filled with lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, “the Hope” DVD and the story, “Jesus is Born.” We were well received in most places and had a great time exalting God together.
  2. Lynn* and her team hosted a Christmas party for some of the young women with whom they work. Lynn writes, “I noticed two of them intently listening (to the Christmas story) and watched their eyes focusing on the message. I know in my heart there is a connection happening, I am just praying for them to respond! They definitely know the true meaning of Christmas and saw yesterday that we can have fun, include traditions and give gifts but all of this is done to the glory of God who sent Jesus into our humble world.” Patti and her team are traveling in mid-January to visit the hometown of one of the women. They are excited about the opportunity to meet this woman’s family and pray for opportunities to share with the entire community.
  3. Another of our colleagues, Susan*, is meeting today with officials at the girls’ juvenile prison center about beginning a work-study program. Susan runs a children’s home and trains nannies for overseas jobs. The work-study program is sanctioned by the prison but has never been tried. Susan hopes to bring these girls into her home, teach them marketable skills, model healthy family living and prepare them for legitimate job opportunities once they complete her program, envisioned to be about a year long. One girl will begin the program next week, just after Christmas. The other will begin in late January. Susan asks that we pray that the girls will be successful. Other girls are already asking about the opportunity.
  4. For several months we have been praying about whether or not to rent space and establish a more consistent presence in one of the redlight areas. Strategically, building infrastructure can become a distraction to our sole purpose of sharing the Gospel. For this reason, we have not moved forward with identifying and renting a building. Yesterday, I learned that one of the shop owners is very pleased with the lessons we are teaching. Although many of her employees had been going elsewhere to learn English, they prefer our method because we teach at the shop and the girls are happier after they have been with our team. The owner asked one of our team members if we would also be willing to teach basic computer skills and baking. I explained that we have people lined up to teach both, but we don’t have a place to do it. My team member believes that the shop owner may be willing to allow us to teach these classes in her shop and transform a part of it into an educational center. This would be ideal. It would help us avoid establishing an infrastructure while allowing us to partner with local businesses in a way that requires some investment and ownership on their part. Obviously, this is something only the Holy Spirit can bring about. Please pray that He will guide our every step as we seek Him.

*Names changed.

When a heart breaks

She walks out of the massage parlor with the sun-glassed man. Japanese, I think. He leaves quickly. She sits down on the bench, avoiding eye contact.

Everyone around knows what’s just happened.

As I’ve sat and listened to my friend teach English the past 30 minutes, she’s been upstairs in a room with this man, most likely doing much more than a massage.

She’s in it for the money. Most of these women are. Many come from poor families in eastern Thailand and many haven’t finished high school. They are left with few opportunities. Some can’t read Thai.

When she comes back she pulls out a deck of playing cards and starts playing a game, most likely to get her mind off of what just happened.

Watching her that day broke my heart. Every time I go down to the red light district it break my heart. Every single time.

We’re hoping and praying that these women and men will use the English we’re teaching them to get out of the business. But, we’ve just heard that some women are going to another massage parlor to learn English sex talk to help “empower” them.

When your heart breaks, what do you do about it?

I chatted with a woman today who’s married and has three daughters. We talked about how the flooding in Bangkok has affected her sister. I asked her about her daughters and about the massage parlor’s business.

I don’t know if her husband knows what she does. He might. She left our English lesson early to wrap her arms around a Western man and lead him upstairs.

When your heart breaks, what will you do about it?

There’s a new girl who works at this massage parlor. She lied about her age. She said she’s 18 but she’s only 17. She has a boyfriend, she told us, he’s 16. She also left the English lesson early with a customer. I don’t know if every time these ladies have a customer if it results in more than a massage. Many times it does.

When your heart breaks, what are you doing about it?

One of our regular students brought her 17-year old son. She doesn’t look nearly old enough to have a son that age. He’s looking for work. We want to make sure he doesn’t end up working in the red light district like his mom. His mom left the English lesson early today with a man. She escorted him right past her son. Does he know what his mom does?

When a heart breaks, what should you be doing about it?