So on Sunday we walked out of the YWAM base in Malaysia, a mostly Muslim country, into a section of Georgetown called Little India. We went to a Chinese church that was entirely in English. Welcome to Penang Island! There is so many different cultures right out our back door. It is great!
Our team's main ministry is volunteering at the Adventist Hospital helping raise money for children who need heart surgeries but their families cannot afford them. A heart surgery is 25,000 Ringett which is a little over 8,000 USD.
We are also helping at St. Nicholas Home for the Blind and a homeless shelter where men can come Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to get breakfast and lunch. They can also rest or take a shower upstairs or take part in a Bible study between breakfast and lunch.
On Tuesdays and Fridays we go to the Penang House of Prayer to pray, worship, and interceed for the nations. They have all these awesome prayer stations, a huge world map, an art station, a praise wall, a wailing wall, and a station for communion.
Wednesday nights we will be prayer walking the streets and talking with men who are homeless and women who are in the sex trade.
We are glad to be a part of these ministry our last month and are excited about what God has in store for us.
This month a big part of our ministry was going with the pastors and leaders of the villages to visit people’s homes, talk to them, pray for them. They welcomed us and they welcomed prayer. We shared what God has done in our lives and we shared what Jesus would do in their life. We were humbled as we watched God’s power go before us and as we watched God bring spiritual and physical healing.
We prayed, God answered! Not because we are anything special but because He knew each person we came into contact with needed Him. They needed to see His power, feel his presence, and know they were loved. He wanted to use them and us to show His power and glory in their village.
During one visit as our translator Sam was speaking with a woman we had just prayed over, I became distracted by an elderly woman holding a baby who had come to sit next to me. I smiled and she smiled back, then what she did next puzzled me. She pinched my arm and then her arm, then she switched pinching her arm first then mine again. She then kept repeating something to me in Khmer, but I could not figure out what she was trying to convey, so I kept smiling and nodding.
As Sam finished speaking she walked to the middle of our group and began talking to Sam. He told us that she had bad pain in her knee and it was hard to straighten it and hard to walk. She also said that if our God would heal her knee then she would stop drinking alcohol, she would start going to church.
Immediately the thought in my head was that God wanted to do something in her heart more than He wanted to heal her knee. And our translator Sam must have been thinking a similar thing because He began speaking to her and afterwards he translated back to us what he had said. He shared the Gospel with her, he told her that God wanted her heart, wanted her to believe and trust Jesus. He asked her if she was ready to do that and she said yes. (It was a little bit more complex than this, but with translation things get simplified sometimes.) We prayed for her to trust Jesus and then we prayed that through Christ that just as He was healing her heart, He would heal her knee.
We got up from where we were huddled around her and then the woman excitedly began to touch her knee. She began pushing hard on it and stood up and started talking excitedly in Khmer. Sam didn’t need to translate that. God touched her heart! God healed her knee!
God blows me away by His power, love, and faithfulness. He continually humbles me by reminding me that He is God, that He is healer, He is love, He is strength. He humbles me by reminding me that apart from Him we can do nothing.
Welcome to Cambodia! We are in a village called Dork Por and working with Pastor Mab who is the director of Teen Challenge Cambodia in Dork Por and a pastor of a church in this same village. We are not working directly with Teen Challenge but with the local churches and communities in the area. I love the people here. We walk down the road and children call out from their houses waving and laughing as they call out "Hello, Hello".
Two Cambodian children sitting in on our youth conference for the teens in the area, including the boys from Teen Challenge. We are living with the Pastor and his wife. They have been so gracious to us and where they live is a busy place with many people, children, and animals walking through each day.
We had a blast hanging out with and teaching the youth at the youth conference. We worshipped. We talked about how they can know God is working in thier lives and how they can share thier faith with their family and friends. We also had some fun. Here is a group playing the classic knot game.
The praise and thanksgiving poster. We all wrote out things we were thankful to God for and things we wanted to praise Him for. I love looking at the world from the perspective of other cultures and I love that God is not bound by any language or culture! We are all a part of one family!
So fun! After church I made some friends with these two sweet little girls. We spun around and around.
I was hot and dizzy, but I loved every minute of it.
You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of dust.
You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us.
Gungor
During the month in Thailand people back home, my teammates, and my squad mates kept telling me I was beautiful. Then about one and a half weeks in, my teammate Cory sent Team I-61 an email with words for each person. Behind my name it said this: beautiful, attractive, desirable, worth the fight.
Hmmm….maybe the Lord was trying to tell me the something. I went to my team leader for the month, Melissa. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: I think God might be trying to tell me something. People keep telling me I’m beautiful and Cory just sent us all these great words and one of mine was the word beautiful and I’m trying to figure out what God is trying to say.
Melissa (with a quizzical look at me): Well, do you think you’re beautiful?
Me: Well…I don’t think I’m ugly.
Melissa: I don’t think that’s the point, Ginny.
The conversation was comical, but it also made me think. That night at worship, the Lord hit me with the first revelation of why He kept bringing up the word beautiful. He is answering my prayer. The one main goal for my life is for people to look at me and see Jesus. People are responding to the good work the Lord is doing in me. They are responding to His beauty inside me. At this revelation, I bowed my head in worship and thanksgiving.
Later on that week as I was journaling about what the Lord was teaching me in Thailand I thought about those words Cory gave me. I asked myself if I really believed them and here is what I wrote:
God, you are beautiful! And I am made in your image. I am beautiful.
I stopped writing for a minute and reflected on these words. Then God hit me with the second revelation.
Ginny, just as you are beautiful, desirable, attractive, and worth the fight so are the women I have put into your path. They are worth it! Each woman on Bangla Road is worth it.
This is so true. These women are beautiful, attractive, desirable and worth the fight.
The Lord’s revelations are perfect and I’m thankful for the time we had on Bangla Road and for the ministry of SHE. I am thankful that He is continually making me beautiful. I’m thankful that He knows each woman on Bangla by name and that He created them in beauty.
As we continue on to Cambodia. I will keep these women in my heart…I will remember that they are beautiful and that they are worth it. They are worth the fight.
It’s three o’clock in the morning. I wake up with a sense of urgency and a picture of a Thai woman, whom I don’t recognize, in my mind. The sense of urgency says pray. I don’t know what to pray for. I pray for protection, for her to feel God’s love and then I start to pray for every woman by name that I had met at the bar that night. Finally the sense of urgency subsides and I fall back asleep.
Prayer is like breathing this month. We prayer walk during the day, we worship and pray before teams go out to the bars, we pray fervently as we ministered in the bars, and we intercede for our sisters ministering on Bangla Road on the nights we stay back.
I pray that Olive will meet us outside the bars during the afternoon for a date. I pray she feels the love we have for her. I grow excited the night she asks if we are coming back. I say yes. My prayer is answered when she and her friend Taylor say they will meet us on Friday afternoon. My prayer is answered again when they both Olive and Taylor come.
We have a great time talking about their families and about silly things. They teach us Thai words and we all laugh as we try to grasp the tones of the Thai language. We talk about how they don’t like their jobs, but they need to make money. We talk about their children living far away with their parents. We tell them about SHE, that there are other options for them to support themselves and their families besides selling themselves at the bars. We leave with Olive and Taylor asking if we were ever coming back to Thailand. We say we don’t know and we hug these precious women as we say goodbye.
I pray. I pray that the seeds planted in the hearts of Olive, Nancy, and Taylor will come to grow as other volunteers continue to build into them. I pray they get out and sometimes when I don’t have the words to pray I just sit and know that God’s got this, that the Holy Spirit is interceding with groans that words cannot express.
Lately when sit down to write a blog my words tend to come out in incoherent ramblings or I don’t know how to convey what’s on my heart, what we’ve seen and experienced in Phuket.
As we walk the streets of Patong it is overwhelming to the senses, especially when you know what is behind the loud music and the girls dancing on the bars and the tourists snapping photos as they walk. This is the commercial sex industry.
Every other night we go down to the bars. Bars where the ‘bar girls’ are sold to customers for the night. We are bombarded with people putting fliers for “ping pong” shows (basically sex shows) in our face and with groups of people stopping in the middle of the road to gawk at women dancing on the bars.
We walk through the streets, sit down at a bar, order a coke, and smile hoping we can be agents of love to each woman we talk to.
That first night my group of three were overwhelmed at where to go. Our contact had told us to find a bar with hardly any men in it and order a coke, strike up a conversation, and stay for only 20-30 minutes. (The time frame is so that the bar managers and owners don’t get annoyed and hurt the opportunity for ministry.) Our goal is to begin building relationships with the bar girls, to build trust, to eventually set up dates to meet outside of the bars during the day, and then invite them to English class where one of the SHE staff continue to pour into them and build relationships. Eventually, when the girls are ready SHE gives them another choice, a job where they don’t have to sell themselves. A chance to see that they are loved, that they have value.
As we sit and talk, I see women who are so beautiful and loved by God, who want to know that they are cared about, that someone is interested in what they have to say, that there is more to life than this. And isn’t that what we all want? We all want to know that someone out there loves us, cares about us, listens to us. This goes for every man walking out on Bangla Road, every woman who works in the sex industry, every bar owner, me, you. We often search for it in wrong places, but this need is what unites us all as human beings.
That first night I sat next to a precious young woman named Olive*. She has been working in the bar for about 3 months, she is from northern Thailand, and she has a 6 month old baby boy living with her family back home. This is common in the bars. The women come from the north to make money. They get free room and board through the bar. The one good thing about the open bars is that the women can leave when they want, if they want. Often it’s hard. They stay for the money; they stay because they think they can’t do better, or because they feel some kind of obligation to their employer.
We sat with Olive and her friend Nancy*and the thought that ran through my mind was “they are just like me.” We chatted (as best we could), we played Jinga, and we laughed. As we left that first night, Olive and Nancy hugged us.
Our group of three instantly loved and felt a connection with Olive. When I see her, I see someone who is beautiful, who has value. Pray for Olive. Pray that the Lord uses us to reflect Himself to her. Pray that she will keep her date with us, pray she will come to English class and begin to build a relationship with the SHE staff.
Pray for all the men and women on Bangla Road. Pray boldly. Pray that the chains of addiction, chains of greed, chains of fear, chains of worthlessness would be broken.
One night during intercession I had a vision. I was thinking about the song “Into marvelous light I’m running, out of darkness out of shame…” As that song played in my head, I saw Jesus standing with arms wide open and I saw Thai women running freely into His arms.
The Lord has his arms open to Bangla Road. I proclaim it and I believe it! We are His, Olive is His, Bangla Road is His!
There is a song lyric that says “Let worship be the fuel of missions flame.” Never has that been as real to me as here in Phuket. The ministry of SHE is passionate about prayer, intercession, and worship. They know it is the lifeline for those who go out and minister to the women in the bars. The Lord is teaching me on the Race that prayer and worship is also the lifeline for all believers everywhere.
Every day two people go down to Putong and walk down Bangla Street praying over each bar, covering the women in prayer, covering the men in prayer, covering the streets in prayer. Every night before anyone goes down to Bangla Road we worship for an hour. We bring heaven down with worship and we call on the power of the Holy Spirit to fill us, to walk before us and behind us. We know that what we do in here will fill the streets out there. I have never been a part of worship that is so intimate, with women who are so desperate for His power, who know they can’t do anything on their own, who are so compassionate, whose hearts break for what is happening in Putong, but who have such a hope that our God is bigger and stronger and greater than anything down on Bangla Road.
I may be weak but your Spirit’s strong in me. My flesh may fail but my God you never will.
May what we do in here fill the streets out there. Let us dance for You. Let us dance for You.
Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.
Drank rain water – this was our drinking water for the month, unless you wanted to boil the tap water and wait for it to cool, I took my chances with the rain water
Swam with wild seals. So cool!
Named a frog, Trevor, who liked to hang out under Jenna, Melissa, and I’s rain flies. I accidentally kicked Trevor once in the dark…no worries, he was okay.
Lived in a tent for an entire month
Had to do a tick check every night before I went to bed
Had to say, “the monkeys got in the trash again”
Ridden in the back of one of those police trucks that are enclosed, the ones you see in movies. Our taxi forgot to pick us up so the policemen were gracious enough to take us back to the farm.
Had the cool place to go be the local gas station.
Had a Christmas that was literally stripped of all that we usually know and have, but one of the most meaningful Christmas’s ever, though of course I missed my family.
Taken a 5 hour continuous hike. We went around this peninsula in Plettenburg, it was beautiful!
Been so angry at the situations some of these children are in.
Been given such a supernatural love from God for these same children.
Mozambique
Eaten kudu and lamb. Kudu is sort of these deer, moose, antelope thing, not quite sure. It was really good.
Had the best cashews that have been roasted right from the tree. You have to roast them first because the cashew fruit is poisonous off the tree. Then you peel them and eat them, yum!
Held a baby on my back Mozambiquen style. A sturdy piece of fabric around your back and over one shoulder with the cloth under the baby’s bum.
Preached a sermon. This was a definite Holy Spirit showed up moment. God is made strong in our weaknesses.
Heard such beautiful singing and music as I have heard at the churches and Bible College in Mozambique. This is all without instruments, just their voices and clapping.
Cooked in a hut, over a fire set up on the floor. We cut raw chicken, peeled garlic and tomatoes, and cut up onions all sitting on a plastic chair using a water bucket for a table. What these women can do with what they have is amazing.
Attached reeds to wire to make a house secure for a mother and son whose house fell in on them during a cyclone.
Slept on the concrete at a border crossing. I’ve learned you can sleep on anything or at any time if you are tired enough.
Used a squatty potty, I heard that is all they have in Asia so I am getting ready.
Been to what they call the bush. Out in the middle of nowhere, driving through places that do not have roads. It was beautiful and what you often think of when you think of Africa.
Seen the signs of malnourishment in children. Orange scalp and big bellies because of worms. It was hard.
Swaziland
Lived at a children’s home – the children at El Shaddai are a joy.
Been so cut off from everything. El Shaddai is on top of a mountain and it takes about 30 minutes on a bumpy dirt road to get up and down the mountain. The nearest town is about an hour away.
Seen such beauty and we've seen some beautiful places. God’s creation is magnificent and speaks of his glory.
Helped dig a 12 feet hole for a septic tank, or for any reason for that matter.
Put so many kids to sleep by swinging with them on a swing
Played a game sort of like jacks that uses 12 rocks and a small hole dug into the dirt. You had to throw up one rock and pull as many rocks out of the hole without looking all while catching the first rock. I was not very good. J But the children always gave me another chance.
Been so sad not to have regular internet access only because I knew my niece was going to born while we were in Swazi, but thankfully I got to find out that Piper Faith was born healthy and safe!
It is time to now head into our fourth and final continent. I loved Africa but excited for what God’s going to do in Asia!
The preschool meets in the church on the El Shaddai property.
We have been helping the teachers and playing with the preschoolers during thier free times.
The boys are washing their lunch dishes during break.
School is from 7:30am to 1:30pm and then we help the children who live at El Shaddai with thier homework from 3:00-4:00pm. These are two girls who I have spent some time with,
helping them with their homework or just talking as girls do.
Every day, except Fridays, the kids at El Shaddai have chapel. Usually the 7th and 8th graders lead this, but we have been taking turns leading worship and teaching from God's Word. These children were ready for chapel to begin. They sang us a beautiful song in SaSwati.
On some days we get to go to the baby house and play with the children there.
We get to give them some one on one attention.
Children at the preschool. On this day they were learning about the parts of the body in English.
I think we sang the "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" song about hundred times.
Enjoying the sunshine at the baby house. The children love to be pushed on the swings.
