Week 7 Update

Sa wa dee ka! 

I can't believe another week has passed. It's been a fun week! 

Here are some highlights:

-On Tuesday, Angela, Jacie, and I taught the little kids about God's love. The kids on Tuesday are very active. (that's a nice, teacher way of saying that they are a little out of control =) In the midst of all the chaos, one little boy named Vit talked to Angela after the story and he prayed to invite Christ into his life. =) Vit lives with his grandparents, and he gets scared at night because he has nightmares. I got to sit next to them as they prayed together and he was smiling big when he was done. He wrote on his coloring sheet that God loves all people. That was really exciting! 

-On Wednesday morning, I got to meet with Pu and teach her a little bit of English. Her homework last time was to practice reading Psalm 139, and she read it for me this time. She did a great job. =) 

-I love going to the Wednesday slum (I know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but this slum is probably my favorite.), and this week was fun. Benz, a girl that I love, lives in this slum, and I got to spend a little bit of time with her.

-On Thursday, I was met by one of my favorite little girls, Faa as she ran into my arms. She's a sweet girl. There were a lot of kids that came to the program on Thursday and it was fun.

-On Friday, we went to the local school's Sports Day. It was fun to see a lot of our kids running around and having fun. It was sad to see some of the girls wearing makeup and dancing in ways that little girls should not know how to do. 

-On Saturday, we took the kids to tae-kwon-do. (This was my last time to go before I leave.) I also got to teach an English lesson on feeling words and I lead the kids in learning how to pray for other countries. This week, we prayed for Haiti. 

-On Saturday night, I got to hang out with Pu again. She is such a joy to be around. She talked to me about how she wants to take college classes in the fall and how she wants God to use what has happened in her life to glorify him. She wants to be a translator. She says that she has "big dreams" but she knows that God can do them. =)

Next week: 

-A team is coming from the US. They will be building two houses for people in one of the PSM slums. The slum landlord is selling some of the land and making people move to another area in the slum. Pray for no rain while they are building!! 

-Pray for the team as they lead kids' club on Wednesday and Thursday. Pray for the kids in the slums to know God's love more and more. 

-Pray for me to take in as much as I can in the last couple of weeks and that I can communicate love to those I have been around for the last 7 weeks. 

While I have been in Thailand, I've had a lot of time to read, which I have loved. I've really enjoyed the slow pace of life this summer. This week, I started reading Terrify No More by Gary Haugen, President of International Justice Mission. It was so good, I finished it on Sunday. It describes IJM's involvement in rescuing girls who were forced to work in the brothels of Cambodia. These girls were as young as five and experienced abuse and torture which I cannot imagine. 

Here is an excerpt of Gary's response to this: (read if you please...it's a little long...but really, you should read the whole book. It's great...challenging and tough, but great.)

"But over time, having seen the suffering of the innocent and the crushing of the weak all around the world, my plea has changed. More and more I find myself asking not, Where is God? but, Where are his people? There are still painful things of life I find myself arguing with God about but these quarrels are less and less about injustice and perhaps more about cancer or mental illness or rains that come too late or too hard. No, for me, the great tragedies of abuse and oppression in our world are so clearly man-made sisters that I find it difficult to keep blaming God. Not only because it is men and women, not God, who perpetrate the abuses, but also because God has so clearly given men and women the power to stop the abuses. The little girls of Svay Pak were not suffering because of vague and inexplicable forces of nature. They were suffering because men and women with names and faces chose to beat them, rape them, and terrorize them. They suffered because other men and women with names and faces chose to provide shelter and protection for the abusers. And at the end of the day, they suffered because the rest of us let it happen. Given all the power and resources that God has placed in the hands of humankind, I have yet to see any injustice of humankind that could not be stopped by humankind. I find myself sympathizing with a God who, speaking the the ancient prophet, told his people, 'You have wearied the Lord with your words...by saying...'Where is the God of justice?' ' (Malachi 2:17). Increasingly, I feel quite sure of the whereabouts of God. My tradition tells of a Father in heaven who refused to love an unjust world from a safe distance, but took his dwelling among us to endure the humility of false arrests, vicious torture and execution. This is the God who could be found as 'a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering' (Isaiah 53:3). The more I have come to know him, the harder it has become for me to ask such a God to explain where he has been. In fact, surprisingly, I don't generally hear the victim of abuse doubting the presence of God either. Much more often I hear them asking me, 'Where have you been?' "

Psalms 10:16-18 says, 

The Lord is King for ever and ever; 
    the nations will perish from his land.
¹⁷ You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; 
    you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 
¹⁸ defending the fatherless and the oppressed, 
    so that mere earthly mortals
    will never again strike terror.

Our God is a God who cares about injustice, and if I want to be more like him, I need to care more about it too.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your prayers. 

Pictures from Week 7

Jom and me

Vit prayed to accept Christ as his Savior this week!! Praise God!! 

Tumtom knows how to photobomb! =)

A group from the Tuesday slum

It was beautiful to see Beam worshipping God this week. 

Guita with his drawing

Thearith with the Cambodian kids

Some of our kids at Sports Day

I taught English to these kids. 

This girl is fun! I love her.

Doing some reading...

This article was posted by the Somaly Mam Foundation. It describes the life of a victim of sex trafficking in Montreal, Canada.

This is not how the world should be.

I'm also started reading the book, Terrify No More, by the President of International Justice Mission, Gary Haugen. Every time I read about the work that IJM is doing, I am just amazed at the work that they are doing. I also am made aware of just how much work there is to be done to stop injustice.

Here are some quotes that stuck with me on what I've read so far:

"Imagine what would happen if you walked into your local police station with videotapes of elementary-school-age children in your community being openly sold to customers for sex. What if you gave them pictures, names, and addresses of those who were running the child-sex business, along with little maps on how to find them? What would you expect to happen? In Cambodia, we gave this information to the highest law enforcement authorities in the country, who sat in offices not twenty miles away from where the child-sex-ring was operating, and nothing happened. Nothing at all." (p. 13)

"While there are millions of girls and women victimized every day, our work will always be about the one. The one girl deceived. The one girl kidnapped. The one girl raped. The one girl infected with AIDS. The one girl needing a rescuer. To succumb to the enormity of the problem is to fail the one. And more is required of us." (p. 19)

"Standing with the oppressed, even in the face of personal danger, is simply the only effective strategy for securing change and bringing to life the deep hope that freedom is possible." (p.24)

Thai people are beautiful.

So cute! 

We sang a "LOVE" song. 

I'm sad I only got the O and the V.

Learning how to make spaghetti and garlic bread from Kru Jen-eee

And then eating! =) Most of them loved it! 

(Except for the few pieces of bread that burned on the bottom...kids are the same, even in Thailand =)

Eating dinner at Monica's! 

Yam made my favorite...sum tum!! (papaya salad)

Pu and me! 

Me and sweet Naam

Week 6...set lao =)

Week SIX!

Sa wa dee ka! 

It has been great being back in Pattaya and getting back into the swing of things. 

On Monday night, I attended a party to celebrate 14 new people (including young teenage girls, 2 pregnant moms, and 3 lady-boys) joining the Tamar Center and leaving their former lives. The training lasts for 12 weeks. At this training, they learn how to make cards and also salon and bakery skills. They also receive teaching from the Bible that will give them the opportunity to heal from the brokenness of their past. At the party, it was beautiful to see the joy on these 14 people as they started a new journey in their lives. Pray for these 14 people with me. Pray that they are able to receive hope. Hope of a better life here on this earth. Hope of a better life in heaven. I have met and got to spend time with 2 of these girls, Nikki and Naam. Before I left for Chiang Rai, Naam came to church the week we brought the PSM kids. She saw one of the girls who didn't have very nice shoes and she went out on the street and bought new shoes for her. That really blessed my heart. 

On Tuesday, it was fun to go to the slum and see the kids again. We taught on Moses parting the Red Sea and how God fights for his people. While we were there, a couple of the older kids were hitting and yelling at each other the whole time. I told one of the boys named Get to stop many times and he didn't. After we left, I thought about how these kids don't know how to follow the rules, because they don't have people in their lives to teach them and to love them, to model how to be kind to others. Later, I found out that two of the kids who were causing most of the trouble, Get and Froi, live with a grandmother and two other kids. Their parents aren't around and aren't investing in their lives. Pray for these kids and other kids living in the slums with me. That even though they do not receive love and attention from earthly parents, they would know the love of our heavenly father. 

On Wednesday, we went to the slum in the afternoon. Every once in a while in Thailand, I feel moments where I wish I could communicate more with the kids and wonder what good I am doing when I can't really invest in their lives the way I would with kids who speak English. But then, I'm able to have moments when I ask a girl to read to me in Thai, and then she asks me to read in English (and I can throw in a few Thai phrases here and there). Or another girl comes up to me and puts her arms around my waist and I give her a big squeeze back. And I'm thankful for these little moments that I'm able to show love to a few Thai kids. 

On Wednesday night, I got to hang out with my friend, Pu and teach her some English. She is really excited to learn English, especially so she can read the Bible. She just has so much joy when she talks about her relationship with God. While we were there, she told me that she just moved into a new apartment, and she is seeing ghosts at night. Pray for Pu and she continues to learn how to trust Jesus in her life. 

On Thursday, we went to the slum for just a little while. It had rained the whole day and the ground where the kids normally sit was wet, so we just went  and played around for a little bit and gave them their snack. 

On Friday morning, I got to have coffee with a missionary from the US who has started a rescue home in Pattaya. I got to hear about how she and her husband started the home. They don't have any girls yet, but they are ready and waiting. Then on Saturday, I learned that they went on an outreach and found a teenage boy and girl who were being sex trafficked. The girl also had a young baby. They are now looking for jobs for them, as well as a proper placement, which could potentially be at their home. Pray for this new ministry, that God would send them girls from Pattaya who can be rescued and redeemed from a life of prostitution. Here's their website if you want to learn more about their ministry. 

On Saturday, we took the kids to Taekwondo and then back to the center for youth club. I got to teach some of the kids how to make spaghetti and garlic bread, and it was fun! Most of them thought it was delicious. =) They also got to watch "The Emperor's New Groove", which they loved. On Saturday night, I got to have dinner with 7 girls from the Tamar Center training and my missionary friend, Monica. I already have spent time with 2 of them (Nikki and Naam), and I'm glad I got to meet a few more. They are really sweet girls. On Sunday night, I got to hang out at Monica's with Nikki and Naam and a few other girls who have come to the Tamar Center. We ate papaya salad and sticky rice together and celebrated one girl's birthday. I really enjoyed spending time with them.

On Sunday, as I was reading my Bible, I came across these verses in Luke 15, 

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 

Among the many, the many people in Pattaya I see who need Jesus, he is rejoicing over the few who are finding him. I am thankful to see that and be a part of that here this summer. Even if it's just to give a smile or a hug. 

Thank you for your prayers. God has been so faithful to me in my time here. 

This week, you can pray...

-For Jiap and Pin, as they teach the older kids about relationships

-For Angela, Jacie, and I as we teach the younger kids 

-For the Tamar Center group as they continue their 12-week training

Slavery in the US tomato fields

Check it out this link and sign the petition.

Deafeating Poverty

My favorite reporter, Nicholas Kristof, recently wrote an article called "Doughnut Defeating Poverty". It was about helping the poor help themselves by equipping them to start businesses and find dignified forms of work.

He talked about poverty being a vicious cycle. Poverty is caused, in part, by people in despair. Not knowing what else to do, they try to cover this despair with drugs, alcohol, sex, and other various means.

Kristof highlighted an organization called CARE, which provides the poor with loans and coaches them about how to start businesses.

He says, "Assistance succeeds when it gives people a feeling that a better outcome is possible, and those hopes become self-fulfilling as people work more industriously and invest more wisely."

As a Christian, along with this hope of a better outcome, I want to see the poor receive the hope that only Jesus can give. Along with helping the poor find hope spiritually, we need to help meet their physical needs. 

Here in Pattaya, I have loved seeing how the Tamar Center is tranforming lives. They not only provide women and men with the hope of Jesus, but they also teach them skills that will allow them to earn an income in ways other than prostitution. 

On Monday night, I attended a party to celebrate 14 new people (including young teenage girls, 2 pregnant moms, and 3 lady-boys) joining the Tamar Center and leaving their former lives. The training lasts for 12 weeks. At this training, they learn how to make cards and also salon and bakery skills. They also receive teaching from the Bible that will give them the opportunity to heal from the brokenness of their past. At the party, it was beautiful to see the joy on these 14 people as they started a new journey in their lives. 

Pray for these 14 people with me. Pray that they are able to receive hope. Hope of a better life here on this earth. Hope of a better life in heaven.