Last week...

On Friday, we went to the public school where a lot of the PSM go. PSM has started to do an after-school English club in the past month. Right now, we are teaching the kids English words which include the fruit of the Spirit. This week’s lesson was on goodness. Jacie, the other American volunteer here this summer, led the lesson and taught the kids what goodness is. We challenged them to do something to show goodness this week.

Friday night was Family Fun night at PSM. Some of the jewelry artisans and their families came to the center. We ate some delicious green curry that Aom made. Then we sang and Angela gave a short message. We also played some games.

Saturday was youth club, when the older kids come to the center. First we took them to Taekwondo class. It was so much fun and they love it. We came back to the center, and I taught an English lesson to half the kids, while the other half did a cooking lesson with Aom. Then, we ate what they made together (some fried rice and cabbage/noodle soup).  Angela had asked me to lead a prayer time for different countries when I’m here, so I introduced what prayer is and why we prayer. Then I told them about the country of Swaziland and we prayed for the people there. None of them prayed out loud. It’s still something new, but hopefully, they will start to learn more about prayer and use it in their own lives. We also had a lot of free time to play games on Saturday. I played pretend doctor and hairdresser, drew on the white board, and learned to make a paper heart.

On Sunday, I went to church at the True Friendship church. I like the diversity of this church. There are more Thais than foreigners who go to this church, and some of those who come are former or current prostitutes. 

Pin and Aom have been bringing three girls from the slum to church. Their names are Mu, Ma, and Meow. They took them to KFC after church (which is a real treat for them =), and I went with them. Then, we went back to the center and I played Jenga with them, built towers, and they played on my computer. I had fun talking with them in Thai too. When they were leaving, they asked if we could play games next Sunday and they all gave me hugs. This blessed my heart. 

On Monday, I got to go to Koh Larn, an island off the coast of Pattaya with Pin, Jacie, and Pu (another Thai friend). It was BEAUTIFUL, and I had a really fun day with these girls. On Monday night, I went to Pu and Monica's apartment. Monica is an American volunteer with the Tamar Center. I met her last year. Every Monday night, she has dinner with girls that she meets on the Tamar Center bar outreaches. It was really cool to see how Monica has developed friendships with these girls and it was fun to interact with them (and eat some really good Thai food). I hope to get to go back to hang out with them again. After the dinner, Pu walked me to my songthao (public transportation in Pattaya). She is a former prostitute and last April, she made a decision to follow Jesus. She told me a little bit about her story and how God has changed her heart. She loves Jesus and is excited about serving him. This week, I'm going to meet with her to help her learn some more English.  

As I sat in church on Sunday, I was just overwhelmed by God’s love for me. This week, I have been thinking about God’s great love for Thai people in poverty and experiencing injustice. As much as God loves them and has them in his hands, he also has me and you in his hands. Because of his great love for me, he has allowed me to come to Thailand and I am able to play a small part in God’s redemption of the world. I am humbled by this gift. In the midst of seeing evil in this city that makes me sick, I am trusting that God’s ways are higher than mine. He wants to see his kingdom come here and now. I am thankful to be a part of that and am praying to see his hand more and more here in Pattaya.

Pray for PSM this week. Pray for lives in the slums to be transformed. Pray for the PSM staff, Jacie, and myself to build relationships with the kids and adults in the slums and point them to Jesus. Pray for my friends Bo and Nan, who aren’t going to school and are making unwise decisions. Pray for the jewelry artisans to continue to know Christ more.

Praise God that I have peace and joy while being here in Thailand. Praise him that I’ve been able to use my Thai to communicate.  Praise God for kids in the slums who know about God’s love and are making decisions to follow him.  

Another Update

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to another slum, and we did the same program that we did on Tuesday. Again, I remembered quite a few of the kids from last year and I had fun playing with them. Pin and Aom lead the kids' club and I really enjoy seeing them tell the Bible stories and interact with the kids. They have built such great relationships with the kids and that is exciting to see. 

Angela and Jiap went around to talk with the adults. There is a team coming in July that may do some building projects and they went around to see what the needs are in the slums. Angela told us about a conversation that she had with Cream's mother and grandmother. Cream is a teen who comes to the kids' club. Her grandmother is sick and is having eye surgery. Cream's mom and grandmother told Angela how Cream tells them about God and how that has made them think about God. They told her how Cream is so excited about following Jesus and wants to be his servant for the rest of her life. She gets excited about going to church and asks them to go every week. It's so exciting to hear how PSM is having an impact on these kids and how the kids are influencing their families. These kids have to take on the burdens of their families and may come from homes where they don't receive love from their families. They have many barriers to knowing God's love and that he does provide for them. Pray with me that these kids know Christ's love despite the difficulties in their lives and that they get excited about knowing Jesus and following him, like Cream has. 

Every Thursday, the PSM staff has lunch with the jewelry artisans and then they do a worship time and Bible study together. There are currently 5 women working with the jewelry project, Bam, Nida, Nood, Nok, and Sid. I met Bam and Nida last year. Bam recently did a Discipleship Training School with YWAM and is now back in Pattaya making jewelry with PSM and working with the Tamar Center, another YWAM organization in Pattaya reaching out to the prostitutes in the city. Nida is in her 60s and just about the cutest lady you will ever meet. She came to Christ last year while my Elmbrook team and I were here. Nood is a Cambodian woman who has one daughter named Keo (which means green!).  Nood and Keo live in the Thursday slum, and PSM helped Nood get the proper papers, which would allow her to make jewelry. I haven’t learned yet how Nok and Sid came to PSM. Yesterday, I got to eat lunch with these beautiful ladies and witness them worship God, read the Bible, and learn about God through Jiap’s teaching. Tonight, we are going to be having a family fun night with these ladies and their families.

On Thursday afternoon, we went to the slum. This slum is the largest of the 3 that PSM visits, and it includes a Cambodian refugee camp. There were about 40 kids there yesterday. Again, I remembered some kids from last year, but there were a lot of new ones. I had fun playing soccer for a while with a little girl named Mai Phon. I also got to talk for a little bit with a 14-year-old girl named Manao. While we were there, I saw Bo, one of my favorite girls who I met last year. Bo is 14 and she hasn’t been going to school for a while. She was walking around but wasn’t really joining in with the activities. I asked her to come sit with me, and she did and stayed for the rest of the time. Pray for Bo to go back to school and to stay away from the pressures that come with being a teenager in Pattaya (getting a boyfriend, becoming a prostitute, etc.)

Also while we were there, we heard some screaming from a woman inside one of the houses. She was yelling at someone, and it sounded like she was hitting them. Later, I found out that this was Nan’s mother. Nan is a teen who I met last year and I really enjoyed her. I learned that Nan dropped out of school again and has been running away from home. She has a 20-year-old boyfriend who she is living with. She hasn’t been coming to PSM activities, and her mother thinks that PSM led her astray. Her mom hits Nan and her younger brother often. This made me really sad when I heard about this. I don’t really know what else to do but pray. Please join me in praying for Nan and her family.

My life in pictures...

 Here are some pictures so you can see what life is like for me in Thailand:

This is my room at PK Apartments. 

It's quite nice.

Mmmm...a bag of sticky rice for 10 baht (about 30 cents).

Tang mo (watermelon) on sale for 9 baht. It was yummy. 

A bag of peel carrots! If you know me, you know how much I love this. =)

One of the advantages of waking up really early. This is the view outside of my room. 

At the Wednesday slum, Aom is teaching the kids a game.

Pin and Oom having fun =)

Singing songs in Thai

Doing a Locust craft after they learned about the plagues in Exodus

Getting ready to have some chicken on a stick 

Aroi mak mak (very delicious)

Peace and love from Thailand! 

Meet Somaly Mam

While on my way to Thailand, I read the book The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam, the founder of the Somaly Mam organization, which fights sex trafficking by rescuing, rehabilitating, and reintegrating victims of sexual exploitation.

Somaly Mam was abandoned by her birth parents as a baby. She was taken in by a Cambodian man and his wife, but was later sold to a “grandfather” who raped her and forced her into prostitution. At first, Somaly tried to resist and fight back, but soon realized that her efforts would only bring her more abuse and torture. One time she asked her “grandfather” why he had done this to her. “He said it was none of my business. It was like I had no right to ask him – and I felt that, too. I had no right to ask him or to protest. I belonged to him, and this was just the way things were.”

Somaly describes her horrific life as a sex slave, including being beaten, locked in a basement, tied naked to a bed, and having maggots dumped on her. The goal of the pimps is to break the women who are enslaved to them, take away their dignity, and so they have no hope of escape.  She writes, “Nobody wants you back after you’ve worked in a brothel. The word for prostitute in Cambodia is srey kouc, ‘broken woman’ – broken in a way that cannot be mended. You are forever ruined and your existence shames the family. Nobody wants people want people to know they have a prostitute in their family.”

Somaly tells about the young virgins in Cambodia, who are sold at a high price because Cambodians believe that sex with a virgin will prolong their lives and heal disease. They are raped for a week and then when they are brought back to their brothels, the girls are stitched back up, sometimes without anesthetic, and sold as virgins three or four times more.

When she got older, Somaly was bought by a foreigner, named Pierre, who was different. He worked for a nonprofit organization in Cambodia and spoke Khmer, the Cambodia language. Pierre treated her better and did not beat her. She began living with him, and eventually, he asked her to marry him. Though she did not “love” him, Somaly realized that she wanted this life. They moved back to France, where Pierre was from, and during this time, Somaly was able to find a cleaning job, and during this time, she gained dignity that she never had before.

Later, Pierre and Somaly decided to move back to Cambodia, and Pierre began working for a hospital. Somaly began volunteering at the hospital. She met many prostitutes and started giving them condoms and soap and providing them with basic health education. This led Somaly to paying for girls to escape from their brothels and learn how to sew as a means of another income. Later, Somaly began taking some of these girls into her home, and Somaly and her husband began a nonprofit organization to rescue and rehabilitate victims of sexual slavery.

I had many thoughts while reading this book.

First, after reading many stories and books like this, the problem still continues to feel so huge. There are millions of people in slavery around the world, and it doesn’t seem like it will ever be brought to an end. This story does show how one person can make a difference. Somaly wrote in this book, “I don’t feel like I can change the world. I don’t even try. I only want to change this small life that I see standing in front of me, which is suffering. I want to change this small real thing that is the destiny of one little girl. And then another, and another, because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself or sleep at night.” Somaly didn’t let what happened in her past to stop her from changing the world, one girl at a time. And according to Nicholas Kristof, her efforts have made a difference. In the foreword, he writes, “Because of her work and that of many others in Cambodia, some of the worst abuses have been curbed. The Svay Pak brothels no longer openly display young girls, and some pimps have gone to prison for selling virgins. You see fewer twelve – and thirteen-year-old girls in the brothels today; rather, there are sixteen-year-olds who claim to be eighteen,. Some brothels have closed because the owners find it’s not worth the risk of prosecution and the hassle of raids. It’s not a solution, but it is progress.”

While reading this book and hearing about how girls sit in the brothels and are labeled with numbers. Their names and dignity have been stripped from them, and they don’t have any hope of a better life. Some of my favorite verses from Isaiah 43 popped into my head. Verses 1 says, “But now, this is what the Lord says – he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” To God, these girls do have a name. They are his beautiful creation, and he hurts with their every hurt. In the book, a victim asked Somaly why a loving God would allow this to happen to her. I don’t know what I would tell that girl, but I do believe, that my God wants so badly to see his beautiful creation redeemed and restored to what it was intended to be. He is working to bring his kingdom here on earth, in part, and he has called us to be a part of seeing justice happen.

So what’s the answer? How do we put an end to human trafficking?

This is the mission of the Somaly Mam Foundation:

“The Somaly Mam Foundation has made it its mission to give victims and survivors of sexual trafficking a voice. We try to rescue them, to help them create and sustain lives of dignity. Our goal is to put an end to slavery, to help create a world where women and children are safe from sexual trafficking.

Somaly wrote this book to shed light on the stories of so many women and girls who have no voice. You can be a voice too by raising awareness about sex trafficking and encouraging the government to take a stand on this issue. Somaly writes, “For the moment, our opponents are winning the war., but we’ve won one battle at least. They’ve lost face and respect. We’ve investigated this traffic, exposed it for what it is, and made it shameful. We’ve shown that these people aren’t invincible, and I’m glad we’ve managed that.” You can also bring change by supporting organizations like Somaly Mam and the International Justice Mission, who are exposing this evil and combating it.

To end, I want to leave you with a quote from Somaly, “Love can mend even the deepest unseen wounds. Love can heal, love can console, love can strengthen and yes, love can make change.”

In the end, love wins. 

The first few days...

Sa waa dee ka! 


All of my flights went well with no problems and I got a decent amount of sleep. I had fun on my layover in Zurich. The weather was beautiful for the first 3 hours and I walked around a ton and took pictures. Most stuff was closed on Sundays, so that was a bummer, but it was still fun to see a new city. 

I got through immigration and got my luggage with no problems. I found my driver right away and he drove me to Pattaya. He spoke a good amount of English and I practiced my Thai with him a little bit. I definitely feel like what I learned last year is coming back to me, and I"ll be able to speak just as well and hopefully better than I did last year. 

I arrived at the center, and Aom, one of the jewelry artisans who is now on staff with PSM, greet me with a big hug and said she missed me. My good friend, Pin, who also is on staff at PSM, came soon and took me to my guesthouse. I unpacked a little bit, and then went to dinner with Pin and Jacie, the other American volunteer who is here for the summer. She's in college and studying to be a teacher. She is also staying at the guesthouse I am staying at. For dinner, I had some delicious, spicy papaya salad. Then, I went grocery shopping. For those of you who know me, you know that I love to grocery shop, and this is no different in Thailand. I brought a rice cooker from home, and was excited to find brown rice, oatmeal, and dried black beans, all my home favorites. I also got rambutans, which are one of my favorite Thai fruits, half of a yellow watermelon for 50 cents and half of a little regular watermelon for 30 cents. I ate one after dinner and another for breakfast. Life is good. =)

I did not sleep well on my first night in Thailand, so I'm hoping I'll get into a sleep routine soon. I slept from about 10:30pm to 1am on the first night and from 8:30 to 2 on the second night. 

On my way to the PSM center on Tuesday morning, I ran into two of my favorite girls from last summer, Bel and Bo. I talked to them for a little bit, and they remembered me and gave me hugs. That was fun. I'm excited to spend more time with these girls. 

On Tuesday afternoon, we went to one of the slums. When we first got there, I walked around with Pin and Jiap (two of the PSM staff) and they talked with the adults about any needs they had. Then, we started the kids' program, including singing songs, playing games, and listening to a Bible story. Pin taught the kids about the plagues in Exodus. I remembered a few kids from last year and I had fun with them. 

Today, we went to a prayer meeting with the different ministries in Pattaya that is held every Wednesday. We sang for a while and then people from different ministries shared what God has been doing in Pattaya. It was a really refreshing time. Later today, we'll go to another slum. I'm excited to go see more kids!

I am feeling excited about being in Pattaya. I just feels familiar and that's a good feeling. I am looking forward to what God will do in me and through me in Thailand. 

Here are a few prayers and praises:

-Praise that I have been feeling excited to be here and see people who I met last year

-Praise that I've been able to speak Thai quite a bit already

-Pray that I would get on a normal sleep schedule

-Pray that I would know how to best be a part of PSM while I am here

-Pray that the people in the slums of Pattaya would know Christ's love in new ways. 

Khwap kun ka (Thank you!)

30 days from today...

I am leaving for Thailand in 30 days from today. Wow. There are so many reasons why I am excited to Pattaya. I am SO excited to see some people I met last summer and fell in love with. I am looking forward to reconnecting with them and spending 10 weeks getting to know them more. I am excited to spend time in the slums and help out Pattaya Slum Ministries.


Here are my goals that I have for my time in Thailand. I want to:
1. Know God more - see him work in a different setting where Christianity is not the dominate religion
2. Learn how to engage in a culture different from my own and love people who are different from me - in the way they are brought up, their lifestyle, their economic status, etc.
3. Help some people/kids and show Christ’s love to them
4. Learn more about myself and what God may want me to do in the future involving missions. Learn more about missions and how it works in other countries.
5. Learn more about injustice and ways to fight against it


I know there will be some hard things too about my time in Pattaya. There were things that I saw last time I was there that broke my heart. Seeing street after street after street filled with girls prostituting themselves. Seeing girls who looked younger than 18 with older white men. Seeing girls in the slums who I know were raped and abused. Seeing men, women, and children in a dirty, smelly prison. Last time, I was in Pattaya for about 3 weeks, so I know there will be a lot more things to see and experience, and there will be more time for my heart to be broken. But I know that God will protect my heart.


Here are some things that I need prayer for when I'm gone. I know that prayer is so important, and so I would love it if you could join with me in prayer.
1. Pray for God to prepare me spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically before I go and that God would protect and provide for me while I am there.
2. Pray that I would be open and listening to what God wants to teach me during this time.
3. Pray that I would be able to use the Thai that I have learned to connect with people in Thailand.
4. Pray that I would be able to show Christ's love to the people living in the slums and the women working on the streets.
5. Pray that I would be able to be a blessing and encouragement to the Pattaya Slum Ministries staff


I was reading Proverbs 29 and this verse stuck out to me today in verse 7:
⁷ The righteous care about justice for the poor, 
    but the wicked have no such concern.


I pray that I would learn how I can care more about the justice of the poor and oppressed through my experience in Thailand. I have been given much, and I want to use what I have been given to help them.

There are no easy solutions.

Last week, Nicholas Kristof shed light on the website, Backpage.com and the way it advertises under-age girls for prostitution. Read the article here.

After this article was written, 19 senators wrote the company, asking it to stop letting pimps sell girls for sex. Change.org collected 22,000 signatures to stop this from happening, and Congress signed a law making it crime to post these advertisements without verifying the girls ages.

Goldman Sachs, an owner of Village Voice Media, the company that created Backpage.com, pulled out of its ownership. Kristof points out that there are no easy solutions to sex trafficking, but if companies, such as Goldman Sachs and other financial investors, ban together and take a stand against pimps and johns, change could happen. Read Kristof's latest article on this topic here.

Kristof is shedding light into the darkness of sex trafficking and it is making a difference.