Country 23

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

My friend Michenzie and I recently traveled to another Southeast Asian country (I'll just call it "country 23") for a few days to learn from others doing similar ministry there.  It was a wonderful time of refreshment and encouragement in the LORD, and I learned so much.  I can't wait to apply the things I learned here in Thailand!

Enjoying the beach in country 23

Prayer Necessities:

1.  I was asked to repeat my language evaluation using a different topic in order to better determine my ability to use the language.  This repeat evaluation will be done this coming Tuesday, so please be in prayer that my language level would be determined accurately and, if it's His will and timing, that I will reach the level I need to begin ministry.

2.  Pray for my Bible storying class at The Well.  The students will take their final exam next week and will begin the next set of stories the week after that.  Ask that they will begin to really know how to apply the truths of Scripture to their lives, especially as we begin stories from the life of Christ in the next few weeks.

3.  Ask the Lord to grant wisdom to Michenzie and me so that we will know how to implement the things we learned from our recent trip.  Ask that He would use us to make disciples who will make disciples of others.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

It was a Saturday morning when we arrived in the 23rd country I've visited, and Michenzie and I hit the ground running.  We met for dinner with the ministry's leader, Barney*, his wife, and a couple of others from his team.  They are all nationals from country 23, and there are no foreigners working with their team.  It is completely led by national believers, which is so exciting to me.  The Lord alone has led them to do this, and they are simply following Him in obedience.

At dinner that night, Barney told us his testimony.  He is a former drug addict who met Jesus while serving a jail sentence, and His life was forever changed.  He left jail a different man who was utterly consumed by following Christ in obedience.  He married and, on the Lord's command, they moved to a different part of the country and began reaching out to other drug addicts with the Gospel.  When they came to Christ, Barney and his wife invited them to live in their home.  For several years, they and their young children lived together with others who had been now become Christ-followers.  When they fought, these new disciples saw it.  When they reconciled, they saw that, too.  I think they probably all became better disciples because of it.  (Barney and his wife have only recently moved into a separate place because the Lord indicated that it is now time to do so with their oldest daughter approaching her teen years.)

While we were in country 23, we met a variety of team members.  Irene* is a single mom who was kicked out of the village where she'd lived her whole life - just because she had AIDS.  When Barney's wife Maria* met her, she was alone in a hospital in the city and essentially on her deathbed.  Maria and others prayed for her, and Irene miraculously improved and now has no signs of the disease.  She chose to follow Christ and is now making disciples of others.  The woman that she is currently mentoring is Irene's third disciple; the previous two are both out making disciples themselves.

Another lady we met is Jamie*.  She has an infectious smile and, despite not speaking English very well, she had no problems communicating with us in other ways.  Jamie is a bundle of energy, spending her time going from an event educating others on human trafficking to a time of corporate worship with her team to an intimate discipleship meeting with former sex workers.  Her day sometimes starts at 10:00 am and ends at 3:00 the next morning, but she doesn't complain and just keeps working tirelessly for her Lord.

It is clear that God is in the work this team is doing in country 23.  They began by making disciples among drug addicts.  In the process of doing so, they began to minister to AIDS patients (because drug addicts frequently have AIDS themselves or have friends who do).  As they did that, they met sex workers and/or single moms who needed to hear about Jesus' love for them, so they made disciples of them as well.  As they taught all of these new disciples to make other disciples, they discovered that their ministry was expanding down into multiple generations.  Each of these new disciples had a whole network of friends that they were telling about Jesus, and often Barney and his team didn't even personally know the newest disciples that were being made.  But they heard about drug addicts and prostitutes and even pimps whose lives were being changed, and it could be traced back to their team's work.  God is moving there in a big way!

One recent story really touched me and made things very simple in my mind.  A few weeks ago, Barney's team received a phone call asking if they would come and make arrangements for a dead body, someone with no family.  Jamie agreed to go and, when she arrived, she discovered that the dead person was transgendered.  There are certain taboos in this country regarding such subjects, which is why those in the community could find no one else willing to make the proper arrangements.  Jamie treated the body with compassion, as she would have a member of her own family and, when she drove to the hospital, many of the community members followed her.  All of them were gay or transgendered, and they all wanted to know why Jamie was so different.

She told them the simple reason:  That she loved them because she loved Jesus, and Jesus loved them.  She cared for their friend's body because their friend was a human being who merited her compassion and respect.  When they heard that, they asked her to come to their community and tell them more about this Jesus.

Jamie went and, when she finished, they asked her to come back weekly and tell them more.  She's now been going there every week for the last few weeks - typically in the wee hours of the morning because that is when they are available.  She shares stories of Who Jesus is and looks for those with real spiritual interest.  Those people will become her focus as she seeks to teach them how to follow this Jesus Who loves them.  When they become His followers, they will do the same thing with those they know because she's teaching them to do it.

That is how you make disciples.  You go where the people are, at the time when they are available and willing, and you teach them - both with your words AND with your actions - Who Jesus is.  And, when the Holy Spirit does His thing and changes their lives, you teach them to teach their friends how to follow Him, too.

The words of the Great Commission are on my mind on a regular basis, but the latter parts have really struck me lately:

"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'" (Matt. 28:18-20, NIV) (italics mine)

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to evangelize ("go... and make disciples") but not enough about how to teach them to obey.  What I'm realizing is that teaching them to obey starts with me doing it myself and modeling it for them.

After a week in country 23, I'm ready to teach others to obey... and see just how many generations of disciples the Spirit will make here in Thailand!

* names have been changed

Lots of motorcycles awaiting the passing of a funeral procession

Unbearably Ashamed

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

A friend and I were recently able to share the Gospel with a young lady named T.  T is very open to God's truth and is soaking it all in.  Pray that the seeds that have been sown in her heart will bear much fruit and will lead to her salvation and to the salvation of many others.

Prayer Necessities:

1.  My friend Michenzie and I will be traveling next month to meet with a team that is involved in ministry to women in the sex industry.  Pray that we would learn all that the Lord has for us during this time and that it would be a time of mutual edification both for the team and for us.

2.  Please continue to pray for clarity both for me and for my supervisor regarding the location of my future ministry.  Ask that we would be on the same page in what we hear from the Lord.

3.  Remain in prayer for my students at The Well.  I had 15 students this past week, and it was exciting to hear them discuss the story of God's test of Abraham in requiring him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  Pray that the Spirit would continue to be at work in each of them and that they would surrender themselves to His direction in all things.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

It is typical in Thai culture - and even more so in rural areas - for the eldest daughter to shoulder an enormous amount of responsibility, and usually far beyond the typical task of helping care for younger siblings, something that's commonly seen in larger families around the world.  No, the responsibilities of the oldest daughter here go far beyond that, extending to the expectation that she become the primary breadwinner for her family - parents, older brothers, younger siblings, and sometimes extended family members - and the expectation begins as soon as she is old enough to work, typically in the early teens.

That's a tremendous burden in and of itself, but compound it with the fact that education (which is expensive) is often reserved for the family's male children, and you can easily see why so many of these precious women turn to prostitution as their only viable employment option.  How else would they ever earn enough to support their families otherwise?

Many of these young women enter the industry by going to work in a bar in a bigger city like Bangkok.  The term "bar girl" refers to a woman who serves drinks at a bar and is also available for sale for the night.  The customer simply has to pay a fee to the "mama-san," typically an older woman who manages the employees and who is frequently a former bar girl herself.  After paying a fee of about $20, the customer "owns" the bar girl for the night.

The price of human dignity comes pretty cheap here.

A few months ago, I met a very sweet young lady named P.  She's a bar girl, and she is probably in her late 20s or early 30s but looks older.  She has two beautiful little girls, ages 4 and 6, who live with their grandfather, P's dad, back in her village.  She misses her kids and her dad desperately, but she just can't see any other way to fulfill her responsibilities to all of them.

She recently posted this picture on her Facebook picture.  It's a heartbreaking look into her worldview:

"I've never been ashamed that I have very poor parents, but I am unbearably ashamed that I still can't take care of them well enough."

Please pray that P and so many others like her would learn that there is an all-sufficient Father Who is able to provide for their needs and Who doesn't need them to provide for His.  Pray that they would trust in Him to meet all their needs, both spiritual and physical.