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.