Cambodia is coming to a close and Malaysia, my final month on the Race, is already here.
My team and I are sad to leave the kids in our little village, as well as the ministry that we've thoroughly enjoyed. Upon arrival, I didn't anticipate loving the job of teaching English - to kids who hardly speak English - for hours everyday. I have never been affirmed as a "teacher", so I really didn't see this month being a favorite of mine. However, my team mates assured me daily that I do have a gift in teaching, and that I have excelled in this ministry throughout the month... Praise God, and glory to Him alone! Who knew?! Bring on another apostrophe or prepositional phrase lesson!
I have taught English before, but also being blessed with the gift of speaking Spanish, I loved it in South America. I didn't expect to desire teaching Cambodian kids... but if you've never seen a beautiful, young Cambodian boy or girl... you can't say "no" to them. These kids are a true joy to be around and have taught me the raw & real meaning of "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength."
This entire month has been a "His Joy is my Strength" month, and I wouldn't change a bit of it. Teaching English subject pronouns & Bible stories every night could have been like pulling teeth in our difficult living conditions this month (see previous blog :) But I know that God gave me, personally, an extra dose of joy and a thankful heart for the ministry and our time here in the village.
Sure, "His Joy is my Strength" came in handy more than a few times everyday when my patience was tested, my skin was rashy and my sweat was never ending. But these children gave me a new perspective of His Joy as they craved knowledge and biblical wisdom. Unlike most countries I have lived in on the Race, the joy and love in this village is evident and contagious. Children are treated with love, instead of hate or disgust, and in return they are filled with His love and joy & share it well.
They carry His joy, and it is tangible & surrounds us when we spend our days with the kids in the classroom, playing soccer, bike riding and swimming in the marsh. A great lesson I have learned in my travels through the Kingdom is the joy that comes with the simple life. It's easier to gain Joy & walk strengthened in it when you're not immune to receiving it because of distraction or busyness.
In the States my view of His Joy is so different, and it is so much more difficult to obtain. Cambodian children understand simple, heavenly Joy and take it for what it's worth. Their difficulties in life are probably incomparable to mine in the States, but their strength comes directly from the Lord, and they rejoice always, as the Bible tells us to.
I walk away - or take a Tuk Tuk (a cart attached to a motorcycle) ride away - from our little village at the intersection of two dirt roads & miles of farmland feeling even more joyful, and as a result strengthened, for the upcoming and final month of the Race. I will be happy for a shower, toilet & clean clothes, but trading those comforts for my experience this month was completely worth it to me. I have a newfound love for teaching & instructing, and the simple life with my team, this town and the Lord has blessed me more than anywhere else in Cambodia could have.
Malaysia, month #11, here I come!
**Check out my sister, Katie Ballard, and her blog as she starts month 5 of the Race here in Cambodia! :
I can't believe it is already here! This Race has flown by and I can't believe that I am now blogging as an almost retired World Racer. Last month in Thailand was one of my favorites of the Race. God challenged my heart in a lot of areas, and I also grew a lot in my faith of Him and His work around the world. If you want to know more about what we did last month, please check out my last few blogs.
Cambodia
What a BEAUTIFUL country. The only thing I knew of Cambodia before I arrived was that it is known as the "poor man's Thailand". So I knew the market shopping would be good, and that was about it.
When our squad arrived in Cambodia, we spent 5 days in a city called Siem Reap which hosts one of the 7 wonders of the world, the Angkor Wat Temples. Because it was the Cambodian new year celebration, our ministry sites weren't ready for the squad to start ministry, and we all had 5 days to regain rest and focus as a squad before we headed into the last two months of the Race.
Once I got news of where my team's ministry site was, and what we were to do all month, I admit
wasn't the happiest of campers.
It is a well-known possibility that any or all teams MAY be in the "rice paddies" in Cam
bodia, "roughing it". I had heard a few horror stories, and found myself putting my own comforts and desires far above God's plan for this month. Fortunately, He didn't let me sit in that nice, air-conditioned, pampered and pretty tree for too long.
The most primitive location of the entire Race, my team and I are living in a TINY town at the intersection of two dirt roads in the middle of NOWHERE, Cambodia. If it were rice season, we'd be in the paddies. We live in a concrete house that is absolutely INFESTED with ants of every shape and size (and you guys know how I feel about ants!). We are blessed with 4 fans to share among the team, and let me tell you... fans are a HOT commodity in HOT Cambodia. A few of us have pitched tents right outside in the front yard for a cooler sleep and nightly stargazing.
Our neighbors live in a wooden house/hut and have a number of young kids who are always running in and out of our house. They love to sing and dance!
Our ministry is right across the street, which is usually being grazed my Slim, Jim and the rest of the asian, white field cows who live right outside our front doors (they even join our bible studies!) It is a bar-house-bathroom-pitstop and classroom all in one! Our bathroom is there, so it isn't uncommon to find the American girls dripping sweat and headed to the bathroom to pour a bucket over our heads.
The bathroom consists of a squatty potty (if you haven't used one of these, find a wall and do a wall sit aiming in one small spot on the ground. You'll get a glimpse of the World Race and universal squatty-potties!) and a large concrete "tub" that fills with pumped water every morning.
Bucket showers are actually quite enjoyable! The name of the game this month is "See how many mosquitos you can avoid when you have to go #1, #2 and even #3 in the squatty!" Let's just say I am not the champion of that game this month.
There is a small classroom and a white board (praise God!) where we teach english every day for 4-5 hours. VBS songs really have come in handy every month of the Race! We teach ages 10-17, girls and boys, both advanced and beginner level. We play soccer every morning, prayer walk before lunch and often swim with the kids in the muddy trench in the late afternoons after class. Every night we have a bible story, and make it to bed around 8 or 9 p.m.
We are fed a mixture of traditional Cambodian food (so good!) and the occasional "please the Americans" dish such as french fries... we never complain! :) If you'd like a good test on if you could handle the World Race, try drinking very hot water from
your water bottle every day in the 103 degree heat. We're never clean, we pray over our digestive tracks at every meal, we smell, we have bug bites galore, the world feels like it's going to end if the fan goes out, spiders are the size of my hand, the geckos that live with us are nearly iguanas and wake us up every hour of the night, Templeton the rat crawls around in our house and the "Missionary-Sheek-Dripping Sweat" look is every hour of every day....
And..... I LOVE IT.
I didn't imagine God to give me such a big heart for Cambodia like He has this month. In Luke Jesus talks about how privileged His disciples are to see what they have seen, and heard what they have heard. He also talks about the cost of being a disciple, and how to truly live as a servant of the Lord.
As we rough it this month, I am reminded every minute how to daily take up my cross and live to serve the King of Kings, and how to live honorably, remembering how fortunate I am to know and love Jesus Christ and do His work in the middle of nowhere, Cambodia.
For many people, living as a disciple looks like church once a week on Sunday. But I have the blessing of being halfway around the world sharing the Good News and doing ministry all day every day in some of the most remote and beautiful places on this planet. How lucky am I?!
So with that I say... bring it on bucket showers. You have nothing on me, red fire ants. I love Cambodia, and God does too.
As I am wrapping up my month here in Thailand, I have found myself more often than not... SPEECHLESS.
God's love never fails.Praise the Lord of lords.Only God works great miracles. God's love never fails.
My words can never share how my heart has ached this month.
My blog will never be able to tell the stories that I heard.
My pictures won't deliver the beauty of this country, or the scene you see every night during ministry at the bars.
God's love never fails. With wisdom he made the sky. The Lord stretched the earth over the ocean. God's love never fails.
My journal is blank, because I can't even write out my own heart.
My memory can't explain to you the things I saw, or the way I felt.
My emails can't even relay a recap of ministry.
He made the bright lights in the sky.
God's love never fails.
He lets the sun rule each day.
God's love never fails.
I am literally lost in God's Kingdom in Thailand. I am speechless, and my heart is relentlessly praying and hurting for the things I have seen and experienced. You can't always relay all that God has shown and taught you in a month, and this is one of those months for me.
In my jumble of emotions and the whirlwind of thoughts in my mind, one thing is constant:
GOD'S LOVE NEVER FAILS.
In Bar #1 where older women sell themselves to older men: His Love Never Fails.
In Bar #2 where men dress as women in a loss of identity and worth: His Love Never Fails.
In Club #3 where young, Thai girls seduce men from the poles: His Love Never Fails.
In Bar #4 where men buy for the hour, night or week: His Love Never Fails.
In Parlor #5 where women please men with massages: His Love Never Fails.
In Club #6 where adolescent girls strip and have forced sex: His Love Never Fails.
In our ministry house where He has proven to be faithful and true: His Love Never Fails.
In Patong where tourists shop by day and darkness prowls by night: His Love Never Fails.
In Phuket, Thailand, where so many people have never been but hear of it and the sin festering here: His Love Never Fails.
We hear all the time about God's love and His power. A common theme in Christianity...
I am telling you that it has been the most real and evident not in my home town or church.... but in Phuket, Thailand... one of the darkest and most difficult places on the Earth.
GOD'S LOVE NEVER FAILS.
He lets the moon and the stars rule each night. God's love never fails.
It's the name of a popular night club here in Phuket, Thailand.
It is also the "name of the game" here in Phuket, Thailand.
Walking down Bangla Road every week for ministry, judgement is something that has to be prayed against. Groups of guys, young college kids, a suburban family with a stroller or an older man hand-in-hand with a young thai girl are all things you see on Bangla. It'd be easy to have anger against the many people who ignore or scowl towards the girls & what goes on in the bars of Bangla.
The truth is, many of these tourists need Jesus just as much as the women in the bars.
The name of the game is Seduction, and the grand prize is a woman. When we have conversations with the girls, they will commonly lose all interest when a male walks by. They will throw themselves on him, whisper in his ear if he stays around long enough and return back to us with a frown when he chooses another woman or to move on.
They didn't seduce "well enough", they think.
Girls rotate shifts dancing in next to nothing around poles on top of the bars. There are hundreds of poles down on Bangla Road. Men can window shop, in a way, for what they want. Most women have a "bar fee" that must be paid to the bar owner before they're taken away for the night; this is a sort of stipend for their food and bed for the day.
The name of the game is Seduction, and the Ladyboys play it, too. I have seen many, many Ladyboys down in the bars - males dressed as females, transvestites. Whatever your pleasure is, it is surely offered on Bangla. I met one Ladyboy who was very friendly to me! I wish so badly that he could see himself through all of that makeup as a Son of God, worthy and righteous, strong and honorable.
Seduction IS the environment on Bangla Road. Flyers for live sex shows, strip clubs and massage parlors are passed out by both men and women, advertising for the sin that encompasses this city. There are even a few european bars that are said to be hosts for trafficked women who dance in glass cages above the street.
It's the name of the game, and it is played in EVERY bar off of Bangla Road. Women run it, and men play it. Tourists either look past it, or partake in it, and our role is to end it.
The sin and darkness on Bangla Road is almost overpowering.
Almost.
There IS hope, and it is tangible -- palpable. The Holy Spirit moves on Bangla, and the game is being shut down every night in different areas as we love the women in a non-perverse way, and show them mercy, compassion and Jesus Christ.
Seduction is the game that demolishes hope, but Jesus Christ is the Savior who triumphs over Seduction. I have never been in such an evil place before, but I have also never felt the HOPE of God thriving over everything else.
Do not let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Romans 12:21
He REALLY is moving down there.
It's really happening.
The enemy has already been defeated, and God is bringing many women out of that place.
Everyone who's anyone knows Rodeo Drive in the United States. Sales for Louis Vuitton alone are in the billions annually for luxury purses and wallets.
As Americans, it's crazy what we'll spend our money on in our own country. Even things that aren't necessarily for sale, we'll make a way, a bargain. We're ambitious in shopping, and also spend many dollars overseas for tourism and vacation.
Nick-nacks, decorations and souvenirs have always been part of my family vacations in my life. I've even been blessed to do fun activities like swimming with dolphins in Mexico, or snorkeling in the West Indes.
BANGLA ROAD
Everyone who's anyone knows about Bangla Road in Patong, Phuket, Thailand. This world known tourist destination reminds me of a mixture of Vegas, Cancun, New York and Amsterdam... only MUCH bigger.
It's crazy what tourists will spend their money on. Countless drinks at ridiculous prices, maybe some local food, a live show.. or maybe even ya know... a woman.
What? A woman? Rodeo drive may have Louis, but Bangla has Nan, Suyo, Apple and Bum. These are the names of 4 women that I met last night in a bar off Bangla. Bum told me that she doesn't have a boyfriend because she has a different one every night. But she assures me the money is good and helps pay for things she needs.
By day a beach-market town, by night a pit. Darling, young Thai girls innocently play in seduction cages that host a number of still darling, still young Thai young ladies will work in that same night. In the name of Jesus, these children will not grow up to be caught in this terrible industry.
Prostitutes may have the "choice" to leave their jobs, but they are completely trapped and enslaved in this industry. I am chosen this month to love the women, love the men, pray against the Enemy's efforts and share the freedom Jesus Christ offers by His blood for the sins of the world.
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."
-John 15:16-17
That may look like playing Jenga or Connect 4 with these women while we share a round of cokes and play chirades to find out more about their lives.
The sex industry capital of the world... Bangla Road. It's my ministry this month.
On the World Race, it is common to have a month that is called "Manistry". Often in Thailand because of what ministry usually looks like in this country(sex trafficking), Manistry Month includes the men of the squad spending a month together away from the women. Hence... WOmanistry!
Although the adventures of Manistry Month aren't all recorded, it is rumored that the men have ridiculous Hoo-Ra Man dates, wild & dangerous man-ventures and come pretty close to breaking the law or breaking a bone at least once in the country they call "Thigh-land" - referencing some sort of men-in-speedo extravaganza they have planned.
I'm not even sure if I want to know all that goes on during said Manistry. :)
This upcoming month all the lovely ladies of W-Squad and I will be heading to various cities in Thailand to partner with different ministries who focus on bringing the Kingdom to sex trafficking bars and massage parlors in Thailand.
It is referred to as one of, if not the hardest month of the Race - Thailand. I have heard many stories, and a lot of them have encouraged me. I have heard so many mighty things going on in Thailand on account of the Lord's servants who desire to change the lives of encaged women, and lead them to Christ. I am very, VERY excited for the month!
WOmanistry comes with a few changes, and I am very honored and excited to serve as a leader of my team.
One of my current team mates, and 3 other ladies will make up our team, Team POWERHOUSE. We are bold, empowered and Spirit ledwomen who are ready for the 3 weeks ahead of us, and all that the Lord has planned for His Kingdom.
Please partner in prayer with me as we take on a challenging month in the INCREDIBLY beautiful country of Thailand!
The need is great, but He loves each and every woman we will encounter this month who hasn't received His freedom, grace and precious love; and that is our purpose as well.. to love those women.
is a Swazi boy's name that I have picked out of the preschool crowd as my favorite. He favors me, too, and everyday I am ecstatic to see his smiling face.
He may have more rotten teeth than not, but what a smile that boy carries every mornig when we pull up in the car! Boning is not yet 4 years old, but teacher says he is behind in school. He does not learn well, she tells me, and his family life is very difficult.
His father died last year, and Boning is the youngest of 4. The mother does not work, but tries hard to feed her children. Still, he is neglected at home and it shows some days when he is at school.
Everyday Boning wears his tiny, blue race-car crocks.
Boning is quiet and very different from the other boys. He hardly ever picks fights, and does not push & shove like the other young boys. He has big, round eyes that always have a lonely look about them. When he cries it's one of the saddest you've seen, and you can't help but sympathize with him when he struggles in school.
Teacher yells at him a lot to try and help him with basic learning skills -- yelling is a common practice in Swazi schools and seen differently than in the States -- and he gets bullied nearly every day by the other children.
Many pick on him, and most don't want to play with him. He climbs a lot, and our first week we nick-named him "Froggy" because every single day this month with the exception of one chilly day in some of these pictures... he wears all lime green. Lime green pants and a lime green T-shirt, that is my favorite little Boning.
He enjoys building cages for grasshoppers, and is at the back of the line for everything. Sometimes I catch him staring into space, and I'll whisper his name until he looks over at me with a sheepish grin. He really is a sweet, cute boy, and stays away from violence and trouble that the other kids stir up.
He is shy, speaks softly when he does speak, and he is often picked on for being a "good boy". Teacher tells me that the other kids bully Boning because he doesn't like to fight, argue or beat other people.
Blessed are those who are peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
-Matthew 5:9
Boning is sick. Every day that I have spent with him he has had a terrible cough and a very bad upper respiratory infection. Teacher says his family would never buy medicine for the kids even if they could afford it, and he has sores all over his body as well.
Every week his little belly inflates a little more, a usual sign around here of worms or a stomach parasite. I can tell that he hardly ever feels healthy, but it doesn't stop him from coming to school to be around other children and sing songs about Jesus.
It has been a number of months since I have loved a little kid like I love Boning. He waves to only me, looks for me when we arrive and bruises my hand from squeezing so hard. He isn't afraid to be held and show affection like some of the other little boys, and his challenges in school I'm afraid will not be addressed because of lack of solution in this country.
The only times I hear Boning say anything above a whisper is when we are singing songs about Jesus, and God's love. He SCREAMS the songs about Jesus' love bubbling over! God has a hold on Boning, and I pray everytime I see him that this child will grow to know and love God.
Grab the popcorn and settle back for a look at our living arrangements this month. We're living on a game reserve, and had the opportunity to go on a safari as well.
