Carrie and I walked down our street a bit to grab some breakfast and then meet up with the around 10am. Spent some time in worship and prepping and then was planning on meeting up with Jess at a local artsy café, however, her bike broke down on her and we had a change of plans for the morning. It felt like though the extra time was much needed for the team to spend some down time together before we went out into the slums to minister for the rest of the evening. Spent some time updating and then around 2:30pm hopped on a Song Tao and drove to Project LIFE Pataya Slum Ministry to work a long side. Met up with Angela, who is the director of the ministry and really close friend of Jess’. She shared a lot about Pattaya and the hidden slums. I truly loved working with her!
We then piled back into the Song Tao as Jason and his teenage daughter Anna who grew up in Thailand and speaks fluently came with to translate and minister. We will be working with them one of these days this week to serve a long side Jason and his wife, Sarah’s vision for reaching child prostitutes. Jason and Anna were also amazing to work a long side.
So as we arrived, you can see in some of the pictures it was basically a dirt road with shacks and half finished houses made out of wood pieces and some tin roofs. Nothing was sealed or fully closed, and children ran around in the dirt without shoes as motorcycles and food trucks would constantly being driving through. We set up in an open dirt lot, laying some tarps down as the kids began to flock to. They were so precious and friendly, but very independent.
Before the “program” started, we spent the first hour just splitting up. One third of the team stayed to help finish setting up and hand with the kids coming, the other third went with Jason to one side of the slums, and me, Carrie, Bethany, Katherine O’Brian, Angela and another volunteer that works with them headed towards another section.
We basically were just doing a walk through praying for divine appointments to begin loving on people. We didn’t have to even walk a few steps, when Angela began talking to a food shop owner out of her home. We asked if she had any pain, and she said her leg was sore and been bothering her. She invited us in. All her walls were covered with pictures and posters of the Royal King and she had sacrifices and decorations all over. She told Angela she was Buddhist and she asked if we could pray for her. She was so hospitable. She kept telling the girls to sit on her bed, and offered us all her nicest seats, while she pulls herself out a stool to sit on in the middle. We giggled and felt honored. We began to pray for healing and ask Angela to translate for us. We asked her how her leg felt after a few moments, and she said the muscle was so hard before, but now it is tender and way better with no pain. We asked her what percentage, and not a “Thai answer”, in that many want to just say they are healed, but when Angela asked her she kept shaking her head that she was fully healed. We then told her that Jesus healed her, not us, and that Jesus sees her and hears her. She admitted that her gods never healed her, and that it was Jesus. We felt led to move on and just bless her and her business. I took a picture with her when she came and sat with me to watch the kids play.
We kept walking a bit and after a few houses walked into a family fued. To our left was a crippled young man sitting in a chair, and across the way under a shack overhang a few older people sitting on the floor. This woman arose from the right side and approached Angela pretty angry and started talking very loud in Thai. Angela started to explain to us that her sons both lived in the house on the left. That she and others in their ministry had been praying for them for a while and seeing progress in their healings. Both guys probably in their twenties were paralyzed from their left sides down. The older woman began to just cry and point. Angela began to share that she was mad, and wanted her boys to be healed, because she didn’t want to take care of them anymore and that they need girls to take care of them. In Thai culture it is the woman’s responsibility to be the “bread winner”. So for a mother to still be taking care of her full grown men, it is a reasonable frustration in the culture.
We looked at Angela and asked if we could pray for him. The mama then came over and stood by her son crying. Angela explained that they knew Jesus and were believers, but this has been a burden in their family and torn them. The mama drinks because it gets to heavy to handle, and she had drunken the whole day because she knew Angela was bringing us to come. At first looking into her eyes they were yellow, bloodshot and glazed over. We got down in the mud and sat with her son and began to pray healing over him. The mama kept saying she wanted to go to Heaven, but we had Angela translate that God’s will is Heaven on Earth. I kept reaching my hand up to say Heaven on Earth. She would start to cry and raise her hands and I began to see joy across her faith. Her countenance was changing and there was a shift in her, even her eyes had changed. We continued to pray for her son, and ask her to pray too. We had him stand up and begin to walk. The mama began to get excited seeing him put pressure on his left leg. It was still completely turned out and he used his cane to brace himself, but he was able to make many steps and get stronger and he kept saying the pay was gone. We had him sit down and again and continue to pray for strength is his left leg. It was straightening out more and getting stronger. We continue to rejoice and get excited about his progress.
Another woman from the same shack across came over and poked her head in and crouched on the ground next to us and began to cry. She just wanted love. All while we were praying she kept nuzzling her head on us and wrapping her arms around. God was so present and we could just feel His desire to bring restoration to this family and those impacted by it. The mama then invited us in to see her other son. He laid on a bed, and propped himself up to allow us to pray for him. We sang and worshipped in the house and prayed for new nerves and feeling in his left side. He told Angela he felt fire in his left shoulder, and we continued to pray. As we left, the mama wanted to come with us cause we needed to be back with the kids. She kept telling Angela how she wished she had daughters and as all 6 of us woman walked and had our arms around her, I had Angela translate to her “You are a spiritual mama and have many daughters. We are your daughters!” She just smiled and laughed.
When we got back the lot was filled with probably 30 kids. They were in the midst of playing games and I was enjoying snapping some pics and taking some videos of these fun rascals. They were all so precious and just enjoyed being all over us as many were so accustomed to living in Mozambique with the African children. Things went so smoothly. Kim shared about hearing God’s voice and had them draw pictures of what God was showing them. Although many of these kids are used to the program, it’s uncertain how much they have been given. Thia people are so visual and open spiritually it was amazing seeing what these kids saw and were so willing to draw and grasp the concept God was speaking to them through images.
After spending a few hours with them and loving every minute we packed up and left and returned back to our apartments. Everyone split for dinner then returned back to Yonnie and Naomi’s room to pray and speak over Jess. Everyone piled in and it was fun praying for her, because she carries so much in the Spirit here. Many of you may have met her or been aware of her or what she does here, but even in knowing her for the past few years and interceding for her and Pattaya, I really feel it was tonight I really began to see who she is and what authority she has in this place. It really struck me and as a team we just felt this honor towards her and the weapons the Lord has given her to fight the warfare here. It’s pretty gnarly and she is quite the warrior. I’d really encourage people to pray for her in this time. We as Iris (and even me personally) in this time are really seeking the Lord for how Iris Ministries fits and looks specifically in Thailand and even what partnering with her looks like. She has crazy favor with all ministries here and great relationships already with existing key people. I’m excited to see how it plays out and especially the next few weeks being able to spend some good quality time with just her.
Ok… I think that’s a lot and all I can write. Last thing I seriously would appreciate prayer for personally is the blogs. I know many of you have encouraged me a lot in saying it’s nice to read, but just pray for grace to write. It’s getting harder, and I love doing it, but find condensing and getting to the point is more and more difficult as we go deeper and deeper here and don’t have a lot of time to process.
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