Merry Christmas from my team 🎄
I look left, I see darkness. I look right, I see tender hearts. I look up and down and see confusion. For the past 2 weeks I have been on Phuket, Thailand. Our contact Joe and his wife Sarah were amazing hosts. He is the pastor at the church we stayed at and by the end of the two weeks they felt like family. They have 3 children who we grew to bond with and love. It was definitely hard to say goodbye to them. But they will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers.
During the past 2 weeks I have cried, laughed, felt bitterness, and even felt heart broken. Patong, which is the city in Phuket where I was staying, is a tourist town. So there are lots of foreigners staying here. One thing you could see when you got here is it’s a night town. They party all night and sleep all day.
Patong is a very dark city. There is so much darkness that many people don’t see what really goes on. The ministry we did was human sex trafficking as well as sharing the word to the Thai people. There are so many women we met who hated their job and hated what they went doing, but needed the money so couldn’t leave. I walked down Bongla road and was just in shock. I had never seen anything like what I was looking at that night. I felt like I was in a movie and couldn’t get out.
I want to be honest in what I see and what I am doing here in Thailand. If you don’t like it I’m sorry but this is real and this is happening right now all over the world, not just in Thailand. People need to know what goes on outside their lives. In America our focus is ourself and our family. But for missionaries it’s always others. I saw things I can’t take back. Mothers showing off their 3-4 years old children trying to sell them. Young women as young as 12 years old pole dancing. Little boys whose parents were talking pictures of him touching women. This is going on right now and it isn’t okay what goes on here. This town needs help and the only one who can help them is God. This town, Patong, also needs prayers. Pray big and pray loud.
I’ve had a recent change in my life. God has started speaking to me in a way I never knew was possible and didn’t believe in. He started speaking to me through the Bible. I sat down one morning during my quiet time and started praying for different things in my life and opened my Bible and every single time the passage I read was exactly what I needed to hear. I strongly see a change in myself. It’s just crazy God sent me to Thailand to see that. I really can’t explain how I feel but I just have so much joy and love for God. I did before but this is different. Now I actually want to pray and read the Bible. I don’t feel stupid anymore and feel I can be myself. I honestly haven’t felt this way in a very long time.
Favorite moment on the trip so far:
we did the everything skit on bongla road which was super cool and a really neat experience.
Prayer requests:
•Please continue to pray for my team. We are minus one now and it feels super weird. Ali went home to Canada and an update on her…she could move her feet but her legs and back still really hurt her when we left.
•Pray for my team that we reach out and grow in ways we didn’t know were possible.
•Pray big prayers
•pray for our families at home. It was hard during the holidays but we were missing our families together so it helped. Plus we had one another and we have grown so much and bonded in ways I didn’t know was possible to bond with someone. This team will aways be my family no matter where we all end up!
•pray for Joe and his wife Sarah and family! Pray for their church; New Beginnings Calvary Chapel
•town of Patong, (Phuket)Thailand 🇹🇭
I love you all so much! Thank you all so much for the prayers you have no idea how much they mean to me.
God Bless,
Rachel 💗
Chasing Faith and Health 