Our team spent two days in Miami training and team building as we prepared for the ministry in Thailand. We left on the third and we traveled for two very long days, landing at our final destination which was Chiang Mai at 7:30am so we had a whole day left
We didn't want to sleep so we went first to a Buddhist Temple called Doi Suthep. It was really pretty with a lot of ornate statues and buildings, but we could feel an emptiness in that place. People were praying and worshiping, seeking peace, but it felt like dead worship. We prayer walked the temple, we prayed that God would reveal himself there and bring a spirit of dissatisfaction to the Buddhist worship. We also prayed that we would see people with love. We are not here to judge people and tell them where they are wrong, we are moved by the love of God to want to see them alive.
The next day we were able to attend a monk chat and we spoke with a Buddhist monk. Our team was able to talk with him about his life, and his faith in Buddhism. We were able to share our faith with him as well. In sharing our faith with him, we found that we had differing opinions on finding peace. Buddhists believe that you find peace and happiness through balancing yourself and your desires, whereas we believe that Christ is our peace,and that salvation is possible through Him alone. This monk seemed very curious about Christianity, and even though he did not give his life to Christ that day, we left with hope knowing God is able to save.
In the evening, we began our ministry in the Red Light District. We split into three teams and had a rotation where two groups would go out into the streets to talk with some of the girls while the third team stayed behind to pray. The teams were able to meet a few different women and had some great conversations with them. Our teams really focused on making these women feel important and valued, since they were so used to being objectified. The women seemed really touched that we would want to get to know them and show them love. Overall we planted a lot of seeds and hopefully we can continue to build relationships with these women.
On Sunday, we went to Giving Hope Church to worship with them. This is actually the fourth week of this churches existence, but the room was full. The worship and the message were fantastic, and a couple members of our team shared their testimonies with the church. We loved getting to know these other believers and worship with them. We may speak different languages, but we worship the same God. Sunday evening, we played volleyball with youth from church and we all had a lot of fun.
On Monday evening, we were also able to partner with their church to prayer walk around their community. We split up and went in five different directions praying and handing out flyers for the church. The church is located really close to a university, so the church is made up of a lot of young people, and they are trying to reach more by reaching this school.
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