Summer in Thailand: BE

Gosh this is an overused phrase: Just be.

However, that's really all I can do. Not even do...Be. Is there anything in the English language that can describe the inherent goodness of being. As I sit...I am just sitting. not doing really anything. sipping on tea. listening to conversations around me. hearing distant music downstairs. praying for a girl downstairs who is hurting. feeling my ever growing stomach. just simple. lovely, really. In the art of being I am learning the ebb and flow of my spirit, my heart. I get really uncomfortable in the heat, sitting on the floor, but when I listen to music my heart is put to rest and I am able to feel more. This idea of feeling and being all began last night on my first outreach experience.

Around 8, June, Juup, Cori and I hopped in a taxi outside our house. (by the way, we live in the "hood" and it makes life all the more thrilling. I noticed how life outside of our neighborhood of On Nut really is much different. Traveling through the city by taxi, I began to see the affluence of Bangkok that I really never get to see hanging around my area of town. Oh! and p.s. Bangkok is about 2+ hours across by car...yes, it is that big!) We rode for about an hour to this abandoned side street where prostitutes usually line the and cars and motorbikes drive pass, slow down, and bargain for prices. However, tonight around 9:15 there was only four girls out. We talked to one of them, who was absolutely gorgeous, and she gave us her cell phone number and was interested in what the Well does. We will most definitely keep in contact. Next, we went to Soi Cowboy, which is one of four popular sex areas in Thailand--also the one with the most history with the Well. Soi Cowboy is basically a very small Vegas. It is only one alley way but it is so bright with neon lights and loud music. There are bars on either side and some are go-go bars where girls dance inside or some are open-air with sports playing on televisions. There is poor beggars and tourists galore. There are food carts and girls holding signs and yelling at passerby to visit their bar instead of the others. Cori and Jup made stops with their friends and attempted to catch up while their bosses looked on. Eventually I got to do some talking with a firecracker of a girl. She was so pretty--soooo pretty. She had immaculate English because her ex-boyfriend was from Switzerland. She was dressed in a Dallas Cowboys cheerleading outfit--which was fitting seeing as I am from Dallas. We made small talk and then I asked her about her life. She said she started working in the industry when she was 12 in her home province. Her parents both died when she was young and she has been working ever since. From just spending 10 minutes with her--I could tell she was vivacious and was good at what she did, making pauses in our conversation to yell across the street at passing men. I am definitely going to pursue her the next time we do outreach in Soi Cowboy. Please pray that she will be open to telling me more of her story and we have more of an opportunity to talk without her managers hovering. Overall, I loved outreach and I could feel the spirit of the Lord protect my heart and welcoming me into the hearts of the women.

Switching gears and days, the girls of the house went shopping at Chat-tu-chak..I have no idea about the spelling. It is a weekend market that is HUGE. I don't know how many acres but this thing was massive and very maze like. There are thousands of vendors selling everything from cloth to trinkets to food to furniture to flowers to pets. We spent a very hot day there and I got to buy some things and the other girls bought souvenirs or "nesting" items for the house to spruce it up a bit.

This week I also got to hang out with a girl named Fak-fang. She is 20 and is taking a year off from university in Bangkok. Her mother works at the Well and she is going to start helping out around the Well, too. She knows more English than I know Thai, but still our adventure together was quite disconnected and humorous. We went to a mall sort of thing and ate dinner. It was so fun! We helped each other learn our prospective languages. I am hoping to continue a friendship with her. She is awesome!

The Asbury girls, Kindra and Kirsten come TONIGHT...in about 3 hours actually! I am super stoked to have American roommates. Please pray for us as a unit to not rely on each other entirely and really reach out to everyone in the house and at the Well, but also for us to have some solidarity of being totally lost in a foreign culture!

Prayer requests for me in this coming week:
1. Patience with Thai culture
2. A sense of purpose exterior to what I accomplish this summer
3. Some exploratory moments around Bangkok
4. Some much needed intimacy with my Heavenly Father. I have been quite distracted by all the newness: the heat, the food, the lack of communication, settling in, that I have not concentrated on the true reason I have come to such a distant land--to bring glory and honor to the Messiah God

Here are some pics of the week: