Girls for sale...at McDonalds

I recently returned from 11 days in Thailand where I had the privilege to get to know some awesome people & join them in bringing light to a dark place. I wrote while I was there about our prayer walks & how they impacted me. The night after I wrote that, we got to go on outreach into the red light district. For the safety of those living & working in Bangkok, I can't tell you who I was with or even what part of the city I was in (secret spy stuff! lol). But I can tell you what I saw & what I learned.
After some awesome prayer & worship on a balcony overlooking the city, we broke into two teams and headed out into the dark, damp streets of Thailand's capitol. My group ended up sitting in a coffee shop. We didn't speak to anyone but Jesus, each other & our waitress. Why a coffee shop, you ask? You probably have some image in your mind when I say "red light district"; something like a slimy street with bright lights and women for sale. But in Bangkok we found girls for sale at a coffee shop...and at McDonald's. I don't know what your favorite coffee shop or local McDonald's is like but I'm betting there aren't girls openly for sale in them. In certain parts of Bangkok, after dark, girls are for sale everywhere. So we went to a coffee shop to pray for those girls waiting in that coffee shop for customers. We prayed for their customers too. We also went with a lady that will be returning to that area to eventually become a familiar face and hopefully a ray of hope to those girls.
I learned that night and that week in Bangkok that ending human trafficking is not always dramatic or instant. Rescue is not always police kicking down doors in a raid (which, done the right way, can be a good thing but that is a story for another day). Often rescue is a process and a journey. Sometimes love whispers quietly under the noise, "someone cares, you are not forgotten, you are worth rescuing, you are worthy of unconditional love." Just like Jesus stopped for that one woman at the well (John 4), love in Bangkok's red light district looks like stopping to pray for the women for sale in that coffee shop, or at McDonald's, or on the street corner.

...and just like that I'm back!

I am so happy to be typing on a real keyboard again! Smart Phones are great for short updates while traveling but not so much for typing long stories! I am back on American soil (hence the real keyboard) & trying to process those crazy, amazing, beautiful, hard, heart-breaking 11 days. I loved every minute of it. Well minus the minutes on the airplanes, the minute the rat ran over my foot & the minute I said goodbye, I loved every minute of it. My heart was so happy to be back in in Thailand; in some ways, it felt like coming home. So many things were familiar, like the language, the food, the smiles, the smells, the sounds, the humidity & rain. I even started to fall in love with the big-city-ness of Bangkok. The hardest part has been coming home. I cried when I said good bye to friends & realized I was also saying good bye to this place that felt like home with no idea when I'd be back again. Now I'm trying to get used to going back to work, being cold & eating things like meatloaf. These are all superficial things but they are all reminders of deeper things going on in my heart that I still don't understand. The trip seemed too short; just as I was falling in love all over again & settling in, it was time to jump on another murderous 20+ hour series of flights & it was all over. I guess I just got shocked at how soon the end showed up. But it hurt too.
  All of that to say, I will be posting more stories and pictures from the trip. I just need some more time to process it all first. So stay tuned!

a note from Bangkok

It's my third full day in Bangkok & we were trying to grab a quiet moment at one of the many malls. I say trying because as soon as I began writing, someone took up drumming practice in the mall's central plaza. Welcome to Thailand.
Anyway, we received our ministry orientation this morning & are set to begin two-three days of prayer ministry tomorrow. We prepared for an outreach to a red light district last night after church but as soon as our prayers ended the skies opened up in a rainy season monsoon. Welcome to Thailand.
We're also eating well and sleeping far less well (3 a.m. & I are getting pretty close). I'm really loving being back in Thailand even though Bangkok is a far cry from sweet little Chiang Mai. The city is much bigger, one of the world's largest, so there are more people. With more people there is more traffic, more dirt, more food & more rats. Yes rats. In Chiang Mai it was several months before I encountered one; I saw one on my first day here as he scampered over my foot. Welcome to Thailand.
On a more spiritual note, so far the thing that has hit me the most is our prayer walks. We've done two so far on the soi (street) we'll be doing some of our outreaches on this week. Saturday night we went for our first prayer walk. Its not as easy as it sounds, especially here. As you walk along the narrow side walks, trying not to trip on the uneven pavement, chocking on bus fumes & cigarette smoke, and trying not to get hit by a motorbike as you cross the narrow alleys, you are expected to pray & connect with God's heart. But I did manage to send up a few feeble requests. And I noticed that I've learned a lot about human trafficking/prostitution since the last time I found myself in a red light district.  Now  I know that those smiles, the fancy clothes & make-up, and the seemingly carefree joking are all hiding more pain than I will ever understand. And more than ever I'm reminded that the only thing I have to offer them, or anyone, is the living water God promised in the form of His son. Just like the Jewish man from Nazareth offered the Samaritan women at the well eternal, living water, I have the honor of offering it to this noisy, busy, dirty, delicious,  beautiful city. Welcome to Thailand.

about trust

Warning: it's about to get real in here. Some prose written on a rough morning this week:

There is work to do but I don't want to do it today. People need me to be helpful & joyful, they need my smile but I don't have it today.
The familiar rock-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling, the tears falling, the lost loneliness, and the "what-ifs" are all back to haunt me. He is back to steal my peace, my restful sleep, and my smile, that ugly, grasping demon of fear.
Perfect love is supposed to cast out fear. But where is perfect love in the anger, the rudeness, the loneliness, the death, the pain, the unknown? Perfect love feels far away.
Perfect love feels far away and yet He's right there to whisper again:
"Trust Me."
How do I trust you?
We're back to that question; the one I asked when the car sent the bike to the curb & me with it.
The one I asked when pride sent an engagement to the curb & my heart with it. The one I asked when they told me I didn't have a seat on the plane. The one I asked when a little girl died from a preventable disease. It's the question we ask when babies don't live to breathe air and bullets sent young men into the arms of Jesus too soon. How do I trust one I can't see when all I can see says He isn't trustworthy?
Perfect Love whispers: "faith, not sight"
Then where do I get faith if I can't see it?
Hearing the words of the one that wants my trust. He says He is trustworthy, He says He is good, He says He is Faithful. He says He loves me. He says He will be with me to the end of the age. I don't know how long that is, but it sounds long.
I've been meditating on what this means: "He has brought me to His banquet hall, and His banner over me is love." (Song of Songs 2:4) I dont' think it means a cozy, fairy tale princess perfect dinning room. But it means He is there.
And He changes everything.
He Comforts, He heals, He restores, He makes all things new, He sets free, and He loves me.
So that's how I trust Him. I stay in the banquet hall where His banner over me is love. I listen to His whisper & rest in His arms. I hope for restoration, for freedom, & for peace. He hopes with me and does things I can't even see. So I just stay put with my heart & my everything in those perfect, nail scarred hands.

...plenty of hope :: part 2

  My first post called "There is hope...plenty of hope" started out as sharing a video that encouraged me greatly. But I kept thinking about "Maria" & I put myself in her shoes as I often do when I hear stories. And from that place I realized what a beautiful picture her rescue is of my own rescue from the Kingdom of Darkness.
  You see I was, we all were, born as victims of sin. And there we would have stayed for eternity but instead our magnificent rescuer came all the way into that skanky, dark, back ally brothel of sin, selfishness & pride to say "NO, not on my watch! She's mine! He's mine! I want them all!" And He brought us out into light, into freedom & into a place of restoration.

"He sent from on high, 

He took me; 

He drew me out of many waters. 

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity but the LORD was my stay. 

He brought me forth also into a broad place; 

He rescued me because He delighted in me."

Psalm 18:16-19

There is hope...plenty of hope

In my post earlier this week I mentioned a lady named Laura Parker & the organization she helped found with her husband called Exodus Road. Yesterday she tweeted this video footage of a rescue mission by their Bravo Team in India. http://vimeo.com/72370568
The video brought tears to my eyes and made hope swell in my heart. Human trafficking is not just rapidly growing, ugly statistics. Human trafficking is ending. People are standing up to say "NO, Not on my watch! I won't turn a blind eye to this evil, I will fight it!" And those people aren't just white people from first world countries. Nationals are standing up to fight for freedom in India, in Cambodia, and in Thailand (to name a few). And victims are not only being rescued & restored for more to come in and take their place. Traffickers are being arrested & prosecuted. A message is being sent that it is unacceptable to treat God's beautiful creation this way. There is hope...plenty of hope.
But don't just watch the video & cheer! Ask God how you can be a part of more rescues like this one! If you need ideas, check out my post from Sunday.
Love & Blessings!

End It

I started learning about human trafficking in 2008 as I was preparing for my internship in Thailand. Since then, my eyes have been opened more & more to the size of this issue & the urgency of it. Some days I just want to jump on a plane and go bust into a brothel Laim Neeson/"Taken" style or SOMETHING! (No really, I actually thought about that one day during my run).
Then the Holy Spirit & common sense show up to remind me that doing something like THAT probably wouldn't be productive for anyone but there are things I can do right now. So for anyone else out there that is learning about this issue & getting mad about it like me, here are some ideas:

1) Pray: Why do we leave this as a last resort? Our prayers as children of the God of the Universe are powerful! "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." -Jesus in John 14:14
Pray for trafficking to end. Pray for courageous & just authorities around the world to have their eyes opened to what is happening in the back allies. Pray for hope, healing & rescue for the millions of men, women & children enslaved.

2) Give: Unlike Laim Neeson's character in Taken, those out on the field doing these rescues don't have unlimited financial resources. Maybe ask God if you can find a couple extra dollars to give to an organization fighting trafficking on the ground like the Hard Places Community or The Exodus Road.

3) Learn: Since I'm dreaming of someday being on the field in person doing something about this (don't worry mom, I have no plans to join a swat team or anything), I am doing a lot of reading.  Once you start digging, you find there are a lot of organizations working to end this atrocity. That is encouraging and it means we don't have to reinvent the proverbial wheel. We get to learn from people that have gone before us about what works and doesn't work.  The International Justice Mission is a great starting place to learn more about trafficking & some very practical work being done to end it. Another great resource is the Nefarious Documentary just know it is a very real picture of what is happening so it is painful to watch at times if you are like me. Individuals like Laura Parker are also great resources; she began The Exodus Road with her husband & blogs about their rescue missions. Following any of these organizations & resources on Twitter is a great way to find more of them. I love using technology to change the world!

4) Tell all your friends: I think a lot of people know that this is going on, but not a lot of people know there are literally millions of slaves in our world or that there is anything they can do about it.  If you follow me on twitter (@heathergrace717) I may have already blown up your twitter feed with my re-tweets about abolition, justice & such. I want everyone to know that this is happening and that anyone can help end it!