SIEM REAP MINISTRY

Hey!! Its Lauren AGAIN! (: Just wanted to give all you lovely people an update on our ministry this past week!!! We didn't have a long stay in Siem Reap but we wanted to make the most of our time there. The first day of ministry we split up into two groups. My group consisted of Kels, Steph, Juliane and I!! We all prayed and felt like God was really calling us to this specific street right by the place we were staying. As we were walking down the street we could not exactly grasp what we were being called to until we reached this school quite a ways down. We couldn't decide if we should go in or not because there was heaps of kids playing. We went with our hearts decision and went in. We had the opportunity to talk with the teachers there and they seemed very excited about our eagerness to help them in any sort of way they needed. They asked us to come back the next morning at 8 a.m. Of course we agreed and we left extremely excited and anxious for the ministry awaiting us the next morning. As we were walking back we didn't feel like our day of ministry should be over quite yet but we were indecisive to where we felt God calling us to next. So.... we went back and prayed again. We all ended up having a heart towards Douk, this guy we met earlier that week who doesn't have arms because a land mine blew them off. So we headed back out towards town to find him. As we were searching for Douk we found this guy that I had the opportunity to pray for the day before. He isn't able to walk so he crawls around Siem Reap, (where heaps of tourists explore) trying to sell different items to get by. It was really cool to be able to see him again. Kels, Steph and I were blessed to be able to pray for him again and it was rad because we recognized after the fact that there were a lot of tourists around and to see the impact that we could have made just by sitting on the cement to pray for this one man could have changed heaps of different peoples perspective on these people who try to sell them books or paintings.

The other team -> Andrew, Colleen, Mandy and Bianca went out to a neighborhood near where we staying. They ended up getting invited into two people's homes that were surrounded by severe flooding.  They also were able to spend a lot of time with a Mom with her two children. They had the opportunity to just get to know these families, pray with them, and to share Christ's love with them.

The second day my team went back to the school and we got to draw with the kids and we also were able to teach them a few english words through the drawings. We also read books to them and just loved on them. We had brought cookies so we went to a few different classrooms and handed them out. It was so funny because when we were leaving the kids were all standing outside the doorways waving and smiling at us goodbye. It was precious.  The other team went to White Dove which is a ministry that provides housing and jobs for women who used to be involved in the sex trade.  They provide a hope and a future for women who did not believe that they had one.  Many of the women there have completed DTS training through YWAM as well!  Bianca shared her testimony and then she, Mandy and Colleen went off with the women to learn how to make bags and to spend time with them.  Andrew went with their men's ministry to make jewelry and key chains out of coconuts!

The third day of ministry we went to White Dove's.  We did devotions with them in the morning and they sang a few worship songs. After that we went upstairs with them and Bianca and Juliane gave guitar and piano lessons. Mandy and Steph made cards with them and Kels, Colleen and I made purses with them. After lunch Colleen, Steph and I had the opportunity to go to the salon that they have. Steph and I thought we were going to be teaching them how to cut hair, but we were all in for a treat when we arrived and they asked us to pick out a color for them to paint our nails. They asked us if they could style our hair as well and as this girl was styling Colleens hair she asked to trim her bangs. Colleen was pretty much crapping her pants while Steph and I were trying our hardest to not burst out in laughter. It ended up looking very cute though! They did our make-up as well and the girl took a straight razor to my face to clean up my eyebrows, lets just say I was pretty nervous about that situation. They couldn't speak english so we could hardly communicate with them so we all just laughed a lot (:

Our last day of ministry we went back to White Dove's and did devotions again in the morning and we had the same routine of making purses, cards and teaching guitar and piano lessons. BUT THEN.... in the afternoon we taught them a line dance. We weren't quite sure how it was going to go over but it ended up being a big hit! They asked us about 8 to 10 times if we could do it ONE last time hahaha it was precious. There are so many kids who just run around the house all the time so we were blessed to be able to hangout with them as well. It was hard to say goodbye but we know they're in a good place.

Even going out to dinner and walking around town is ministry in Siem Reap for the fact that we will stop at any point in time to pray for someone. It is such a blessing to be living a life of ministry and for the growth of God's kingdom and to be constantly put in situations to bring the kingdom here on earth.

First few days of Chaos, Grace & Love

Hey everyone, its Steph writing....

After quite an adventurous day, we made it to Cambodia!  I'll try to make this as brief as possible... We started our day at 5:17am by Andrew pounding on the door to wake us up to inform us we were leaving in 12 min (we thought we weren't leaving till at least 5:45). Fortunately, we were packed for the most part and had to jump out of bed to get the last bit of our belongings together.  We ran with our huge packs on our backs while it was still dark, in the rain, down to the main road to get 2 taxis to take us to the bus station for our 7:15 bus ride.  We struggled trying to fit ourselves in and ended up having bags piled all over us to where we couldn't see over the packs and guitar.  We rode all the way to the main bus station and once we got out, we quickly realized that the taxi driver brought us across Bangkok to the wrong station. So, we quickly piled back in the taxis to get dropped off at the subway, where we bought tickets so we could get to the sky trek to get us back across Bangkok to the airport where our bus was waiting. 

So by 7:15am we had been on 2 taxi rides, 1 subway and a sky trek.  At this point we were 5 minutes late and were now sprinting through the airport, up and down escalators, dropping multiple belongings to get to our bus.  Being the only white people in this airport, you can only imagine what kind of attention we gathered.  And by God's grace we got to our station to find out that the bus had been delayed for another 20min.  So we were hysterically laughing as we gathered ourselves from the rush of what had just happened in the past 2 hours. After our 3 hour bus ride to the Cambodian border, we learned we actually had to get off the bus to start the next leg of the journey to Siem Reap.  We already knew not to speak to the Cambodians because they would try to rip us off but as we got off the bus we had to quickly put that into practice.  We all followed Andrew and a few Cambodian guys to an area on the side of the road to fill out the paperwork for visas.  

After we had finished, Andrew left with one of the guys to make copies of our passports.  We ladies waited, sweated, prayed and waited some more and couldn't be happier to see Andrew finally come back with a long, possibly corrupt but successful trip. We finally walked across the boarder side by side with some 'orange' monks.  As we're trying to escape the Cambodian guys, that were following us to try to convince us to take the "free bus" (that doesn't end up being so free) our hearts broke for  the trafficked kids that were hanging on us begging. While passing through the boarder, we were all startled with what we thought was a gun shot but ended up just being a car blowing up right behind us.  At this point we just wanted to find a taxi to start the 3 hour drive to our final destination: the Ywam base in Siem Reap.  We wandered the streets trying to figure out what to do since no taxis were in sight and also taking in the cultural difference we were experiencing even right at the boarder line.  We realized we now had to get our Visas stamp, so we shuffled in this small, hot room with the rest of the tourists. What we thought could be a breeze from here on out, we again found ourselves arguing with some officials with where food would be and how to get to our destination. This is when we got to experience the Cambodian "officials".  Somehow we now were on the "free"bus (that Andrew made sure ended up being free) that took us to this random, large tourist building where we would take our next 3 hour bus ride.  We waited for an hour and found our peace after praying together as a group. We then were on the next bus with other tourists and a bunch of loud college students.  This was the LOUDEST & hottest bus ride and Colleen and I got the pleasure of sitting in front of them.  We literally had our ipods turned up all the way and still could here the conversations of how Americans always burp and fart everywhere. However, we enjoyed the scenery of Cambodia.  

The cultural difference is surprising and so noticeable from Thailand... Cambodia has much more poverty and even more 3rd world conditions.  The flooding was already really bad along the way (and now being here for a few days, its even worse)!  We finally made it to this small shack that somehow turned into our bus station but fortunately there was a nice hotel down the road, where we were blessed to sit down inside to escape all the tuk-tuk drivers (taxi drivers) that constantly don't get the hint that we DO NOT need them! After the kind of day we had, we thought it was most appropriate to cheers with our pinky's out to water in wine glasses that this hotel served us while we waited for our next and final ride to the base.  As we rode in these carts where motorcycles pulled us, we found that 4 people and all our packs was a little too much weight when we were all of a sudden tipped over and sinking in the mud and dirt. So we took the initiative to walk the rest of the way while they took our belonging to the base. And 15 hours later we were so happy to find ourselves at an AMAZING Mexican restaurant (Mexican food doesn't exist in Australia & Thailand..  so we have been CRAVING it) laughing and debriefing with the kind of day we just had.  Nothing else explains how we made it to Cambodia but simply by the grace of God.

So the last few days in Cambodia have been incredible and I think its safe to say that for every single one of us the Khmer (Cambodian) people have captured our hearts. From the moment we got picked up by our first tuk tuk drivers, we fell in love with the incredibly beautiful smiles and personalities.  We have had the last several days off for our mid-way debrief and re-treat.  Our leaders surprised us with really nice accommodations at a villa in the middle of Siem Reap's cute little town. We are truly blessed and God is so good to us.  After the first day here, we get the pleasure of experiencing the flooding.  Even though the whole town has now flooded, it hasn't stopped us from trekking through the knee high water (with snakes and fish). 

This culture is amazing and even though we haven't started the ministry in Siem Reap, we have had awesome encounters and experiences with bringing Gods kingdom, by praying with these beautiful people on the streets & building relationships. Its been gnarly experiencing the trafficked kids that hang all over you begging for formula to fill the babies bottles who they carry all day long to reel you in.  After multiple times following them to the store to buy them the formula we learned that the milk never really goes to the baby but to the men who traffic them.  It was the hardest thing and breaks our hearts but there is nothing we can do at this time but pray for them.  Also there has been 2 men that have captured our hearts.. they walk around the town offering books for people to buy that refer to the 1975 tragedy of the Khmer Rouge attack.  One of the men, Douk lost both his arms in the bombing and sells book to try to support his family of 4 kids.  This man is so precious and I cant put it in words with how much joy he has.  He is constantly smiling, always positive and has the sweetest heart; we were blessed to be able to pray for him.  

Yesterday we had our new friends (the most adorable 2 tuk-tuk drivers) take us to Ankor Wat which was an experience itself.  It was amazing to see these temples and learn of the history and how big of a part it has in Cambodia.  Afterwards we took our tuk-tuk drivers to dinner with us and in return they took us to a Cambodian Carnival.  This carnival was tiny, old fashioned but an exciting event for the Khmer people.  It was awesome to spend a day on the town with our new Cambodian friends and have them take us to all the happening spots! :) Tomorrow we start ministry with White Dove, who works with women that come out of the sex trafficking and prostitution. Although the ministry is in a whole other country, its awesome to now work with a ministry that helps girls after they are out of the scenes, where as in Phuket we built relationships with the girls to get them out of the scene.


Prayer Requests:
-God to move in RADICAL ways.
-for the Supernatural 
-health and of course safety
-open hearts for the Holy Spirit to direct us
-receiving hearts

Elderly slum ministry in Bangkok

Celebrating Colleen's 24th birthday!

Hey everyone,

Dream Project

These past two weeks we have been back in Bangkok staying at the YWAM Thailand base.  Bangkok has a totally different feel from Phuket since it is a huge city but it is a nice, refreshing change of pace.  We are working with a YWAM ministry called the Ruth Center which reaches out to the elderly population in Bangkok, especially in slums.  Every month, the Ruth Center staff visits 10 slums and builds relationships with over 200 elderly people.  It is amazing what God is doing through their small staff of just 4 people.  They also employ some of the elderly women through their Dream Project to sew beautiful designs onto bags, t-shirts, and notebooks which the Ruth Center then sells to the public.  Our team cleared them out of a lot of their merchandise...it is seriously so awesome.

On our first day working with the Ruth Center last week, we went into a slum and prayed with about 8 elderly men and women there.  Only one of the women that we prayed with was a Christian, however all of the others were very open to our prayers and words of encouragement.  All of the elderly welcomed us into their homes and Noi, the lady who runs the Ruth Center, translated our prayers for us.  It was funny being the only white people in this little slum and at any given time we had a few kids hanging on at least someone on our team.

Dream Project designs

We also visited the house of this slums' witch doctor.  She was not there at the time, but we did get to pray over her 7 year old granddaughter who has a severely debilitating disease.  Her head is filled with fluid to the point where it has expanded so much that she can not move from a small cot covered by a mosquito net.  Please pray for her.  On Thursday of last week, a few of us were able to give a short devotional at the Ruth Center to a handful of elderly women who are Christians.  Andrew led worship and then they sang a few of their own worship songs in Thai as well.  All of these women have come to know the Lord through the Ruth Center's ministry as the staff has continually been obedient to where God has called them.  It was amazing to hear these women singing to God and praising Him for all that He has done in their lives.  Later that afternoon we helped one of the staff prepare the garments and fabrics for the elderly women to assemble.  We all put our craftiness to good use and bonded as we cut out tons of little elephants lovely thai fabrics.  On Friday, we visited another slum which had quite a few Christians. We talked and prayed with them and visited some other homes as well.  We encountered some people in very desperate situations financially and physically.

Lauren cutting hair in the slum

The ladies who came to our devo!

On Monday we cleaned the Ruth Center with the help of some very dedicated kids :-)

On Tuesday, we hosted a sports day with the Ruth Center. It was seriously so much fun.  We headed over to a really nice local park with 21 kids from the slums.  We played, volleyball, soccer, kickball, fead fish, searched for wild turtles and lizards, played with hair and ate lunch together.  We spent hours at the park and even by the end, the kids were not even close to being ready to go back to their houses.  It was a great time!

Lunchtime

Epic game of kickball

On our last day ministering with the Ruth Center.  We returned to the home of the witch doctor from last week.  We prayed over the young girl with the fluid in her head.  Noi told us that a doctor from Singapore had offered to perform surgery on her for free, but the family refused because she would have only a 50/50 chance of survival.  We sat and prayed over her and her mother for a while.  Her mother is extremely tired from attending to her daughter day in and day out and she mentioned that in 7 years, she has never had a day to herself to rest.  We also asked the grandmother, who is the slums' witch doctor, if we could pray over her.  She did not want to come too close to us because she was afraid of what her spirit might do or how it may react.  Noi explained that this is the spirit that she has and carries as the local witch doctor.  It was amazing to see how much Christ's light in us affected her and how she even had a hard time being around us because of the presence that we carried.  Later in the day, we continued to help the Ruth Center with the Dream Project and we picked up a couple more items of merchandise to bring home.  Steph discovered a wound on the inside of her pinky toe that we are quite worried about since we are in a third world country trekking through slums.  Please pray that she will not have to go to the hospital due to an infection.

stoked

Notebooks that we assembled

Vegetarian Festival, Phuket Thailand

Alright ya'll...  this is crazy! Ok so I googled the Vegetarian Festival and this is what I got:


The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite. During this time, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing and merit-making. Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples and aesthetic displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as "Ma Song".


So when we were at the SHE house they had warned us about the vegetarian festival and how spiritually heavy it was around that time in Phuket. I am not sure if we really understood how dark it actually could get. I have never been this aware of the crazy things that can happen to people who come to a dark place, trying to spreading the light. It is dark enough being in the red light district offering a way out... but during the vegetarian festival... we were in for a treat!
During the vegetarian festival there are tons of people who are dressed in all white and they walk from temple to temple and end up in Phuket Town. At the temple they are inviting these spirits to come into their bodies and pretty much take over.. what I'm trying to say is, they were inviting spirits to possess them. And that they did.

We had the privilege of actually witnessing this event.. I was not expecting that at all. Me (Colleen), Steph, Lauren, Julianne, and Tiffany (a SHE volunteer), were hanging out at the house and Mark (the owner of SHE) came upstairs and said "Lets go to a shin dig down the street." So we said ok, we thought that there was a band playing at our restaurant down the street. We piled into the car and Mark drove... we passed the restaurant, and he said "There's a bunch of people all in white down at the temple." We were all a little thrown off, but were like ok.. we'll just watch from the car. Nope. We got there, got out, walked across the street and walked straight into the gate of the temple. That was close enough. Nope. One of the guys in  all white came up to us and said "You come inside, take picture." Mark went.. so we followed.

When we got closer to the temple there was this guy who was jumping around like crazy and ran out of the temple and started puking something up. There were others that were just jumping around and shaking, their eyes were rolling into the back of their heads.. you know.. that kind of stuff :) . The guys who were being possessed had tattoo's all over their bodies representing the spirit they were inviting into their bodies, so you knew which ones were the chosen ones. We all stayed close together, it was really spiritually heavy there. It got hard to breathe, a few of us were shaking really bad, some were scared, some felt scared in their heads but calm in their hearts.. feelings that are just unnatural.

There was one of the guys that was jumping around in the beginning that started to get more intense so the brought him a chair. He sat down a few feet from us, and a few seconds after he sat down the chair began to jump. Not even kidding... the chair seriously was jumping! We got video to prove it. There were a few others who's eyes were rolling back in their heads and some people who had scars on their cheeks from previous years. Sometimes when people are possessed they take HUGE swords, like 2 1/2 inches wide and 2 feet long, and stick them through their cheeks. Supposedly when they take the swords out there were no marks, but we saw people the next day with bandages on their cheeks, so Im just guessing it probably didn't work out the way they planned. There was a story that Mark told me that one year there was a guy who didn't believe everything that was going on, but he was watching from the sidelines and one of the possessed guys could sense that he didn't believe so he stopped what he was doing, came towards the man who didn't believe and did something, and the man began to flop around on the street and foam at the mouth. That story was about someone he knew i believe, but it was also to let us know that it is not something to take lightly.

Having heard that story, and being in the middle of the Chinese temple during the demon possessions, and not being harmed... actually we were being respected by these people. I had one guy who was being possessed tap me on the shoulder so I would move out of his way, then he ran through and began to shake and run around. It was awesome so see the authority we had because we had God on our side. We had the protection of God, and authority of any evil spirit that was surrounding us during this crazy few minutes!

After all the possessions they lit fireworks and picked up the "idols" and walked down the street towards Phuket Town. It was interesting to see them all leave, and the traffic that followed. There were scared little kids, people bouncing around in the bed of their trucks, young boys carrying the idols with hundreds of fireworks popping in their faces because the fireworks are supposed to ward off any evil spirits.... doesn't really make sense, I know.

I would not recommend that experience to everyone, but Im glad I got to experience it because I got to feel the amazing protection of God even in that situation. Also, I would have never believed that any of that could be real if I didn't experience it myself. All of that to say, God is good, and he is with us in this journey for sure! If we ever doubt it, all we have to do is look back at our "shin dig."

SHE Ministry in Phuket, Thailand

Sawadee Kha! (Hello in Thai)

It's Bianca here sending a little update on what we have been up to for the past two weeks here in Phuket, Thailand.  We have been working with a ministry called SHE (Self Help and Empowerment).  SHE is a Christian charity committed to helping women and children who are at risk in Thailand, especially those who are trapped in the sex trade.  SHE provides employment, counseling, and vocational training for women who want to help themselves out of this industry.  For more info check out their website.

Some of the open bars that we visit

Patang is the area of Phuket that is a popular for sex tourism.  The SHE house is located just outside of Patang in Kathu.  Every afternoon our team drives over the mountain into Patang to prayer walk through the streets.  Then we return at night to go into the bars to build relationships with the women there (and sometimes the men as well).  Patang has open bars and closed bars but we only go into the open bars.  In open bars, the women choose to work there, but as one of the employees here at SHE says, they are slaves to their own chains because they do not know that there are other employment options for them.  When we go into the bars, we play games like Connect 4 and JENGA with the hostesses and talk with them about their lives.  It has been awesome to see them night after night and for them to open up more and more to us.  In these last few days that we are here, we are hoping to grab coffee with a few of the girls that we have gotten to know.

We have all loved partnering with SHE and praying for these women.  The spiritual climate is very dark here and at times quite heavy, but we know that God is walking with us through those streets and into those bars.  We are just coming alongside what He is already doing in Patang.  On Monday evening we will be leaving Phuket and heading up to Bangkok for two weeks where we will be working with elderly and maybe in some slums as well.

Our friends Linh and Aody at Snake Bar

Laying a sidewalk at the new SHE center

Juliane, me and Madison at the new center

Making mosaics to lay in the sidewalk at the new center

My completed mosaic

Kids that we play with in a nearby neighborhood

Lauren, me and Juliane baking cookies for SHE to sell

Some of the kids running up to us :)

Hey friends and family!!! This is Lauren writing! 

We made it to Thailand! Our first day in Bangkok was very interesting. We started of walking down the street for breakfast at this little hut. Since I am allergic to Gluten i just ordered bananas and peanut butter. The other girls ordered peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Since there is a language barrier we had a miscommunication and we waited an hour for us all to get banana's and peanut butter. haha then we had orientation on our do's and don't. 

 Now we are safely in Phuket! The ride here was quite the adventure I may say. I got sick half way threw our 12 hour drive. So I made a trip to the bathroom where it was not very pleasant and made me nauseous even more. After I got the sickness bug out of me I was able to sleep the rest of the way. Arriving into Phuket was exciting for all of us for the fact we could FINALLY stretch out our legs and have some fresh air. The driving situation here is a little bit different here then in the states. There are heaps of mopeds here that just drive crazy. It is quite hilarious to watch. We are staying at the SHE ministry housing. Its very nice. The weather is very warm and humid. We are all trying to adjust our bodies to always sweating. haha  Our days consist of Waking up for devotions in the morning with the thai woman who work there then having breakfast. Around 11 we do team devotions and then lunch. After lunch we go and do prayer walking where we walk around to Patong and we pray for the girls that we minister to at night. During our free time we have quiet times to spend with God and we build relationships with the Thai children in the community. After supper we have Prayer and Worship before we head out for the night to minister to the girls. when we get back we debrief and pray for the girls and conversations that we had. 

 We are all doing really well. Nobody has been really sick yet. And we are making really good relationships with the people of Phuket. 

Packed into the back of the truck

A market we walked through

The coffee shop we always go to.

One of the closed doored bars. PLEASE PRAY

One of the streets we minister on.

Just waiting for the bus.

Sawadee-kah

Prayer Request:

- To continue building closer relationships with the women in Patong. 

- And that we would be able to keep building their trust

- For rest in our team and continued unity

- HEALTH and safety!