Here I am with some Traditionally dressed Thai women:

This girl was praying on her knees the whole time we were at the Buddhist center.

At the Buddhist center

Here is HALF of our group!

Out of respect and for the safety of the rescued girls, I won't be posting their pictures. Just picture some of the beautiful women in the world & there they are: our sisters!

Hope

So many people have asked how our trip was. How do I put 10 days of an emotional roller coaster into just a few words? It was amazing, inspiring, beautiful, heartbreaking just to say in a few words.

Hope: A girl in one of the safehouses sat sewing beads on the jewelry bags. The girls all get to design their own bags. This sweet girl sat sewing quietly with such a peaceful smile. She had scars up and down both of her arms. She was a cutter. She said there were times she didn't even feel human or alive until she saw the blood. She wasn't a believer, but all of the bags she was designing said God is love, Lamb of God, I love Jesus. God is working on her heart.

One safehouse has a waiting list. This is too bad for the girls who need to get in, but it's good they are reaching out to so many that there is a waiting list.

A girl at the another safehouse gave her testimony. Through her salvation, her husband came to Christ and they were finishing up counselling then taking the gospel back to their home village. And the fire spreads a little more.

The girls testimonies of slavery and freedom were such a smack in the face representation of each and every one of us. We are all born into the bondage of sin. We are separated from our Father. Until we accept His sacrifice.

Ezra 9: 8-9 "But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in His sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness..."

Psalm 103:1-6 "Praise the Lord o my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord O my soul, and forget not His benefits-who forgives all your sins, and heals all your disease, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed."

I had thought I praised Him with all my inmost being, but I hadn't. There are things I'd hold back, I just didn't give Him my all. Our Thai sisters give Him their all. They don't have much, but they give it all and put me to shame. I am totally inspired and hopefully will do better. I am stubborn. I don't follow Him like I should. Many times I think I know a better path to take. I am so in love with Him and thankful He never gave up on me. He carries me-daily. I fail daily and instead of giving up or letting me wonder too far, He carries me.

Broken Nation

Leviticus 19:29
"Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness."

Habakkuk 1:2-5
"How long, O Lord must I call for help? But you do not listen! "violence" I cry but you do not come to save. Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. the law has become paralyzed and useless, and there is no justice given int he courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery. The lord replied "look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do! For I am doing something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it."

There is HOPE.............

El Roi (The God who sees) "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching evil and good" (Prov 15:3)
Adonai/Yahweh (the LORD) "Thou art my Lord; I have no good besides Thee" (psalm 16:2)
Jehovah-jireh (The LORD will provide) "Who provides food for the raven when it's your cry out?" (Job 38:41)
Jehovah-rapha (the LORD who heals) "Heal me o Lord, and I will be healed, save me and I will be saved for thou art my praise." (Jer. 17:14)

and so many other names of course...There is hope in the LORD and His promises and love endures forever! I was so amazed by the testimonies of the precious women we met. They each said they felt redeemed and loved. Some said they were restored and happier without money then when they had plenty of money because they were daughters of the King! They were all such an inspiration and I will never forget their testimonies and examples of praise!

Trip home

So, we started off waiting on the runway for 2 1/2 hours in Bangkok at about 5 am. We made it to Tokyo (& they held the plane in Tokyo for us) then into Detroit with just under an hour to get to our flight from Detroit to gr but had to go through customs. 5 of us were just getting to the gate to see them close the doors. They said we weren't there in time (even though we still had almost 10 minutes before departure....) One lady said, let me see if there is room for you all...came back & said not with our carryons. WHAT!?!? so we sat there & watched our plane take off after being up for about 26 hours and just 2 hours from home. We got on a flight 2 hours later and arrived into GR about 6:30 last night. Our families had been waiting for us since 4:00 since we had no way of getting ahold of them to tell them we missed our plane. It ended up fine-just a little more exhausting!!

Today has been a little off-I'm messed up from the time change big time & so emotional. Trying to catch up with family & friends and enjoying hugging my boys like crazy!

I have made friendships that will last a lifetime and memories as well! One of my friends on the trip is friends with Angie Smith (her husband is Todd from Selah & I follow Angie's blog for about a year now-if you click the "I am a Sunday" icon on my page you can read her incredible story!) So I told Tammy that Angie is my Oprah & Tammy is Gayle. One of the girls that I got to know is from Nepal & I would LOVE to visit her there. And I became friends with girls from Australia & Denmark & Canada, Colorado, Tennessee & Ohio as well as local girls! We had life changing experiences, laughed, cried and got sick together ;) It was worth it though. I MIGHT post pics later of some of our girls but not the safe house girls-for their protection & we were asked not to post them. We'll see, right now I am so tired I can't even think about the pictures. I am so glad to be home and so thankful for the opportunity I had to go. Thanks for all your support, encouraging notes, calls & posts!

the last few days spent in Bangkok.....

I did not have a chance to blog our last few days in Thailand. We are home now :) I'll throw out what went down the last few days there:

Thursday: We had a meeting in our Girl Headquarters (our living room in the suite where our more private meetings were held) We packed gift bags for the girls for Thursday night's banquet. We went to a jewelry emporium & had a chance to see the process that sapphires & rubies go through from rock form to finish & "shop". I felt like Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama when she has all of Tiffany's to herself. There was this huge gorgeous jewelry store with people working behind each counter waiting to help us. It was a fun little retreat.

Then we went back to the hotel and got ready for the banquet. The theme of the banquet was "You Are The Bride Of Christ" so we decorated like a wedding reception. There were gorgeous flowers, a HUGE wedding cake, ice sculptures, decorations everywhere! And of course our professional photographer (she came on the trip to document it & took pics of the banquet & all the girls) There were about 130 safe house girls. They were so excited. We gave them gift bags full of makeup, perfume, dolls, lotions, bath wash, stationary, etc..... they were so excited!!! It was fun to serve them! We had 2 of our girls @ each table with 8 Thai girls. I was amazed at how well we could communicate. Almost all the girls @ my table spoke a little English-enough that we could carry a conversation.

Dinner started with a cold cuts platter that had all sorts of weird colored & textured things-all I understood was jellyfish & ginger. Then we had shark fin soup followed by a whole pig. The pig's skin was crispy & cut in strips, I thought it looked like bacon. It did NOT taste like bacon. I guess we were suppose to eat the skin then the servers take the pig away to finish cooking it. A girl ripped the ears off for me & the other girls @ my table to eat. I choked them down dreaming of the pizza party we were going to have later that night. I don't know what came out after that...fish & prawns & such....I was busy helping with games on stage. We kind of did a giant bridal shower. We had pinatas, pin the accessories on the bride, and make a wedding dress out of rolls of toilet paper & then we had a fashion show. The girls loved it!! Some of them never had a childhood so playing games was something new for them. We were laughing so hard we were crying! We then got to eat the YUMMY cake and Becky gave a short message. I looked around the room & all the wait staff from the hotel was sitting listening to her message. When we all got up and held hands singing praises the hotel staff joined hands & singing with us. It was so moving and maybe one of them will receive the message given. After tearful goodbyes, we headed up to girl headquarters for a pizza party-yummy food!!

Friday: We heard presentations from Bimala & Ruth on their ministries in Nepal & Cambodia working with trafficked girls and girls at risk of being trafficked. We then did a prayer walk to the Buddhist center. This was on some corner of the street where people from all over the world come to pray to the mix of a Buddha/Hindu god. There were traditional Thai dancers, music, incense, holy water, kneeling benches, etc....there. People were even buying little cages of birds and would pray over the birds then release them so they'd carry the prayers tot he spirits. It was so sad to see them praying so hard to an idol. One of the girls just prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do-so true!! There was a girl who kneeled the whole time we were there on the pavement in her skirt praying.

Some girls from the safehouses came to the hotel friday & we got more of a chance to visit with them. Anyone who went to the Gala heard Thom & Kay speak. They are so sweet & incredible and I was so blessed to be able to spend some time talking with them. Then it was tearful goodbyes again. This time it really was goodbye. We wouldn't be seeing them again this trip.

We spent Friday night Covering Bimala & Ruth in prayer before they go out to their ministries. This was a powerful emotional time. It was so wonderful to spend time with my sisters in such intimate prayer time.

update

BLESSED-This is the first thing that comes to mind in explaining my experience for yesterday. We had the privelidge of visiting one of the Safe houses. Seeing such beautiful women- my sisters in Christ-in total worship today. My absolute favorite was singing "God is so good." Seeing these precious women with bigger smiles and more beautiful voices than imaginable was inspirational. They sang in Thai as we sang in English. They sang , "Now I am free, now I am free, He's set me free, He's so good to me." What a blessing! These women have been set free in every sense of the word and are praising the Lord in joy, sincerity, peace, and such passion. If I could have stopped time at any moment in my life, it would have been then. I closed my eyes and had to soak it all in as I memorized their faces and voices and praises. All I can say is I'm so blessed to have such a loving redeeming Father who allows me to share such an intimate worship time with my sisters.

Thank you all for your prayers! Last night was an eye opener for us all. Part of the group went to Nana District and went into the brothels. One group met with a bar owner who loved to read christian pamplets when he felt down and would like to do something other than the bars. One group met a Mamason (the female traffickers) who is going to the safehouse in 2 months. (that's probably how long it will take her to finish paying her debt) This is a HUGE need of prayer right now! the safe house actually has a waiting list to get in. There are about 15 girls waiting to get into the safehouse & the business there.

I was in the group who did a prayer walk down Patpong. Right away we saw this beautiful girl (MAYBE 4 years old @ the oldest) she was holding some official documents & we were smiling & laughing with her & I wanted to take her picture. As soon as I took it, a couple ladies came over & said to Becky, she has no mother or father, you take her. That easy. Firts thing we saw in a horrible area was a tiny girl for sale. God gave me the strength to not break down and sob right there, but my heart broke into so many pieces I thought it could never be made whole again. We went straight upstairs to the safehouse. We then went on our prayer walk. I was amazed at how many and how young the girls were. There were people pawing at us trying to get us into the bars but that was not our mission for the night. We were to PRAY for Patpong & for Nana & for the girls (and the bar owners and traffickers) When I'd get mad b/c there were SO many Mamasons & bar owners all over I'd have to pray "It is not my prayer that you take them out of the worl but that you protect them from the evil one" How amazing would it be to see transformation??? There were so many couples all over. To everyone here, this was a game. This was a little Vegas to all the tourists. My heart wanted to break when I'd see a young teen girl wal down the road with 3 grown men who will most likely do hirrible things to this girl. We saw a man who had to be in his 80's with a young girl. We saw a man go into a bar with an I love Jesus shirt on! I could not believe how many "normal" looking guys would go into the bars. Becky told us that 80 percent of tourist men come here for bar girls but that only makes up 10 percent of the customers (so the other 90 percent is Thai guys) THOUSANDS of men here from all over the world. This is way more huge than I imagined (even though I have heard it, but to see it blows my mind away!) 85 percent of thai boys at age 15 -16 have been with a bar girl. (one their own father took them to to pass on the tradition or what have you) I just had to cover every girl in prayer! When we got ready to leave, a mamason (sao) followed us around. BEcky was teasing me b/c I kept fanning her & trying to talk to her. I just kept thinking, The longer I talk to her, the less people she can pull into her bar) I had the most horrible feeling I have ever experienced. I can honestly saw before last night I have never felt a dark opression from satan. I could hardly breathe. I felt nauseaus, my stomach and chest were being constricted. I felt like a weight had been on my shoulders to the point I could not stand up straight. I'ver had "heavy shoulders" before, but this was difefrent. I felt like I had been carrying around my 5 year old on my shoulders, with my belly full of something yuck in 125 degree weather. That's the best picture I can give. God carried us all through it though. I didn't break down until we got back to our "Girl Headquarters" (Becky's suit where we have all of our meetings) It felt good to get together and share all of our experiences though.

Today was our pick me up day after spending 2 days preparing for last night & after such an emotionally, physically & spiritually exhausting night. We had incredible meeting & worshpi time here this morning. This afternoon we went to the rosegarden where we saw a Thai culture show (a "wedding, dances, boxing match & then the finale was all the girls with flags from around the world singing it's a small world. It was cute!) We saw an "elephant show" where the elephants danced. We rode the elephants & got our pictures taken sitting on the elephants knees. (The boys will love that) many girls got their pictures taken with a huge snake-not me. It was all I could do to take a picture for one of the girls-a big step for me!)

Tomorrow is more confrence time and prep for the banquet (we are throwing a banquet for the girls from thesafehouses in honor of them.) They are all so excited it is so cute! We have to get the favors ready & set up b/c the theme is "bride of Christ" so we have to set up a wedding. I'm excited to give the girls a night they will not forget and shower them with love! The are so giddy. I feel like a jr high leader with them b/c they act like such excited little girls. They are not all believers so pray for them.

Here is just s little list of prayer requests:

1>the safehouse needs to raise $2,000,000 for new property so they can house all the girls & not have to have a waiting list.
2>Sao (a mamason who followed us around last night) pray for transformation
3>Tong (the bar owner who wants to "get out")
4> the mamason who wants to go to the safehouse in 2 months
5>the sweet girl for sale last night. Father, carry her safely to someone who will love her. Protect her!!

REFRESHED

So I can't get pics from my camera to computer and will do it when I get home. Right now we are on a little bit of a high. Here's a blurb of the things we are experiencing : It's GORGEOUS here! The people are beautiful. The architecture is beautiful. The taxis are hot pink, bright aqua, yellow & green & orange & red-all sparkly & brand new looking. All the cars here are perfect & shiny (I'm sure cute is not the right word to describe cabs, but they are!) They look like Chiclets! I have yet to see a beater. We see houses/shacks stacked on top of each other with satellite dishes on the "roofs" & shiny cars parked in front. There are vendors everywhere (some with whole chickens in their carts-dead ones...yuck!) There are beautiful buddha shrines all over (with gold & incense & sparkles-again with the sparkly) This morning the special for breakfast was fish and some kind of rice. Thank goodness for the "omelet man" and the fresh fruit! The coffee here is like drinking a cup of espresso-SO STRONG!! But we have gotten used to it! We have this wonderful cafe in our hotel where you can buy delicious lemongrass tea (and the description is to help with flatulence) and some sweet tea (the description is laxative)....

Yesterday was amazing! We went to the Christian Fellowship (International Bible church) and had a worship service that could have lasted forever & someday it will. There were people there from China, Australia, Nigeria, Canada, America, Russia, Afghanistan....all worshiping our Father. It was so beautiful!! It moved us to tears. A few of us were able to work with the kids. Any of you who have heard the story of Becky's adopted niece Ellyana (Ellie) was in our nursery and I wanted to bring her home. She is so precious and cuddly. She LOVES attention! If you don't know her story, she was sold into slavery @ 2 weeks old & rescued @ 4 weeks & in just the 2 weeks she was trafficked had given up hope. They said she never cried when they first got her b/c she knew no one would answer her cries anyway. She has found her voice as Becky says. She is a treasure for sure!

Today was inspirational! We went to the safehouse. We had the privilege of worshiping with the rescued & restored women. We sang many praise songs in English all together & then some in English while they sang in Thai. I sat & soaked it all in while we lifted our voices to our Redeemer. All of us ladies with on guitar from all over worshiping was more beautiful than I can put into words. (speaking of which, these are not well thought out blogs b/c coming up with the time, money & making sure i don't go over my time limit that was paid for on top of all the culture shock is hard to really write anything eloquently.....) We heard some touching testimonies from the girls today. I sat next to a girl who has been @ the safehouse for 3 weeks and after she gave her testimony she took the bracelet off her wrist & put it on mine. I was so moved & wanted to return the gesture-but didn't (it's against policy to give gifts unless you have enough for ALL the girls there!) Then we got to have small group time with the girls. Some of them had their kids there. That was so wonderful to see. SO many of the girls take their new found faith back to their families & home villages and spread the gospel. It's amazing to see the light shine brighter over here with each story.

I am BEGGING for you all to be on your knees starting NOW!! In the morning we will be going to another safehouse and will spend time with those girls in praise & worship & testimony & prep for tomorrow night. Then tomorrow night we go into the Red Light Districts. We are 12 hours ahead, but we will definitely need our prayer warriors back home praying for us. We are divided in groups one group (about 6 girls) will be with the safehouse outreach team in the brothels. (the area they go to is known as NANA & there are about 40,000 trafficked girls in that area) They will be lifting their sisters in prayer while The safehouse team reaches out to these girls. I am in the group who will be walking PatPong (about 10,000 trafficked girls) and we will be doing a prayer walk & be visiting Rahab ministries. This is going to be our darkest hours here as we will be battling satan on the front lines. Becky told us that when we see signs that say "pretty girls & ugly ones too" means the customer can do what he wants with the "ugly girl" even kill her-they are so replaceable. So these girls may have only one night left on earth.

There is so much I'd love to share and b/c of time & the fact that some I am just not ready to share yet, I will wait. Thank you for your continued prayer though & I will post again in a couple days.

We're here

So far this has been a whirlwind! WE got in @ about 2 am today (2:oo Friday afternoon Michigan time!) We are all doing well. Some are a little tired, but overall we are on a high! (only by the grace of GOD!!) It's absolutely beautiful here. We are all getting along great! We had an incredible worship time this morning and spoke alot about Esther (how she was a traffick victim) which is awesome b/c I am doing the Beth Moore Esther Bible study @ church and have my book with me and am learning so much! We have also been focusing tons on prayer! Our church lives & breaths prayer so I am feeling right at home :)

This morning a friend and I were exploring the hotel and got on an elevator with an old man & a young girl-most likely a victim. We did as we were told and tried to make eye contact w/her but she would not even look up at us. We are not to talk to the to get their attention but if they "see"us we can communicate w/them & love on them. Next time I will try harder.

We had dinner tonight with traditional Thai dancers (absolutely GORGEOUS!!) and a table right across the room had 5 old men & 5 teenage girls. It was such an unpleasant experience. How on earth are we supposed to sit & pretend to enjoy this evening when inside I am screaming!! I did go to Becky and pour it out to her during the dance. I feel literally sick. I feel guilty. I feel broken. I feel so much pain for these girls. I feel nervous for these girls. All I can say right now is it is by the GRACE of GOD alone that I have been blessed to have been given the life I have. These girls are no different from me. They like pretty sparkly things, they like makeup, they like to dance and have fun. But they are in such a dark place. Please continue to pray for our group and these girls. pray that we will have the eyes of Christ and find comfort and peace just be Jesus to these women! We need to cover them with love and hope.

I apologize if this is not making sense (I am living on 5 hours of sleep since Thursday morning & it's Saturday night....I feel fine, just shaky! plus I am in a hurry b/c we pay for internet time & it can add up fast!) I will try to update when we go to the internet cafe on free time one of these days b/c it's about a quarter of the price!

P.S. GIRLFRIENDS....I have your souvenirs & I think you will like them :)

LOVE YOU ALL!! KEEP COVERING US IN PRAYER :)

We have been praying Ephesians 6:10-18 over the past couple months. Today I received such an incredible gift from the most wonderful sister int he world! She gave me my own little soldier in armor to put under my pillow and set as a reminder to put on the Armor of God. Here is a little bit of her note (sorry, Amy, hope you don't mind...):


"Just as a soldier would never go into battle without his helmet or his sword or his shield...you too, need to daily put on the armor of God. You are going into battle and Satan is not about to easily back down so be prepared! Your little soldier is your reminder...so when you see him you will remember to check yourself and make sure you are ready for battle. Remember this battle, too, belongs to the Lord. There is NO better King to fight for! Your belt of truth is to protect you from satan's lies. Your breastplate of righteousness is your brand new clean heart that Jesus cleansed for us-He took away our stained old one! Your shoes of Good News of Peace is the good news you will be sharing with these women. Remember, He will give you the right words...Your shield of faith is knowing that even when things are bad, God is still there with you and He cares. Your helmet of salvation is once Christ is in your heart you can trust in His promises and no one can take that away! Your sword of the spirit is for when satan is trying to get you to do something wrong, you can stop & think about what the Bible says...."


I am so blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends supporting us on this trip! Thank you so much! my little soldier......


Our group just started their own blog that will be updated regularly while we are in Bangkok. I have the link posted by the my blog list. It's called Thru the eyes. This will probably be a better site to follow since someone is set to updated daily (but I will still try to updated here as well!)

We leave in 2 days!!!

Our group needs prayer! Please pray for healing for our team! I have been sick for almost a week now with nasty cough and all the sinus pain that goes right along with that. I thought I was turning the corner yesterday but was up all night sick with the flu. Yes, literally one sickness after another over here and I leave in 2 days!!!! I cannot possible step onto a plane feeling the way I do, I can hardly stand up straight & the nausea kicks in. I have gotten emails about other team members feeling ill as well. Satan is trying to wear us down! Please pray we will all kick this fast!! Thanks!

He is holding me in His hands

I had to go before church Saturday & Sunday so they could send me out in prayer. I was so nervous and emotional, yet as our church covered me in prayer I felt such a peace and felt so blessed to belong to such an incredible family. I just love our church - we are truly a gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a family: we laugh, learn, cry, hope, love and grow with each other and in our Father. Sunday morning after the second service I felt this family supporting me even more than I expected. A man introduced himself to me & told me how he works for the government. He has friends & coworkers in the US Embassy in Bangkok. He wanted all my trip info & gave me all of his contact info. He was going to give his friends an extra heads up about our trip. He wanted to be sure I would be taken care of (If I lost my passport, go sick or anything-he has given them a heads up and said they'd "watch out for us") I wasn't even worried about any of these issues before, and I feel such a peace knowing if anything did happen, I am already taken care of here & there by our government. I just love how even before a worry or problem arises, my Father is holding me in His hand, providing hope & answers.
We leave a week from tomorrow and I am so excited! I have so many wonderful friends and family members praying for our trip. I am overwhelmed by how many of my precious girlfriends have offered to help w/my boys even though they all have kids of their own! (I am sure the boys would love play dates, but they are excited to go to both grandparent's houses during the week & have daddy time on the weekends!) Dave and I have been doing "Love Dare" and falling in love with each other all over again and I am going to have an extremely hard time leaving him as well. He is such a great supporter, husband and friend. He just gets me and all my crazy moodiness and my emotional roller coaster rides. He is wonderful. HOWEVER, anyone who sees him w/the boys while I am gone...try NOT to pay attention to what they are wearing. He tends to let them pick out their own clothes (even if it's 1 size too small tshirt OVER a 1 size too big sweatshirt, or crocs in the winter.....crazy 2 & 5 yr old outfits-but they love it!!) So, if any of you do see crazy clowns with him snap a picture for me b/c as embarrassing as those moments are, I am going to truly miss them :)

Thanks so much for your continued prayer!