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!!