MUCH JOY

Thanks so much for praying for our trip to Nuuy’s family and the visit to her village. It was such a unique experience – very hard to put into words. Nuuy’s family was so happy to see her and by the end Nuuy’s Mother kept asking us to come back.

It was kind-of like a vacation Bible school time. Mon, Tues and Wed afternoon Marleen and I taught some basic English lessons and a game with the kids for an hour and then the Outreach Team broke the kids into groups by age and taught each group a story from the Bible, like David and Goliath, and some songs. Parents got attracted to what we were doing because of their kids’ interest. Parents and kids were especially invited for the last evening - the Outreach team prepared and served a meal, did a puppet show, shared their testimonies and performed a skit about Jesus. After dinner, two from the Team played games with the children while the rest of the Outreach Team was able to speak to the parents in smaller groups about Jesus. By the end of the last night, six people, including Nuuy’s Mother and Father, prayed for Jesus to come into their hearts. There were big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. It’s amazing how Nuuy’s choices (stepping out to leave the bars) back in Pattaya has created ripples of blessing to so many others :)

Many of the neighbors had heard what we were doing because we walked around the village before and after lunchtime each day visiting people. At each home, we’d sit and talk for a while and then pray for the person or family. I think the neighbors could see the sincerity on the faces of the Outreach Team as they took the time to listen, to care and to pray for each person. Among those we visited were the village store owner, a family where the grandmother could no longer walk and an older woman who’s begun really seeking spiritually (she’s concerned what will happen after she dies so she’s been giving a lot of money to the local temple in hopes of earning enough merit for a good afterlife).














PLANTING SEEDS (*name changed)

The original plan had been for Nuuy, Marleen and I to come back to Pattaya on Thursday while the Outreach Team would continue on to *Om’s village for another 2 days. I was really disappointed not to go to Om’s village – Om regularly goes on the bar outreach time in Pattaya, and we’ve gone together as a pair a few times to talk to the women. Though she doesn’t speak much English (aka, its been hard for me to learn much of her story), I really wanted to go in order to pray for Om, her family and the visit. We knew that her family wasn’t so supportive of her leaving the Bars and working at the Tamar Center (it means less money to send home to the family) and that they were potentially less open to the Gospel and the Team coming to do an outreach. I asked and was able to continue on with the Team.

The experience at Om’s village was largely different than at Nuuy’s. Her family didn’t really greet us right away and the Team was more sensitive in how they related, especially to Om’s Father. The village was also much, much larger. We did similiar walks around the village to visit people. Within the first afternoon, we met a little girl, maybe 8 years old, who was abandoned by her parents and whose grandfather is now taking care of her. Next was a 2 month old baby boy – grandmother now taking care of him. In Thailand, raising children is culturally different. It is much more common for the entire family, which typically live together or are in neighboring houses, to take roles in the care and the discipline of the child. Most of the women who are at the bars in Pattaya have children who are back home with their parents in their villages so that they can make money for the family.

Praise God for how He is at work…by the second day both of Om’s parents had long conversations with the Outreach Team. Om’s Father, especially, asked a lot of questions. At first he just thought that Christianity is like other beliefs but as the team talked with him and answered his questions, he thought more. He took a Bible – actually Om gave him her Bible – and he said he would read it and keep thinking about it. A visit that started with a grim greeting was a smiling, gracious goodbye by the time we left.

We did the children’s times – English, Bible stories and some songs – but not the Outreach to the adults on this trip. Plans are in the works to return to both Nuuy’s and Om’s villages – to encourage and help the new believers in their faith and to continue building relationships. Follow-up is a big focus of the Outreach Team – them taking turns to go to new villages in the NE area of Thailand (typically from where one of the Tamar women are from) and returning to villages that they’ve previously visited.

The work of the Outreach Team is so vital: to share who Jesus is with a community that's often never heard of Him, to connect with and to teach the families and to influence them, especially the women – all ages – that going to Pattaya or Bangkok to work in a bar isn’t the answer. All of this can hit part of the problem of the sex-for-sale industry that taints Pattaya and hopefully work towards ending the cycle of heartbreak. There are alternatives but so many don’t see it. The bars can seems like the only solution. At the bar I was at on Monday afternoon I talked with a mom and a daughter who were working together – 45 and 19 – so sad! Many of these women struggle for alternative work because they only have a 6th grade education, got married young, have children to support and their husbands have left.
Please pray with me for the work here – it is on the frontlines. There’s days that the staff seem really tired from giving, giving and giving some more. But, the Lord’s using it to make a difference – lives are being radically changed and set free.








FAST FORWARD

As I took the Songthaew (truck taxi) yesterday morning to get to the Tamar Center, a line from the song “Great Is Your Faithfulness” came into my head: “All I have needed Your hand has provided…” While I don’t always feel this way, it is always true – Everything I have needed along the way of life, He has provided. Faith in Jesus gives us promises for the future: “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” (Psalm 16: 5-6) He’s been intimately involved in even the harder things of the last few years that I’ve really struggled with. And, in Thailand, I’ve seen Him provide for me what I’ve truly needed (maybe not always what I wanted) and what’s been best for me to learn, to grow, to experience. Sometimes its been more about me changing my perspective on something than my circumstances needing to change. More easily said than done.
So with this written, my time in Pattaya has had a shadow to it – me wondering what will be next as I return to the US. No, I don’t know yet. If you know me well, you know how much my ‘planner’ brain would love to have these answers! I am a bit weary of existing in the holding pattern I’ve felt like I’ve been in for the last 2 years with what direction I should take next. So, as I considered the words of the song this morning, I realized again that God is providing me with everything I need. So for now, I believe that I’m not supposed to know entirely what the future holds. I braced myself for this very spot before I left Colorado in April. I had the expectation of returning without knowing the specifics of my next steps. I was open to Him ‘pleasantly surprising me’ though with a neat little plan, all of the “t’s” crossed and “i’s” dotted. But, that’s not exactly where I’m at. So this last month I’ve been praying a lot that I not grab something just to feel content that I have “some” plan. Faith is believing in and trusting for what we can’t see. I can’t see the future but I know that the God that I trust is infinitely bigger than the unknown details that I can’t see. Just as He died for and unconditionally loves the women that I’ve been helping to reach here in Pattaya, he loves me. So, I will wait and trust Him as I return to the States.

As I return to the US, I am really grateful that I have the flexibility to be available to spend time and help my sister and brother-in-law and nephew Grahm with the arrival of my new nephew Wynn (planned around July 25th!). If I was able to forge ahead in my next steps, this might not be possible. This was part of “my” plan and I’m glad it’s still the course I’m headed towards!

I look forward to seeing you soon! Love, Becky

PATTAYA - PART 2

Hello! I hope you’re having a great week! It’s hard to believe it’s almost the middle of June already! Time’s moving along…here’s what I’ve been up to:

ENGLISH, ENGLISH & MORE ENGLISH

A lot of my time serving at the Tamar Center has been filled with English: planning activities and helping women with vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar worksheets. The Tamar staff, women working at the Tamar Center and women at the bars all want to know more English. Whatever English you can learn and understand seems key to more opportunities for your life in Thailand. Many women want to learn English, too, so they can help their children with it. At Eve’s request, Marleen and I have been trying to help the staff individually with English. They’re all at different places in what they’ve learned so it’s been a challenge to figure out where to start and what exercises we can do that will be effective and will help them in their day-to-day life. I’ve especially enjoyed getting to know Kaek who runs the bakery and coffee shop and Oh who leads the discipleship training. They love the Lord so much. They’re both looking for ways to expand what the Tamar Center is doing so that more women can have jobs, the training and discipleship programs can be expanded and more can come to know Jesus.


English class with women from the bars - Marleen (left) & Kath are doing a role play.


Group from the Baptist Church English class. A, at the center, invited Marleen and I to her town of Sattahip (30km south of Pattaya) for the afternoon on Tuesday. We met her husband and had a wonderful time. (We visited a park where I got to meet the cute kitty, aka Tiger.) They and most of the Baptist Church English class are believers :)





THE WOMEN OF THE TAMAR CENTER

Eight new women started working at the Tamar Center in May – leaving life at the bars behind them. So exciting! One of these women received her first paycheck from the Tamar Center on Wednesday. Marleen and I happened to be nearby after she got paid for her work. She had started crying. We didn’t know why. Eve told Marleen later that she was so happy that she received money for work that she felt proud of. The Tamar Center is really making a difference. What a privilege it is to be a part of these efforts!

Very little of my daily time, though, is with any of these women  They’re doing their jobs while I’m helping the staff or the bar girls with English or headed to the bars for outreach. I generally see them at lunch for about 30 minutes and for a few minutes here and there before work, after work and during the day. Somjit and Gay are among the few that know a little English to talk to me. With many of the others, though, it’s our smiles and a few phrases that give us a connection. When they can, and they’re around, the staff will translate for us but this is rare. Marleen amd I both want to spend time with them and love on them so we’ve been looking for ways that work with their schedules. This past Monday night we organized a movie at one of their shared housing units. We brought my laptop and a cake and watched “Bedtime Stories” (English w/ Thai subtitles). Since then, I’ve received even more hugs and hellos from many of them.



Tamar Center staff (+ volunteers)


Some of the Tamar Center ladies from our movie night

AN OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME – OUTREACH TO A THAI VILLAGE

Monday to Thursday of next week Marleen and I will get to travel with Tamar’s Outreach Team to visit a village in the Northeast of Thailand! The Outreach Team travels every other week to remote villages where there the Gospel has been shared little, if any, times. I think the villages are often picked based on a woman working at the Tamar Center – the trip enables the woman to see her family and to tell them about her decision to leave the bars. We’ve been told that sometimes the reunion is incredibly emotional – the family might not have known that the woman had been working in prostitution. On this trip we’ll be going to the village of a woman who came to work at the Tamar Center in January. Nuuy’s now working as the cook at the center – she’s incredible – big smile, sweet heart. She has 2 sons.
Eve has cautioned Marleen & I that we’ll have 3 ½ day of 24/7 Thai language with very little translation and potentially all spicy food. We’ll be helping with food, clean up, playing with the kids in the village, talking to whomever we can and teaching some basic English to the children in the village. We are so excited! I’m also really looking forward to getting to better know Na, 33, a staff woman on the Outreach team. My first evening in Pattaya I ran into her at the Walmart-like store across the street – she recognized me and went around the store helping me buy everything I needed (I couldn’t read some of the all-Thai labels) and then walked me back to my guesthouse.

PRAYER REQUESTS

I especially love your prayers as I’m serving in Pattaya:
Please pray for the Lord to prepare the hearts of those we meet next week in the village during the Outreach – that they would receive the teaching as the word of God : “…When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe…” 1 Thessalonians 2:13

Please pray for Nuuy, too, during the outreach – for her visit with her family and that they would come to know Jesus.

Please pray for the women that we’ve met and that we will meet at the Bars. That they would see love in us and be drawn to the powerful love of God: “…I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

Please pray that Marleen & I would each connect deeply with a couple of the women & be able to invest our hearts into their lives.

Thanks for your prayers! I look forward to telling you how the Outreach goes!
Love, Becky




Now I've seen it ALL! If you look real close, there's a cat on the back of this motorbike - I watched it ride down the street! It stood up, sat back down & looked around. It seemed right at home!

Transitioning Again

Okay, so I’m not so sure how people traveling overseas stay constantly on the move? Unpacking, repacking, seeing a place for only a few days? Not my style by far. I’m so glad that I was able to be in Trang for 6 weeks.

But, as I sat on the train on Saturday, tears running down my face because I was sad to leave, I could see the convenience of staying only a few days: you don’t get so attached, you don’t invest quite so much, you stay a tourist more and less of a temporary resident. There were so many different aspects to my time that have affected me – relationships with the Thai staff & learning about their lives, getting to know the other volunteers & where they are in life, boundary issues in making my placement be a good fit for me, handling the frustrations of the language, appreciating time alone and enjoying time with people. I’ve had many conversations about Christianity, Buddhism and other beliefs along the way. The consensus seems that most do not have a belief system that influences their daily life and that all roads lead to the same place. I’m grateful for opportunities I’ve had to tell new friends that Christianity is different – only faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for sin offers salvation that isn’t based on what you try to earn. He changes our hearts and then our actions – we don’t have to clean up our lives ourselves.

Since before arriving in Thailand, I was interested in an overnight train ride – sounded so fun in spite of the longer travel time. So, early Saturday night, with the help of Cha (he carted my super-heavy suitcase) and Khem (she surprised me by bringing a take-out dinner meal to our last goodbye), I settled in for my 17 hour ride. The standard cars were full so I had a seat in the Japanese car – absolutely wonderful – plenty of room. Around 9pm the porter changed the seats to beds and for the next 12 hours I had a window all to myself. I woke up through the night and looked out in the moonlight or street lights at the countryside, the towns and the train stations we were traveling through. As the sun came up, I had a wonderful view of the western outskirts of Bangkok. I read and relaxed and enjoyed the whole experience.




PATTAYA

Via the train, subway, skytrain & government bus, I arrived into Pattaya Sunday afternoon around 3pm. Eve, one of the leaders of the Tamar Center with YWAM/Project LIFE, picked me up from the bus station. Sunday was a perfect arrival day – that night I joined a farewell party for a Thai woman who was leaving the Tamar Center to work at a local church. Over forty women and a couple of husbands (there’s few men around the Tamar Center b/c of the sensitivity for women leaving bars & prostitution) gathered to thank this woman for her influence in their lives. I could understand very little b/c most everything was spoken in Thai but I could see the emotion on their faces. The majority of the women gathered had left the bars – some just recently – and now work with one of the ministries of the Tamar Center. The Tamar Center has a bakery, hair salon, coffee shop (street photo shows sign for coffee shop) and card making business. Different women provide training and then jobs to girls coming out of the bars so they can support themselves.

Immediately there have been Thai women who have greeted me, smiled and hugged me and women, newer to the Center, that seemed resistant and cautious. Typical, I’m sure, as the Tamar Center has lots of short-term teams & people going in and out. It has helped so much that I have a few Thai phrases & words – it seems to open them up that I know some Thai with which to start friendships. Of course, I’m frustrated that I don’t know more but glad for what I do know. I listen with envy at Eve (Dutch) and Katherine (English) who so easily speak Thai.






FITTING IN?

So, what will I really DO here? Well, I’m not completely sure. So far I’ve helped teach English with Marleen, another volunteer, at a local Baptist church for the last 2 mornings (photo of me with two ladies), I went to a bar yesterday to invite women to an English class we’ll have tomorrow afternoon and this afternoon we went to the beach with a big sign offering prayer. The last 2 things seemed pretty strange to the people around us – we stick out like sore thumbs – BUT it has generated conversations and opportunities. At the bar yesterday, Becky (American from California who’s been in Thailand serving at a local church), Ali (DTS outreach YWAMer from Australia) and I struck up conversations with a couple of bar girls. There were about 12 of us that went together from the Tamar Center. We broke up into smaller groups so we had someone who’s gone before & someone who speaks Thai in each group. We sat at the counter and bought sodas while we took up the girls’ time. There were 4 girls working at the bar we sat at. The atmosphere felt dark: forced smiles and hollow eyes, evil was cheap and available everywhere. Becky and I talked with a 21 year old girl who arrived about 1 month ago. She said she calls her family everyday but that it’s okay that she’s here. She’d like to go home but it’s a full-day trip and she needs to stay. Most of the bars have games, like Connect 4, to play at the counters – easy way to make conversation and small talk for hesitant buyers. We used the games to break the ice and ask about the girls, where there from, what their interests are. We invited them to the English class tomorrow. At the beach today Katherine and I spoke with two 19 year old girls – they looked more like 15 – one all dolled up with fake eyelashes and circles of blush on her cheeks. They said they’d come tomorrow to the English class. Please pray with me for the Lord to bring these women to the Tamar Center and for opportunities for them to find hope in Jesus. There’s another world available to them but the enemy is fighting not to lose ground.

A HUGE blessing to me is Marleen, a Dutch volunteer who’s been here for a month. I’ve been able to join her in what she’s doing and I’m grateful for her explanations along the way as the staff are very busy. Marleen had been praying for the volunteer to arrive – me – that we would become good friends and that we could serve and have fun together. This is so great! I hope to sit down with Eve in the next day or so to go over the schedule & learn additional ways I can help out.

Internet access is less frequent for me but I’ll try to keep you up to date. I miss you guys and love that you’re standing by me on this journey! Becky