Beds, Bugs, and Bangkok

Well I thought I'd share a picture of what I decided to eat for dinner tonight:

Cooked Grasshoppers! In fact, a whole bag of them:


Things are going well here, it's crazy how fast time is flying by. I'm staying busy and have been getting more of a heart for the Thai people. I also feel like we are getting things done, which is great as well!

As for Beds (actually just mine). That has not been so great. Never had insomnia before, but sometimes I think I qualify here. Getting next to no sleep is a regular thing, though it has been better the last few days due to stronger sleep medicine. When I do sleep, I am plagued by chronic nightmares of various sorts. Last week was a really rough week, in fact, it was the hardest this summer. Essentially no sleep for almost a whole week combined with not much time alone with God resulted in a tough week. I've got medicine to help sleep, which is helping some, but not a ton. I feel refreshed by God now, and am glad that He reminds me that He is my strength, not the amount of hours I sleep. This week is a whole lot better too, but sleep is still escaping me somewhat. Please continue praying for this.

Also, I've been reflecting on why God had me come to Bangkok and seeing if I have been soaking up everything He has for me, and it's been pretty encouraging. God has done a lot in me this summer and has given me a good amount of clarity on some things He has had for me here. A few of them include...

-Loving people better. It's been stretching at times and at other times just given me opportunities to love on some people who are outcasts of sorts. I don't love people like Jesus did/does, but I have gotten more of His heart for His creation in this place, and Love is something that is one of the best things to grow in.

-Strengthening me as I depend on God more. My life -especially this summer- seems to have this cycle of me deepening in my relationship with God and becoming stronger as He changes me, but anytime I don't depend on Him, I tend to hardcore get burnt out in a hurry. I wouldn't have it any other way-He's good!

-To help the ministry in this season. As little as I feel I've helped with sometimes, reflecting on the things I've helped with aren't nothing. Though things go sloooow sometimes, it's been a good blessing to be a part of this ministry and am glad I got to help them move forward with their goals. These are awesome people I get to partner with and it's a privilege to know them-I'll definitely miss them.

Those are a few of them anyway. In other news, I will be taking a short vacation to the beach this coming weekend and will be working around that, so please pray that goes smooth without problems, I must say I look forward to it and am sure it'll be nice to spend some time on the beach with God.

Please pray for me in the area of sleep/dreams. Pray that I would finish strong and leave here from a place of strength. Please pray for favor and streamlining for the ministry as we are seeking to get some good stuff done before I leave. Pray for us as we do outreach on Wed. night (Wed. morning in Texas), we need some favor and wisdom as well as protection! Thanks so much for your prayers thus far, it's been super encouraging! Please keep it up!

God's heart for His creation

A sad, but all too common sight of an older guy with a young girl.


God is so good, and he is changing my heart for both of these groups of people. Both need redemption. Yes, seeing it does cause a mixture of indignation, sadness, and nausea (which are all Godly responses I believe) but even deeper than that is God's heart for His creation, and until we get a similar heart, reaching them will be a whole lot harder. I hope images like this instigate prayer for this country, because that will be the primary thing that changes it.

As I've been thinking about what God has been doing in me here, this thought came:
If there's one thing I've gotten here, I think it has been that God has taught (and is teaching) me to love people better. I'm getting past some of my Pharisaical, self righteous judgments and am getting a more balanced view of people and life.

This time has flown by!
Please be praying for tireless diligence and the mind of Christ for me during my last 3 weeks here!

A few pictures

Some pictures from my time in Thailand:

Doing a little work patching a section of roofing involved a little acrobatics at points, but it ended up getting done!


One day, I got to ride around some ancient ruins on an elephant, which was pretty sweet.


In fact our elephant, Oom, picked me up with His trunk at one point, which was a superbly cool experience. If you come to Thailand, you must hit up elephant riding through ruins.


Thanks for the prayers and encouragement, it's so amazing to have you guy's support.
If you want to see some more pictures via facebook, click here!

Outreach and a little more info

Well, it's nice to have a working computer combined with internet again. Sorry I haven't posted in a little while, but the aforementioned things made it less than easy!

I'd like to give you more information about the ministry I'm involved with here and what all some of the outreach has entailed. The ministry reaches out to a particular group of those in the sex industry here-Ladyboy sex workers. They are very broken men who want to be women, and a result dress up, put on makeup, take hormones, and even get operations to pursue that.

There is obviously a lot of deception and brokeness involved with men getting to this place in life, and it happens for countless different reasons. Sometimes they are raised as girls by their parents. Other times they have no examples of what a man looks like, or perhaps they are abused when younger. Some just struggle with it, and with hardly any positive counsel-almost always no Godly counsel or truth being spoken to them-they pursue what they want. Each one has a different story and so many of them are incredibly sad.

I do want to say that I think it's the easiest thing in the world judge people working or even going as customers to the red light districts, so please guard against that. It's human of us, but it's not heavenly. We need to have the mind and eyes of Christ for the sex workers and even the customers. Again, they are lost people being lost, and broken people living broken lives-even if they can't see it themselves or pretend they can't. They need salvation just as much as you or I did.
These men are just like you and me (if you are a guy reading this anyway). And the sooner we see them as people, the sooner we'll have the mind of Christ towards them.
Right now there are 10,000 ladyboy sex workers in Bangkok alone and just one ministry reaching out to them. If we as believers do not go with light to them, who will?

That's the main group that I get to help reach out to here in Bangkok, but certainly not the only one. I've met "random" people on trains and have met with them afterward several times. I've also gotten to spend some time with some of the other ministries here in Bangkok that reach out to women and young girls, and another group that reaches out to men and those living around them in their redlight neighborhood. It's been great getting to spend time with and encouraging the different missionaries here-and be encouraged by them! It's been eye opening to hear their perspectives and get the privilege of partnering with them in what they do.

Please continue covering us in prayer here. This week God totally carried us through a tougher week that was pretty crazy. The renovation of the building is slowly progressing, and I was able to successfully patch up a leaky roof in one area of the building-praise God! I'm still getting attacked with intense dreams some nights, but I am sleeping better and as a result, I am able to get more done! Last week I believe we had some breakthrough, both physically and spiritually, so thank you so much for your prayers!

Something I didn't initially plan on doing but really feel led to and have a strong desire to is pay for the outreach we do in the evenings. This constitutes paying the fee to take them out of the bars, then we may do something normal and fun such as go bowling. We also eat or get some coffee as well. It's incredible how open some of the people are to receiving truth throughout the evening and how powerful it is to just speak truth to them! They hardly ever get that in their lives and its incredible to get to be a part of. The ministry doesn't currently budget for doing outreach, so I'd love to bless them by helping out in this area while I'm here. If you'd be interested in specifically helping me fund some of the outreach I do, please email or facebook me. Any support that is left that was raised specifically for this will be given to the ministry for future outreach.

A few prayer requests:
For me-That God would continue strengthening me and that I would get everything that He has for me this summer here. Please pray for my sleep-both that I would get solid sleep and have Godly dreams, not demonic ones. Please also continue to pray that I would have wisdom and discernment in all things from renovations to handling things on outreach.

For the ministry & staff-That God would have His hand in everything He has led us to do, and that He would strengthen each of us individually. Also that He would continue deepening the current staffs gifts and abilities, and that He would raise each of us up to be the leaders and people we are meant to be. Pray for expedited favor with becoming a foundation here in Thailand and for favor, grace, and wisdom with the construction/electrical crew. Please pray overall for those working here in the different ministries, it's a dark city.

For those we reach out to:
For Jan-He is a masculine guy that is in need of some revelation. He was very open a little while back but when starting the nonprofit forced the staff to return to the US, they lost connection. They returned to find him harder and less open, but that is changing. We gave him a new testament tonight, please pray that he reads it, that his heart is softened, and that he is more open to the gospel.
For Song-He is a kind guy that is incredibly open and ready to receive. Pray for more opportunities to speak into this guys life and that He would get saved! He is currently reading the bible that he was given recently. Pray that he has a powerful encounter with God.

Thanks again for the encouragement and the prayers! It's so, so great to hear them and i love the comments on here and the encouragements you send me!

Quick note

So I just got internet and computer availability where I am staying and will be posting later tonight. In the meantime I'll be doing some outreach. So if anybody sees this please pray for us tonight (morning US time). Thanks!