Here’s a short video that gives an idea of what we did in Thailand with the School of Music in Missions.

While we were in Thailand with the School of Music in Missions from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) we had the opportunity to celebrate Songkron which is the Thai New Year festival. They celebrate by throwing water on anyone and everyone who passes by. This goes on for about three days. We had to be extra careful to pack our phones and cameras in plastic. Since we were foreigners we seemed to be an especially prized target to soak. Check out the video below:

Hello all from the Land of Smiles!

We thought that we’d write a little update to let you know about what’s been happening in Thailand on the beginning of our outreach. We have been in Thailand for 2 weeks now and have returned from Pattaya to Bangkok.

For the first week, we were here in Bangkok working with At Risk Kids, a ministry that does different things around the city to help women and children. We were able to walk around some of the red light districts, praying for the women in the area. For all of us in our team, our eyes were opened to the desperate situation of so many people.

We then headed to Pattaya, a city south of Bangkok, where we worked primarily with the Tamar Center. This center gives women who work in the bars, an opportunity to learn English. We were able to go into the bars, invite girls to class and then help teach. We had incredible opportunities and were also able to go to the orphanages, prisons and other ministries.

We are now back in Bangkok, ready for another week of lectures and learning about Thai culture. We will let you know what else we are up to when we’re back in Australia. Keep us in your prayers and enjoy the photos!

Here’s a few photos taken by Suzi Brown, one of the students on our team:

Sara teaching english to one of the women at the Tamar Center

Phil and Darrah playing with one of the kids from the Pattaya Orphanage

This is a kids program we helped put on in one of Bangkoks slums. We taught the kids a few songs with actions.

Morgan, our fearless leader, holding one of the kids from the Pattaya Orphanage.

That’s right. We’re headed to Thailand again on Sunday! This is the second time that we have gone on outreach to this nation with several musicians that are part of the School of Music.

Thailand is a beautiful country with smiling faces and big hearts.  The people are generous and welcome all who come to their land. Unfortunately, it is also a land ripe with social injustice, particularly in the area of sex trafficking and exploitation. There are at least 200,000 women and children involved in the sex trade in Thailand. Approximately 1/3 of these women are under the age of 18, girls as young as 6 being sold night after night in this modern slave trade.*

We , as most people would be, are outraged by these statistics and frustrated that such a trade exists in our modern world. We are moved by the desperate situations of hundreds of thousands of women and children and know that we are called to do something.

Last year, we worked with several ministries in the cities of Bangkok, Chang Rai and Pattaya that work with children at risk, women involved in the sex trade and other impoverished peoples. There are dozens of places in these cities that are working hard, day and night, to see women and children freed from their circumstances.

We are so excited to be working with these centers again, seeing how we can aid them financially, physically and by making others aware of the work that they are doing. When we travel back from Thailand, we will head down Australia’s coast to bring these issues to light in high schools, youth groups and churches. We know that it can’t just be a few that see the sex trade erradicated, but many. So we are calling the many!

Pray for our safety as we travel and that the Lord would lead us to those who need the most help. Thank you for your support!

*stats found from “Prostitution and Sex Tourism”, www.arches.uga.edu

Bam sits on a stool, surrounded by the twelve of us and smiles brightly. She stops only to talk and jumps from her seat frequently to keep us hydrated. More Coke? She asks. Her job is to make sure we are comfortable. Satisfied. Well taken care of. For the moment, we are her customers. We look a little different to her traditional customers. First of all, we are there to get to know her and not to get from her. Also, five of us are white women and the men on our team are not looking for anything in return.

We listened to her story – her attempt at this thing called life. Her 20 year-old son died two days ago – two days ago. As we stared at her, mouths agape with surprise, she told us “Is Ok! Is Ok!” She dropped her story and asked us if we were comfortable. The sadness in her eyes went as quickly as it came and she continued to smile – Thais are good at smiling. A woman we met told us that though Thais smile on the outside, they are mourning on the inside. Bam works seven days a week from eleven a.m. to one in the morning. She serves western men, tells them to buy drinks, tells them they are handsome and wins their affection. She must reach her quota of being taken out of the bar by at least eight men a month. If she doesn’t, the bar owner will take 4,800 baht (approximately $160 USD) out of her wages, made from commission of the drinks men buy for her and what they pay to take her out of the bar. This will set her back enough to be in debt to the bar. If she is in debt, she cannot send money to her 16-year-old daughter who’s finishing high school.

I asked her if she liked Bangkok. She shook her head no. She told me she was only here because she could get no work in her village and she was obligated to support her older parents and daughter. Apparently, her wages are still not enough to keep her son alive from a common illness. She showed us pictures of her his funeral that was only days ago.

While she talks to us, the rest of the girls in the bar call to western men walking by, asking them to come in for a drink. One older man sits down, lights a cigarette and buys a drink. He never takes his eyes off the young Thai girl who serves him and keeps him company as he drinks.

It’s easy to get angry at the customers. But I remember that they are just as empty, broken and desperate for love. The woman that they visit (often more than once) make them feel like they are something. Some men will walk away from the bar. Others will pay to take the girl away for an hour, a night or a weekend.

Most women hope that they will be taken away forever.

They wish that the next man that buys them a drink will fall so madly in love with them that he will pay for her daughter, her son, her mother, her rent or her bar debt. But that rarely happens. Bam said she will be in the bar until her daughter leaves school. We ask her why she won’t join the local ministry that offers girls jobs to make jewelry. She says it’s not enough money and she couldn’t leave the bar. Her family is now the other girls that join her every night, waiting to reach their quota for $15 a man. Before leaving, we pray for Bam while I hold her hand. Her fingers are wrapped tightly around mine and I squeeze gently as we pray, as if to reassure her that I will never forget her. Maybe it is to reassure myself, to make sure that the fingerprints of this beautiful woman never leave me.

She tells us that she is thankful we stopped by and never stops smiling or laughing at herself. It’s all most of us can do not to beg her to come with us. If only she understood that she didn’t need to be disappointed by men anymore. If only, in her broken English, she could understand that there is a God who loves her more than she loves her daughter, more than she misses her home.

Photos from Thailand: