Red Light District and street Evangelism

Last night we went to "Walking Street" which is a market only open on Sundays in downtown Chiang Mai. We did street evangelism for 4 hours (6-10pm) talking mostly Westerners (or anyone who spoke English--it's a pretty touristy market). Before going I painted several faces and pictures of encouragement with bible verses in Thai and English. I have already been doing his around the university and it's a really cool conversation starter. My partner in crime Abby and I would pray over the pictures and ask God to show us who needed encouragement. Most of the time the faces I had painted where the people we were looking for. For example I painted a man with a specific mole formation on this face with certain facial features. Then I would pray for a verse that person might need. Then we hand them out as we go about or days and around town. It's a very personal encounter that people are always eager to talk about once I hand them their artwork. I have always gotten a positive reaction from this method and it opens up the door to conversation (which can be really hard in street ministries). 
I usually say that I am a missionary/artist from Seattle with YWAM, and that God gave me a picture of encouragement for you. I don't know what it means but I hope that you do and that it brightens your day. Many people are flattered and very confused at first- But when we walk away they are always smiling. It's been an amazing way for me to use my art in missions.
After some awesome conversations and exciting chase downs (we lost one man in the crowd and found him later on his motor bike) we walked just outside the market (around 10:30pm) into the Red Light district. At first it just looked like a row of bars and pubs but things are not what they seem. At every bar were Western type males-- over 40 sitting around waiting. We had already encountered many older men aggressively shuffling through town with their "girlfriends". But in the Red Light district it was much more obvious. We had an opportunity to pray over a pregnant prostitute and her friend, give them roses and bible verses to encourage them. Most of the New Life boys (age 11-23) have been saved from this street and from child prostitution. I have hope because the girls and boys I teach everyday at Abba house have been saved from this life or rescued from it. I have hope because they are safe at Abba house and there are people working here to fight sex trafficking. 
Photo Credit goes to the Lovely Miss Abigail Cook <3

Praying over and selecting the Art work

Handing out the paintings

The Redlight District 

Average Day at Abba House

Here's the rundown of what our days look like at abba house! They are pretty full as you can see.
Everyday we have 2 hours of ministry outside of Abba House: usually prayer walks, visiting other ministries, talking to people and all that good stuff. Then we have bible study and worship with the New Life boys (age 14-23) then work duties and lesson planning. We cook breakfast and dinner on base and go to the local university for lunch (mostly because its super cheap but also because its a great ministry opportunity). From 6-7 we teach the girls English (I lead teaching advanced level 3 age 15/16 and help in lesson planning in the two lower levels) then we have a team meeting before personal/free time at night. Bam.
On Thursdays we have prison ministry, Wednesdays we have Christian club at the University and we preach/lead church on Sundays and Wednesdays. There are always extra things to do; like teaching at the university (English conversation labs), preschool and grade school for a few hours. It's been a crazy few weeks but I would not have had it any other way :) Countless adventures and friendships made.

Weekend adventures

This weekend we went to the market, chilled with the students and watched a few movies. While at the market we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of interesting people and tell them a little bit about what we do here. God definitely sends us the people we need to pray for, talk to or encourage. Even though we had the "day off" we were still able to spread the love of Jesus and make some people smile. It's hard to explain the spiritual atmosphere of this place. So many people come to South East Asia looking for spiritual enlightenment. Everyone we have talked to has been very open to the truth in what we have to say. Sometimes the language barrier can be a problem because we do not always have a translator with us. We have devised quite a few creative solutions for this. We hand out verses printed in Thai with encouraging visions that Gives us. We sometimes (when there is wifi) use Google translate to communicate back and forth with only a few awkward miscommunications. For the most part people come up and talk to us because they hear English. Many people here really want to learn English and seek out conversation with native speakers. This is why English is such a powerful ministry tool. We are invited to come to schools everywhere to lead conversation labs and host events in English. We then invite them to Abba house for private lessons, relationship development, Sunday church servises (half in English) and other Abba house connections to present the gospel. In Thai culture relationships are essential for ministry and street evangelism is really only effective with the western tourists (and we do that too!). We also do skits without words and dramas. Abba house is a long term missions center focused on the education of the community. Our team is just continuing the work of so many other teams and each group builds off of each others. It's been an honor to be a part of this orginization and even see some of our hard work pay off.

Dressing Up

Here a a few fun photos from the last few days at Abba House. For English lessons today we dressed up to illustrate fashion trends throughout the years. It was so much fun showing them pictures and giggling about big hair and flair out pants. In our class we do a lot of cross-cultural examination so we compared fashion trends in Thailand and the US during the same time periods. Below is a photo of the elephant skit that the kids loved it! I ate oranges, painted a picture, danced and kicked a ball with the help of my "trunk" (Stephanie). I love spending time with these amazing students and sharing the love of Jesus with them. Tomorrow (Sat) is "Children's Day" so there will be activities going on all over that we get to participate in. My team and I leave for Cambodia on the 14th (Wed). Time has flown by so fast it's crazy

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Some messages of encouragement I made to hand out to people. Most have verses in Thai with a picture 

Update!

It's crazy how fast time has been flying by! We just had our last Wednesday bible study with the boys where I lead them through chapters 19 & 20 in the book of John.
Yesterday I taught an English lab at Maejo University for 3 hours. There were about 50 students but we split into 5 conversation groups. We discussed our lives, hobbies, future aspirations and cultural differences. We also acted out scenarios like applying for a job and seeing a friend after 5 years.
This morning we visited a preschool that we will teach on Monday morning. We will play English games and teach bible stories. It's amazing the range of ages and backgrounds I have had the opportunity to work with in the past three weeks. I have talked to or taught university students, Thai prisoners, Abba House girls age 8-16, New Life boys age 10-24, preschoolers and a fortune teller. I have shared my testimony, lead bible studies, preformed skits, taught English, played games and ridden almost every type of transportation imaginable. The first three weeks in Thailand have been the experience of a life time, next Wednesday we take off for Cambodia and new adventures.

Pictures from the top down: 1. at the preschool 2. a drawing of our team 3. a christian coffee shop owned by a friend of ours 4. part of my team and abba house founder 
Joyce at the coffee shop 

Dreams for the Future

Here are some examples of the girls English skills and their art. We asked them to write where they wanted to go in the future and what they wanted to do. They have some big dreams and I'm so happy to be teaching them skills that can get them there.

Teaching Boys Bible Study

Here's a picture of me leading the boys bible study! We are currently working in the book of John. We read 2 chapters a day and discuss them as a group. In my lesson we went over chapters 7 and 8 and talked about spiritual blindness, persecution of Jesus, his validity as the messiah and how society today shapes our values.   
These boys have been completely transformed by the love of Jesus; its been amazing just to play a small role in their story. Please pray for my team as we make important decisions on ministry opportunities around Chaing Mai.