15: missions accomplished

When Laura was in Bangkok, she became friends with a girl named Carter, who introduced her to two ministries: Second Chance Bangkok and Antique Cafe. I had never been, although Claire and Laura were big proponents of both. Today, Steph and I decided to try to find both of these locations and simultaneously knock out some Christmas shopping!

I wish I could take credit for our accomplished missions of the day... however, they would have been a complete failure without the many Thais who stopped to help, walk, talk and escort us around (sometimes in circles!) but eventually to where we needed to be. A big thank you to the lovely nationals, all 17+ of them, who helped us find these places.

Mission #1: Second Chance Bangkok- a ministry in the Klong Toey slums

Today was a comedy of poor directions. First there was our taxi driver who got us to the general vicinity of Second Chance, but said the address we had was for a region rather than a place. He gave up trying and dropped us off at this lovely green building, instead. The bright side? He gave us a discount on our taxi fare because he couldn't get us to the right location.

Inside the building (it seemed to be like a Thai-DMV), a team of no less than 5 green-shirted employees looked at our map, called numbers, and tried (with no success) to help us get to Second Chance. Finally, one of the men drew a map and started talking in Thai to the women. I couldn't understand much, but he did say "not correct" three times... which of course, didn't inspire any confidence on my part. After that, two employees took us down to the street, (and, after talking with two women on the street) loaded Steph and I on the back of a moto (yes, all three of us on one moto) and off we went. He had to stop approximately three times to get directions... and eventually dropped us off in front of a building in Klong Toey that was not Second Chance and drove off. 

The two guards there tried to help us, too. By God's provision, one of the guards mentioned "Helping Hands" which is the parent ministry of Second Chance and name-dropped Poo (short for "Chompoo"), who works for HH in her ministry, "Cooking with Poo". After lots of nodding and "yes yes-ing", the guard walked us to her place. There, we explained our mission, as well as our twisted tail of failed attempts to the souvenir shop at Second Chance. 

[Cooking with Poo's Culinary School in the heart of the Klong Toey slums]

[Can you read the sign on the left? Gotta love a good pun!]

Poo was incredibly sweet and friendly. Her English was also excellent. She led us through the meandering slums back to the main street, flagged us two motos, and sent us on our way to Second Chance. I'm so thankful that God placed her there, and that she was willing to help us!!

[Poo leading the way!]

Once we arrived to Second Chance, it took a couple more tries to get upstairs to the souvenir shop. However, the employees were very gracious and allowed us to go shopping, even though it was past closing time (our trip there ended up taking 3.5 hours... whoops).

I don't want to post any big spoiler pictures of my purchases, as Christmas is coming and some of my readers will be receiving gifts from there... but I will share one picture. Below (left) is a Christmas card made out of recycled fabric and paper. The employees of Second Chance up-cycle donated items and resell them. Cute, right?

If you are in the Bangkok area and want to go gift shopping, they will be selling items at the Sirikit Convention Center on Dec 11th.

Mission #2: Antique Cafe

I won't bore you with more details of our lost cabbie, confused moto drivers and random valet who eventually helped us find the Cafe... (Although I am going to include directions for future sojourners!) While we did find it, it had, unfortunately, closed an hour before we arrived. Perhaps I'll try this one another time!

[Ride the BTS to Phrom Phong, take Exit 5 and continue down the street (in the direction it pops you out) for about a 5-7 minute walk]

[When you see Au Bon Pain, on your right-side, turn right.]

[When you see this sign on your left-hand-side, turn left]

[Antique Cafe will be on your left. Warning: They close early, and aren't open on the weekends!]

cambodia.

Cambodia. A region once covered by guerrilla warfare and landmines. A country still scarred from communism, corruption and mass genocide.

Poipet. The “armpit” of Southeast Asia. Poverty. Street dogs. Trash. One paved road down the whole town. Villages isolated by the perpetual flooding of their dirt roads. Children hocking postcards and talismans in wicker baskets. Men and women pulling carts piled with produce. Red mud spattering on the backs of calves and backpacks, cars, and bikes.

Here, in this town of faded clothes, floppy hats and second-hand wares, there resides a boulevard of casinos. Not casinos like in the movies, with plastered smiles and daring betters and women in stilettos sipping martinis. These are drab places, filled with room upon room of slot machines and tables occupied by empty-eyed people, glazed and numbed. Sitting, staring, heartlessly pushing chips back and forth. The house always wins. There are no sofas for lounging. No comfort, no place to sit but in front of the screens, the tables, the dealers. Piles of chips collect at tables. Each chip a token gambling away

    broken relationships, fights, feelings of inadequacy,
insecurity, fear, unmet expectations,
    pain, past wrongs, bitterness, unforgiveness, conflict,
poverty, suffering, abuse,
    lost jobs and lost investments, lost and broken people. 

They come to escape. For relief. For hope that maybe, just maybe, if they can attain enough money, they can finally gain peace. It is all empty; it is all meaningless.

And yet.

In the midst of the poverty, corruption, dust and destruction of this town, there is hope. There is light. 11 churches planted in 10 years. 700 children who attended an annual Christian camp. Sports ministries cropping up to help bring options and opportunities to those trapped in the cycle. Free clinics started up by the church. Training. Discipleship. Couples who love the Lord and are committed to meeting physical needs as well as spiritual needs. There is work being done. And the Lord has blessed that work with fruit. There is darkness, but there is also hope.

While we were in Cambodia we were singularly blessed to be able to meet some of these families. Families who have set aside comfort, safety and fear of rodents to engage the lost in this region. Some of them survived the killing fields only to meet the Lord and return to the place where over 30 members of their family were slaughtered. That is the power of the Gospel. [click here to read one of these men's, Soeuth’s, testimony]

I wish that I had a camera running during my stay with them, because I know you all would be blown away by the story God has woven through their lives and experiences. While I can't share everything, I do want to share one of the things Syna, Soeuth’s wife, said.

[Paraphrased from Syna:] The corruption you see here is from the top down. Almost every night you can see police in their 60’s showing up at karaoke bars, in uniform, with young girls of 14 on their arms. There is no shame. No conscience. You cannot fix the system. The people are corrupt and the system is broken. But, that isn’t an excuse to ignore the one person you can help. You can still invest and love one person. And that person can invest and love someone else. And it can’t be fixed from the top down, so we start from the bottom and are faithful. 

Praise God for people who are willing to serve both at the top, when it is possible, but also at the bottom, when it’s not. Wherever you are, whatever influence you have or don’t have… start serving there.

[For more details on the specific things we did during our day with these missionaries, see Steph's blog. She did a great job summarizing and photo-documenting our day and some of the ministries we were able to see!]

guest post!

While I (Liz) process and compile all my thoughts and experiences from our recent visa run to Cambodia, I’d like to share with you a beautiful guest post from my dear friends, Alli & Sandy! If you have been following my blog, you know that they came three weeks ago to spend 9 days with me in Thailand. Instead of me reporting everything we did, I thought it’d be neat for you all to hear about their time here through their eyes. So, without further ado, here you go:

There are so many troubles and trials that come in the mission field, however, none may be quite as challenging as temporarily relinquishing control of one’s blog.  This is precisely what our friend Liz has done.  For nine days we were not only given an adventurous vacation in Thailand, but we also received a short glimpse into the life of a missionary serving in the heart of Asia.

We, Sandy and Allison, have been long time high school friends of Liz, so when she invited us for a visit, we jumped at the chance.  Our adventure began in Bangkok, where we were introduced to Liz’s apartment, unloaded bags of goodies sent over with us, donned our tourist attire and set out to the famous Wat Arun (an elaborate temple)  and Baiyoke Tower (the tallest building in Thailand).  We were fascinated with how foreign and exotic everything seemed.

[Wat Arun]

[Baiyoke Tower]

The excitement of a culture so different than our own was overwhelming and exciting; however, the newness of it all started to turn into familiarity as Liz introduced us to each ministry she and other members of her church were involved in.  A visit to her church, LifePoint, and time with her fellow servant Stephanie at the BSC allowed us to not only see these missionaries at work, but also allowed us to meet the people that God put in this specific mission field.

[Zaida, a wonderful woman who works with the Karen refugees in Mae Sot, Thailand]

[Liz's small group and friends on our trip to Asiatique]

A midweek three day jaunt to Chang Mai in the North of Thailand put us back in tourist mode, but also allowed for some much needed relaxing and quality time with our friend.  Catching up and refreshing our friendships seemed to be just the encouragement we all needed.  However, playing with elephants, zip lining, seeing a waterfall, and shopping didn’t hurt either.

[At the Elephant Nature Park]

[Flight of the Gibbon: Ziplining!]

Back in Bangkok, our trip took a more serious turn as we began our day with a prayer walk through the red light district to the Rahab ministry. This particular ministry reaches out to women involved in Bangkok’s infamously seedy nightlife. Here we got to spend the afternoon helping Liz teach an English class and visit with the women.  We were surprised by the lack of effort exerted to hide or mask the dark sin that lurked there; everything was out in the open.  It was when this blatant defiance against the Lord was put so plainly in our faces that we understood the urgent importance of international missions.

The different missionaries we met, whether at the BSC who teach with Liz or who were all working together at LifePoint church, all represent different church congregations, but are all from Christ’s church and all need our continued support and prayer.  It does not take much to encourage them; even a new pack of properly fitting underwear will make a little boy’s day whose parents are in the mission field.  We’d never seen a kid light up over new underwear before!

As exciting and adventurous as this vacation was for us, we left with not only a renewed insight into the life of missions but also into the importance of blessing our missionaries.

We’d like to extend a big thank you to Rahab Ministries and LifePoint church for their welcoming hospitality.  And a huge thank you goes out to Liz and Stephanie for planning this adventure, hosting us, and giving us one of the best adventures of our lives.

You all are in our prayers and thoughts, and may God continue to bless your daily sacrifices and continued devotion to His calling on your lives.  The church loves you, is supporting you in prayer, and has not forgotten you.

odds and ends.

Aside from my recent exciting weekends that I posted about [here], normal life has been faithfully moving along for the past five weeks. I know that sometimes it is hard to understand updates from people on the other side of the world... because, let's face it, the things I mention seem foreign, most of you don't personally know the people I talk about, and many times, have no framework or context to organize the information dump that, often (but unintentionally), are my posts.

So, to rectify this disconnect, my goal in this post is to include some faces and weekly activities that I'm a part of to help you imagine better "what exactly I'm doing in Thailand."

Who are these interns I keep mentioning? You know, the ones I do "MTS" with? Here they are! Four days a week, four hours a day (at least), I get to see their smiling faces!

[Anderson and Dani (left) are from a church in Brazil that LP partners with]

Classes at the BSC began July 8th. I am teaching 12 classes this term (Term 4). Five classes are level 5 students, two are level 7, one is level 8, three are one-on-one tutoring sessions, and one is a general conversation class. Needless to say, they keep me pretty busy! Here's an inside peek into one of my classes and the woman who makes the BSC run:

[Khun Noo is an all star. She's one of the BSC staff members who helps me manage and juggle my schedule... and every other teacher's schedule!]

At least once a month, we (LifePoint) have a Friday night program in Klong Toey. It is a slum near our church which we fondly call "Community 110." Here are a few shots from my most recent trip there!

My weekly time tutoring these women is such a blessing! The past two weeks we've had so many new girls join in... which is incredible! This past Tuesday, our lesson was on baking... and what better way to learn baking vocabulary than kinesthetically?? So, we made chocolate-peanut butter no-bake cookies :) This may be why there was such a good turn out...

And speaking of baking... Baking on Thursdays for the Cafe ministry has been such a blast! One of the guys who works at Cafe Boly (named Dillon) is Chinese and not a believer. We've been able to have some good conversations (ranging from spiritual, to cultural to culinary) and he's even started some of his own baking endeavors. I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I love how God can use something as simple as baking as a bridge to the Gospel!

Thank you so much for taking the time to be invested in the work that the Lord is doing in my life through your prayers, giving and faithfulness. I am so humbled to have this opportunity to share the love of Christ with the people I interact with here... and truly, my ability to serve here is a direct result of God's provision through your support. Thank you.