One of the best parts about being here in Thailand has been getting to know the girls we have worked with at S.H.E. These girls are so wonderful! They are fun, smart, talented, and growing and learning more about the Lord everyday. I am so proud of them and learning about their lives and all they have overcome has been remarkable. They are all on the right path and just the best girls ever.

Glon, Kae, Wan, Rose, and Kung are the amazing girls I am speaking of. I love them all and will be so sad to leave them. They were so welcoming to us when we arrived and have just shown us so much about love and service to others. They have a all come out of the bars and are now working at S.H.E. helping to support not only themselves but their families. They love to see others girls come out of the bars and go out of their way to help them find a place to live and make them feel at home.

These girls will be greatly missed by us all. Please say a little prayer for them. They are great and could always use some encouragement.

Team Zion and Concrete have been here in Phuket for a month now. Our time here was to be spent working with the S.H.E. (Self Help and Empowerment) organization and to build relationships with the girls who work in the bars. None of these were difficult tasks; in fact, this has been a great month. We are down to our last week and I wanted to just take a moment to reflect on all that has happened.

I started out the month in good spirits, knowing that the Lord had a lot to do here. I was a little concerned that the situation with the girls would be overwhelming but it really was not as I expected. The first week in the bars was really fun and I met a couple great girls and even met one of the bar owners who was from Tennessee.  I was really excited to see where the Lord would take us through these relationships. The one girl that really touched me was Thep. She was a lovely girl who worked at one of the bars we went to regularly. She used to make jewelry before she started working in the bars and really did not like her current job all that much. I was thrilled because S.H.E. offers these girls' jobs making jewelry and it just seemed so perfect. Sadly, after a few visits, Thep was no longer at the bar. Every time we went by, she was not there and when we would ask about her, no one knew who we were speaking of. It was very strange. I was a kind of sad to not know where she was or what had happened to her. 

The next week or so was really strange too. Every time we went to the bars, we ended up not seeing any girls we knew and really not able to strike up any new relationships. I had a weird feeling every time I went down there and just began to feel very discouraged about our work here. One night, after seeing these men all over these young girls, showing them no respect at all, I left the bars in tears. I prayed all the way home but felt little peace about the situation here in Phuket. There is so much that is wrong in this place and it is accepted as okay and normal. It really breaks my heart.

Over the next week, the Lord really helped me to get over feeling discouraged. He began to give me a peace about the situation here. God even opened up some new doors with other girls in the bars. My favorite girls are at the Star Bar. The three ladies there are awesome. They are so sweet and just adorable. We always have the best time when we go to visit them. My heart goes out to them and I truly believe that the Lord is calling at least one of them out of the bars. I am excited to see how and when the Lord will bring her out.  We play games with them, talk, laugh, and just enjoy getting to know each other. These girls have really made my time here feel fruitful just because I know we have built a friendship.

So, at the end of the week we are leaving Phuket, Thailand. I am happy to move to the next thing the Lord has for us but also a little sad to leave our friends and the work we have been doing here. My prayer is that the girls at the Star Bar will find a way to come out of the bars. I pray that they are not content with their current jobs or situation in life. I pray that the Lord continues to draw them out and send Christians into their paths. I also pray for Phuket, that God will do something mighty and new here. I pray that more Christians will flood this place. I pray that there will be more churches than bars one day. I pray that the whole nation will turn to the one true God. Please pray for Thailand too.  

So, thanks to the wonderful staff at AIM and all you wonderful people helping to support us out here on the field, I am now up to $10,000!!!!! It is so unbelievable that God has brought in so much support in just a short time. Thanks to everyone who has been helping me along the way, I only need an additional $3,000 to finish the race!

Thank you again to all of you praying for us and supporting us. It means more than you know.

Here are some more picutures of us here in Phuket.

I just wanted to put up some pictures that I have of Thailand so far. I hope you enjoy them !

My question while I have been here in Thailand is what do you even pray for this place? So much is corrupt and just not the way it should be. Sin is looked at as normal and even right. On top of that there are so few Christians here in Phuket. There is about one church on this island and it is not overflowing with believers. In the states we have a church on every corner.

All of these things have been running through my head the past few days. What if there was more of a Christian presence here? Would things be different? So I just began asking the Lord to raise up believers in this place and to call others out to join in the battle that is going on here. Phuket needs Christians with pure hearts and pure motives. Some of the people here have been put off by Christians in the past because they made it mandatory for them to become Christians or they would not help them. We do not need to force anyone to believe. God can take care of that all on His own. Phuket needs people to come live a life like Christ. They need to see someone's witness and not just hear about it.

As I was thinking about this, Mark and Sharon popped in my head. They are the couple we are working with here. They are an amazing team. They simply live their life the way God has called them too. Simply by doing this, already four girls from the bars have come to know Christ. I also remembered that they had told us that some people had spoken that this place would be changed through worship. So I asked the Lord what does that mean. I felt the Lord saying that it does not mean through songs or anything like that but through living a life of worship. He gave me Romans 12. More specifically, Romans 12:1. It says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship."

True worship to the Lord is living a life of sacrifice. That means living in obedience to God each and every day! This is how we can bring change to the nations and our whole world. It does not have to be going around preaching to everyone you meet. It does not have to mean you tell people all that they are doing wrong. All that we have to do is live the life God has called us to - A life of true worship.

What do you pray for a place where their whole existence is based around sin? What do you pray when you walk into a bar and there are 5 to 6 girls working there just waiting for a "customer" to come along? What do you pray when you see old men walking around with young Thai girls? What do you pray?

This has been my struggle. I do not even know where to begin to pray for this place. There is so much here that needs the touch of God. To start off this country is about 80 to 90 percent Buddhist. Then you have a $27 billion a year sex industry. In Phuket alone there are over 200 bars on one street with about 5 girls working at each one! That is about 1,000 girls working a night trying to earn money by selling drinks and themselves to the men here, mostly tourists.

I just do not even know what to think. The only thing that I do know is that God loves each one of those girls and He loves each one of those men. I know that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. I know that the Lord brought us here and wants to do a great work in my heart as well as a work here in Phuket. So that is my prayer… Lord do what you want to do with me and this place. Turn their hearts back to you. Make your glory known all over Phuket and Thailand. Leave no place to the darkness. Give me your love for the people here and show me where you would go and what you would say. Use me in those places and speak through me. Set me apart and let that be evident to all I meet.

Please remember Thailand in your prayers everyday. It is a dark and confused place. Pray for change, pray for the Holy Spirit to move like a wildfire through the land here. Pray for us, that our hearts and minds will be protected and that we will not become desensitized to all we are seeing. Please pray.    

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported me in the past couple of weeks. I was not sure if I was going to be able to stay in Thailand but my team and many other people pulled together on my behalf. Because of my wonderful team members and their amazing friends,family, and supporters, I now have enough funding to remain in Thailand for the month!

I was beginning to feel sorry for myself because so many other team mates have had funding poured into their accounts. God has just been so faithful and good! Then the other night the Lord just told me, I have not forgotten about you. So I knew that He had a plan even if I did not know what it was. The Lord put me on peoples hearts to pray for and on my way to Thailand I received an email saying I could stay.

So once again I just wanted to say thanks. It may be hard to believe (because I currently live on support from others), but it is really difficult for me to ask people for money or to even let people know that I am struggling and need help. So this whole experience has been very humbling. All that to say, please know how grateful I am. I may not always express it in the best way, but I am so blessed by everyone who has helped me along this journey. Praise the Lord for his provision!

We leave for Thailand in less than a week! It is so hard to believe that we have already been on the field for almost three months. I am really excited to see how God is moving and working in Asia. I still need over $7,000 to finish the race. If I am not able to get at least another $1,000 by the time I get to Thailand, I will be returning home once I land in Asia. Please keep this in your prayers. I am not the only one in this situation either. So please pray for us racers who still need more support. There are about 5 or 6 of us. Pray, Pray, Pray! We need financial help :).