Sorry it's been so long since I've gotten a post up. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, but everything is going great. There's a lot to report so I'll start by splitting things up a bit and covering the final few happenings in Chiang Mai.
In our last week before heading to Mae Sot we left Chiang Mai for a few days to go do some construction and agricultural work in a village four hours away. Our time there was so awesome. It was very refreshing to get away from the big city for a while and enjoy the remote tranquility of our new surroundings. There were vibrant green rice fields, beautiful mountains in the distance, and best of all, significantly cleaner air to breath. We were hosted by local families while we were there and they were a total blessing. The 'host mom' at the house I was staying at was so hospitable and cooked us up some bomb grub for breakfast and lunch everyday. Our first day there we worked with cement and laid the floor for someones soon-to-be kitchen. After that we worked packing fertilizer for a massive planting project. What they were planting, I don't know, but I'm sure it will help the village tremendously; agriculture is the backbone of most economies outside of the big cities. Our dirty work was from morning till noon everyday and in the evenings we would hang out and play games with kids from the village. By the time we arrived back in Chiang Mai we only had two days left before Mae Sot.
I found the ministries there to be very challenging, but I learned a lot and was stretched to overcome my passivity and step outside of my comfort zone. On our last trip to the red light district two of our team members had some amazing conversations with the workers there. There was a lady-boy at one of the bars that had done a YWAM DTS several years ago before making the change and going to work in the sex industry. My friend Dalton got to talk to her and speak a lot of love into her life. She opened up about how her relationship with her family had taken a blow when she became a lady-boy. It was a perfect opportunity for Dalton to share the love of God. Nothing we do can make Him love us less. He says come as you are. By the end of the conversation she was in tears and said that she didn't want to work in the bars anymore! Though it was our last time there, there is a steady flow of YWAM teams that continue the ministry. Our friends from the Newcastle, Australia team stayed in Chiang Mai a week after us and I've heard some amazing testimonies from them of what God's been doing. Beyond the red light ministries we also got to make a lot of new friends from Chiang Mai University. Some really awesome relationships came out of it and there are three people in particular that I'm really gonna miss. It was hard to say goodbye, but I have a feeling this won't be my last time in this beautiful country.
Overall I feel like God really used our time in Chiang Mai to increase our capacity to step out and love people. You can't be passive. You can't be self conscious. You've just gotta love people like Jesus would. We've got one life to live, and we have the one thing that the world needs most - the peace that can only be found in Christ.
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" - John 13:35
