An exciting first few weeks back in Thailand - God is Good!

View over Bangkok from the roof of our hostel

God is so good! I have to start this update by giving praise to our awesome God, the Father of Glory. 

I was reflecting today what the first few weeks of our time back in Thailand have been like and I can help but be blown away by God lavish grace, and what’s more He actually enjoys lavishing his grace upon us! Even though we have done nothing special to earn it! Only in Jesus is this possible. 

After the floods in late 2011 millions of people in and around Bangkok were affected and a team from Iris Relief joined a group from a local church and came to help out. Knowing Iris Ministries they didn’t just provide aid but also shared Jesus and He transformed a whole village in a single visit. The chief of the village got saved along with many of the villagers and many people got healed, blessed and given hope. Last week we got the privilege of being able to revisit the village and check it out. We returned to see a thriving church of local Thai people filled with faith and a passion for Jesus. God has worked powerfully amongst them and they knew it. 

We were blessed to be able to pray for them and we saw people miraculously healed and another lady give her life to Jesus (see the photo’s below). It was such a great way to start to our time back here and a strong reminder of Jesus’ power and love right from the off.

We have been reunited with a team of around 20 people from Iris Ministires who (like us) are graduates from Harvest school in Mozambique. At the moment we are all on a fact finding trip, learning from others seeing what other ministries are doing and trying to learn from their experiences.  

Firstly we spent a week in Bangkok and it has been great to witness the different and hidden ways Jesus’ love is shining in the city. His love works in so many ways whether through Nightlight or The Well ministering to female prostitutes or even through a group called Dtonnaam specifically focused on helping Lady-boys. We got to meet and work with a ministry which works specifically with the men (who are creating all the demand) in the sex trade. This ministry is called MST and is one of its kind. It was great to hear the volunteers hearts and realise that actually the guys who are over here to pay for sex are just broken people who need Jesus too.

The highlight of the last couple of weeks was being able to go to Isaan which is a large region in North Eastern Thailand where an estimated 90% of the people in the sex industry come from. It was truly eye-opening to see how different life was in the villages compared to the big cities. People worked hard in the fields and had little. It was strange to see big beautifully built houses with cars amongst all the poverty and simplicity. It was sad to think that the only reason for the wealth of those families was probably due to prostitution of one of their daughters/sons. The problem became more real to us as we realised the huge pull of materialism and wealth on these village people. 

While in Isaan we worked closely alongside a ministry there called Tamar which focuses on stopping the problem (of girls going to the big cities to sell themselves) directly at its source. They work in the local villages where the girls come from. They open churches and cell groups, meet with the people, build relationships and demonstrate Christ. It was amazing to go into the villages in Northern Thailand to meet the people and see God completely transform people’s lives, it reminded me of how Jesus used to impact villages in Mozambique. Just like over there God’s love was evident in these villages, people’s hearts were attracted to him and people were healed, set free and blessed. 

Lastly we got to spend time in staying with a family who have started an orphanage to take in child victims of abuse, exploitation or children who were at high risk of ending up in the sex industry. It was so inspiring to see how much of a family feel the place had and how each of the children loved Jesus. It was beautiful to watch them all leading the worship at their church, with such joy and love in their eyes. It was a privilege to learn from Nareen the local pastor who God has lead to take in these children. It was heartbreaking to hear from him what takes place at the Cambodian border just 60km away from his home. 

In summary it has been a great trip so far, we have been really busy but it has been such a rich experience and we have learnt so much. God is slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together and we continue to trust in him to guide us in what our next steps will be after our fact finding trip with the team ends. 

Next we are off to Cambodia, we fly out tomorrow with the team to spend time with a newly established Iris presence there and to learn from them. They will be working to minister to victims of child exploitation, the same areas which God has put on our hearts so we are looking forward to learning from them and finding out a little more of where we might fit in all of this.

Thanks so much for reading our update. We really love and appreciate all of you. Lots of Love from Steve and Mollie x